Today, "drama" is colloquial for problems between people ("OMG, Sierra is such drama! I can't believe she stole Landon away from Skye!"). This actually reflects the key to dramatic writing: problems between people. Drama is writing that is meant to be performed rather than read and is one of the five superstructures of writing (along with narrative, informational text, myth, and poetry). Drama includes plays, musical theatre, film, speeches, and (to a certain extent) lyrical music*. Unlike narrative, which focuses on how situations and events affect characters, drama focuses on how character decisions affect larger stories and situations.
Dramatic works are inextricably connected to theatre. Theatre is any performance in front of a live audience sharing the same space as the performers. In theatre, audiences get to react to the performers in real time with their cathartic expressions (laughter, crying, gasps, shouts, etc) and performers adjust accordingly. Yet the twentieth century introduced recorded media, and now much of the drama consumed is not live in front of the audience but is recorded audio (the radio play) or recorded audio and visuals: film. Film includes everything from short TikTok sketches to season-long television series to three-hour cinematic movies.
While this article will focus on scripted drama (as this is a writing website), there is also unscripted drama in the modern media landscape. While usually giving edifying information, podcasts and debates require people speaking and are thus drama (which is why the text of one of these events written after the fact, called a transcript, is written in exchange format). Improvisational theatre and reality television are drama, as are most political rallies and speeches.
Dramatic works are inextricably connected to theatre. Theatre is any performance in front of a live audience sharing the same space as the performers. In theatre, audiences get to react to the performers in real time with their cathartic expressions (laughter, crying, gasps, shouts, etc) and performers adjust accordingly. Yet the twentieth century introduced recorded media, and now much of the drama consumed is not live in front of the audience but is recorded audio (the radio play) or recorded audio and visuals: film. Film includes everything from short TikTok sketches to season-long television series to three-hour cinematic movies.
While this article will focus on scripted drama (as this is a writing website), there is also unscripted drama in the modern media landscape. While usually giving edifying information, podcasts and debates require people speaking and are thus drama (which is why the text of one of these events written after the fact, called a transcript, is written in exchange format). Improvisational theatre and reality television are drama, as are most political rallies and speeches.
PURPOSE: Wrighting, Not Writing
The most defining feature of drama is that it is written in exchange format, where the text is mainly just lines characters say. There are some additional details here and there, but like poetry, the text has been stripped down to just the essentials.
Actually, drama goes further than poetry: drama is intentionally left incomplete and requires actors (usually under the vision of a director) to complete the story through how lines are said and how they physically interact. Since one actor can interpret a character differently than another actor, this makes each performance of drama unique and makes actors (and directors) co-creators. This is why plays are not "authored" like other works (authored is a verb meaning "composed in writing"), but are instead wrought (a verb meaning "physically crafted," like a pot or a wheel), and the person who scripts the play is called a playwright.
To make the performance of the play easier to plan, scripts are divided up into acts and scenes. An act is a large division between major changes in overall character motivation and standing. A character that may have power at the start of Act I will be powerless by Act II, and a character that faces a major obstacle in Act I will face a different sort of obstacle in Act II. Acts also typically represent large gaps in the timeline of the plot action. Modern plays tend to have two or three acts, while most plays before 1850 had five acts (like the works of Shakespeare) or one act (like Greek theatre).
Acts are then divided into scenes, which often occur when the setting shifts in time or place—the scene division signals to performers and designers that costuming, set elements, and lighting need to change. However, scene breaks can also occur when most of the main characters in one scene leave the stage and new characters enter. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the first and second scenes of Act II take place in the Capulet garden, but Scene i features Mercutio talking to Benvolio and Scene ii features Romeo talking to Juliet.
Act numbers are always written in uppercase Roman numerals. Scenes of older plays use lowercase Roman numerals, while modern plays use regular digits. Between acts, play performances give audiences an intermission to stretch and take a comfort break.
Actually, drama goes further than poetry: drama is intentionally left incomplete and requires actors (usually under the vision of a director) to complete the story through how lines are said and how they physically interact. Since one actor can interpret a character differently than another actor, this makes each performance of drama unique and makes actors (and directors) co-creators. This is why plays are not "authored" like other works (authored is a verb meaning "composed in writing"), but are instead wrought (a verb meaning "physically crafted," like a pot or a wheel), and the person who scripts the play is called a playwright.
To make the performance of the play easier to plan, scripts are divided up into acts and scenes. An act is a large division between major changes in overall character motivation and standing. A character that may have power at the start of Act I will be powerless by Act II, and a character that faces a major obstacle in Act I will face a different sort of obstacle in Act II. Acts also typically represent large gaps in the timeline of the plot action. Modern plays tend to have two or three acts, while most plays before 1850 had five acts (like the works of Shakespeare) or one act (like Greek theatre).
Acts are then divided into scenes, which often occur when the setting shifts in time or place—the scene division signals to performers and designers that costuming, set elements, and lighting need to change. However, scene breaks can also occur when most of the main characters in one scene leave the stage and new characters enter. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the first and second scenes of Act II take place in the Capulet garden, but Scene i features Mercutio talking to Benvolio and Scene ii features Romeo talking to Juliet.
Act numbers are always written in uppercase Roman numerals. Scenes of older plays use lowercase Roman numerals, while modern plays use regular digits. Between acts, play performances give audiences an intermission to stretch and take a comfort break.
CHARACTER: The Engine of Conflict
Why, though, is drama written in exchange format? Couldn't a play just be written in the same way as a narrative with quotation marks and all the description cut?
Besides its bare-bones simplicity, exchange format helps the reader focus on characters, as drama is character-oriented. Having interesting and engaging characters is more important in a dramatic work than an airtight storyline without plot holes, complex settings. moralizing themes, or stylistic flourishes. This doesn't mean that those other elements aren't important, but they are secondary to the journey of each character arc, which is how a character grows or regresses in response to conflict.
Just like in a narrative, characters in a drama encounter conflict based on their objective (what the character wants). When preparing for a performance of a script, a director will analyze a script to discover each character's objective and motivation (why the character wants what they want) so they can understand the emotions that each actor needs to express. Characters can have multiple objectives, and their objectives can change over time. For example, Countess Aurelia in The Madwoman of Chaillot starts with an objective of wanting to help Pierre find the will to live, but then she shifts to the broader objective of saving Paris from the wealthy industrialists who want to tear her apart. Characters whose objectives and motivations change over time are called dynamic characters; characters that never change objective (like the Prospector who goes against Aurelia) are static characters.
One very specific character conflict that appears somewhere in every dramatic work is rivalry. Rivalry occurs when two (or more) characters who come from a similar station in life or have similar traits seek the same objective. Since they are so similar, rivals usually start out as friends and partners. However, each rival has a different motivation, and eventually, the difference between the two leads them to not just want to reach the objective but also want to prevent their rivals from reaching the objective too.
Take Elphaba and Galinda's rivalry over their studies at Shiz in Wicked: Galinda is after the notoriety and popularity of studying with the Wizard, while Elphaba wants to study with the Wizard to prevent the animal abuses in Oz. Salieri and Mozart rival each other in recognition for their music in Amadeus, Sweeney Todd and Judge Turpin rival for possession of Johanna in Sweeney Todd, and Reagan and Goneril rival for control of the kingdom in King Lear. In most plays, one of the rivals is destroyed, literally or spiritually, because of their rivalry (though in some comedies, rivals become friends again, like Lysander and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream).
Besides its bare-bones simplicity, exchange format helps the reader focus on characters, as drama is character-oriented. Having interesting and engaging characters is more important in a dramatic work than an airtight storyline without plot holes, complex settings. moralizing themes, or stylistic flourishes. This doesn't mean that those other elements aren't important, but they are secondary to the journey of each character arc, which is how a character grows or regresses in response to conflict.
Just like in a narrative, characters in a drama encounter conflict based on their objective (what the character wants). When preparing for a performance of a script, a director will analyze a script to discover each character's objective and motivation (why the character wants what they want) so they can understand the emotions that each actor needs to express. Characters can have multiple objectives, and their objectives can change over time. For example, Countess Aurelia in The Madwoman of Chaillot starts with an objective of wanting to help Pierre find the will to live, but then she shifts to the broader objective of saving Paris from the wealthy industrialists who want to tear her apart. Characters whose objectives and motivations change over time are called dynamic characters; characters that never change objective (like the Prospector who goes against Aurelia) are static characters.
One very specific character conflict that appears somewhere in every dramatic work is rivalry. Rivalry occurs when two (or more) characters who come from a similar station in life or have similar traits seek the same objective. Since they are so similar, rivals usually start out as friends and partners. However, each rival has a different motivation, and eventually, the difference between the two leads them to not just want to reach the objective but also want to prevent their rivals from reaching the objective too.
Take Elphaba and Galinda's rivalry over their studies at Shiz in Wicked: Galinda is after the notoriety and popularity of studying with the Wizard, while Elphaba wants to study with the Wizard to prevent the animal abuses in Oz. Salieri and Mozart rival each other in recognition for their music in Amadeus, Sweeney Todd and Judge Turpin rival for possession of Johanna in Sweeney Todd, and Reagan and Goneril rival for control of the kingdom in King Lear. In most plays, one of the rivals is destroyed, literally or spiritually, because of their rivalry (though in some comedies, rivals become friends again, like Lysander and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream).
PLOT: The Shape of Drama
Now that we've covered characters, let's look at how they arc. The script always starts from a place of stasis, or normal life with no major conflict or issues. Then conflict disrupts the status quo and causes unrest. While outside forces like shipwrecks, blackouts, and snowstorms can cause conflict, drama always puts its focus on moments of conflict (called episodes) caused by individuals.
Every character objective in a drama falls into one of two categories: characters that want to maintain (or return to) stasis and characters that want to cause unrest to make their life better. Subsequently, each episode affects each character differently: for some, their personal happiness or social agency increases, and the episode causes positive unrest; for others, their personal happiness or social agency decreases, and the episode causes negative unrest.
Every character objective in a drama falls into one of two categories: characters that want to maintain (or return to) stasis and characters that want to cause unrest to make their life better. Subsequently, each episode affects each character differently: for some, their personal happiness or social agency increases, and the episode causes positive unrest; for others, their personal happiness or social agency decreases, and the episode causes negative unrest.
A reader can visualize this using a Ball Diagram.** Statis is a flat horizontal line in the center of the diagram, and every episode can be represented by a vertical line perpendicular to the statis. At each episode, every principal character*** either moves closer back to status, higher to positive unrest, or lower toward negative unrest based on their objective. Most characters in a drama ricochet between positive and negative unrest, making a Ball diagram look like a heart EKG, and sudden, unexpected reversals in a character's fortune from one type of unrest to the other even have their own name: peripetia.
Instead of a climax, plays build up to an episode of anagnorisis, where a principal character has a moment of discovery about their true nature or the true nature of another character. In The Crucible, John Proctor has an episode of anagnorisis when he finds his moral bedrock once more and tears up his false confession. Othello has an episode of anagnorisis when he realizes that Iago is wicked and tricked him into murdering his innocent wife. Oedipus has an episode of anagnorisis when he realizes his true parentage and the identity of his wife. Episodes of anagnorisis are almost always moments of peripeteia as well.
Sudden reversals and big swings from one extreme to another are what make drama... well, dramatic. Circumstances, characters, and their reactions are exaggerated in traditional drama to keep audiences entertained. Spectacle is the idea that drama should be a little larger than life with elements that would bring an audience to see a play because it had something they hadn't seen before. In Ancient Greece, spectacle was achieved by special effects like the appearance of gods lowered by cranes onto the stage. In modern theatre, spectacle is still important, but it typically comes from the antics of the characters—somewhat over-the-top, bizarre, and slightly unrealistic actions that characters take.****
Instead of a climax, plays build up to an episode of anagnorisis, where a principal character has a moment of discovery about their true nature or the true nature of another character. In The Crucible, John Proctor has an episode of anagnorisis when he finds his moral bedrock once more and tears up his false confession. Othello has an episode of anagnorisis when he realizes that Iago is wicked and tricked him into murdering his innocent wife. Oedipus has an episode of anagnorisis when he realizes his true parentage and the identity of his wife. Episodes of anagnorisis are almost always moments of peripeteia as well.
Sudden reversals and big swings from one extreme to another are what make drama... well, dramatic. Circumstances, characters, and their reactions are exaggerated in traditional drama to keep audiences entertained. Spectacle is the idea that drama should be a little larger than life with elements that would bring an audience to see a play because it had something they hadn't seen before. In Ancient Greece, spectacle was achieved by special effects like the appearance of gods lowered by cranes onto the stage. In modern theatre, spectacle is still important, but it typically comes from the antics of the characters—somewhat over-the-top, bizarre, and slightly unrealistic actions that characters take.****
LANGUAGE: Speak the Speech
Let's take a closer look at a script's exchange format:
|
SIR PETER: I have it on pretty good authority that my wife has formed an attachment to another. SURFACE: No! SIR PETER. Yes! And just between us, I think I have discovered the person. SURFACE takes a long look behind him to the curtain where LADY TEAZEL is hiding, but SIR PETER doesn't notice SURFACE: Surely, if she has a dalliance, it would be with an acquaintance from her old life, far from here. Away from prying eyes and whispers. SIR PETER: No, I'm afraid it's someone close to me. He's close and here. SURFACE: Who? SIR PETER: Guess. SURFACE: I haven't any idea... (pauses, thinking) If I had to guess, I'd venture it's Benjamin Backbite. SIR PETER: (taking a step toward SURFACE) I'd venture it's Charles. SURFACE: My brother! Impossible! (The School for Scandal, Sheridan, IV.iii) |
No quotation marks are used for this dialogue, and character names are fully capitalized and offset by colons. In the example, it's very clear when Sir Peter Teazle speaks and when Joseph Surface speaks.
Only having dialogue makes setting difficult to define, so in addition to the lines are stage directions, small descriptions in italics of where the scene takes place, actions that a character takes, and the tone a character should have. The most primary of these stage directions are entrances and exits—when actors go on and off stage. In the example above, Surface's look at the curtain, his pause to think, and Sir Peter's step toward him are all stage directions. While it's helpful to read out the stage directions when analyzing a script, stage directions are not said aloud during an actual performance.
On the page, drama is all talking, and a closer look shows that it has three main modes of talking: dialogue, monologue, and chorus. Dialogue is a set of lines shared between two or more characters and mirrors real-life discussion. Occasionally, dialogue between characters will be quick and rapid-fire—this style of dialogue was common in the plays of Ancient Greece and thus has a very Greek name: stichomythia.
Monologue is where one character talks for a good deal of time by themselves. While people don't monologue often in real life, monologues are essential in drama to give characters the depth that they get through narration in stories and novels. In musical theatre, monologues are replaced with solo (or solo+chorus) numbers. There are three types of monologues in theatre based on who the character is monologuing to: someone onstage, someone not onstage, or to the audience watching.
- A monologue directed at other characters is called a speech. Speeches are typically turning points in a play where a character stands up and expresses what they, as a team or society, must do to solve their problems. Famous speeches from plays include
- If a character is monologuing to someone who is part of the character's world but is not physically present where the character is, this is called apostrophe. Every play has at least one moment of apostrophe, which often happens when characters pray, write letters (and read what they're writing), or have hypothetical or imaginary conversations. Apostrophe is used in drama the same way inner dialogue (i.e., thoughts) are used in literature—it clues the audience in on what the character is thinking.
- However, a character will sometimes just directly tell what they are thinking to the audience, treating them as if they were a character in the play. This is called a soliloquy. While sometimes called "breaking the fourth wall," soliloquies tend to occur in comedies but were common in classical drama of all genres, especially those with a prologue or epilogue. A related idea to the soliloquy is the aside, a quick comment that the audience is supposed to hear but other characters onstage are not—think of it as a super short soliloquy.
Chorus is where a group of people say (or sing) the same thing at the same time. They can engage in a long speech or converse back and forth with a character, but what separates chorus from dialogue and monologue is, well, there're a lot of them. In dialogue and monologue, every voice represents a different character with their own thoughts and feelings, but a chorus is the unified voice of everyday people. Choruses were critical in Greek and Roman theatre for helping reveal character motivations and telling the audience the lesson of the play, but with the exception of musical theatre, dramas from Shakespeare forward mostly avoid a chorus.
THOUGHT: Thinking Inside the Box
From writing in exchange format to elevating actions to the level of antics, any reader of drama must keep in mind that drama is writing meant to be performed for an audience. This means certain features of dramatic writing are included for the purposes of staging or live engagement. Consideration by a playwright as to, in the words of Aristotle, "what is possible or pertinent in the given circumstances" of the performance space is thought.
For example, some soliloquies and monologues exist to distract an audience while an actor crosses the stage or the setting on stage changes. Settings themselves tend to be static and few in number to make them easier to physically depict onstage. Information the audience already knows is reiterated after act breaks because audiences need to be reminded of what happened before the intermission break.
It also shouldn't be surprising that dramatic writing is full of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows information the characters don't and thus they can anticipate future events. In Hamilton, we know from the first song the fate of Alexander Hamilton: that Aaron Burr is "the damn fool that shot him." In Romeo and Juliet, the prologue gives away that the two lovers die. More broadly, drama sticks to very strict story structures so audiences can anticipate when certain event, like the major setback or the inciting incident, will occur. This is not the same as foreshadowing; foreshadowing indicates something might happen, while dramatic irony indicates that something will happen.
One common way dramas set up dramatic irony is to refer to certain items or pieces of information early in a play—audiences know that dramas are constrained by a time frame, and this means absolutely every line and object introduced must be important later. This principle is called Chekov's Gun, named for this advice by Russian playwright Anton Chekov: "If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on a wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there." In The Merchant of Venice, when Shylock makes Antonio the unusual contract requiring a pound of his flesh if he cannot pay back a loan, the audience expects Antonio will end up not being able to pay back the loan and the contract will come back. In Sweeney Todd, the beggar woman's repeated line to Sweeney ("Don't I know you?") implies that she is someone from Sweeney's past, and she indeed turns out to be his long-lost wife. Occasionally, this metaphorical gun is put in to intentionally mislead the audience (this is called a red herring). Other times, the entire drama revolves around getting the object, even if the object or goal turns out not to be very desirable or important in the end (this is called a macguffin).
One aspect of thought that directors and actors often use in drama analysis is the idea that every episode doesn't happen in a vacuum. Episodes are, in fact, caused by previous interactions and decisions by characters... even if those events aren't specifically written in the script. Thus, directors and actors try to define the moment before every character enters a scene because whatever happened outside of the script drives what a character does on the page. Unlike other structures of writing, these readers actively construct new plot points into the story instead of just stopping at what's on the page.
For example, some soliloquies and monologues exist to distract an audience while an actor crosses the stage or the setting on stage changes. Settings themselves tend to be static and few in number to make them easier to physically depict onstage. Information the audience already knows is reiterated after act breaks because audiences need to be reminded of what happened before the intermission break.
It also shouldn't be surprising that dramatic writing is full of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows information the characters don't and thus they can anticipate future events. In Hamilton, we know from the first song the fate of Alexander Hamilton: that Aaron Burr is "the damn fool that shot him." In Romeo and Juliet, the prologue gives away that the two lovers die. More broadly, drama sticks to very strict story structures so audiences can anticipate when certain event, like the major setback or the inciting incident, will occur. This is not the same as foreshadowing; foreshadowing indicates something might happen, while dramatic irony indicates that something will happen.
One common way dramas set up dramatic irony is to refer to certain items or pieces of information early in a play—audiences know that dramas are constrained by a time frame, and this means absolutely every line and object introduced must be important later. This principle is called Chekov's Gun, named for this advice by Russian playwright Anton Chekov: "If you say in the first act that there is a rifle hanging on a wall, in the second or third act it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there." In The Merchant of Venice, when Shylock makes Antonio the unusual contract requiring a pound of his flesh if he cannot pay back a loan, the audience expects Antonio will end up not being able to pay back the loan and the contract will come back. In Sweeney Todd, the beggar woman's repeated line to Sweeney ("Don't I know you?") implies that she is someone from Sweeney's past, and she indeed turns out to be his long-lost wife. Occasionally, this metaphorical gun is put in to intentionally mislead the audience (this is called a red herring). Other times, the entire drama revolves around getting the object, even if the object or goal turns out not to be very desirable or important in the end (this is called a macguffin).
One aspect of thought that directors and actors often use in drama analysis is the idea that every episode doesn't happen in a vacuum. Episodes are, in fact, caused by previous interactions and decisions by characters... even if those events aren't specifically written in the script. Thus, directors and actors try to define the moment before every character enters a scene because whatever happened outside of the script drives what a character does on the page. Unlike other structures of writing, these readers actively construct new plot points into the story instead of just stopping at what's on the page.
HOW TO ANALYZE A DRAMATIC WORK
BREAK DOWN THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS FIRST: What are the objectives and motivations of each character? Do they want stasis or unrest? What are the relationships between characters? Who are the rivals?
MOVE THROUGH THE CHARACTER ARCS: How does each episode get each character closer to or further from their objective? What antics come out of the characters facing conflicts? What are the moments of dramatic irony? What are the moments of peripeteia? Which characters go through anagnorisis? Which characters grow, which regress, and which are static at the end?
HIGHLIGHT THE LANGUAGE: Which characters have monologues, and what kind? (apostrophe? soliloquies?) What lines of dialogue use interesting language or illustrate a character's true nature? Does the language have a rhythm and consistency? How is the setting established and described?
CRITIQUE THE MEDIUM: Why did the author choose to make a drama to tell this story? How is the story told differently than it would be as regular prose? Was making this story a drama an effective choice?
ADDITIONAL POINTS IF YOU WATCHED THE DRAMA PERFORMED: Where, when, and by whom was the performance you watched staged? How were the elements of setting described in the script translated into the setting, lighting, and sound elements? Did the choices by the actors suit the characters? Did the costuming and makeup enhance or detract from the personalities of the characters? Did the pacing of the performance match the pacing of the script?
MOVE THROUGH THE CHARACTER ARCS: How does each episode get each character closer to or further from their objective? What antics come out of the characters facing conflicts? What are the moments of dramatic irony? What are the moments of peripeteia? Which characters go through anagnorisis? Which characters grow, which regress, and which are static at the end?
HIGHLIGHT THE LANGUAGE: Which characters have monologues, and what kind? (apostrophe? soliloquies?) What lines of dialogue use interesting language or illustrate a character's true nature? Does the language have a rhythm and consistency? How is the setting established and described?
CRITIQUE THE MEDIUM: Why did the author choose to make a drama to tell this story? How is the story told differently than it would be as regular prose? Was making this story a drama an effective choice?
ADDITIONAL POINTS IF YOU WATCHED THE DRAMA PERFORMED: Where, when, and by whom was the performance you watched staged? How were the elements of setting described in the script translated into the setting, lighting, and sound elements? Did the choices by the actors suit the characters? Did the costuming and makeup enhance or detract from the personalities of the characters? Did the pacing of the performance match the pacing of the script?
Quoting and citing drama
For plays written in verse, cite lines like poetry. For all others, treat like prose. For monologues of over for lines and dialogue, use a block quote. Write character names in all caps, followed by a colon, followed by a line. If significant action happens in the selection, describe it using brackets on its own line. Remember to distinguish between a character's inner narration and dialogue.
|
ORLANDO: Then love me, Rosalind.
ROSALIND: Yes, faith, will I, Fridays and Saturdays, and all. ORLANDO: And wilt thou have me? ROSALIND: Ay, and twenty such. ORLANDO: What sayest thou? ROSALIND: Are you not good? ORLANDO: I hope so. (AYL IV.i.1893-1899) |
As far as in-text citation, cite the name of the drama and page UNLESS citing Shakespeare and other classic play written in verse. For these, cite the act, scene, and line numbers
Furthermore, Shakespeare uses a system of play abbreviations for in-text citation if you are citing from multiple of his plays in one work.
Play citations are exactly like book citations. Live performances of plays, however, are a bit different. For these, list the playwright, name of the play in italics, director, production company name with the city and state, the date of performance, and the words "Live show."
READ: Cariani, John. Almost, Maine. Dramatists, 2004.
WATCHED: Cariani, John. Almost, Maine. Directed by Brandon Coon, Frederick Theatre, 1 February 2023, Frederick High School, Frederick, Colorado.
WATCHED: Cariani, John. Almost, Maine. Directed by Brandon Coon, Frederick Theatre, 1 February 2023, Frederick High School, Frederick, Colorado.
|
Vertical Divider
Dramatic works discussed
Aristophanes. Lysistrata (411 BCE). Dover, 1994. Giraudoux, Jean. The Madwoman of Chaillot (1946), adapted by Maurice Valancy. Dramatists, 1998. Larson, Jonathan. RENT (1996). Rob Weisbach Books/William Morrow/Melcher Media, 1997. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible (1953). Penguin Classics, 2000. Miranda, Lin-Manuel. Hamilton. Original cast recording, Atlantic Records, 2015. Schaffer, Peter. Amadeus (1980). Harper Collins, 2001. Schwartz, Stephen, and Winnie Holzman. Wicked (1998). Wickedly Wicked Blog, edited by Arrika, 30 January 2009, wickedlywicked.blogspot.com/2009/01/wicked-script Sophocles. Oedipus Rex (429 BCE), translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Books, 1984. Shakespeare, William. As You Like It (1599), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014. - - -. King Lear (1605), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014. - - -. The Merchant of Venice (1597), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014. - - -. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014. - - -. The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet (1595), edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstein. Folger Shakespeare Library, 2014. Sondheim, Steven, and Hugh Wheeler. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. MTI, 1979. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire (1947. Penguin Classics, 2009. |
Footnotes
* Drama is similar to poetry in that both are often performed, and classical drama (like Shakespeare) often uses poetic verse. However, drama requires a storyline and characters, while poetry does not. Poetry also does not necessarily need to be performed, while drama does. Lyrical music is the only text that is both dramatic and poetic at the same time. ** Ball diagrams are named after David Ball, a director who defined modern dramatic analysis in his book Backwards and Forwards. Everything in this article regarding stasis and unrest comes from his theories. The other major source of these dramatic theories is Poetics, the first book of play analysis written by Aristotle (specifically, his six elements of a drama: plot [episodes], characters, thought, language, rhythm, and spectacle [antics]). *** What is a principal character? Theatre recognizes five different "roles" that a character can have in a drama based on the amount of time the audience spends with them: a lead role (in most scenes and most impactful to the story conflict), a featured or supporting role (in around half the scenes and has some impact on the story), cameo roles (very memorable and impactful to the conflict but only in one scene), minor roles (one or two scenes and little to no impact—in film, these roles are also called bit-parts and under-fives because the performers have five lines or fewer), and background characters (never speak or are part of an undivided chorus). Both lead roles and featured roles are considered principals. **** Antics happen in both comedic and serious dramatic works and can vary from slightly elevated to completely outlandish: Oedipus blinds himself when he learns of his incestuous fate—that's undeniably an excessive reaction; in As You Like It, Rosalind has to dress like a man and teach the guy she likes how to woo; in A Merchant of Venice, there is a court trial (with another woman dressed as a man because Shakespeare) about the legal justification of cutting a pound of flesh from someone's body; John Proctor violently shreds his confession at the end of The Crucible; in The Madwoman of Challiot, the titular character wears Victorian dresses and literally kills all the evil men in the world; and Stanley howls like a werewolf for his wife when he is kicked out of the house in A Streetcar Named Desire. |