Unit 7: Introduction to Drama

Modern theater can trace its roots back to prehistoric dance rituals, Native American healing ceremonies, African storytellers, and dramatic productions of the ancient Greeks, to name a few. A drama is a piece of literature that is written to be performed.

Screenplays and television scripts are dramas written to be acted out on film and later shown to an audience on screen. Like plays, screenplays and TV scripts include stage directions that dictate how an actor should speak and move, as well as how a scene should be filmed.

Greek Tragedy: There is usually a heroic protagonist, or main character, who struggles—with the gods, historically—and is ultimately brought down by a tragic flaw within himself or herself.

Comedy: The plot often involves a series of mishaps and humorous situations.

Just as in novels and short stories, the plot introduces a drama’s central conflict, or struggle. The plot develops the conflict through rising action and resolves it after the climax.

The characters are the individuals who take part in the action of a drama.

As in fiction, the protagonist is the most important character.

Sometimes, another character takes on the role of the antagonist, who engages in conflict with the protagonist.

Together, all of the characters form the drama’s cast. The cast is usually listed in the beginning of a script, and it is the actions of and interactions between these characters that reveal the drama’s plot.

In a drama, plot is mostly revealed through physical action and dialogue, or conversation between characters.

Sometimes, information is presented to the audience through the speech of one character, which other characters may not hear. This is called a monologue.

A script is a drama’s actual text. It includes character names, settings, stage directions, and dialogue.

Stage directions appear before and after lines of dialogue, and they indicate how a character should speak a certain line, what facial expressions to make, how to gesture, and so on.

Just as a novel is sometimes divided into chapters, a script is usually divided into acts and scenes.

Many plays have two to three acts, and each act is made up of a number of scenes.