Elements of Drama

What is drama?✹A composition in prose that

presents a story entirely told in dialogue and action, and written with the intention of its eventual performance before an audience.

✹The term drama is used for both literature and theater.

Script

✹ The written text of a play. Usually includes list of characters, brief descriptions of the sets or setting, and the lines the characters will speak.

Dramatis Personae

✹"People of Drama" (Latin)✹A list of the characters in a play,

usually found on the first page of the script & listed in the order in which they will appear

Setting

✹ Setting is, as usual, the time and place. In a play, the author must convey the historical period, season, day, moment, and specific place.

Set

✹ The decoration of the stage and the items upon it that are used to create the illusion of a certain setting

The Fourth Wall✹ A stage set only has three walls, but

actors usually pretend there is an invisible fourth wall between themselves and the audience. When a character directly addresses the audience, recognizing that they are being watched, he or she is “breaking the fourth wall.” Exposition and monologues sometimes break the fourth wall.

Act

✹In most plays, events are grouped into acts, which are like chapters in a book.

Scene

✹A subdivision of an act. Each scene usually takes place in one specific setting.

Stage directions

✹ Stage directions are provided in the text of a play, but are not spoken aloud I a performance. They are usually indicated with italics and/or parentheses, & may indicate where the scene takes place, what a character is supposed to do, or how a character should deliver certain lines.

Blocking

✹ This term refers to specific directions of where, when and how actors will move.

✹ Blocking includes use of props, furniture on stage, and walls/doorways, etc.

Upstage and Downstage✹ Originally, the stage was built so that it angled

toward the audience; the “back” of the stage was higher than the “front” of the stage, so the audience could see equally well actions at the back of the stage and at the front of the stage. Now the floor of the seating area is angled upward to provide the same effect. This helps explain the terms “down-stage” and “up-stage.”

All directions should be given from the actor’s point of view✹ Stage Right - the right part of a stage from the

viewpoint of one who faces the audience ✹ Stage Left - the left part of a stage from the viewpoint

of one who faces the audience ✹ Down-stage - the part of a stage that is closest to the

audience or camera ✹ Up-stage - the part of a stage that is farthest from the

audience or camera (If you “upstage” someone, you steal the audience’s attention from someone who is supposed to be getting it; you may do this physically by placing yourself down-stage of them [thus putting them up-stage from you], or by performing better than they do)

Dramatic Foil

✹ A character who provides a strong contrast to another character.

✹ A foil may emphasize another character’s distinctive traits or make a character look better by comparison.

Costumes

✹The clothing worn during a play by an actor to help show the audience that the actor is playing a role.

✹Costume can be elaborate or very simple.

Dialogue

✹ A conversation between at least two characters

✹ Dialogue brings characters to life by revealing their personalities and by showing what they are thinking and feeling as they react to other characters.

                                    

Monologue

✹A speech given by a single character while other characters are onstage

Soliloquy✹ A long speech

delivered by a character who is alone onstage, expressing private inner thoughts and emotions aloud to him/herself and to the audience

Asides

✹ In a play, one or two characters may turn “aside” to comment privately; other characters who are onstage pretend they cannot hear.

✹Asides are frequently used to provide information to the audience and to reveal the private thoughts of characters.