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What Is A Play Fall 2015

The document defines what a play is and discusses its key elements. A play tells a story through dialogue and action on stage. It has a beginning, middle, and end, with exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. Plays are typically 1-2 hours long. There are different genres of plays like tragedies, comedies, and musicals. A play's structure and themes can be analyzed using its plot, characters, diction, music, spectacle, and other dramatic elements. Conventions help audiences suspend disbelief and engage with the story.

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66 views42 pages

What Is A Play Fall 2015

The document defines what a play is and discusses its key elements. A play tells a story through dialogue and action on stage. It has a beginning, middle, and end, with exposition, conflict, climax, and resolution. Plays are typically 1-2 hours long. There are different genres of plays like tragedies, comedies, and musicals. A play's structure and themes can be analyzed using its plot, characters, diction, music, spectacle, and other dramatic elements. Conventions help audiences suspend disbelief and engage with the story.

Uploaded by

gandolla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WHAT IS A PLAY?

The Play
The event that happens in the Theatre.
What other events happen in the Theatre?
Musicconcert
Dance

Musicals

Magic shows

The play is the action not just the words in the script.
Drama
The Greek word for drama is Dran
Something done
It includes all forms of human activity
Argument, persuasion, passion, laughter
Speech/dance
What is happening from moment to moment.
Conflict is created and resolved.
Characters create human struggle with each other and themselves.
Role models are created
Both positive and negative
The play offers themes and ideas that inform the audience.
A Play is life unfolding on stage that has been shaped into a work of
art.
What is the typical Length of a
Play?
How Long Is A Play?
What is the standard length of a play?
1-2hours
Why?

The shortest play on record is Samuel Becketts


Breath. 1 minute long.
Cultural influence effects the length of plays.
Angels in America
Two parts lasting 7 hours.
Coast of Utopia
A trilogy lasting nine hours.
Genre
Genre
Come from the French word for kind
A way of classifying what type of play we will be
reading or watching.
It gives insight to what is to come.
The two basic types of drama, according to
Aristotle are
Comedy

Tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy
Ends with a death of a main character
Basic Theme revolves around human life and or
society
Usually based on a character of high ranking
King

Queen

Contains a protagonist and antagonist.


Some negative revelation occurs which leads to the
characters fall.
Tragedy and Aristotle
The Greek Philosopher who first described a
tragedy.
384-322 B.C.
Was famous for The Poetics.
Tragedy
Protagonist
Carrier of the action
Has huge misfortune
Suffers more than he should
Bold human attack against insurmountable
odds.

Antagonist
Opposes the action
Super human
Tragedy

Tragic figures should not sadden us. They may fall


at the end, but not before they challenge the
elements.
Why does tragedy belong to an earlier era? Give
examples and be specific.
Tragedy

Modern plays dont have god like antagonist.


The struggle is against other humans not super
human antagonist.
Tragedy demands a larger than life context.
Comedy
Comedy

Sometimes serious and sometimes not.


Bawdy jokes
Satirical skits
Erotic singers and dancers
Full stage chases
clever devices

Ordinary life situations and character development.


Pursuit of love, ambition, social status.
Moliere, Aristophanes, Shakespeare, and Neil Simon.
Aristophanes wrote the first known comedies
Other Genres
Mystery plays: bible plays
Morality plays: Characters representing mankind.
Tragicomedy: serious themes from a comic point of
view.
Dark comedy: funny beginning, depressing ending.
History plays
Based on historical figures
Can be a tragedy.
Ex. Shakespeares Henry IV, Brechts Galileo.
Melodrama
Outwardly serious but full of spectacle,
flamboyant dialogue, and suspense.
Exaggerated plots.
Stock characters.
Accompanied by music.
Dramaturgy
The action of a play has specific patterns.
A play has a beginning, middle and ending which creates
a unique patterns within the structure of the play.
The action provides the thrills and excitement.
The dramaturgy provides the insight and meaning thats
makes us want more.
These patterns are called dramaturgy.
We analyze a play using two intersecting axis.
Vertical axis
Major components of play
Horizontal axis
Tempo and structure of the play
Horizontal Action
The structure or timing of a play.
This is the dramatic structure of the play.
This is broken down into three major groupings.
Preplay

Play

Postplay
Pre Play
How do we attract the audience.
This idea dates back to the Greek ages.
Preplay refers to the procession in the ancient Greek
theatre and the gathering of the audience in the
modern theatre.
Elizabethan theatre would raise the flag to inform the
people that a performance was going to happen.
Play
A play has identifiable elements that happen
throughout the script.
Exposition
Conflict
Climax
Denouncement
Exposition
This is the audiences introduction to the characters
and their story.
Background information is revealed that clarifies
what is about to happen.
In Greek plays a prologue was very common.
Usually a speech was given to inform us as to what
will happen.
This was very common for Shakespeare as well.

BACK
Conflict
The driving force in the play.
A play with no conflict would be extremely boring.
Nothing would happen and nothing would be
resolved.
These are the occurrences that build towards the
point of greatest interest.
Ex. Oedipus vs. himself
Oedipus Vs. fate
BACK
Climax
The conflict of the play taken to the most extreme.
The conflicts must conclude or be resolved.
This is the moment that has the most tension.
Conflicts are resolved.
The turning point in a play.

BACK
Denouncement or Resolution
The final resolution of the play.
The resolution of conflict.
Sometimes said with a single word or statement.

BACK
Postplay
The curtain call
This event takes the audience out of the world of
the play and returns them to reality.
After the show comes the criticism. What did we
think?
Major components of play (Vertical axis)

6 components (According to
Aristotle)
Theme
Spectacle
Music
Diction
Characters
Plot
Theme
Theme
Central idea of the play
Plays can have multiple themes that run through the story.
Usually can be summed up in one or two words.
Love
Death
Common types are
Coming of age
Conflict between people
Conflict in society
The play must say something so the audience walks away
with a message.
BACK
Spectacle
Spectacle
Includes all visual aspects of the production
Light

Sound

Costumes

The overall look of the play.


The visual element exist to help support the plot and
the characters.
Helps with theme

BACK
Music
Music
Greek plays where usually sung or chanted.
Music can be heard in almost every production.
Helps support the climax and further the story.
Music can be incidental and used for transitions and
background.
Music can also be used as a soundscape that
furthers the action and story of the production.

BACK
Diction
Diction
Poetry of the play
Rhyme

Verse

Metaphor

The diction comes from both the playwright and the


actor.
The diction of a play will change from production to
production.

BACK
Characters
Characters
People who take acceptance of the plot.
The character of the plot performs the actions of
the play.
Guides the audience through the story and
understand the plot.
Characters need to be three dimensional and
interesting.
We need to love and hate the characters.

BACK
Plot
Plot
The story is the narrative, the plot is a timeline of
discoveries. The events that make up the story.
Time line of story
Cause and effect
The order of entrances and exits
Discoveries

The inner and outer actions of the play


Aristotle considered the plot (mythos) the most
important element in drama.
This is how we describe the play to others.
BACK
Conventions
Conventions
An added component that was not included by
Aristotle.
what the audience expects
The audiences ability to suspend disbelief and be
sucked into the world of the play.
Light change on stage.
Exits through a door
Birds chirping in the background.

What will the audience accept on stage before they


stop believing.

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