What are a couple pieces of information you learned about theater and drama?

Reading & Responding to Drama

Reading, analyzing, and responding to other genres of literary works will share some similarities with drama; however, there are some differences. First, instead of a narrator who tells readers what is happening and influences their responses, drama has stage directions, the italicized descriptions of the set, characters, and action. Also, much of what is revealed is done through dialogue. Readers of drama have to rely on their abilities to use their imaginations and to draw on their own experiences of comparable situations or personalities and their familiarity with other stories and plays. In this assignment you will gain information about drama, how to approach it, and how to respond to it.

Step #1: Watch the video Crash Course Theater #1. Answer the question that follows. You may type your answer directly on this document.

1. What are a couple pieces of information you learned about theater and drama?

Step #2: Read the excerpt that follows. Answer the question which follows the excerpt. You may type your answer directly on this document.

Questions to Ask When Reading a Play

In reading dramas as in fiction, you can begin understanding a text by asking some basic questions about the elements or drama.

• Expectations: What do you expect
  • from the title? from the first sentence, paragraph, or speech?
  • after the first events or interactions of characters? as the conflict is resolved?
• Characterization: Who are the characters? Is there a list of characters printed after the title of the play? What do you notice about their names or any identification of their roles, character types, or relationships?
  • Who is/are the protagonist(s)?
  • Who is/are the antagonist(s) (villain, opponent, obstacle)?
  • Who are the other characters?
  • What does each character know at any moment in the action? What does each character expect at any point? What does the audience know or expect that is different from what the characters know or expect?
• Plot: What happens in the play?
  • Do the characters or situations change during the play?
  • What are the differences between the beginning, middle, and end of the play? Is it divided into acts? Would therapy an intermission in a performance?
  • Can you summarize the plot? Is it a recognizable kind of genre such as tragedy, comedy, farce, or mystery?
• Setting:  What is the setting of the play?
  • When does the action occur? Is it contemporary or set in the past? Do the stage directions specify a day of the week, a season, hey time of day?
  • Are there any time changes during the play? Are the scenes in chronological order, or are there any scenes that are supposed to take place earlier or simultaneously? Does the passage of time in the lives of the characters correspond with the passage of time on stage? Or do we understand that time has passed and events have occurred off-stage and between scenes?
  • Where does it take place? Is it in the United States or another country, or in a specific town or region? Do the stage directions describe the scene that an audience would see on stage, and does this remain the same or does it change during the play? How many scene changes are there?
• Style: What do you notice about how the play is written?
  • What is the style of the dialogue? Are the sentences and speeches short or long? Is the vocabulary simple or complex? Do characters ever speak at the same time, or do they always take turns? Does the play instruct actors to be silent for periods of time? Which character speak most often?
  • Are there any images or figures of speech?
  • What is the tone or mood? Does the play make the reader or audience feel sad, amused, worried, curious?
• Theme: What does the play mean? Can you express its theme or themes?
  • Answers to these big questions may be found in many instances by returning to your answers in the questions above. The play’s meaning or theme depends on all its features.

Writing About Drama

Writing an essay about drama, like writing about fiction or poetry, can sharpen your responses and focus your reading: at the same time, it can illuminate aspects of the work that other readers may have missed. When you write about drama, in a very real sense you perform the role that directors and actors take on in a stage performance: You offer your “reading” of the text, interpreting it in order to guide other readers’ responses. But you also shape and refine your own response by attempting to express it clearly.

                Using the notes you have taken while reading a play, try to locate the specific lines that have contributed to your expectations or your discoveries. Are these lines at the beginning, the middle, or the end of the play? Who gives most of the hints or misleading information? If there is one character who is especially unseeing, especially devious, or especially insightful, you might decide to write an essay describing the function of that character in the play. A good way to undertake such a study of a character in drama (as in fiction) is to imagine the work without that character. You can also develop essays that compare characters.

                In addition to character studies, essays on drama can focus on the kinds of observations made above: expectations and plot structure; the presence and absence of characters or actions onstage; the different degrees of awareness of characters and audience at various points in the action; titles, stage directions, and other stylistic details, including metaphors or other imagery; and of course, themes. As you write, you will probably discover that you can imagine directing or acting in a performance of the play, and you’ll realize that interpreting a play is a crucial step in bringing it to life.

From The Norton Introduction to Literature

• Which element of drama do you think is most helpful in understanding, analyzing, and responding to drama?