What is Drama?

​What is Drama?

A drama or a play is a story that is meant to be acted out in front of an audience. “Drama” comes from the Greek word for “action.” The action, or the doing, makes the drama. When a play is performed, the actors and the audience are all in the performance space together. This is what separates drama from movies or television: the performance happens live, in front of the audience’s eyes.

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You can also enjoy and analyze a drama in its written form. Just remember while you’re reading that the author intended the words to be spoken out loud. This is the key difference between a drama and a story or novel. You can ask yourself, what would this play look like in performance? Why is it important that this piece be performed? What was the playwright trying to say that he or she felt would be communicated best by actors?​

Open Ended

What can you do while reading a drama to analyze how it’s different from a story or novel?  Write your answer in a complete sentence.  (While reading a drama to analyze how it's different from a story or novel I can ____________.)

​While reading a drama to analyze how it's different from a story or novel you can ...

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• Imagine what a performance of the play would look like

• ​Ask yourself why the playwright wrote it as a play and not a story or novel

• ​Remember that you are reading something that was meant to be performed

​The people in plays, like the people in books, are the characters. Plays are written in dialogue, with each character’s speech set off separately. The things a character says are called his or her lines. Every time a new character speaks, a new line starts. Sometimes a character is alone onstage and speaks to him or herself or to the audience. This is called a monologue or soliloquy. Unlike in a book, there is no extra explanation that accompanies the dialogue. Everything you need to know about a character, like their personality, motives, or character traits, comes from the things they say and do.

​The passage below is from The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. The play is about Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. This scene takes place when Annie gets off the train and meets Kate, Helen’s mother.

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Annie: I changed trains every time they stopped, the man who sold me that ticket ought to be tied to the tracks...you didn’t bring Helen. I was hoping you would.

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Kate: No, she’s home.

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Annie: You--live far from town, Mrs. Keller?

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Kate: Only a mile.

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Annie: Well. I suppose I can wait one more mile. But don’t be surprised if I get out to push the horse!

Multiple Choice

Based on the dialogue, which of the following is true?

• Annie is reluctant to meet Helen and start working.

• Kate brought Helen with her to the station.

• Annie is very impatient to meet Helen.

• Annie’s train ride was short and easy.

​There’s another kind of writing in scripts as well. When playwrights want to communicate specific instructions to the director of the play, the actors or the reader, they write stage directions. Stage directions could tell what a scene looks like, when and where a character moves or what special effects happen at a particular moment. They are often written in italics, which makes it easier to tell them apart from the dialogue. Common stage directions tell you when a character walks onto the stage, or “enters,” and leaves the stage, or “exits.” Stage directions are particularly helpful when reading a script. They can help you imagine what the play would look like when performed.

​The number of stage directions in a script can vary. Some playwrights don’t write very many. You won’t find a lot of stage directions in a play by Shakespeare, for example. Other playwrights write tons of stage directions. Arthur Miller did a lot of research when writing his play The Crucible, about the Salem Witch Trials, and put a lot of thought into the detailed descriptions of scenes and characters.

Multiple Choice

What do you learn from the stage directions in this passage that you don’t learn from the dialogue?

• Ruth is trying to get Mama out the door.

• Walter wants Mama and Ruth to hurry up.

• Mama wants to hide her emotions as she leaves her apartment.

• Mama is very proud of her children but doesn’t want to spoil them.

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A drama comes to life when it is performed. There are many parts to putting the performance of a play together!

All the characters in the play are performed by actors. The group of actors together is called the cast. The actors rehearse, or go over their lines and movements, with a director for weeks or months before the show.

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In the theater, the performance takes place on the stage. The stage is decorated by a set, which represents the setting or settings where the play takes place. Everything on the set that the actors use are called props. Everything the actors wear are the costumes. There are also special lights and sounds that go into creating a performance. All of these elements are created by artists called theater designers.

There is a whole second team of people behind the scenes or backstage making sure the play runs smoothly. These include the stage manager, who runs the play’s technical aspects like changing the lights and sounds. There are also people moving scenery and props and helping the actors change costumes. All these people together are called the crew.

Multiple Choice

During the performance of a play, who would be most likely to fix a technical problem that arises?

• the stage manager

• the director

• a designer

• an actor

Credits​

Flocabulary: Drama

​flocabulary.com