Plays are not novels. You do not discuss them at book groups. No one reads a play. Not so! I ran a play book group for such a purpose in admittedly for playwrights. The fastest-selling book of the decade to date is the script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne based on an original story by J.
Plays can be read. However, I do not one dispute that plays are meant to be seen. When I was at school in the mid nineties to late nineties my school taught Drama as improvisation — play texts were only discussed in English Literature. Yet do we believe that a poem once read aloud is no longer literature? To take the idea of script reading one step further I must mention the strange anomaly at new writing theatres. The place that receives play submissions. The literary department. This and the need for a Literary Manager in all such establishments makes me chuckle.
Your work has to stand up on the page — it must read well first and foremost before the theatre will work with you. The readers are meeting you through your words on a page. The same can be said of playwriting prizes — you are being judged on your ability to write a good script. Arguably the greatest writer this country ever produced is a playwright. Not entirely surprising but it is always worth underlining again that it is a playwright who everyone lauds.
A play needs to be performed before it can really be said to be theatre, but when it is can this performance not in itself be literature and add to and develop and push forward the literary canon? What are the boundaries — should there be any? Most scholars consider the modern age of Western drama to have first blossomed in the 19th century.
It was during this period that trailblazing plays really started to delve into realistic themes, confront real-world issues, and offer social criticisms, while also expanding the form to embrace experimentation with style and language. From the late 19th to the midth century, experimentation developed into its own theatrical style.
A prime example is the Theatre of the Absurd, which tackled themes like existentialism and the inherent meaninglessness of human existence. Experimental playwrights played with conventional plot structure, narrative , and voice to challenge audiences and encourage social change. American plays came into their own in the 20th century. A typical play contains the following elements: acts and scenes, characters, dialogue, plot , setting , and stage directions. Playwrights break the action of their plays into larger sections called acts, with individual acts broken up into smaller sections called scenes.
Each scene is essentially a vignette that presents a pivotal moment in the plot or in the development of the characters. The characters are the people whom the play is about, with the dramatic action resulting from their choices, behaviors, and relationships. Characters are central to the plot of any play because, without them, the playwright cannot tell the story.
Most often, characters are their own unique identities, but, in some cases, they might be allegories or archetypes ; examples of the latter include the characters in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and in The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder.
Dialogue encompasses all the spoken parts of the play. This takes the form of conversations between characters or asides spoken to the audience. Ancient and classical playwrights frequently wrote dialogue in verse, but this is largely outdated, with modern dialogue and language replacing more formal rhythms and structures.
Some plays consist only of monologues , dialogue spoken by one character at a time, usually directly to the audience. A one-person show or solo performance is a play-length monologue delivered by one performer; they may play one character or multiple characters. The plot is the sequence of events linking the story together and presenting it in a cohesive, compelling way.
Plot consists of five general elements: an introduction that introduces the characters and setting; rising action; a climactic scene or scenes; falling action; and a resolution. The setting is where the action of the play takes place. Setting can refer to both the geographic area city, state, country and the exact location of the action in a given scene a specific room in a house, an office, a public space like a park or a beach, etc.
Stage directions are the only other text that appears in a play script. They are not spoken; instead, they function as directions to the actors, director, and other creatives producing the play. They stipulate when characters enter and exit a scene; how actors should speak or react to certain lines; what the sets should look like; and any supplemental information that enhances the experience of the play, such as specific musical selections, types of lighting to use, and sound effects to employ.
Dramas and comedies are the two main genres of plays, but you can further split these into more detailed subgenres. A farce is a comedy with an overly ridiculous plot, buffoonish characters, and exaggerated situations. Documentary theater dramatizes real-life events, often by using existing materials—interviews, newspaper and magazine articles, government records, etc. Some productions will utilize multimedia footage to bring the experience more fully and realistically into the theatrical space.
Fact-based dramas stretch as far back as ancient Greece, but documentary plays as their own theatrical form are largely the product of more contemporary playwrights and activists like Heinar Kipphardt, Anna Deavere Smith, and the Tectonic Theater Project. A melodrama overemphasizes the emotions of its characters and the emotional underpinnings of the story to elicit a response from the audience. Many mystery and morality plays of the Middle Ages, Shakespeare plays, and operas are melodramatic.
Operas and musical theater are plays set to music, and the actors sing some or all of the dialogue. Opera tends to be more classical in style, with sweeping musical arrangements, swelling and overly emotive voices, and lavish sets and costumes. Musical theater has a generally lighter tone; a musical theater production is likelier to include spoken dialogue between the songs, more subdued—but still impressive and often majestic—vocal stylings, and fun, engaging plotlines.
There was a time when all plays were either comedies or tragedies; if all or most of the main characters were not dead by the final curtain, the play was a comedy, regardless of the tone of the rest of the play.
Plays are, primarily, a form of entertainment. Yet, from their earliest days, plays have been a vehicle for inspiration, humor, critical thought, and transformation. Plays introduce audiences to characters, settings , and situations they might not encounter in their everyday lives; or, if they do encounter them, plays may inspire new ways of thinking about these subjects.
Plays can shed a light on the messier sides of human nature—like family and other interpersonal conflicts , the pain of social change and rebirth, and the struggles of mental illness, to name just a few—thereby illuminating our shared humanity.
Many plays, even those not specifically classified as comedies, include lighter moments of levity, proving there is always time and space for laughter. Ultimately, plays tell stories without the exposition of novels and other literary forms, and this allows the audience to connect directly with what the characters say and how they behave on stage.
Plays are a remarkably straightforward and immersive art form that produce genuine, sometimes even life-changing experiences. Eastern theater flourished in India in the form of Sanskrit dramas between the 1st and 10th centuries. Japanese theater emerged later, starting in the 16th and 17th centuries, with Kabuki theater combining plays, music, and dance. All these approaches brought Eastern influences to the art of the play, with each country offering something distinct.
For instance, in India, the Islamic Conquests discouraged play production, so afterwards, natives focused on creating plays about indigenous issues as a way to reassert their heritage. In China, plays honored historical figures or told morality tales with stock characters. Miming, dancing, singing, and comedic performance were common aspects of popular plays. The tragic play recounts the story of Oedipus, who becomes the king of Thebes, and unknowingly fulfills the prophecy by murdering his father, Laius, and marry his mother, Jocasta.
The play opens when the King of Thebes, Oedipus addressing his people who are confused by an infliction, which is swiping them off. According to the oracle, this plague is caused because the people of Thebes have not arrested and punished the murderer of their late king. Believing in the oracle, Oedipus promises to find and punish the culprit. He tries to investigate and soon finds out the bitter truth from the Oracle Tiresias. Overcome with guilt and grief over his ill fate, Oedipus blinds himself.
Thus, this tragic play highlights the role of fate and chance which brings a disastrous end for their victims. A famous tragicomedy by William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice was first published between and It was first performed in Shakespeare successfully blends the aspects of tragedy and comedy in this fictional work. The play centers on the character of Antonio, a Venetian merchant.
He takes a loan from a Jew, Shylock, to help his friend, Bassanio to marry Portia, a wealthy lady who lives in Belmont. He gives them three thousand ducats with no interest.
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