1 minute read
What is drama?
from Touchstones
by Edco Ireland
What do I know?
What do you already know about drama? Have you ever seen a play? Have you got a favourite musical? Have you been to a pantomime? Go to your activity book (see page 93) and complete the drama knowledge download activity.
What Is Drama? We come across drama in every aspect of our lives: an argument between two friends in the yard, a conflict between a customer and a bus driver on the way to town, the nightly soap opera on TV, a student challenging a teacher in the classroom. The study of drama looks at these types of events through a performance on stage. A play can cover real-life events or totally fictional events, or a mixture of both. All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances
And one man in his time plays many parts…
William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Theatre is a mirror, a sharp reflection of society. Drama is life with the dull bits Yasmina Reza cut out.
Alfred Hitchcock
I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.
Oscar Wilde
Which of these quotes do you like best? Which quotes do you agree with? Are there any you disagree with? People have always loved both performing and watching drama. The very first theatres were in Greece around 350bc. The word drama comes from Greek and means ‘to do or to perform’. There are many different genres of drama, including comedy, tragedy, history and musical. You may be familiar with some of these genres already. The purpose of a play depends on the playwright and could include bringing joy and entertainment, celebrating someone’s life and work or giving the audience insight into the life of a particular person and the historic context of the times they lived in. The building blocks of a play are acts (like chapters in a novel), which are further broken down into scenes. The unique thing about a play or dramatic performance is that it takes place in front of a live audience and can’t be edited or changed.
