Martin Esslin, an established drama director, scholar, and critic, approaches his analysis of drama by drawing on his practical experience as a director of plays. Esslin implicitly assumes that drama is the most elite of the artistic genres when he directly declares the purpose of his book, which is to answer the question "why should those concerned with art resort to drama rather than any other form of communication?" Esslin then immediately poses another question that he seems to take as a prerequisite for the first question: "What is the underlying, basic nature of dramatic form and what is it that drama can express better than any other form of communication?"
Esslin's book consists of eleven chapters each of which touches on a dramatic phenomenon or critical issue. His book is opens with a preface and is appended a general index of plays and secondary resources. There are three explanatory diagrams in the book through which Esslin clarifies his theory on suspense. The book discusses the common definitions of drama in the first chapter, goes over the theories and critical aspects of drama as a genre in the following chapters, and concludes by declaring some statements about the truth of drama in the last chapter. Esslin often follows a pattern throughout his chapters; he undermines a critical thought or unravels a common critical confusion then injects his own notions and critical thoughts.
In the first chapter Esslin deems all common definitions of drama as lacking and insufficient since they overlook dramatic genres that are not staged. He thus draws heavily on those who regard live theatre as the only true form of drama. And yet Esslin does not state his own definition. He instead declares that drama should not have ...
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...ements demonstrate that the truth of drama lies in the fact that every playwright creates his play in a subconsciously self-reflexive manner while he is one of us as human beings. Thus drama is, in a wider sense, a true reflection of man. A play, the write adds, is multidimensional and many of its events occur simultaneously exactly like life itself. Drama is like life also because the onus is on the audience to find the meaning while in other genres the writer might interfere, technically or otherwise, to impose his point of view.
Esslin's book is successful since the authenticity of his arguments is proven because he reflects on his practical experience as a director all along his theoretical delineation of drama. In addition, Esslin rarely proposes an argument without exemplifying on it which flavors the process of reading the book with reality and credibility.
“A dramatistic explaination appears in terms that performers can comfortably employ in their efforts to stage events” (Pelias and Shaffer 62). This means that the process for understanding text in an aethestic manor needs to be simple and understandable to the performer so it can be clearly related to the audience. So, for the process to be effective it has to be true to reality, otherwise the message of the text will be lost. Pelias and Shaffer describe the questions in Burke’s Pentad as “fundamental of all human action” (62). The simplicity and familiarity of the concepts are comfortable for even the most inexperienced performer.
Hamlet makes extensive use of the idea of theatrical performance; from revealing characters to not be what they seem - as they act to be - to Hamlet’s play The Mousetrap and his instruction of acting to the players. The extensive use of the stage in the stage directions, as well as numerous monologues and asides, have Hamlet itself acting as a literary device for the motif of theatrical performance.
Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 6th ed. New York: Pearson-Prentice, 2010. 40-49. Print.
The first main area of art and reality colliding in the play is the existence of characters who are referred to as Characters. Pirandello stretches the bounds of meta-theater by having actors portray Characters who swear they are not actors, when faced with other actors playing actual actors and a Director. The layers of unraveling of reality are astounding. The Characters must try and convince not only the Actors and the Producer of their true nature, but also the audience. Pirandello must convey his beliefs about the essence of art through the mouths of Characters seemingly unattached to the actuality of the theater around them. In the play, the Producer acts on stage in place of the author, questioning the sincerity and the true nature of the Characters, who become his r...
Galens, David, and Lynn M. Spampinato, eds. Drama for Students. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Print.
Like many fiction novels, plays have also been a big part of literature and have been around for not only decades but also centuries. Plays tell a story, a story that a reader could then see with their own eyes. Plays not only entertain a viewer’s eyes, but plays can also entertain a viewer’s mind and make them think critically. Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s play Into the Woods is an example of this. If a reader or viewer were to reader or view Into the Woods in a critical way, they might be able to view it in a performance studies way. A viewer could consider the text in relation to their aspects of performance, or any kind of analysis that focuses mainly on the study of performance (Alton, Performance, 1). This theory is perfect for Into the Woods and many other plays because they are text that then are created into a physical performance.
For this paper, I will be focusing on Erving Goffman’s concept of dramaturgy. Erving Goffman was a sociologist who studied social interaction, and is well known for his work on ‘the self.’ His book, Presentation of Self, continues to be an important and relevant book in sociology since it explains by social interaction within humans is important. In his theory, Goffman explains that people are like actors performing on a stage because of how they live their lives. Drama is used as a metaphor for how an individual presents their self to society. In his work, Goffman explains that ‘the self’ is the result of the dramatic interaction between the actor and the audience he or she performs to. There are many aspects of how an individual performs his or her ‘self’.
Before watching the play, “Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike”, I have never watched an American play. Whenever I would revealed this information to people, they would give me a strange look which makes me feel so uncomfortable. I always wondered what exactly the plays would look like or what messages are they delivering to general audience? The curiosity about plays lead me to take the drama class. On the day of the show, I was very nervous since I wasn’t sure about my responsibility as a part of general audience or what should I have expected from actors of the show? In this paper, dramatic and production elements such as characterization, theme, rising action, costume design, light design, and scenic design will be analyzed.
It took me some time to actually understand what Richard Burke was trying to explain about the idea of dramatism. His wording was very complicated to understand in my personal opinion and I had to read the article a few times to get a better understanding of it. I felt that our recent class lectures gave me better insight on what exactly dramatism is and how examples of it are found in our society or in literature. After gaining some more knowledge on dramatism, I felt that it was a little easier to write this specific précis. I did however agree on some of Burke’s ideas that were explained in this article. I liked how he separated dramatism into five different components and explained how they all connected to what dramatism exactly is. To be completely honest I had no knowledge to what dramatism was until reading this article and listening to our lectures about it. Although I was confused about it, I did find it interesting once I was gaining more of an understanding of the article. Burke has many intelligent observations shown in this article specifically his connections to other literary pieces that also explain dramatism. I really enjoyed getting more of an insight on other people’s views on dramatism and their explanations of what they believe it is. Even though I still need to gain a little more on dramatism to fully understand it, I enjoyed the challenge a little bit because it help me
Kirby, Michael. "On Style." The Drama Review: TDR. 3rd ed. Vol. 15. Cambridge: MIT, 1971. 11-19. Print.
William Shakespeare’s usage of stage techniques and language effects in Macbeth are extraordinarily used in creating gradual tension from the moment King Duncan is killed by Macbeth, followed by a short relaxation period and then increasing it again until the climax point of the act of regicide. The reader and the audience are kept in suspense right from the beginning of the play until the final scene.
Drama according to the Wikipedia free encyclopedia is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance, which comes from a Greek word (drao) meaning action. A dramatic production depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes, it put the characters in conflict with themselves, others, society and even natural phenomena. According to Learning Stream, “drama is a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by characters on a stage before an audience.”
In this paper, I will be focusing briefly on my knowledge and understanding of the concept of Applied theatre and one of its theatre form, which is Theatre in Education. The term Applied Theatre is a broad range of dramatic activity carried out by a crowd of diverse bodies and groups.
Nevertheless, the question at hand is whether theatre will have a role in the society of the future, where cinema, digital television, and computers will continue to expand and grow. The answer to this question is yes. Heading into the 21st century, theatre will only be a fraction in a solid media industry. However, despite all the excitement technology brings with it, they will never replace theatre because it has something that can not be recreated or offered anywhere else. The cinema and its larger than life world appeals as an affordable alternative. Digital television provides digital interaction between the viewer and the producer. Theatre on the other hand, and its contents may take on a larger dimension, but we receive it directly in flesh and blood – one to one. The magical atmosphere between an actor and spectator who are constantly aware of each other and the theatre’s level of engagement is fundamentally more human and far more intimate.
Absurdism, a very well known term in the era of modern theatre has played a very significant role in the field of dramas. It’s significance and its presence in the modern theatre has created all together a different and a specific area in the world of theatre widely known as “the theater of the absurd”. Theatre of absurd was given its place in 1960’s by the American critic Martin Esslin. In a thought to make the audiences aware that there is no such true order or meaning in the world of their existence. It’s an attempt to bring the audiences closer to the reality and help them understand their own meaning in life.