Introduction to Drama & the World of Shakespeare What Is - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Introduction to Drama & the World of Shakespeare

A play is a story acted out, live and onstage.

What Is Drama?

Structure of a Drama

Like the plot of a story, the plot of a drama follows a rising‐and‐falling structure.

Clim ax tension at highest point Resolution conflict is settled, play ends Com plications tension builds Exposition conflict is introduced

Kinds of Plays

A play may be a tragedy, a comedy, or, in modern drama, a mixture of the two. A tragedy depicts serious and important events that end unhappily. A com edy ends happily. Although most comedies are funny, they may also make us think and question.

Which plot would be a tragedy, and which would be a comedy? Quick Check

• 1. A young woman wants to marry her

love, but her mother disapproves of him. After many setbacks, the suitor wins the mother’s approval and the lovers marry.

• 2. A young man, blinded by passion,

worsens a feud between his family and his lover’s. The play ends with the deaths of the two lovers. Kinds of Plays

Tragedy

Most classical tragedies deal with serious subjects—fate, life, and death—and center on a tragic hero. Tragic heroes

ambition excessive pride rebelliousness passion

are usually noble

figures

have a tragic flaw ,

a personal failing that leads to their downfall

Comedy

In a comedy, the characters usually face humorous obstacles and problems that are resolved by the end of the play.

Com ic heroes

eventually overcome their flaws

and achieve happiness

may be ordinary people instead of

nobility

The conflict in comedies is usually romantic. Someone wants to marry but

faces an obstacle—opposing parents or rival suitors.

Complications can involve

misunderstandings, mistaken identities, disguises, or transformation.

The obstacle is always overcome.

Comedy

Modern Drama

Many of today’s dramas can’t be neatly defined as either comedy and tragedy. Modern plays

• ften mix the serious with

the humorous

• focus on characters that

audiences will identify with rather than look up to

Perform ance of a Play

Plays are meant to be performed. A play comes to life in each unique performance.

Stage Directions Playwright describes setting and actions I nterpretation Actors, directors, and designers interpret these directions creatively Perform ance Audience experiences the story through the actors’ speech and actions

The Stage

A stage is like a small world unto itself.

can be grand or intimate has its own coordinates that

are the opposite from how it looks from the audience

upstage downstage stage left stage right

The Stage

The stage’s set might be A set can be changed from scene to scene— somemes with machinery and sometimes with just a change in lighting.

realistic and detailed abstract or m inim al

The Stage

Other important elements of set design are costumes and props.

Costumes tell us about the characters and the time and place. They can be elaborate or minimal.

Props are items that the characters carry or handle onstage.

The Characters

deciding how to interpret and speak the lines of the play

The actors and director bring characters to life by

building on the playwright’s stage directions for actions and movements

[ Mary takes off her jacket and faces the audience.] Mary: Can I make it on my own?

The Movies and Theater

Plays are a medium of words. Play-goers generally want to watch the subtle development of conflicts among a small group of people in one setting. Movies are a medium of images. Movie-goers generally want to see action, vivid scenery, and movement on screen.

The Characters

Characters’ speech takes the form of

Dialogue—conversation between characters Monologue—a long speech by one character to one or more other characters Soliloquy—a speech by a character alone

• nstage, speaking to himself or herself or to

the audience

Aside Sometimes a character speaks to the audience or to another character in an aside, dialogue that is not supposed to be heard by the other characters onstage.

Review

What are the stage directions in this passage? Is this more likely to be a comedy or a tragedy? Why?

[Gwendolen and Cecily are at the window, looking out into the garden.] Gwendolen. The fact that they did not follow us at once into the house . . . seems to me to show that they have some sense of shame left. Cecily. They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance. Gwendolen. [After a pause.] They don’t seem to notice us at all. Couldn’t you cough?

from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

What are the stage directions in this passage? [Gwendolen and Cecily are at the window, looking out into the garden.] Gwendolen. The fact that they did not follow us at once into the house . . . seems to me to show that they have some sense of shame left. Cecily. They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance. Gwendolen. [After a pause.] They don’t seem to notice us at all. Couldn’t you cough? from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Shakespeare and His Theater

William Shakespeare wrote his plays to make the best use of the theaters

• f his time. He relied on language to

set the scenes move the play fluidly from one scene to another entertain audience members from different backgrounds—from commoners to wealthy merchants to royalty

Early Elizabethan Theaters

Before permanent theaters were built, touring acting companies performed in the courtyards of inns or wherever they could rent space

• n temporary platform stages

to an audience who stood around the stage or sat in balconies surrounding the courtyard

The First Permanent Theater

The first permanent theater in England was

built by James Burbage in 1576 located outside the city walls of London called “The Theater” torn down in 1599. Its timbers were used by Shakespeare and his company to build the Globe

The Globe

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays for the Globe Theater. The Globe Theater was:

a round (or

polygonal) three-story building

called the

“wooden O” in Henry V

The Globe’s Stage

The Globe’s main stage was a platform stage that

projected into a yard open

to the sky

had trapdoors in the floor

main stage

The Globe’s Stage

Trapdoors could be used for

entrances and exits for

ghosts

descents into hell

The Globe’s Stage

The Globe’s inner stage was

curtained off flanked by two doors for

entrances and exits

inner stage

The Globe’s Stage

The balcony or upper stage could be used as

[ End of Section]

Juliet’s balcony the high walls of a castle the bridge of a ship

upper stage

A Performance at the Globe

Plays were performed in the afternoon.

. . . Look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountaintops.

from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

No stage lighting was used. Very few sets—scenery, furniture,

etc.—were used. Scenes were “set” by the playwright’s language.

A Performance at the Globe

Plays were performed by all‐male medieval trade guilds.

Female roles were played by boys. Actors often wore elaborate

costumes.

Now click here to take a virtual tour

• f Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre