Transcript IT`S TIME FOR DRAMA

IT’S TIME FOR DRAMA
A LIVING ART
As opposed to prose and poetry,
THEATRE is a LIVING ART.
Theatre is storytelling at its most magical.
Theatre is reality. Theatre is fantasy:
it tells the TRUTH, by PRETENDING.
Theatre is the expression of the human
condition in its myriad forms.
Theatre is a snapshot of consciousness.
A MIRROR UP TO NATURE
DRAMA holds a mirror up to human nature =
Drama is a faithful mirror of life and manners.
“Suit the action to the word, the word to
the action, with this special observance, that
you o’erstep not the modesty of nature: for any
thing so o’erdone is from the purpose of
playing, whose end, both at the first and now,
was and is, to hold the mirror up to nature: to
show virtue her feature, scorn her own image,
and the very age and body of the time his form
and pressure”.
HAMLET (Act 3, scene 2)
A FORM OF TRUTH
As director, Hamlet is claiming the “purpose
of playing” which, from the invention of
theatre, has been to hold “the mirror up to
nature”. DRAMA is a form of truth, not mere
entertainment. Playwrights and players should
strive to present action in the most verisimilar
manner, without exaggeration or distortion,
without excessive sentimentality.
All the world’s a stage…
And all the men and
women merely players…
They have their exits and
their entrances…
(As you like it by W. Shakespeare)
In OSCAR WILDE’S WORDS
“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”.
WHERE SOMETHING HAPPENS
On the STAGE, which is above all a
space to fill and a place where
something happens, the language of
words may have to give way to a
language of signs that has the most
immediate impact upon us.
TOTAL COMMUNICATION
So we could say that theatre is a
mixture of signs combined together:
text, voice, sound, movement, music
and image. What makes the
experience of going to the theatre so
exciting is that every performance is
unique and, unlike cinema, it takes
place live in front of our eyes.
NOT WORDS ON PAPER
Not words on paper, nor thoughts and ideas of
an author, but gestures, sounds, words,
screams, light, darkness, the quick interplay of
live beings, these things are the play.
The theatre makes use of everything.
To break through language in order to TOUCH
LIFE is to create or recreate the THEATRE.
PRETENDING BUT FOR REAL
“They look at the curtain. And what
is behind it, when it rises. And
something happens on the stage just
as though it were true”.
(Paul Claudel, The Exchange)
In PAUL CLAUDEL’S WORDS
Le théâtre. Vous ne savez pas ce que c’est ?
“Il y a la scène et la salle. Les gens viennent là le soir,
et ils sont assis par rangées les uns derrière les autres,
regardant. Ils regardent le rideau de la scène. Et ce
qu’il y a derrière quand il est levé. Et il arrive quelque
chose sur la scène comme si c’était vrai. C’est comme
les rêves que l’on fait quand on dort.
Et ne sachant de rien comment cela commence ou
finit, c’est pour cela que l’homme va au théâtre.
Et il se regarde lui-même, les mains posées sur les
genoux. Et il pleure et il rit, et il n’a point envie de
s’en aller”. (L’Echange)
SOME KIND OF AMBUSH
“I think theatre ought to be theatrical ... there’s
always some kind of ambush involved in the
experience. You’re being ambushed by an
unexpected word, or by an elephant falling out
of the cupboard, whatever it is”.
TOM STOPPARD, interview, March 10th,
1999
DRAMA ASKS YOU TO BELIEVE
…and to be involved in it: drama plays
before a live audience of real people who
respond directly and immediately to it.
The fact of a live audience has an
important impact on the way plays are
created. Essential feature of a play –
involves fact that audience and actors
have a common experience”.
...WHEN THE AUDIENCE CRIES
“I thought drama was when
actors cried. But drama is
when the audience cries”.
Frank Capra
WHY SHOULD WE STUDY DRAMA?
Through drama you can become anyone,
anywhere, at anytime, but most of all,
you can become yourself and find out
something you didn’t know about you.
By understanding drama you can learn to
understand anyone, anywhere, anytime, but
most of all you can learn more about yourself.
Plays often capture the essence of a culture or
a group within that culture. They reveal the
attitudes and opinions of their day.
DEFINITION
A drama tells a story, usually of human
conflict, through dialogue and action.
“A story in dramatic form, typically
emphasizing conflict in key characters and
written to be performed by actors”.
“…three necessary elements in drama: (1) a
story (2) told in action (3) by characters
who impersonate the characters of the
story”.
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE 1
The text, generally called a play and written by
a playwright or dramatist, is only part of the
story. To bring it to life, a play requires actors,
a director and an audience.
In turn, the actors usually need a stage and
props (objects that are required for the plot to
make the action realistic)
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE 2
In the same way a novel is divided into
chapters, the dramatic text, the PLAY, is
usually divided into ACTS and each act into
number of SCENES.
The STAGE DIRECTIONS are another feature
common to most plays. They convey the
instructions/intentions of the playwright as to
the characters, their physical appearance, their
actions, their entering and leaving the stage
and as to the setting (the time and place of the
actions)
WRITTEN BUT MEANT TO BE SAID
As opposed to fiction and
poetry, DRAMA is based
primarily on performance.
It begins as a written text, but
it is meant to be said, acted and
performed on the stage in front
of the audience.
DIALOGUE IS ACTION
Words are actions on the stage, they move the
story forward. “Drama” derives from the
Greek verb “dráma” = to do
A play is its dialogue. It’s different from a
novel because everything in it – events, ideas,
feelings – is conveyed to the audience by
people speaking, by a direct speech and the
audience has to learn what is happening by
listening to a conversation.
CHARACTERS
1
The characters interact and come to life through
dialogue or reveal their inner feelings and state of
mind through
- soliloquy,when a character is alone on stage and
speaks to himself/herself and utters his/her thoughts
out loud.
- monologue, that is a long speech by a single actor,
usually in presence of others.
- asides, short comments that the characters make for
the audience and which are not supposed to be heard
by the other characters.
CHARACTERS
2
According to their role in the story,
the characters of a play can be:
- Major/Minor
They can be:
- Round (developed in depth to show
the complexity of human psychology)
- Flat/Stock (stereotyped or not
usually developed in depth)
Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play
involves characters who face a problem or
conflict.
Climax
the point of highest tension;
action determines how the
conflict will be resolved
Exposition
characters and conflict
are introduced
Resolution
conflict is resolved;
play ends
PLOT and STORY
A play traditionally tells a story which is
organized in a plot; i.e. the sequence/order of
events that develop the drama; the storyline or
the arrangement of action; how the story is told
PLOT = storyline, but ≠ STORY
The plot contains the same events as the
story BUT it may present them in a
different chronological order.
TYPES OF PLAYS
MAJOR FORMS OF DRAMA
- Comedy
- Tragedy
- History play
COMEDY
A play in which the main characters begin in a
state of opposition to one another or to the
world – often both. By the end of the play, the
comedy concerns the successful integration of
individuals into society. Problems are always
overcome and the end is always happy.
The structure of comedy traditionally revolves
around the resolution of a confusion (e.g.
mistaken identity = comedy of errors)
STRUCTURE and PURPOSE
The main purpose of comedy is to amuse
people and its main traits are: humour,
comic plot (a sequence of difficult, intricate,
improbable situations that follow one another
at a fast pace), flat characters (they are
rather static, because the witty dialogue and
comic situations are what matters most)
TYPES OF COMEDY
- Comedy of errors
- Comedy of manners
- Sentimental and romantic comedy
TRAGEDY
The tragic hero usually struggles with a
hostile and with inner crises that cannot
overcome. The hero and his world begin
in a condition of harmony which falls
apart by the end of the play.
STRUCTURE
A tragic plot is often more linear than a
comic plot. From the exposition, it rises to
a climax, which is the highest point in the
protagonist’s fortunes, followed by a
crisis, which leads to the final catastrophe.
CHARACTERS
Characters are usually complex human
figures endowed with a moral and
dignified personality. They are ruined by
some unfortunate event, which reveals
some flaw (a personal failing that leads to
a tragic end) of their moral principles.
ON the ENDLESS WORLD STAGE
Sull’immensa scena del mondo
“Cari, cari ragazzi! Così, ecco, così, come
nelle scuole d’un tempo! Anzi, di tutti i tempi!
[…] Qui, su quel ramo; ma anche, altrove;
lontano; ovunque; proprio, ovunque; ecco,
ovunque, sull’immensità sterminata della terra,
può nascere, sempre, qualcosa come un
chiarore, una luce, un’alba…[…]”
Giovanni Testori, I promessi sposi alla prova
LA SPERANZA
“Come attori, non solo a voi, ma a tutti, cosa
può dirvi, congedandosi, il vostro vecchio
maestro se non che, Voi, superata questa
lunghissima prova, potete andar pel mondo,
costruire altrettante compagnie, diventar, ecco,
voi stessi maestri…Ve n’è bisogno. E voi,
adesso, siete pronti. Se, poi, nella vita o qui,
sulla scena, incontrerete, com’è giusto,
difficoltà, dolori, ansie, problemi, battete alla
sua porta. Battete con volontà, con forza, con
amore. Lei, v’aprirà. «Lei chi?» La speranza”.
And now the curtain rises:
it’s up to you