FP: Terminology: 3. Drama and Theatre arranged according to subjects
Melodrama
"'Melos' is Greek for song and the term "melodrama" was originally applied to all musical plays, including opera. [...] The term "melodrama" is now often applied to some of the typical plays, especially during the Victorian Period, that were written to be produced to musical accompaniment." (Abrams, 212) music was used to increase emotions or to signify characters (signature music). A simplified moral universe; good and evil are embodied in stock characters. Episodic form: the villain poses a threat, the hero or heroine escapes, etc.—with a happy ending. Almost never five acts - usually 2-5 (five acts reserved for "serious" drama). Many special effects: fires, explosions, drownings, earthquakes. Wuthering Heights (By Emily Bronte)
Well-made play
"Eugène Scribe (1791-1861), the French dramatist, is usually credited with the concept of the well-made play. The term is now normally pejorative and refers to a neatly and economically constructed play which works with mechanical efficiency. Scribe was a very successful dramatist and exerted considerable influence in the theatre for many years. Well-made plays were still common in the 1930s and not infrequent until the late fifties." (Cuddon, 980)
Theatre of the absurd
"These plays puzzled and frustrated the spectators in the 1950s. For example Waiting for Godot and Endgame do not present realistic characters and settings or a linear sequence of action. They do not make sense in a traditional way, and leave the spectator between laughter and empathy, producing an effect of alienation. However, the theatre of the absurd in the meantime has evolved into an important paradigm among dramatic genres." (Meyer, 206)
Chorus
A Greek chorus, or simply chorus in the context of Ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, and modern works inspired by them, is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. The Chorus is a group of actors that together speak, sing, and dance in one body. The Chorus is part ritual part thematic device that play a much larger role in Greek Tragedy than in the other genres. One of the primary functions of the chorus is to provide atmosphere and, in some ways, underscore the tragic action.
Comic relief
A humorous or farcical interlude in a serious literary work or drama, especially a tragedy, intended to relieve the dramatic tension or heighten the emotional impact by means of contrast. External Comic Relief is when the audience laughs, but the characters themselves don't. This could happen, for example, when a character slips on a banana peel: nobody onscreen is laughing, but the audience still finds it funny. We're laughing at the characters.
Wings, flats, backdrop
A backdrop (or cloth) is a painted curtain that hangs in the back of the stage to indicate scenery. A flat (short for scenery flat) or coulisse is a flat piece of theatrical scenery which is painted and positioned on stage so as to give the appearance of buildings or other background. Wings: Areas that are part of a stage deck but offstage (out of sight of the audience). The wings are typically masked with legs. The wing space is used for performers preparing to enter, storage of sets for scenery changes and as a stagehand work area. Wings also contain technical equipment, such as the fly system.
Point of attack
when the protagonist of the story is prompted to change, and make a choice. It usually occurs halfway through Act I and will drive the dramatic action for the rest of the drama.
Dramatic conventions
A dramatic convention is a set of rules which both the audience and actors are familiar with and which act as a useful way of quickly signifying the nature of the action or of a character. A convention is a technique employed regularly in the drama so that the audience come to attach specific meaning to it. When a technique is used repeatedly in a drama the audience recognise its significance. They buy into it as an established way of telling the story. example: know what a soliloquy and aside is
Props, stage properties
A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property,[1] is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinct from the actors, scenery, costumes, and electrical equipment. Consumable food items appearing in the production are also considered props.
Temporal setting
Temporal setting: the period in time in which action unfolds (temporal setting is thus the same as plot time.) Particular settings: the times and places in which individual episodes or scenes take place.
Action
ABA* ( C ) Restitution pattern Order, disturbance, back to order Triadic structure also found in music, architecture,... B most important
Fictional time vs. (actual) performance time
Actual performance time: denotes the length of a theatre performance, period of time that is presented Fictional time: can last for a few hours or many years, duration spanned by the staged events, period about which the audience is informed in the course of a performance (f.e. events summarized in the exposition)
Stage directions
All texts in a drama except for the characters' speeches and some dramatic paratexts (e.g. prologues, epilogues), stage directions can be regarded to replace narratorial discourse and comments in fiction
Act / scene
Both an act and a scene are part of a play or performance. The main difference between the two is length and depth of each. An act consists of several scenes and can run for a long length in a performance. On the other hand, a scene features a brief situation of action and dialogue. An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action, climax and resolution. A scene is a part of an act defined with the changing of characters.
Unity of time
As for the length of the play, Aristotle refers to the magnitude called for, a grandness indeed, but one which can be easily seen in its entirety - in the aspect of length, than, one that can easily be remembered. The ideal time which the fable of a tragedy encompasses is "one period of the sun, or admits but a small variation from this period." The Unity of Time limits the supposed action to the duration, roughly, of a single day. Aristotle meant that the length of time represented in the play should be ideally speaking the actual time passing during its presentation.
Configuration of characters (in individual scenes)
As opposed to the overall configuration of characters, the pattern emerging from the characters appearing in particular scenes (e.g. hero and councilor)
Comedy of manners
Comedy of manners, witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. The characteristics of a comedy of manners include: · the use of double entendre and other forms of risque language. · elaborate plots. · cross-dressing (usually women in men's clothing) · physical seduction. · extramarital affairs. · cynicism. · the meeting of the aristocracy and common folk. · intrigues such as forgeries and spying. William Wycherley (The Country-Wife)
Harmatia
Comes from archery, means "to miss the mark", It means the characters mistake, error or miscalculation that leads to his downfall. This mistake can be made unaware.
Deus ex machina
Deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.
Dialogue vs. monologue vs. soliloquy
Dialogue: quick-turn taking, (opposite long passages) Monologue: long speech with sometimes others listening, mono=einer Soliloquy: solus=allein, one speaks without anyone else on stage, permit audience to look into characters thoughts, the act of talking to oneself
Drama vs. theatre (performance)
Drama is written text, for example the drama script, not mediated, monologues, dialogues, the story may be old but what is been said at the same time as audience sees it (simultaneously=typical of performativity), you do not have a narrator or a reader. Text destined for the performance of a story on a stage usually comprising several actors who impersonate interactive characters while an audience is looking on àboth text and performance Theater is a realized or performed drama script (which is destined for performance) mediated, you can stop reading whenever you want, you have the different kind of authors and readers (real, fictional,...), there is a narrator, there isn't the simultaneity like in drama plays Drama performance: you can hear (verbal sounds like intonation or non-verbal sounds like music), see (probs, costumes, bodily gestures), smell sometimes à it is a multi-medial/modal phenomenon, plurimediality à this all can change in every performance "Drama shows characters interacting here and now and is therefore more immediate than narrative texts, in which a narrator tells a story from the past." (Meyer, 114) "It is important to remember that, in contrast to an essay or poem, a dramatic text is not primarily written to be read, but rather as a script for a theatre performance. Dramas are therefore texts that are written to be performed as plays, and this performance requires not only a script, but also the entire apparatus of theatre production, which often includes considerable resources in terms of personnel and organization. Performances always exceed the text." (Nünning, 76 f.)
Dramatis personae
Dramatis personae are the main characters in a dramatic work written in a list. Such lists are commonly employed in various forms of theatre, and also on screen. Typically, off-stage characters are not considered part of the dramatis personae.
Metadramatic /-theatrical elements
Example for metadramatic play (a play in which metadramatic elements are dominant): Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound Metatextual element in drama, can refer to the play one is just reading/watching, to another play or group of plays or to drama/art Implicit metadrama element: a kind of metadrama that cannot be quoted and is rather based on special devices of the dramatic story and its transmission (e.g. unusual, experimental shapings of the levels of content or the level of dramatic transmission) that remind the reader of the fictionality of the text Explicit metadrama element: can be quoted, phrases, metaphors and entire discourses that thematize or discuss the fictionality (or the truth) of the drama one is reading/watching, of another play or of plays/art in general
Characterization, techniques of characterization (figural vs. authorial, explicit vs. implicit)
Explicit and Implicit Characterisation The most obvious technique of characterisation is when someone (in the following excerpt: the narrator) tells us explicitly what a character is like: Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her. (Austen, Emma, ch.1) A character is sometimes also characterised explicitly through a telling name, as for instance Squire Allworthy, who is a worthy gentleman in all respects, in Fielding's Tom Jones. But we also deduce character-traits that are given implicitly through the character's actions, other character's attitudes to him or her, etc. Characterisation by Narrator or Character Characters can be described, implicitly as well as explicitly, either by the narrator (sometimes, somewhat misleadingly, called authorial characterisation) or by another character in the narrative (also called figural characterisation) or even by the characters themselves (self-characterisation). The following gives an example for a characterisation by narrator combined with the narrator's representation of other characters' views (see also the section on narrator comment for evaluative language). Explicitly, Mr Snagsby is characterised as a shy, retiring man. It is also implied that his wife is neither shy nor retiring and that he is rather tyrannised by Mrs Snagsby: Mr and Mrs Snagyby are not only one bone and one flesh but, to the neighbours' thinking, one voice too. That voice, appearing to proceed from Mrs Snagsby alone, is heard in Cook's Court very often. Mr Snagsby, otherwise than as he finds expression through these dulcet tones, is rarely heard. He is a mild, bald, timid man, with a shining head, and a scrubby clump of black hair sticking out at the back. He tends to meekness and obesity. [...] He is emphatically a retiring and unassuming man. (Dickens, Bleak House, ch. 10). A further example: Miss Clack, the poor, religious cousin in The Moonstone introduces herself (self-characterisation) to the reader in the following terms: I am indebted to my dear parents (both now in heaven) for having had habits of order and regularity instilled into me at a very early age. In that happy bygone time, I was taught to keep my hair tidy at all hours of the day and night, and to fold up every article of my clothing carefully, in the same order, on the same chair, in the same place at the foot of the bed, before retiring to rest. An entry of the day's events in my little diary invariably preceeded the folding up. The 'Evening Hymn' (repeated in bed) invariably followed the folding up. And the sweet sleep of childhood invariably followed the 'Evening Hymn'. (Collins, Moonstone, Second Period, First narrative, ch. 1) A little further, Miss Clack characterises herself as: [...] one long accustomed to arouse, convince, prepare, enlighten, and fortify others [...]. (ibid., ch. 8) With these self-descriptions Miss Clack characterises herself explicitly as a dutiful, orderly and religious person. Implicitly, she is depicted as somewhat obnoxious and one who always knows how other people should reform their lives and is willing to say so. It is thus not surprising when Mr Ablewhite calls Miss Clack "this impudent fanatic" (picture in word doc 165)
Back story
In acting, it is the history of the character before the drama begins, and is created during the actor's preparation. It is the history of characters and other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative's start. Even a purely historical work selectively reveals backstory to the audience
Multimediality
It features both the acoustic (songs, speech, noises) and visual (performance, costume, props) means of representation.
Catharsis
Katharos=pure, cleanse, The purification or purgation of the emotions (especially pity/eleoz and fear/phobos) primarily through art. The audience should leave a play feeling cleansed (emotionally).
Proscenium stage / apron stage
Proscenium stages have an architectural frame, known as the proscenium arch, although not always arched in shape. Their stages are deep and sometimes raked, meaning the stage is gently sloped rising away from the audience. Sometimes the front of the stage extends past the proscenium into the auditorium. The proscenium's structure was first expanded creating a "picture frame" or an imaginary fourth wall through which the audience experienced the illusion of spying on characters behaving exactly as if they were unobserved. With the advent of electricity, the illusion was further enhanced by controlled lighting, which made it possible to darken the auditorium where the audience was seated and create the illusion for the spectator that he was not in a theatre. The proscenium theatre, though still popular in the 20th century (especially for large auditoriums), was supplemented by other types of theatres designed for fuller communication between actor and audience. Hence the revival of other, more intimate forms of theatre, such as the open stage and the theatre-in-the-round. The apron is any parts of the stage that extends past the proscenium arch and into the audience or seating area.
Story vs. plot
Plot: action discursivized i.e. transmitted by the level of discourse (as opposed to the summaryof the action of a detective fiction, a plot summary would follow the outline of the story as it is presented to us in a text and would for instance not give away the identity of the murderer) Story: The abstract content of a narrative independent of its transmission (a story can be transmitted by several media, e.g. narrative verbal texts, drama, film) usually what makes the bulk of a summary, substance/constituents: elements that answer 'w-questions': spatial and temporal setting (where?, when?), characters (who?), action (what?), in narratology also the constituent level of a narration (historie) as opposed to the level of transmission, the objects of a narrative world, if seen as elements on the level of story are conceived of as given and not as made, the form of a story can be analysed e.g. according to the question whether it follows the basic ternary scheme of initial harmony/order - disturbance - restitution of the initial state or some other macro-scheme. It should be noted that in many cases the same objects of a narrative world can be seen as story-elements or as discourse-elements, depending on whether they are regarded as given or made
Prologue / epilogue
Prologue: is used to give readers extra information that advances the plot. It is included in the front matter and for a good reason! Authors use them for various purposes, including: Giving background information about the story. It introduces the world described in a story and main characters. Epilogue: is located at the end of a story. It describes events which happened after all the plots had been finished. It is a piece of writing at the end of a work of literature, usually used to bring closure to the work. It is presented from the perspective of within the story. When the author steps in and speaks directly to the reader, that is more properly considered an afterword
Protagonist vs. antagonist
Protagonists and antagonists are both essential characters in a story, but they propel the plot in different and usually opposite ways: The protagonist works toward the central story goals, while the antagonist works against the goals. Antagonist: a character who stands in opposition to advancing the primary goals of the plot of a story Protagonist: a character who pursues the primary goals of the plot of a story
Anagnorisis
Recognition, discovery, A moment in a plot or story, specifically a tragedy, wherein the main character either recognized or identificates his/her true nature, recognizes the other characters true identity, discovers the true nature of his situation, or that of the others - leading to the resolution of the story
Primary text vs. secondary text
Secondary Sources are one step removed from primary sources, though they often quote or otherwise use primary sources. They can cover the same topic, but add a layer of interpretation and analysis. Secondary sources can include: Analysis or interpretation of data, Scholarly or other articles about a topic, especially by people not directly involved. primary: dialogue, monologue secondary: stage directions, speech tags
Scenic presentation vs. narration (showing vs. telling)
Showing: a mode of narration, i.e. a discursive mode of transmitting (parts of a) story consisting in a presentation 'in full'/as a dramatic scene i.e. usually with dialogue and without much narrational help Telling: a mode of narration , i.e. a discursive mode of transmitting (parts of a) story consisting in a presentation in the form of a narrative summary/narration (without dialogue and with much narratorial help)
Multiple plot, strands / lines of action
Single Strand If you're watching or reading a story that has one central character or hero acting in a single plot while surrounded by a group of minor characters, you're encountering a narrative that has a single strand. Multi-Strand Instead of a single hero and a group of supporting characters, a narrative with multiple strands can have two or more isolated groups of characters existing at once. By juxtaposing strands -- groups with their own central characters -- the audience will not only be concerned about the action and outcome of each strand, but of how the strands relate to one another.
(main) plot vs. subplot
Subplots are distinguished from the main plot by taking up less of the action, having fewer significant events occur, with less impact on the "world" of the work, and occurring to less important characters. In screenwriting, a subplot is referred to as a "B story" or a "C story,". A plot is a sequence of connected events that are bound together by cause and effort. The subplot is a side story that exists within the main plot. The subplot is connected to the main story but never overpowers it.
Peripeteia / peripetia / peripety
Sudden reversal of dramatic situation, often an unexpected event or the sudden discovery of something (e.g. the recognition of a long lost child or father)
Elizabethan public stage / (neutral) platform stage
The Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatres, i.e., plays were no longer performed outside. However, it was still an open-air theatre as the lack of artificial lighting made daylight necessary for performances. A flag would be flown from the top of the theatre to show a play was going to be performed. People sat around the stage in galleries. The cheapest place was in front of the stage where ordinary people stood. One of the main uses of costume during the Elizabethan era was to make up for the lack of scenery, set, and props on stage. It created a visual effect for the audience, and it was an integral part of the overall performance. The location of a play was established by the words and gestures of the actors. Platform stages: These usually consist of a raised rectangular platform at one end of a room. They can either have a level or raked sloping floor. The audience sit in rows facing the stage. Platform stages are often used in multi-purpose halls where theatre is only one of the space's uses.
Unity of action
The Unity of Action limits the supposed action to a single set of incidents which are related as cause and effect, "having a beginning, middle, and an end." No scene is to be included that does not advance the plot directly. No subplots, no characters who do not advance the action.
V-effect, alienation (effect)
The distancing effect, more commonly known by alienation effect or as the estrangement effect, is a performing arts concept coined by German playwright Bertolt Brecht "Verfremdungseffekt". The alienation effect attempts to combat emotional manipulation in the theater, replacing it with an entertaining or surprising jolt. By disclosing and making obvious the manipulative contrivances and "fictive" qualities of the medium, the actors attempt to alienate the viewer from any passive acceptance and enjoyment of the play as mere "entertainment". Instead, the goal is to force viewers into a critical, analytical frame of mind that serves to disabuse him or her of the notion that what he is watching is necessarily an inviolable, self-contained narrative. This effect of making the familiar strange serves a didactic function insofar as it aims to teach the viewer not to take the style and content for granted, since (proponents argue) the theatrical medium itself is highly constructed and contingent upon many cultural and economic conditions. example: der gute mensch von sezuan
Morality (play)
The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as interludes, a broader term for dramas with or without a moral.[1] Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of various moral attributes who try to prompt them to choose a good life over one of evil. The plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. Having grown out of the religiously based mystery plays of the Middle Ages, they represented a shift towards a more secular base for European theatre Example: Everyman
Overall constellation of characters (in a play)
The pattern formed by all the characters of a play (e.g. the hero and his supporters vs. the obstacle characters and further groups)
Word scenery
The set or, more precisely, what it is supposed to represent, can also be conveyed in the characters' speech. In Elizabethan times, for example, where the set was rather bare with little stage props and no background scenery, the spatio-temporal framework of a scene had to be provided by characters' references to it. The jester Trinculo in Shakespeare's The Tempest. While Elizabethan theatre goers could not actually 'see' a cloud on stage, they were invited to imagine it in their mind's eye. The setting was thus created rhetorically, as word scenery, rather than by means of painted canvas, stage props and artificial lighting
Picture-frame stage
The stage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is called proscenium stage or picture frame stage because it is shaped in such a way that the audience watches the play as it would regard a picture: The ramp clearly separates actors and audience, and the curtain underlines this division.
Theatrical space
The theatre space is product of the interplay between stage space, gestural space and dramatic space and, according to Anne Uberseld, it is constructed, "on the basis of an architecture, a (pictorial) view of the world, or a space sculpted essentially by the actors' bodies."
Scenery
Theatrical scenery is that which is used as a setting for a theatrical production. Scenery may be just about anything, from a single chair to an elaborately re-created street, no matter how large or how small, whether the item was custom-made or is the genuine item, appropriated for theatrical use.
Spatial setting (locale, onstage fictional space)
Theatrical space: where the play is performed (the house) Spatial setting (fictional space): only partially represented on stage; characters often refer to other fictional places in which they claim to have been Locale: locale is a place at which there is or was human activity
Tragedy vs. comedy
Tragedy: "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions" Comedy - typical features · Overall functions: entertainment through humor à elicts laughter, sometimes satirical function (criticism) · Story level: o Setting: private settings o Characters: middle or lower class, flat and stereotyped characters o Action: Frye's pattern (most important parts are the funny scenes, and those are connected by a coherent element), often stereotype plot, often contains intrigues, disguises (instigated by manipulator characters), happy ending (marriage) · Discourse level: o Paradigmatic, episodic plot structure o Middle or low style, frequent use of prose o Scatological (obszön) and sexual allusions, representation of aggression (slap stick comedy) o Does not aim at eliciting strong emotions · Implied norms and worldview o Transgression of established norms (love marriage instead of conventional marriage), but no serious infractions of norms are represented o Celebrates exuberant (ausgelassen) life o Positivizes what may seem negative (welcomes nonsense) o Often no reference to a metaphysical/transcendental sphere, emphasis on ordinary life Tragedy - typical features · Overall functions: o Celebration of the greatness of the individual while at the same time also showing the individuals smallness against the background of the cosmos/world order o Elicits aesthetic illusion and empathy o Elicits strong emotions (pity and fear) o Non-orthodox questioning of traditional worldviews and norms without giving up the idea of a meaningful world · Story level: o Setting: public setting o Characters: high social status, play a role in the state, round and individualized characters, heroes as mixed characters (mix of greatness and smallness, self-determination and dependence on factors outside control, guilt and innocence), often involved in a moral conflict o Action: not stereotyped, public dimension, dramatizes moral conflict of norms, ends with the death of the tragic hero · Discourse level: o Emphasis on causal and teleological coherence o noble language, sublime style (no mixture with low comedy, exception: Shakespeare drama) o aiming at eliciting strong emotions and dramatic illusion · implied norms and worldview: o deals with existential questions o emphasis on extraordinary human suffering o related to some transcendental sphere and order of the world o intermediate position between religious orthodoxy and atheism Combination tragedy and comedy is more shocking, entrances contrast.
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Mostly, the characters in tragicomedy are exaggerated, and sometimes there might be a happy ending after a series of unfortunate events. Romeo and Juliet is officially classified as a tragedy, but in some respects the play deviates from the tragic genre. ... Not only does Romeo and Juliet deviate in many ways from the tragic genre, the first two acts of the play are structured much more like a comedy. "Tragicomedy combines serious conflicts or topics with light-hearted elements. Samuel Beckett`s Waiting for Godot deals with physical, emotional and spiritual suffering, moral problems, and the meaning of life and death." (Meyer, 144)
Turn / turn taking / repartee
Turn-taking: a type of organization in conversation and discourse where participants speak one at a time in alternating turns. Repartee: conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.
Character perspective
Was coined by Pfister offers a range of further possible application of the term perspective when analyzing characters in dramatic and narrative texts. Character perspective can be used to describe the individual more or less restricted view of reality of every character as determined by three major factors: firstly the characters level of knowledge, secondly the characters psychological disposition and thirdly the characters ideological persuasions. The level of knowledge and the psychological disposition determine the spectrum of characteristics and the personality of a character. As the vague term ideological persuasions is problematic not least because of the diverse connotations of the term ideology it can be replaced by the more precise concept of values and norms. These terms are analytically more useful as the characters values and norms generally appear explicitly in the text and are therefore easier to identify than their ideological persuasion. The expression character perspective therefore encompasses all those features that constitute a character and their subjective model of reality or view of the fictional world.
Character conception (type vs. individual, flat vs. round characters)
When considering the character conception we should firstly a certain we are the characters remain unchanged throughout the drama or whether they develop. we should also consider whether a character is a one dimensional type characterized by a small internally consistent collection of features or a multi dimensional character presented as an individual with a large number of characteristics. there is a broad spectrum of possible kinds of characterization comprising various degrees of individualization. The two extremes of this spectrum or the personification of figure who embodies or personified as a single characteristic and individual who has so many different features did he or she seems to have as complex character as a real human being. Large variety of characters exist between these two extremes. Round: more information about character, complex and undergo development, sometimes sufficiently to surprise the reader Flat: not much information, two-dimensional in that they are relatively uncomplicated and do not change throughout the course of a work The terms individual and type are used to differentiate between two varieties of literary characters. type is used to refer to a character who has few specific human characteristics and individual features or who is characterized for example as a representative of a social class. we can differentiate between various types: The psychological type in buddies a particular mode of human behavior for example the grouch or the skinflint where is the social types based on a particular profession or social class. there is also a wide range of ethnic regional and national stereotypes as well as gender stereotypes. A complex literary character by contrast supplied with a large number of characteristics. The main emphasis is placed on the uniqueness and personal individuality of such characters. They are presented as multifaceted and characterized by a large number of personal traits and are therefore thought to resemble genuine human beings.
Play-within-the-play
When the characters of the play we are watching become the actors and audience members of a play within that play. The concept of a play within a play (or a story within a story) comes from the French saying mise en abyme, or "placed into abyss." A story within a story (or story within a plot) is a literary device in which one character within a narrative narrates. A play may have a brief play within it, such as Shakespeare's play Hamlet; a film may show the characters watching a short film; or a novel may contain a short story within the novel.
Mystery play
a medieval drama based on scriptural incidents (such as the creation of the world, the Flood, or the life, death, and resurrection of Christ) They are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.[2] Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days Example: Chester cycle
Epic drama
a modern episodic drama that seeks to provoke objective understanding of a social problem through a series of loosely connected scenes that avoid illusion and often interrupt the action to address the audience directly with analysis or argument (as by a narrator) or with documentation (as by a film) example: Hardy The Dynasts Characteristics of Epic Theatre. "The Alienation Effect - Technique designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance. Displace realism and to show up the hidden agenda of the theatre of the time "In opposition to Aristotelian drama, which is defined by the immediate presentation of characters in speeches and a coherent sequence of actions, epic drama uses narrative techniques, such as a figure who introduces characters and conveys the (episodic or openended) action of the play to the spectators." (Meyer, 145)
Unity of place
a tragedy should exist in a single physical location accoding to Aristotle
Discrepancy of awareness
audience has got more or less information Inferior awareness: a character knows more than the audience Superior awareness: the audience knows more than the character.
Dumb show (pantomime, mime)
gestures used to convey a meaning or message without speech; mime. Shakespeare used dumbshow in Hamlet, for the play within a play staged by Prince Hamlet and the players for King Claudius
Dramatic irony
irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play. a literary device by which the audience's or reader's understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters. Dramatic irony is a form of irony that is expressed through a work's structure: an audience's awareness of the situation in which a work's characters exist differs substantially from that of the characters', and the words and actions of the characters therefore take on a different—often contradictory—meaning for the audience than they have for the work's characters. participants: ironizer, object of irony, witness. function: sustain interest, funny
History (play)
is based on a historical narrative, often set in the medieval or early modern past. The best known examples of the genre are the history plays written by William Shakespeare, whose plays still serve to define the genre. A history play (sometimes known as a chronicle play) is a dramatic work where the events of the plot are either partially or entirely drawn from history. It is also considered a theatrical genre. William Shakespeare wrote ten history plays, each focusing on an English monarch and the period in which he reigned.
Catastrophe
is the final resolution in a poem or narrative plot, which unravels the intrigue and brings the piece to a close. In comedies, this may be a marriage between main characters; in tragedies, it may be the death of one or more main characters. It is the final part of a play, following the protasis, epitasis, and catastasis.
Speech tags / speaker designation
speech tag is something that labels a bit of dialogue, says who's presently speaking, and sometimes tells how they're speaking. are like signposts, attributing written dialogue to characters. ... Each tag contains at least one noun or pronoun (Carla, she, Rory and Ellen, Jets, they) and a verb indicating a way of speaking (said, asked, whispered, remarked).
(direct) audience address (speaking out of character)
to the audience, address audience, to break the 4th wall/illusion
Aside
to understand an emotion, like a mini-soliloquy, short sentences like "I am afraid." in which the character expresses to the audience his or her thought or intention in a short speech which by convention is inaudible to the other characters on the stage, funktion: help audience to understand better and enter in the characters feelings and emotions which draws you in, example: often used in Shakespeare drama
