IT’S TIME FOR DRAMA

1. IT’S TIME FOR DRAMA

2. 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. 

3. 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)

4. 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.

5. 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)

6. 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”.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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)

11. In PAUL CLAUDEL’S WORDSLe 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)

12. 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

13. 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 actorshave a common experience”.

14. ...WHEN THE AUDIENCE CRIES “I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries”. Frank Capra

15. 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.

16. 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”.

17. 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)

18. 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)

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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)

23. 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 Resolution conflict is resolved; play ends Expositioncharacters and conflict are introduced

24. 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.

25. TYPES OF PLAYSMAJOR FORMS OF DRAMA - Comedy - Tragedy - History play

26. COMEDY Aplay 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)

27. 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)

28. TYPES OF COMEDY - Comedy of errors - Comedy of manners - Sentimental and romantic comedy

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. ON the ENDLESS WORLD STAGESull’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

33. 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”.

35. And now the curtain rises: it’s up to you