Drama and Shakespeare

1. Drama and Shakespeare

2. Drama • A form of literature known as a play. • A serious play that concerns the character versus society. • Intended to be performed for an audience.

3. 3 Important Elements in Drama • 1. Story - there has to be one • 2. Performance - must be acted out. • 3. Audience - people who experience the story

4. What does an audience need? • * To use imagination * - Very important • Must have scenery or setting • They must understand a story line • Characters or actors to perform the story • Props are important for the modern audience • Costumes – simple or extravagant • The movements of the characters

5. Drama Terms • Allegory - a story in which people, things, and actions represent an idea or a generalization about life. Often have a moral or teach a lesson. • Allusion - a reference in literature to a familiar person, place, or thing. • Anecdote - a short summary of an interesting or humorous, incident or event. • Aside - words spoken so that the audience can hear but other characters cannot. The audience learns about the character’s thoughts and emotions.

6. Drama Terms cont. • Character sketch - a short piece of writing that reveals or shows something important about a person or fictional character. • Comedy - literature with a love story at its core. In comedy, human errors or problems may appear humorous. • Conflict - the struggle in a story that triggers the action. There must be action in drama.

7. Drama Terms cont. • Denouement - the final solution or outcome of a play or story. • Dialogue - is the conversation carried on by the characters in a literary work. • Deus ex machina – a person or thing that suddenly appears providing a solution to a difficult problem. Usually lowered to the stage by a crane/lift.

8. Drama Terms cont. • Didactic literature – instructs or presents a moral or religious statement. • Dramatic monologue – where a character speaks about him/herself as if another person were present. Reveals something about the character • Elizabethan – refers to the prose and poetry created during the reign of Elizabeth I (1558 – 1603)

9. Drama Terms cont. • Epitaph – a short poem/verse written in memory of someone

10. Drama Terms cont. • Empathy - putting yourself into someone else’s place and imagining how that person must feel. • Epithet – a word or phrase used to characterize a character. (ie. Ms. Know-it-all) • Expressionism - dramatic form which explores the ultimate nature of human experience.

11. Drama Terms cont. • Farce – literature based on a highly humorous and highly improbable plot. • Flashback – going back to an earlier time to make something more clear to the audience. • Foreshadowing – giving hints of what is to come later in a story.

12. Drama Terms cont. • Diction - is an author’s choice of words based on their correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. • Archaic - words that are old-fashioned and no longer sound natural when used. • Colloquialism - an expression that is usually accepted in informal situations and certain locations. • Jargon - (technical diction) a specialized language used by a specific group, such as those who use computers or those in the medical profession

13. Drama Terms cont. • Profanity - language that shows disrespect for someone or something regarded as holy or sacred. • Slang - language used by a particular group of people among themselves; it is also language that is used in fiction to lend color and feeling. • Trite - Expressions that lack depth or originality (overworked) • Vulgarity - is language that is generally considered common, crude, gross, and , at times, offensive. It is often used to add realism to literature.

14. Drama Terms cont. • Hubris – “excessive pride” (GK) often viewed as the flaw that leads to the downfall of the tragic hero. • Impressionism – the recording of events or situations as they have been impressed upon the mind as feelings, emotions, and vague thoughts.

15. Drama Terms cont. • Irony – using a word or phrase to mean the exact opposite of its literal or normal meaning • Dramatic – the reader or the audience sees a character’s mistakes, but the character doesn’t • Verbal – the writer says one thing and means another • Situation – there is a great difference between the purpose of a particular action and the result.

16. Drama Terms cont. • Local Color - the use of details that are common in a region of the country. • Melodrama - an exaggerated form of drama; heavy use of romance, suspense, and emotion. • Miracle Play – early play form (cycle play) – dramatizing Christian history in episodes used during the medieval period.

17. Drama Terms cont. • Morality play – an allegorical drama (15C) which made a moral or religious point. • Myth – traditional story that attempts to explain a natural phenomenon or a certain belief of society • Narrator - the person who is telling the story.

18. Drama Terms cont. • Parable – short, descriptive story that illustrates a particular belief or moral. • Paradox – a statement that seems contrary to common sense yet may in fact be true. “The coach considered it a good loss.” • Parody – form of literature that mocks a particular purpose. A comic effect is intended.

19. Drama Terms cont. • Pathos - a Greek root meaning suffering or passion. Describes the part in a play that is intended to elicit pity or sorrow from the audience. • Poetic justice - a term that describes a character “getting what he deserves” in the end, especially if what he deserves is punishment.

20. Drama Terms cont. • Pun – a word or phrase that is used in such a way as to suggest more than one possible meaning. • Quest – features a main character who is seeking to find something or achieve a goal. The person must encounter and overcome a series of obstacles. They return with new wisdom as a result of their journey.

21. Drama Terms cont. • Realism - literature that attempts to represent life as it really is. • Resolution - same as denouement • Romance – a form of literature that presents life the way we would like it to be – great adventure, love, and excitement • Romanticism – a literary movement with an emphasis on the imagination and emotions

22. Drama Terms cont. • Sarcasm - the use of praise to mock someone or something. • Satire - literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of a human weakness. • Setting - time and place of a story

23. Drama Terms cont. • Soliloquy – a speech delivered by a character when he or she is alone on stage • Stereotype - a pattern or form that does not change. • Script - is the piece of writing that an actor reads from and memorizes lines. The original writing from the author.

24. Drama Terms cont. • Tragic hero – a character who experiences an inner struggle due to a character flaw and it ends in defeat for the hero.

25. Drama Terms cont. • Total effect - is the general impression a literary work leaves on the reader. • Tragedy - a literary work in which the hero is destroyed by some character flaw and by forces beyond his or her control. • Playwright/Dramatist - is the writer of a play

26. Drama Terms cont. • Sequence - is the order of events in which something happens during the story. • Fade in - where the lights slowly come up and the scene is before the audience. • Fade out - usually at the end of a scene the lights usually dim and the acting space goes dark.

27. Drama Terms cont. • Proscenium Arch - a border which framed the space on which a play’s action took place. A room with one wall removed. A 19th Century type of stage.

28. Drama Terms cont. • Theatre in the Round - an open stage, where the actors are very close in distance to the audience. Audience on three sides of the stage.

29. Drama Terms cont. • Act – a main division of a drama. Shakespeare’s consist of five acts with each act subdivided into scenes. • Scene – a small unit of a play in which there is no shift of locale or time • Rhetoric – the art of persuasion, used by speakers to add emotion to their words.

30. Drama Terms cont. • Stage directions - locations on the stage that tell actors where to position themselves. – See handout • Epiphany – a sudden perception that causes a character to change or act in a certain way. (An “AH HA” moment.)

31. Drama Terms cont. Malapropism – a type of pun, or play on words, that results when two words become jumbled in the speaker’s mind. Naturalism – extreme form of realism – author shows the relationship between character and the environment

32. Drama Terms cont. • Oxymoron – a combination of contradictory terms such as “tough love”. • Pathetic Fallacy – a form of personification giving human traits to nature – howling wind • Slapstick – a form of low comedy that often includes exaggerated, sometimes violent action.

33. Shakespeare’s Language • Hoodwinked – tricked • All the world’s a stage – we are all actors • Neither rhyme nor reason • In my heart of hearts • Eat out of house and home • Dead as a doornail • The be-all and the end-all

34. Shakespeare’s Language • Knock! Knock! Who’s there? • Full of sound and fury • What the dickens • Laughing-stock • Wear my heart on my sleeve • Pomp and circumstance • Green-eyed monster

35. Shakespeare’s Language • Wild-goose chase • A fool’s paradise • To not budge an inch • An eye-sore • Melted into thin air • Laugh yourself into stitches

36. William Shakespeare • Born April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon • Parents John (glovemaker) and Mary • Married November 28, 1582 to Anne Hathaway (she was 8 years senior and 3 months pregnant)

37. Shakespeare con’t. • First child – Susanna May 1583 • Second child – Twins Hamnet and Judith – in 1585. • In his 20s he travels to London and becomes involved in the theatre (acting and writing)

38. Shakespeare con’t. • Plays written by 1592 • The Comedy of Errors - C • Taming of the Shrew - C • Henry VI parts I, II, III - H • Titus Andronicus - T

39. Shakespeare con’t. • 1594 Founds The Lord Chamberlain’s Men acting company – he is a shareholder • Perform at the following: • The Theatre • The Curtain • The Globe

40. Shakespeare con’t. • Plays between 1592 – 1599 • Midsummer Night’s Dream - C • Romeo and Juliet - T • Richard II - H • Much Ado About Nothing - C • Henry V - H • Julius Caesar - T • As You Like It - C

41. Shakespeare con’t. • Tragedy strikes in 1596 – Hamnet dies • Tragedy strikes in 1601 – Will’s father dies • Name change – 1603 – Queen Elizabeth dies King James I renames the company “The King’s Men”

42. Shakespeare con’t. • Plays written between 1600 – 1608 • Twelfth Night * • King Lear* • Hamlet* • All’s Well That Ends Well • Measure for Measure • Othello* • Macbeth * • Anthony and Cleopatra

43. Shakespeare con’t. • King’s Men move to an indoor theatre – The Blackfriars • Plays written between 1608 – 1611 • Pericles • Cymbeline • The Winter’s Tale* • The Tempest*

44. Shakespeare con’t. • Semi – Retirement 1611 – It is assumed that he returns to Stratford; however, he continues to collaborate with a new playwright • March 25, 1616 draws up his last will – leave his wife their “second best bed” money to some friends for memorial rings and does not mention any of the scripts.

45. Shakespeare con’t. • Curtain Call – April 23, 1616 buried in Holy Trinity Church • “Good Friend For Jesus Sake Forbeare, To Digg The Dust Encloased Heare. Bleste Be Ye Man Yt Spares These Stones And Curst Be He Yt Moves My Bones.”