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Drama is the specific mode of fiction Mimesis in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the Epic poetry and the Lyric poetry modes ever since Aristotle's Poetics ()—the earliest work of dramatic theory.Francis Fergusson writes that "a drama, as distinguished from a Lyric poetry, is not primarily a composition in the verbal medium; the words result, as one might put it, from the underlying structure of incident and character. As Aristotle remarks, 'the poet, or "maker" should be the maker of plots rather than of verses; since he is a poet because he Mimesis, and what he imitates are actions (1949, 8).
The term "drama" comes from a Ancient Greek word meaning "deed" or "act" (Classical Greek: δρᾶμα, drâma), which is derived from "I do" (Classical Greek: δράω, dráō). The two associated with drama represent the traditional Genre division between comedy and tragedy.
In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the word play or game (translating the Old English pleġan or Latin ludus) was the standard term for dramas until William Shakespeare's time—just as its creator was a play-maker rather than a dramatist and the building was a play-house rather than a theatre.Wickham (1959, 32–41; 1969, 133; 1981, 68–69). The sense of the creator of plays as a "maker" rather than a "writer" is preserved in the word playwright. The Theatre, one of the first purpose-built playhouses in London, was an intentional reference to the Latin term for that particular playhouse, rather than a term for the buildings in general (1967, 133). The word 'dramatist' "was at that time still unknown in the English language" (1981, 68).
The use of "drama" in a more narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the modern era. "Drama" in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola's Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Anton Chekhov Ivanov (1887). It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted to describe "drama" as a Film genre within their respective media. The term "radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance. It may also be used to refer to the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.Banham (1998, 894–900).
The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by on a stage before an audience, presupposes Collaboration modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception.Pfister (1977, 11).
Mime is a form of drama where the action of a story is told only through the movement of the body. Drama can be combined with music: the dramatic text in opera is generally sung throughout; as for in some ballets dance "expresses or imitates emotion, character, and narrative action." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Musical theatre include both spoken dialogue and ; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and Japanese Noh, for example).See the entries for "opera", "musical theatre, American", "melodrama" and "Nō" in Banham (1998). Closet drama is a form that is intended to be read, rather than performed. Manfred by Byron, for example, is a good example of a "dramatic poem." See the entry on "Byron (George George)" in Banham (1998). In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.Some forms of improvisation, notably the commedia dell'arte, improvise on the basis of 'lazzi' or rough outlines of scenic action (see Gordon (1983) and Duchartre (1929)). All forms of improvisation take their cue from their immediate response to one another, their characters' situations (which are sometimes established in advance), and, often, their interaction with the audience. The classic formulations of improvisation in the theatre originated with Joan Littlewood and Keith Johnstone in the UK and Viola Spolin in the US; see Johnstone (1981) and Spolin (1963).
Only a small fraction of the work of five dramatists, however, has survived to this day: we have a small number of complete texts by the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writers Aristophanes and, from the late 4th century, Menander.The theory that Prometheus Bound was not written by Aeschylus would bring this number to six dramatists whose work survives. Aeschylus' historical tragedy The Persians is the oldest surviving drama, although when it won first prize at the Dionysia competition in 472 BC, he had been writing plays for more than 25 years.Banham (1998, 8) and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 15–16). The competition (" agon") for tragedies may have begun as early as 534 BC; official records (" didaskaliai") begin from 501 BC when the satyr play was introduced.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 13, 15) and Banham (1998, 442). Tragic dramatists were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play (though exceptions were made, as with Euripides' Alcestis in 438 BC). Comedy was officially recognized with a prize in the competition from 487 to 486 BC.
Five comic dramatists competed at the City Dionysia (though during the Peloponnesian War this may have been reduced to three), each offering a single comedy.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 18) and Banham (1998, 444–445). Ancient Greek comedy is traditionally divided between "old comedy" (5th century BC), "middle comedy" (4th century BC) and "new comedy" (late 4th century to 2nd BC).Banham (1998, 444–445).
While Greek drama continued to be performed throughout the Roman period, the year 240 BC marks the beginning of regular Roman drama.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 43). For more information on the ancient Roman dramatists, see the articles categorised under "Ancient Roman dramatists and playwrights" in Wikipedia. From the beginning of the empire, however, interest in full-length drama declined in favour of a broader variety of theatrical entertainments.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 46–47). The first important works of Latin literature were the Tragedy and comedies that Livius Andronicus wrote from 240 BC.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 47). Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also began to write drama. No plays from either writer have survived. While both dramatists composed in both genres, Andronicus was most appreciated for his tragedies and Naevius for his comedies; their successors tended to specialise in one or the other, which led to a separation of the subsequent development of each type of drama.
By the beginning of the 2nd century BC, drama was firmly established in Rome and a guild of writers ( collegium poetarum) had been formed.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 47–48). The Roman comedies that have survived are all fabula palliata (comedies based on Greek subjects) and come from two dramatists: Plautus (Plautus) and Terence (Terence).Brockett and Hildy (2003, 48–49). In re-working the Greek originals, the Roman comic dramatists abolished the role of the Greek chorus in dividing the drama into and introduced musical accompaniment to its dialogue (between one-third of the dialogue in the comedies of Plautus and two-thirds in those of Terence).Brockett and Hildy (2003, 49). The action of all scenes is set in the exterior location of a street and its complications often follow from eavesdropping.
Plautus, the more popular of the two, wrote between 205 and 184 BC and twenty of his comedies survive, of which his are best known; he was admired for the wit of his dialogue and his use of a variety of poetic meters.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 48). All of the six comedies that Terence wrote between 166 and 160 BC have survived; the complexity of his plots, in which he often combined several Greek originals, was sometimes denounced, but his double-plots enabled a sophisticated presentation of contrasting human behaviour. No early Roman tragedy survives, though it was highly regarded in its day; historians know of three early tragedians—Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius, and Lucius Accius.
From the time of the empire, the work of two tragedians survives—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 50). Nine of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of which are fabula crepidata (tragedies adapted from Greek originals); his Phaedra, for example, was based on Euripides' Hippolytus.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 49–50). Historians do not know who wrote the only extant example of the fabula praetexta (tragedies based on Roman subjects), Octavia, but in former times it was mistakenly attributed to Seneca due to his appearance as a character in the tragedy.
In the 10th century, Hrosvitha wrote six plays in Latin modeled on Terence's comedies, but which treated religious subjects.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 77). Her plays are the first known to be composed by a female dramatist and the first identifiable Western drama of the post-Classical era. Later, Hildegard of Bingen wrote a drama, Ordo Virtutum ().
One of the most famous of the early Secularity plays is the courtly pastoral Robin and Marion, written in the 13th century in French by Adam de la Halle.Wickham (1981, 191; 1987, 141). The Interlude of the Student and the Girl (), one of the earliest known in English, seems to be the closest in tone and form to the contemporaneous French , such as The Boy and the Blind Man.Bevington (1962, 9, 11, 38, 45), Dillon (2006, 213), and Wickham (1976, 195; 1981, 189–190). In Early English Stages (1981), Wickham points to the existence of The Interlude of the Student and the Girl as evidence that the old-fashioned view that comedy began in England in the 1550s with Gammer Gurton's Needle and Ralph Roister Doister is mistaken, ignoring as it does a rich tradition of Medieval theatre; see Wickham (1981, 178).
Many plays survive from France and Germany in the late Middle Ages, when some type of religious drama was performed in nearly every European country. Many of these plays contained comedy, , , and .Brockett and Hildy (2003, 86) In England, trade guilds began to perform vernacular "mystery plays", which were composed of long cycles of many playlets or "pageants", of which four are extant: York (48 plays), Chester (24), Wakefield (32) and the so-called "N-Town Plays" (42). The Second Shepherds' Play from the Wakefield cycle is a farcical story of a stolen sheep that its protagonist, Mak, tries to pass off as his new-born child asleep in a crib; it ends when the shepherds from whom he has stolen are summoned to the Nativity of Jesus.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 97).
Morality plays (a modern term) emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished in the early Elizabethan era in England. Characters were often used to represent different ethical ideals. Everyman, for example, includes such figures as Good Deeds, Knowledge and Strength, and this characterisation reinforces the conflict between good and evil for the audience. The Castle of Perseverance (–1425) depicts an archetypal figure's progress from birth through to death. Horestes (), a late "hybrid morality" and one of the earliest examples of an English revenge play, brings together the classical story of Orestes with a Vice from the medieval Allegory tradition, alternating comic, slapstick scenes with serious, Tragedy ones.Spivack (1958, 251–303), Bevington (1962, 58–61, 81–82, 87, 183), and Weimann (1978, 155). Also important in this period were the folk dramas of the Mummers Play, performed during the Christmas season. Court were particularly popular during the reign of Henry VIII.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 101–103).
The unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden, William Wycherley, and George Etherege reflected the atmosphere at Court and celebrated with frankness an aristocratic machismo lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. The Earl of Rochester, real-life Restoration rake, courtier and poet, is flatteringly portrayed in Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676) as a riotous, witty, intellectual, and sexually irresistible aristocrat, a template for posterity's idea of the glamorous Restoration rake (actually never a very common character in Restoration comedy). The single play that does most to support the charge of obscenity levelled then and now at Restoration comedy is probably Wycherley's masterpiece The Country Wife (1675), whose title contains a lewd pun and whose notorious "china scene" is a series of sustained .
During the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer" comedies of William Congreve and John Vanbrugh set out to appeal to more socially diverse audience with a strong middle-class element, as well as to female spectators. The comic focus shifts from young lovers outwitting the older generation to the vicissitudes of marital relations. In Congreve's Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700), the give-and-take set pieces of couples testing their attraction for one another have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the latter's famous "Proviso" scene. Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife (1697) has a light touch and more humanly recognisable characters, while The Relapse (1696) has been admired for its throwaway wit and the characterisation of Lord Foppington, an extravagant and affected burlesque fop with a dark side. The Provoked Wife is something of a Restoration problem play in its attention to the subordinate legal position of married women and the complexities of "divorce" and separation, issues that had been highlighted in the mid-1690s by some notorious cases before the House of Lords. The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified form was running out by the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and seriousness even faster than the playwrights did.Interconnected causes for this shift in taste were demographic change, the Glorious Revolution of 1688, William's and Mary's dislike of the theatre, and the lawsuits brought against playwrights by the Society for the Reformation of Manners (founded in 1692). When Jeremy Collier attacked Congreve and Vanbrugh in his Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage in 1698, he was confirming a shift in audience taste that had already taken place. At the much-anticipated all-star première in 1700 of The Way of the World, Congreve's first comedy for five years, the audience showed only moderate enthusiasm for that subtle and almost melancholy work. The comedy of sex and wit was about to be replaced by sentimental comedy and the drama of exemplary morality.
Other important playwrights of the modern era include Antonin Artaud, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard Shaw, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, and Caryl Churchill.
Chinese opera has seen a more conservative development over a somewhat longer period of time.
These stories follow in the tradition of and Folklore. Usually, there is a lesson learned, and with some help from the audience, the hero/heroine saves the day. This kind of play uses seen in masque and again commedia dell'arte, these characters include the villain (doctore), the clown/servant (Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons), the lovers etc. These plays usually have an emphasis on , and good always triumphs over evil, this kind of play is also very entertaining making it a very effective way of reaching many people.
Pantomime has a long theatrical history in Western culture dating back to classical theatre. It developed partly from the 16th century commedia dell'arte tradition of Italy, as well as other European and British stage traditions, such as 17th-century and music hall. An important part of the pantomime, until the late 19th century, was the harlequinade. "The History of Pantomime", It's-Behind-You.com, 2002, accessed 10 February 2013 Outside Britain the word "pantomime" is usually used to mean Mime artist, rather than the theatrical form discussed here. Webster's New World Dictionary, World Publishing Company, 2nd College Edition, 1980, p. 1027
Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dell'arte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the training of his actors. Étienne Decroux, a pupil of his, was highly influenced by this and started exploring and developing the possibilities of mime and refined corporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside of the realms of naturalism. Jacques Lecoq contributed significantly to the development of mime and physical theatre with his training methods.Callery (2001).
The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is Natyashastra ( Nātyaśāstra), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BC to 200 AD) and whose authorship is attributed to Bharata Muni. The Treatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting, dance, music, Dramaturgy, architecture, Costume design, make-up, props, the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers a Hindu mythology account of the origin of theatre.
Its drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature.Brandon (1981, xvii). It utilised , such as the hero ( nayaka), heroine ( nayika), or clown ( vidusaka). Actors may have specialised in a particular type. It was patronized by the kings as well as village assemblies. Famous early playwrights include Bhasa, Kalidasa (famous for Urvashi, Won by Valour, Malavika and Agnimitra, and The Recognition of Shakuntala), Śudraka (famous for The Little Clay Cart), Asvaghosa, Daṇḍin, and Harsha (famous for Nagananda, Ratnavali, and Priyadarsika). Śakuntalā (in English translation) influenced Goethe's Faust (1808–1832).
Kyōgen is the comic counterpart to Nō drama. It concentrates more on dialogue and less on music, although Nō instrumentalists sometimes appear also in Kyōgen. Kabuki drama, developed from the 17th century, is another comic form, which includes dance.
Modern theatrical and musical drama has also developed in Japan in forms such as shingeki and the Takarazuka Revue.
Mime
Mime artist is a theatrical medium where the action of a story is told through the movement of the body, without the use of speech. Performance of mime occurred in Ancient Greece, and the word is taken from a single masked dancer called Pantomimus, although their performances were not necessarily silent.Gutzwiller (2007). In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime, such as Mummers Play and later , evolved. In the early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern times, including the silent figure in whiteface.Rémy (1954).
Ballet
While some ballet emphasises "the lines and patterns of movement itself" dramatic dance "expresses or imitates emotion, character, and narrative action". Such ballets are theatrical works that have characters and "tell a story", Encyclopaedia Britannica Dance movements in ballet "are often closely related to everyday forms of physical expression, so there is an expressive quality inherent in nearly all dancing", and this is used to convey both action and emotions; mime is also used. Examples include Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, which tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse, Sergei Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare's famous play, and Igor Stravinsky's Petrushka, which tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets.
Creative drama
Creative drama includes dramatic activities and games used primarily in educational settings with children. Its roots in the United States began in the early 1900s. Winifred Ward is considered to be the founder of creative drama in education, establishing the first academic use of drama in Evanston, Illinois.Ehrlich (1974, 75–80).
Asian drama
India
The earliest form of drama was the Sanskrit drama.Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 12). Between the 1st century AD and the 10th was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written.Brandon (1997, 70) and Richmond (1998, 516). With the Islamic conquests that began in the 10th and 11th centuries, theatre was discouraged or forbidden entirely.Brandon (1997, 72) and Richmond (1998, 516). Later, in an attempt to re-assert indigenous values and ideas, village theatre was encouraged across the subcontinent, developing in various regional languages from the 15th to the 19th centuries.Brandon (1997, 72), Richmond (1998, 516), and Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 12). The Bhakti movement was influential in performances in several regions. Apart from regional languages, Assam saw the rise of Ekasarana Dharma drama in an artificially mixed literary language called Brajavali. A distinct form of one-act plays called Ankia Naat developed in the works of Sankardev, a particular presentation of which is called Bhaona. Modern Indian theatre developed during the British Raj under the British Empire, from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th.Richmond (1998, 516) and Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 13).
Sanskrit theatre
The earliest-surviving fragments of Sanskrit drama date from the 1st century AD.Brandon (1981, xvii) and Richmond (1998, 516–517). The wealth of archeological evidence from earlier periods offers no indication of the existence of a tradition of theatre.Richmond (1998, 516). The ancient Vedas ( from between 1500 and 1000 BC that are among the earliest examples of literature in the world) contain no hint of it (although a small number are composed in a form of dialogue) and the of the Vedic period do not appear to have developed into theatre. The Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of Sanskrit drama.Richmond (1998, 517). This treatise on grammar from 140 BC provides a feasible date for the beginnings of theatre in India.
Mobile theatre
A distinct form of theatre has developed in India where the entire crew travels performing plays from place to place, with makeshift stages and equipment, particularly in the eastern parts of the country. Jatra (Bengali language for "travel"), originating in the Vaishnavite movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal, is a tradition that follows this format. Jatra South Asian Folklore: An Encyclopedia : Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, by Peter J. Claus, Sarah Diamond, Margaret Ann Mills. Published by Taylor & Francis, 2003. . Page 307. Ekasarana Dharma plays in the neighbouring state of Assam, pioneered by Sankardev, takes the forms of Ankia Naat and Bhaona. These, along with Western influences, have inspired the development of modern mobile theatre, known in Assamese as Bhramyoman, in Assam. Modern Bhramyoman stages everything from Hindu mythology to adaptations of Western drama and Hollywood movies, and make use of modern techniques, such as live visual effects. Assamese mobile theatre is estimated to be an industry worth a hundred million. The self-contained nature of Bhramyoman, with all equipment and even the stage being carried by the troop itself, allows staging shows even in remote villages, giving wider reach. Pioneers of this industry include Achyut Lahkar and Brajanath Sarma.
Modern Indian drama
Rabindranath Tagore was a pioneering modern playwright who wrote plays noted for their exploration and questioning of nationalism, identity, spiritualism and material greed.Banham (1998, 1051). His plays are written in Bengali language and include Chitra ( Chitrangada, 1892), The King of the Dark Chamber ( Raja, 1910), The Post Office ( Dakghar, 1913), and Red Oleander ( Raktakarabi, 1924). Girish Karnad is a noted playwright, who has written a number of plays that use history and mythology, to critique and problematize ideas and ideals that are of contemporary relevance. Karnad's numerous plays such as Tughlaq, Hayavadana, Taledanda, and Naga-Mandala are significant contributions to Indian drama. Vijay Tendulkar and Mahesh Dattani are amongst the major Indian playwrights of the 20th century. Mohan Rakesh in Hindi and Danish Iqbal in Urdu are considered architects of new age Drama. Mohan Rakesh's Aadhe Adhoore and Danish Iqbal's Dara Shikoh are considered modern classics.
China
Chinese theatre has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the popular form known as Beijing opera and Kunqu; there have been many other forms of theatre in China, such as zaju.
Japan
Japanese Noh is a serious dramatic form that combines drama, music, and dance into a complete aesthetic performance experience. It developed in the 14th and 15th centuries and has its own musical instruments and performance techniques, which were often handed down from father to son. The performers were generally male (for both male and female roles), although female amateurs also perform Nō dramas. Nō drama was supported by the government, and particularly the military, with many military commanders having their own troupes and sometimes performing themselves. It is still performed in Japan today.
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