Drama

Means to act or to do from the Greek word dran

Collier 1995 “drama as a kind of literature intended to be performed, acted before an audience

A composition in prose or in verse, adapted to be acted & is represented with accompanying gesture, costume & scenery

Development of DramaANCIENT DRAMAMEDIEVAL DRAMA

KINDS OF MEDIEVAL PLAYA. MYSTERY PLAYB. MORALITY PLAYC. SECULAR DRAMA

RENAISSANCE DRAMADRAMA OF THE 17TH, 18TH & 19TH CENTURIESMODERN DRAMA

PHILIPPINE DRAMAPLAYS POPULAR DURING SPANISH ERA

A. CENAKULOB. MORO-MOROC. ZARZUELA

STREET DRAMASA. MORIONESB. ATI-ATIHAN

The Elements of Drama/The Bones of DramaRelationships

Relationships are central to all dramatic action:•relationships between people•the relationship between people and ideas•the relationship between people and the environment

Tension

Tension is the force that drives the drama. There are four main types of dramatic tension:

•the tension of the task•the tension of relationships•the tension of surprise•the tension of mystery

Focus

Exploring one aspect of the situation which we wish to develop and staying clear about our intention - driving our character and associated contents forward in the performance.

Time & Place

Dramatists need to carefully choose the place where the action takes place as this can greatly affect the events and tensions within the drama.Aspects of place include:the range of charactersclosed and open settingscontrasting settingsmessages of place

The Elements of Drama/The Bones of Drama

The Elements of Drama/The Bones of DramaIn drama we ask ourselves the following Time in action:closed and open time framesmessages of periodassociations of periodconstraints of periodexploring causesexploring effects LanguageIn drama we express our ideas, our feelings and our needs to each other by:the words we saythe way we say themour body language The language of the drama:the situationthe rolesthe relationshipsthe images

The Elements of Drama/The Bones of DramaMovementimages in actionstillness and contrast MoodThis is the feeling or atmosphere that is created by, and emerges through, the dramatic action. SymbolSymbols are what the drama makes you understand - they sum up the meaning of the play, sometimes even on a subconscious level. Symbols can be expressed through language, movement, visual images.We can see symbol through:gesturesobjects

History of Dramafrom its Medieval Origins to the Closing of the Theatres

The early history of English drama is important because

• it shows how the instinct for dramatic representation finds its outlets, • it tells us a great deal about the workings of the popular imagination, and • it throws some light on the themes and conventions of later drama.

The Origins of Drama

The origins of drama as we know it are more the concern of anthropologists because drama and religious ritual seem to have been bound up with one another in the earlier stages of all civilizations.These things lie in the background of all drama:• Folk celebrations, • Ritual miming of such elemental themes as death and resurrection, • Seasonal festivals with appropriate symbolic actions. As far as we can trace the history of English drama, it begins with the elaboration of the ecclesiastical liturgy in mutually answering dialogues.Of the other sources --pre-Christian seasonal festivals, St. George and Robin Hood plays, maypole dances, and similar folk activities-- we know little else except that they existed.No substantial continuity can be established between the origins of European drama in the Middle Ages and the drama of Greece and Rome, which had already run its course by the time the Christian era began.Strolling minstrels and other varieties of itinerant entertainments might have preserved some bit of Roman theater but they eventually became absorbed into the repertory of the profession long before it contributed anything to the acting of miracle or mystery and morality plays.

Tropes to Liturgical Dramas

With its two great festivals of Christmas and Easter, and its celebration of the significant points of Christ's life and career from birth to resurrection, the Christian Church itself was inherently dramatic.The ceremonies designed to commemorate these special Christian events naturally lent themselves to dramatization, from• simple chanting between priest and choir or two sections of the choir to • more elaborate acting out of a scene between two characters or sets of characters. These ceremonal dramatizations were known as tropes--simple but dramatic elaborations of parts of the liturgy--and they represent the beginnings of medieval drama.

The Quem Quaeritis? Trope

One of the earliest recorded tropes was one performed at Easter in the 10th century. It depicts a dialogue between the three Marys and the angel at Christ's tomb, and it is known as the "Quem Quaeritis? Trope" because it asks the question "Whom do ye seek?":

- Quem quaeritis in sepulchro, o Christicolae?- Jesum Nazarenum crucifixum, o caelicolae.- Non est hic; surrexit, sicut praedixerat. Ite, nuntiate quiasurrexit de sepulchro

- "Whom do you seek, O followers of Christ?- "Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified."- "He is not here. He is risen, just as he foretold. Go, announce that he is risen from the sepulcher."

The "Quem Quaeritis? trope" is often identified as the earliest instance of medieval drama.

What is a Passion Play?

The passion play began in the Middle Ages and was originally a work depicting Christ's passion or crucifixion. It was performed

from about the 13th century onward. In its later manifestations, it came to include both Passion and

Resurrection. The form gradually died in popularity after the 16th and 17th centuries, but it remains locally popular.

At the same time the "plots" developed, the staging of the plays became more elaborate, which made it difficult to

confine them to their traditional area: the choir portion of the church. As they grew more elaborate, the performances began to extend physically down the nave, using appropriate portions of the church as needed. At this point, however, they were still confined to the church, both physically and in subject matter.

Miracle Plays

Eventually, dramatic representations moved out of the church altogether--and this simple move brought massive changes to the face of drama. First, they were

produced in the churchyard itself and then later they moved into an even larger space, traditionally the marketplace of the town or even a convenient meadow.Once outside the church, the vernacular ousted Latin and the focus of the story

moved away from just the liturgy to encompass the whole range of sacred history from the Creation to the Last Judgment. Drama began to present the entire range

of religious history.Presentation of the plays outdoors became dependent upon on the weather, so

they could no longer be acted on all of the different chuch festivals. The establishment of the feast of Corpus Christi (May or June) in 1264 provided a

suitable day for play presentation.Corpus Christi was a good choice because it was warm but also because it involved

a professional observance with the Host carried about and displayed at various stations. Dramas were generally given on wagons or pageant carts, which were in

effect moving stages. Each pageant cart presented a different scene of the cycle and the wagons followed each other, repeating their scenes at successive stations. Carts were often very elaborate, equipped with a changing room, a stage proper, and two

areas which represented hell (usually a painted dragon's head) and heaven (a balcony).

Miracle Plays vs. Mystery Plays

Critics tend to distinguish between miracle and mystery plays:

• Miracle plays had as their subject a story from the Scriptures or the life and martyrdom of a saint.

• Mystery plays usually base their stories on the New Testament.

For our purposes, the inclusive term miracle play can be used to identify works dealing with either Biblical

history or saints' lives

Morality Plays

While the miracle plays were still going strong, another medieval dramatic form emerged in the 14th century and

flourished in the 15th-16th centuries, a form which has more direct links with Elizabethan drama. This is the morality play,

which differs from the miracle play in that it does not deal with a biblical or pseudo-biblical story but with personified

abstractions of virtues and vices who struggle for man's soul. Simply put, morality plays dealt with man's search for salvationMorality plays were dramatized allegories of the life of man, his

temptation and sinning, his quest for salvation, and his confrontation by death. The morality play, which developed

most fully in the 1 5th century, handled the subjects that were most popular among medieval preachers and drew

considerably on contemparary homiletic (sermon, preaching) technique.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Despite the iconic status which time and literary history have bestowed upon him, William Shakespeare

probably saw himself as just another professional man of the theatre. Entering the scene first as an actor and later concerned first and foremost with making a living

as a playwright, it's a good bet that he never considered any sort of long-lasting literary fame. He began his

career as a poet, and he wrote plays during 1590-1611.Shakespeare never wrote one single type of play at a time; therefore, it is nearly impossible to divide his career chronologically. We rather arbitrarily break Shakespeare's drama up into several categories:

Apprentice Plays (they show his experimentation with different genres and forms)

• the 3 Henry VI plays (1590-92) • Titus Andronicus (1593) • The Comedy of Errors (1590): the only one not written for the public theatre • Richard III (1592-93) • The Taming of the Shrew (ca. 1594)

Romantic Comedies

• The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594) • Love's Labours Lost (1594) • A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596) • The Merchant of Venice (1596-97) • Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99) • As You Like It (1599-1600) • Twelfth Night (1599-1600) .

History Plays

• Richard II (1595-96) • Henry IV Parts I & II (1597-98) • Henry V (1598-99) • King John (1596-97)

Tragedies

• Romeo and Juliet (1595-96) • Julius Caesar (1599-1600) • Hamlet (1600-01) • Othello (1603-04) • King Lear (1605-06) • Macbeth (1606) • Antony and Cleopatra (1607)

Problem Plays or Bitter Comedies

• Troilus and Cressida (1602) • All's Well That Ends Well (1602-04) • Measure for Measure (1604)

Political Plays

• Coriolanus

Romances

• Pericles (uncertain date) • Cymbeline (1609)

• The Winter's Tale (1610) • The Tempest (1611)

After The Tempest --which has often been called Shakespeare's literal farewell to the stage-- the playwright retired to his home in Stratford, and for the last few years of his life he wrote nothing at all, although he did collaborate on a few plays with fellow writers Beaumont and

Fletcher.In addition to his plays, Shakespeare was also a prolific lyricist --many

of his dramas contain embedded songs-- and a versatile sonneteer

Ben Jonson (1573-1637)

The playwright who over time has been the most compared and contrasted with Shakespeare is Ben Jonson, who is the one great example in English of the Renaissance Humanist turned dramatist

and poet.Jonson is very much a bridge figure, and his work reflects a changing

historical and social perspective. His life spanned the height of the Elizabethan Renaissance but reached well into the reign of Charles I

and into a very different cultural atmosphere from that which prevailed at the end of the 16th century. Jonson was writing when

Spenser was working on The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare was in the thick of his career as a playwright, but he outlived both of them.

Jonson's work is varied in theme and content. He wrote humour comedies, intrigue comedies, and satiric comedies, all of which are marked by a characteristic blend of savagery and humour, of moral feeling and the grim relish of the monstrous absurdities of human

nature. He also produced two tragedies on Roman themes.

Jonson's Key Works

• Every Man in His Humour (1598), a comedy of intrigue • Cynthia's Revels (1600), a mythological satire

• The Poetaster (1601), which chronicles Jonson's feud with fellow playwrights like Marston, which came to be known as the

War of the Theatres. • Volpone, or the Fox (1605), a satiric comedy that is Jonson's own invention: it includes overreachers and scenes of gulling.

• Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (1609), another "gulling" comedy which hinges on the fooling of one character by

another. • The Alchemist (1610), another satire which focuses again on

gulling. • Bartholomew Fair (1614)

• Sejanus (1603), a Roman tragedy • Catiline (1611), a Roman tragedy

Other Playwrights of Note

• George Chapman (1559-1634) infused ethical and philosophical spirit into his plays. Generally known as a translator of Homer, but was also a writer of several comedies

and five tragedies which show the Elizabethan interest in Stoic philosophy. Bussy D'Ambois (1610).

• John Marston (d. 1634) began as a writer of coarse and violent verse satires and liked exuberant language. He wrote melodramatic tragedies of love and revenge, as

well as cynical comedies which combine shows of bitter human folly with wild farce. The Malcontent (1604).

• Thomas Heywood (1570-1641) wrote on historical & patriotic themes; had a kind of ribald comedy he worked into all of his plays. His is known for his domestic tragedies,

plays which deal with tragic results of passion or lust in ordinary family situations, like A Woman Killed with Kindness (1627).

• Thomas Dekker (1570-1641) wrote a variety of plays and is particularly known for his city comedies, plays which focus exclusively on urban life, like The Shoemaker's

Holiday (1599). Also wrote morality plays. • Cyril Tourneur (1575-1626) played variations on the revenge theme, exploring the

corrupting power of revenge. He is best known for those plays which focus on the spectacle of injured innocence turning monstrous in an attempt to avenge wrongs

against it. The Revenger's Tragedy (1607).

• Thomas Middleton (1570-1627) dealt in his comedies with London life, using tricksters & dupes, but he also wrote tragedies. A Trick to Catch the

Old One . • Frances Beaumont (1584-1616) & John Fletcher (1579-1625). In their plays the Jacobean drama gives up any attempt to grapple with moral

problems to indulge in the skilful professional exploitation of titillating, pathetic or emotionally extravagant situations. The Maid's Tragedy (1611).

• Philip Massinger (15B3-1640) is best known for his comedies. A New Way to Pay Old Debts (1633).

• John Ford (1586 1639) developed an interest in the psychology of frustrated and of illicit love, which produced a number of plays like ‘Tis Pity

She's a Whore (1624). He was fond of distraught melancholy. • James Shirley (1596-1666) was in full career as a dramatist when the closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 1642 put an end for the time

being to the publicly acted drama. He wrote tragedies of Italianate intrigue and villainy or of dark passion, tragicomedies in the Fletcher tradition and comedies of manners which to some degree point forward to the comedy

of the Restoration. The Cardinal (1641).

The Closing of the TheatresIn September of 1642 the puritan parliament

by edict* forbade all stage plays and closed the theatres.

They rapidly fell into disrepair and neglect; at the Restoration in 1660, only the Red Bull was still intact, and soon it too was superseded by the new, indoor theatres with their proscenium arches, and French

traditions in acting --in particular, women were for the first time seen as actors.

Few of the great writers for the theatre were still active when the theatres were closed. John Ford, and James

Shirley were still alive, but only William Davenant carried the older traditions into the new period.

John Webster (1580-1625) is one of the first wave of playwrights to begin working before the closing of the

theatres. Although he was a contemporary of Jonson, his work is almost diametrically opposed in content, focus and tone.Like Ford, Shirley and Tourneur, Webster was fascinated by how ambition, covetousness and lust could motivate the

typical villain. Sometimes there is such an emphasis on villainy --on its cruel aspects, its horrors-- that motive seems really

unimportant and the interest of the plays lies in the virtuosity with which cruelty is manifested or the nobility with which a

vicious character meets his doom when there is no alternative.The White Devil (1610) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614) are his best plays. They are episodic in structure, allowing Webster to halt the movement of the plot while he exploits the terror ar

pathos of the moment.