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Updated August 17, 2007 |
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Curriculum Corner by Robyne D. Batson |
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The Elements of Drama |
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DRAMATIC TENSION Like the rubber band which drives a model airplane, tension is the force that drives our drama.
FOCUS In any dramatic situation, where people and ideas meet, there are dozens of dramas waiting to happen. They can’t all happen at once, so we must decide to explore just one aspect of the situation. This is the playwright’s focus.
LANGUAGE In drama, as in real life, we express our ideas, our feelings and our needs to each other by the words we say, the way we say them, and our body language. Together these make up the language of the drama
MOVEMENT Drama has traditionally been stored in books, or written scripts that consist of words. However, drama is really action. Words are only a small part of that action. Film and video are modern ways of storing drama which store images as well as words. You can watch an action movie with the sound turned down, or in a foreign language, and still follow what is going on. However, the images that film and video capture are only two-dimensional. In the theatre and in improvised drama the action is in real space; with real breathing, sweating bodies expressing real feelings, holding and moving real things.
PLACE and SPACE All dramatic action occurs in time and space. Playwrights need to choose the place where they set the action carefully, as setting can greatly affect the events and tensions within the drama.
TIME If you look at any photgraph, picture or sculpture of a group of peoole, you see their relationships in a moment frozen forever. The moment raises questions: Who are they and what are they to each other? Whay are they together—what has brought them to this moment? What happens afterwards? Bring that moment to life and we have drama.
THE HUMAN CONTEXT: Relationships and Role Relationships are central to all dramatic action: relationships between people; the relationship between people and ideas; the relationship between people and the environment.
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Seven Elements of Drama
DRAMATIC TENSION FOCUS LANGUAGE MOVEMENT PLACE and SPACE RELATIONSHIPS and ROLE TIME
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