Drama
By:ll
drama
lOrigins of Drama
lThe word drama comes from the Greek verb dran, which means “to do.”lThe earliest known plays . . .
lwere written around the fifth century B.C.
lproduced for festivals to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility
Modern Drama
•may be tragedy, comedy, or a mixture of the two
•usually is about ordinary people
•usually focuses on personal issues
Performance of a Play
Theater artists includeActors
Directors Lighting technicians Stage crew
The characters’ speech may take any of the following forms.
Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage
Monologue: long speech given by one character to others
Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or to the audience
Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character; the other characters onstage do not hear an aside