Week 6 and 8: Drama

- produced by individuals 

- reception by yourself

- not bound to time or space

--> monomedial 

- collective 

- group dynamic

- specific place

--> multimedial 

- dialogues, monologues between characters

--> what you hear on stage

- stage directions or title & list of roles

--> CAPITAL or italicisation for layout or to understand characters; music 

- important information is given in non-verbal signs by actors/directors 

- lack of narrative information --> only interactions of characters

audience or characters have different amounts of information 

- audience aware of consequences of actions 

- information must be conveyed through characters utterances 

convresation between two or more characters

- option 1: character talks to audience/himself during conversation 

- option 2: character makes comment while other character that is adressed is on the stage 

- two characters exchange short comments in quick succession 

- if this exchange is witty or consists of banter it is reffered to as repartee

- talks mind off

- others on stage

- adress to audience on/off stage

- alone on stage

- talks about memories, thoughts, plans

cast of roles; ranked 

- information given in secondary text 

- telling names 

- explicit: role says directly

- implicit: acoustic signs (voice), body language, facial expression 

- relation between dramatis personae 

- every character has position within graphic presentation 

- contrasts (gender)

- during individual scenes 

- time, affinity with other characters on stage 

- point of attack: performance time vs. fictional time

• ab ovo --> from very beginning, very detailed exposition 
• in medias res --> story is already going
• in ultimas res --> story is over, many questions open especially now 

- acoustic & visual signs to identify fictional time 

- stage set: not moveable 

- stage props: "requisiten"

- some more realist, naturalist or symbolic during different periods of time 

- 25.000 people; only by day; only free men 

- hard to see from back seats --> exaggerated masks etc. 

- open air

- audience surrounding "stage"

- biblic scenes --> each wagon different scene

- open-air, daylight

- no longer attached to church --> built for entertainment 

- playwrights often part of company --> less directions 

- apron stage (3-sided); ground + balkony 

- proscenium stage --> audience in the dark, seperated 

- artificial light used (indoors) 

- experimental theatre through different techniques 

- acts --> scenes

- story = chronological sequence of events vs. plot (casual connection between events)

- a play can contain several plot-lines 

- 3 unities (action, place, time) 

- thightly-knit plot; resolution at the end 

- underlying assumption: there is order in the world which can me restored if lost 

--> traditional drama

- no unity

- scenes loosely connected 

- no closure or resolution 

- no order in life 

--> modern drama

- noble protagonist's downfall because of grave error in judgement (hamartia)

- recognition in the end (anagnorisis)

- three unities --> mimesis --> identification with protagonist --> pity and fear --> catharsis (release from tenseion) 

famous tragedies: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Thomas Otway, The Orphan 

- lower-class characters --> stock characters (the wit, the dupe)

- mistaken identity, battle of sexes

- poetic justice: villains punished and happy ending 

- subgenre: comedy of manners, roomcomedy, tragicomedy 

- open form

- anti-illusionist elements (step out of roles, epic narrator), allienation effect (distance from events),

- no poetic justice

- aim is to make audience reflect rationally on events

examples: Brecht

- existential philosophy after WW2 --> pessimistiv exploration of society

- black humor, emphasis on hopelesness

- little dramatic action, bare stage, only few symbolic props 

- minimalistic language (puns, repititions, non-sequiturs)