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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 15 hours
    Level: Intermediate

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • Do you want to get more out of drama? This unit is designed to develop the analytical skills you need for a more in-depth study of literary plays. You will learn about dialogue, stage directions, blank...
 

1 Approaching plays

  • 1 Approaching plays Resource
  • Most people's experience of plays will be through seeing them on stage, or on television or video. Or, thinking of drama in a more general sense, we might be avid watchers of TV soaps or films. But, as...
 

2 Dialogue

 

3 Stage directions

 

4 Blank verse

  • 4 Blank verse Resource
  • The speech from Henry V offers a way of transferring skills you have acquired if you have studied poetry. As with any form of poetry, although there is no rhyme, the language is highly patterned, and it...
 

5 Play structure

  • 5 Play structure Resource
  • Just like a novel or a poem, a play will have some sort of structure. The traditional plot of a play will consist of an exposition, action leading to a climax, and a denouement or resolution. A certain...
 

6 From text to performance

  • 6.1 Performance and production Resource
  • The idea that drama is a performed art should, by now, be one with which you feel familiar. What should also be clear from each of the examples discussed so far is that there is a range of factors to...
  • 6.2 Performance and reception Resource
  • Our discussion of the performance possibilities for Beckett's play begins to reveal the author as someone who went to great lengths to articulate a particular artistic vision. The matter of how his plays...
  • 6.3 Performance spaces Resource
  • Dramatic texts intended for performance are, in an important sense, a ‘living’ art form. Plays are conceived with a particular space in mind, and to varying degrees the relationship between the text and...
 

7 Dramatic conventions

  • 7.1 Soliloquy Resource
  • A soliloquy is a speech, usually quite lengthy, delivered by a character who is alone onstage. It is a convention of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in particular, apparently giving direct access...
  • 7.2 Asides Resource
  • An aside is a shorter speech, maybe only a few words, spoken sotto voce to the audience. It is presumed that the other characters on stage cannot hear what is being said, unless the aside is between two...
  • 7.3 Masks and disguises Resource
  • Masks were used in classical Greek theatre to exaggerate expressions so that they could be seen in the large open-air amphitheatres. Most of us are familiar with the famous stereotypes for tragedy and...
  • 7.4 Doubling Resource
  • The cast list for the first performance of Top Girls at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 1982 indicates that six of the actors played two or more roles each; only one actor had a single role, that of...
 

Glossary

 

References and Acknowledgements

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