1. The Structure of Drama Readings:
The Stage and the School – Chapter 5, p
Excerpt from Aristotle’s “Poetics”

2. The play is the central element of the art of theatre
It is brought to life by the actors
Expressed through media of color, light, and movement against a background of the stage and scenery
Unified by the creative vision of the director

3. Play’s 4 narrative essentials:
1. Exposition
2. Plot
3. Characters
4. Theme
The way a playwright presents these four narrative essential is the structure of the play

4. Traditional Drama = Aristotle’s 6 Elements of Drama
Plot
Character & Characterization
Thought
Diction
Music/Song
Spectacle

5. Aristotle maintained that the action must have unity:
Must reach a plausible conclusion
Protagonist should be “average or better” persons who experience happiness or misery as a result of their reactions to the situations of the plot
Complete in itself
Has beginning, middle, and end
Events must occur in logical order

6. ARISTOTLE SAID…..
The Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) identified the basic principles of playwriting in his work Poetics. These principles were spectacle, or the visible part of a play; sound, or the audible part of a play; diction, or the language used in a play; character, or the person or people in a play; reasoning, or the way speech is used to present all aspects of a play, including the production of emotions; and plot, or the action and events of a play.

7. The exposition shows the literary setting for an audience, often subtly answering the why, where, when, and who of the play.
The exposition ultimately sets the mood, or emotional feeling, of the play, though mood may change throughout the play.
The plot is what happens during the play. It generally features the development and resolution of a major conflict.
The characters are the people in the play. When a character speaks, it is called dialogue. Most plays have traditional characters, such as the protagonist, or main character, and the antagonist, or the protagonist's opposition. The theme is the main idea of the play. It can be directly stated or, as is more common, left up to the audience to discover, interpret, and explore. A moral, on the other hand, is a lesson or principle contained within a play or taught by a play. Many plays have no particular moral, but every play has one or more than one theme.
Many of Aristotle's basic principles are found in today's traditional four-part dramatic structure: exposition, plot, characters, and than one theme.

8. Additional Question for Knowledge: Which German playwright and director was well known for his rejection of Aristotle's view of theater, producing instead a form of theater that audiences would think about instead of feel a part of?

9. Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht. Brecht worked in and influenced theater from the early 1920's until his death in He vehemently opposed Aristotle's assertions that characters must be real, believable "people"; that actors must "get inside" of their characters emotionally; and that the audience must be made to believe that a play's action is happening here and now. Brecht expounded his ideas in a form of theater called "epic theater," which focuses on the audience's detachment from the characters and the action of a play. For more on epic theater, see page 290 of The Stage and the School.

10. Narrative Essentials

11. Exposition
The information put before an audience that gives the where, when, why, and who facts of a play
Establishes the atmosphere and the mood of the play
Atmosphere: environment of the play, created by staging and lights
Mood: emotional feeling of a play
Preliminary situation/antecedent action: most important part; clearly defined explanation of events that have occurred in the lives of the leading characters before the action of the play begins

12. Plot Stages in Plot Structure Preliminary situation Initial incident
Series of related events that take place before the audience
Protagonist: the main character in a play
Antagonist: the person or force opposing the protagonist
Denouement: French for “untying the knot” an element of plot that refers to the untangling and resolution of complications
Stages in Plot Structure
Preliminary situation
Initial incident
Rising action
Climax
Falling action/Denouement
Conclusion

14. Characters Very little is as interesting as people
Characters in plays must be vivid and varied in personality
Dominant traits made evident through their speeches and actions
Dialogue: lines of the play
Soliloquies: speeches in which the actors talk alone—think aloud—about themselves and their motives or about other people and situations

15. Theme
Basic idea of a play, which the author dramatizes through the conflicts of the characters
Moral: lesson or principle contained within a play or taught by a play