1. Lesson 3 Common Core Performance Coach
Drama
Lesson 3
Common Core Performance Coach

2. Getting the Idea A drama is a story written to be performed by actors.
Movies, television shows, and plays are dramas.
Like other types of fiction, dramas have a setting, characters, plot, and theme.
In a drama, most of the story is told through the characters’ words.

3. Elements of Drama Elements of Drama Definition act
the main section of a drama
scene
a smaller section of an act
setting
where and when the action takes place
cast of characters
the people in a drama
dialogue
the words the characters speak
stage directions
actions to be performed by the actors

4. Acts and Scenes A drama is divided into sections called acts.
A scene is a smaller part of an act.
Each new act or scene shows a change in the setting, plot, or characters.

5. Setting
In most fiction stories, authors include many details about the setting.
In a drama, setting is revealed with short descriptions at the beginning of the play and the beginning of each scene.
Sometimes, the actors’ costumes or props give clues about the setting.

6. Setting
Read the following description of setting and underline words that show where and when the drama takes place.
A summer evening in present-day Philadelphia. A teenage girl stands on the stoop of a row house. She is looking up and down the street.

7. Characters The cast of characters appears at the beginning of a drama.
It lists all the characters in the play.
The characters may be listed in the order in which they appear in the play, or they may be listed in the order of importance.
Sometimes, there is a brief description after a character’s name.

8. Dialogue and Stage Directions
The words the characters speak are dialogue.
In stories, dialogue appears within quotation marks.
In dramas, dialogue does not have quotation marks and comes directly after a character’s name.
Also, authors of dramas do not describe how characters think and feel. Instead, the audience must figure out how the characters think and feel through their words and actions.

9. Dialogue and Stage Directions
The stage directions tell characters how to speak their lines, where to go onstage, or how to move.
They also give information about sound, lighting, props, and costumes.
Stage directions appear in italics inside parentheses.

10. Dialogue and Stage Directions
Look at this part of the play. Which words do the characters speak? What do you learn about the characters from the dialogue and the stage directions?
(Bruno enters, bouncing a basketball.)
NORA: (sternly) Bruno, you’re an hour late. You’re trying my patience!
BRUNO: (shrugs) I’m sorry. I had practice. (smiles) You know, Nora, you sound just like Mom.
NORA: (laughs) I can’t help it. I’m responsible until Mom gets home. I was worried about you.

11. Theme A drama, just like a story, has a theme.
The theme is the message the author wants to share, such as “Good deeds are rewarded.”
To find the theme, think about what the characters do and say, and how they respond to one another.

12. Figurative Language
Dialogue in drama, just as in real-life conversation, contains idioms.
An idiom is a word or phrase that has a different meaning from the meaning of the individual words.
To understand what an idiom means, pay attention to the words and sentences around it. Use context clues to figure out the meaning of old-fashioned words and phrases that might appear in plays that are set in the past or were written in the past.

13. Common Idioms Idiom (used in a sentence) Meaning
Sometimes you try my patience.
Frustrate me
It totally slipped my mind.
Became something I forgot
We’re going to be late. Shake a leg!
Hurry up!
Take an umbrella. It’s raining cats and dogs.
Raining heavily

14. Language Spotlight Affixes
An affix is a word part added to the beginning or end of a word to make a new word.
An affix added to the beginning of a word is a prefix.
An affix added to the end of a word is a suffix.

15. Language Spotlight Affixes
Circle the prefixes and underline the suffixes in the words below.
preheat unfairness review
amusement motherhood

16. The First Labor of Hercules
Coached Example
Read the play:
The First Labor of Hercules
Answer the questions that follow.

17. Read the sentence from the play and the question that follows.
KING EURYSTHEUS: (sneers) Yes, but I am told Hercules is a hero of amazing strength. Let’s see if our hero can live up to his reputation.
What does the idiom live up to mean?
To be as good as people say
To stay alive
To accept a challenge
To fight a lion

18. 2. Read the sentences from the play.
HERCULES: I have found the lion’s subterranean liar. The lion is within. When it comes out, I shall be ready.
Which two word parts can help you figure out the meaning of subterranean?
the prefix sub-, meaning “below”
the root word trans, meaning “across”
the suffix –ion, meaning “process”
the root terra, meaning “earth”
the prefix super-, meaning “above”

19. 3. What does the word subterranean mean?
Over the mountain
Below the earth
Under the water
A large cave

20. 4. Read the examples on the left
4. Read the examples on the left. Match each example with the word on the right that best tells what part of a play it is.
HERCULES, a mythical Greek hero
(A roar is heard offstage.)
Afternoon of the same day. Hercules is crouched outside a mountain cave.
SOLDIER: Halt! Who goes there?
Dialogue
Setting
Stage Directions
Cast of Characters