曹馨予

The typical starting point The most common residue A literary work A puzzling blueprint

 No rules,some observations may bring new experience  Do not read all written in the same way (we should adjust our minds to the dramatic form)  Basic skill ： imaginatively & perceptively  Conveys intentions through dialogue  Must be aware of the implications  Must be alert to the nuances of interactions among characters  Practice ！

action → what characters do & why they do Francis Fergusson Purpose ： awareness of some desire or goal Passion ： strength of desire, suffering or emotional turmoil Perception ： understanding comes from the struggle An effective dramatic action should… ※ be complete and self-contained ※ be deliberately shaped → to reveal its purpose and to evoke the audience responses ※ have variety, engage and maintains interest ※ be internally consistent

Pinpoint the source of unity Less often use a character as the source of unity, many twentieth-century use a central theme or set of ideas. ※ Play usually has one major source of unity, it also uses secondary source, because every script involves a sequence of incidents, uses characters, and implies a theme or set of idea. Cause-to-effect (most common): In the opening scenes,the playwright sets up the necessary condition out of which later events develop. ※ Not use this method, the pattern may be loose

 The Beginning give essential information and make the audience want to stay and see more. Point of attack(early, late or middle point )  The Middle is any new element (ex ： discoveries or disasters) that changes the direction of the action  The End the resolution or denouement (to balance and satisfies audience expectations) Subplots (contrast to or commentary on the main plot )

Delineates one or Differentiates one from others  Physical or biological Sometimes all of this information does not supply from a dramatist but actors.  Societal all of the factors that place a character in a particular social environment.  Psychological the inner working of mind  Moral reveals what characters are willing to do get what they want, especially when they faced a difficult choice. ※ developed most fully in serious plays The most satisfactory dramatic characters are usually easily recognizable types with some unusual or complex qualities. (not completely good or bad)

Includes the themes, arguments,and overall meaning of action, present in all plays. Meaning in drama is usually implied rather than state directly. The devices to project ideas ： Chorus, soliloquies, aside The tools to project ideas ： Allegory, symbol

 Diction language : The playwright’s primary means of expression  Music Sound of the actor’s voices, Incidental songs, Background music. Functions: establish mood, characterize, suggest ideas, compress characterization or exposition, lend variety, be pleasurable in itself  Spectacle all the visual elements, lighting, setting, costumes, and properties playwright does not have full control over them older plays contains almost no stage directions that became usual since 19th

 Tragedy → the oldest known of drama, presents serious action → raises significant issues about the nature of human existence, morality, or human relationship → the protagonist arouse our sympathy and admiration → few plays during the past century have been called tragedies  Comedy → audience view the situation objectively. → not intensely → arouses emotions ranging between joy and scorn  Other forms → Tragicomedy ： a serious play that ends happily → Melodrama ： good triumphs over evil

Period/nation/movement/author ※ It is grounded in assumptions about what is truthful and valuable ※ style results from the manner in which a playwright manipulates the means of expression ※ style results from the manner in which the play is presented in the theatre