Introduction to Drama Drama or theatre has one aim, namely to define and govern an art form whose essence is to be found in public performances of written texts. (p 780)

Playwright Dramatists are also called playwrights. A wright is a maker, as old family names Cartwright or Boatwright attest. A play is made, rather than written. … Money must be raised by a producer, a director must be chosen, a cast and a crew found, a set designed and built, and many hours of rehearsal… (p )

Aristotle’s Six Elements of a Tragedy 1.Plot 2.Characterization 3.Theme 4.Diction 5.Melody 6.spectacle

Plot 1. Aristotle’s Definition: “the combination of incidents, or things done in the story” (784) Exposition (ref. 795 setting): 解說 provides the audience with essential information— who, what, when, where (785)

Plot 2. Complication ( 錯綜複雜的糾葛 ): can be both external and internal, such as plague, a threatened invasion, a conclusion of a war, or a single character’s weakness in his personality….which begins the rising action of the play, during which the audience’s tension and expectations become tightly intertwined …

Plot 3. Often the complication is heightened by conflict between two characters whom events have forced into collision with each other ….usually introduces a problem that the characters cannot avoid. The rising action usually contains several moments of crisis

Plot 4. The central moment of crisis in the play is the climax, or the moment of greatest tension, which initiates the falling action of the plot. In the best plots everything in the earlier parts of the play has pointed to this scene (climax)—a dual, a suicide, a murder—and the play’s highest pitch of emotion.

subplot A less important story involving minor characters which may mirror the main plot of the play. (787) Foreshadowing Deus ex machina ending Suspense; dramatic irony

Characterization From conflict of a play, we derive two words commonly used to denote the chief characters in a play: protagonist, literally “the first speaker,” and antagonist, one who speaks against him. (787)

Theme The central idea or ideas that a play discusses (drama becomes a serious forum for the discussion of ideas) Broadway theatres featured social drama, in which radical social and political programs were openly propagandized. (791)

Spectacle In ancient Greece, it means costumes, a few props, and effects carried out by the use of the mechance. In Shakespeare’s day: more elaborate effects, we call “staging” By Ibsen’s day, realistic box sets were designed to resemble, with an invisible “fourth wall”

Conclusion Every play implies a larger sense of setting (particular locale), a sense of history that is called the “enveloping action” (795) It also provides a “time capsule” whose contents tell us how people lived and what they most valued during the period when the play is written.

Time Flies 1. Protagonist: two mayflies Horace and May Antagonist: time, fate (fact of mayflies’ life), frog, mouthpiece for the mayflies’ short life: Sir David Attenborough Exposition (setting): evening. A pond. The Chirr of tree toads, and the buzz of a huge swarm of insects. … a loud cuckoo sound

Time Flies 2. A Number of Conflicts: 1. Fate: “Every species here is engaged in a constant, desperate battle for survival. Feeding—meeting—mating—breeding— dying….” (p 1231) 2. Fate: David Attenborough: The mayfly has a life span of only one day. (p 1234)

Conflict “We’re going to die…We’re going to die! Mayday, mayday! We’re going to die! (p 1234) 4. Horace: What time is it? What time is it? May: I don’t wear a watch. I’m a lowly mayfly! (p 1234) 5. “on come on! That wasn’t a whole hour!” “Cuckoo!” (p 1235)

Climax Horace: [calling to the frog] We’re right down here! Come and get us! May: Breeding. Dying. Breeding. Dying. So this is the whole purpose of mayflies? To make more mayflies?... I’ve lost a bit of my appetite, all right?? (1236)

Essay Q As R.S. Gwynn said in the conclusion of “Introduction to Drama,” “Every play implies a larger sense of setting, a sense of history that is called the “enveloping action.” In your opinion, what can be the larger setting for May and Horace in “Time Flies”?