Elements of drama

Playwright – The person who writes the play. (Comes from an old English idiom in which              “wright” meant “maker of”

·               The conflict underlies every play. It is the key issue around which the plot/ storyline is developed using specific persons (characters), during a clear time frame (time) and it must take place somewhere (setting)

·               Act – A major division in a play. In an act there is a major development that usually begins and moves to a climax, which leads to other things happening in other acts.

·               There are also one act plays in which everything occurs in that one act. (similar to short story vs. novel)

·               Scene- This is generally a subdivision of an act. Whenever people go on stage and change the setting, the scene has been changed. Therefore scene refers to a specific development that takes place at a specific point in time.

·               Dialogue- This refers to the conversation between two or more characters in a play

·               Monologue – A monologue occurs when one actor is on stage thinking aloud

         Introduce students to the term soliloquy.

·               A Soliloquy help to thicken the plot, it leads the audience into the mind of the character and allows the audience to be able to “read into” the actor/ actress’ motivations for his / her actions.

·               Stage directions -  These are the notes put into the script by the playwright to tell the actor or director what to do.

·               Script – This refers to the text of the play, ie The book the actor reads to study his / her lines

·               Lines – These are the words that the writer has written for the actor and actresses to speak.

·               Props – short for stage properties, Items that are used by actors on stage.