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.

Elements of drama assignment

Please watch the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-11YWAUdbg

Identify as many elements of drama as possible.
Make a note of them in your notebook.

GRADED ASSIGNMENTS FOR EASTER TERM

LANGUAGE

• Clauses (from the Grammar Plus) *collected and marked already
• Descriptive essay (Describe your aunt from New York) *collected and marked already
• Story/Setting (English for All 3, pg. 68, ex. 2.1)
• Comprehension (English for All 3, pg. 137, #1-10)

LITERATURE

• Essay ("Little Boy Crying" and "My Parents") *posted earlier on the blog
• Matching phrases and comprehension ("Once Upon a Time")
• Comprehension questions ("My Parents")*posted earlier on the blog
• Comprehension questions ("The Woman Speaks to the Man...")

CLAUSES

A.  Clauses – Some sentences can be broken up into smaller sentences. These simple sentences are called clauses.

B.  An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone as a sentence. It has both a subject and a verb and forms a complete thought.

C.    A dependent clause contains a subject and a verb, but no complete thought (fragment). A dependent clause may be introduced by:

                      i.       Subordinating conjunctions eg. after, if, because and although (ADVERB CLAUSE)     

                    ii.       Relative pronouns. The clause starts with a pronoun such as who, whom, that, or which or an adverb such as when, where and why. (ADJECTIVE CLAUSE)  

                  iii.       Relative pronoun, subordinating conjunctions, or adverbs (NOUN CLAUSE)             

D.    All types of complete sentences: simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex, require at least one independent clause:

           i.     Simple sentence has one independent clause: 'Dave sleeps.'

         ii.     Compound sentence has two independent clauses joined by:

a.       a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) 'Dave sleeps, and Sam reads.

b.      a conjunctive adverb (e.g. however, therefore) Sam reads novels; however, Dave reads poetry.

c.       a semicolon alone. Dave reads poetry; his friend reads novels.

       iii.     Complex sentence (one independent clause and at least one dependent clause): 'When Dave sleeps, Sam reads.'

       iv.     Compound-Complex sentence (at least two independent clauses and one dependent clause): 'When Dave sleeps, Sam reads because he has the house quiet.

vocabulary list

	Words	Synonyms	Antonyms
1	auxiliary	additional, back-up; reserve,	main, primary, principal
2	blithe	merry, cheerful, happy, felicity	melancholy, sad
3	callow	immature, childish, naive	mature, experienced
4	candid	forthright, plainspoken, unbiased	insincere, evasive, artful
5	corpulent	obese, fat, fleshy	slim, scrawny, gaunt
6	cubicle	enclosure, hole-in-the-wall	vast hall, auditorium
7	doughty	Brave, courageous, valiant	timid, cowardly
8	drudgery	toil, labour, grind	play, frolic, amusement,
9	escalate	climb, raise, ascend, mount	decrease, lessen, descend,
10	expedient	contrivance, device; serviceable	inconvenient, untimely,
11	feign	fake, shame, affect, simulate	sincere, authentic
12	flair	aptitude, bent, knack, gift, style,	inability, incapacity
13	grievous	painful, heartrending, onerous,	joyful, uplifting, cheery,
14	heterogeneous	miscellaneous, mixed, variegated	uniform, homogeneous,
15	horde	crowd, mass, multitude, host,	few, handful
16	impel	urge, push, spur, propel, incite	discourage, check, restrain,
17	incredulous	dubious, mistrustful, doubting	believing, trustful, gullible
18	inscribe	imprint, enrol, enlist	erase, rub out, delete,
19	inveigle	trick, deceive, persuade	dissuade, discourage, talk out of
20	monologue	soliloquy, recitation	dialogue, conversation, colloquy
21	mundane	ordinary, commonplace, dull	extraordinary, imaginative
22	rasping	scratchy, scraping, abrasive,	smooth, satiny, silky,
23	repugnant	hateful, odious, revolting, repulsive	pleasing, attractive, tempting
24	scuttle	abandon, discard, scrap, ditch,	keep afloat, salvage, rescue,
25	stealthy	secretive, sly, sneaky	open, upfront
26	stringent	severe, strict, stern, rigorous	peaceful, lenient, flexible
27	subjugate	conquer, defeat, overcome	liberate, release, free
28	taciturn	silent, reserved, quiet	loud, noisy, vulgar
29	truculent	savage, fierce, hostile	Calm, peaceful, tranquil
30	vindicate	justify, maintain, claim	disprove, contradict, refute