Main trends in british english drama

Obiective:

• Aprofundarea cunostiintelor teoretice si a terminologiei de specialitate privind interpretarea modelelor si structurilor dramatice;

• Studierea principalelor directii ale dramaturgiei britanice moderne;

• Rafinarea deprinderilor de analiză si evaluare a textelor dramatice şi a elementelor de spectacol.

Tipuri si modalitati de activitate didactica:

• prelegerea,

• conversaţia euristică,

• explicaţia,

• dezbaterea,

• studiul de caz,

• problematizarea,

• metode de lucru în grup, individual şi frontal,

• metode de dezvoltare a gândirii critice,

• portofoliul,

• studiul bibliografiei.

CHAPTER 1 – ELEMENTS OF DRAMATIC DISCOURSE

1.1. Drama / Theatre

Drama: a play written in prose or verse that tells a story through dialogue and actions performed by actors impersonating the characters of the story.

Dramatic illusion: the illusion of reality created by drama and accepted by the audience for the duration of the play.

Theatre:

a) the building in which a play is performed:

• arena stage: a stage surrounded on all sides by the audience; actors make exists and entrances through the aisles.

• thrust stage: a stage extending beyond the proscenium arch, usually surrounded on three sides by the audience.

• proscenium stage: a stage having an arched structure at the front from which a curtain often hangs. The arch frames the action onstage and separates the audience from the action.

b) drama as an art form, including the written text and the concrete performance.

1.2. Dramatic Genres:

• TRAGEDY: serious drama in which a protagonist, traditionally of noble position, suffers a series of unhappy events culminating in a catastrophe such as death or spiritual breakdown.

• COMEDY: a type of drama intended to interest and amuse rather than to concern the audience deeply. Although characters experience various discomfitures, the audience feels confident that they will overcome their ill-fortune and find happiness in the end.

• TRAGICOMEDY: play that combines elements of tragedy and comedy. Tragedies also include a serious plot in which the expected tragic catastrophe is replaced by a happy ending.

• MELODRAMA: a suspenseful play filled with situations that appeal excessively to the audience’s emotions. Justice triumphs in a happy ending: the good characters (completely virtuous) are rewarded and the bad characters (thoroughly villainous) are punished.

1.3. Elements of drama:

• PLOT: the events of a play or narrative. The sequence and relative importance a dramatist assigns to these events.

• CHARACTER: any person appearing in a drama or narrative.

• SETTING: the time and place in which the action occurs; the backdrop and set onstage that suggest to the audience the surrounding in which a play’s action takes place.

• DIALOGUE: spoken interchange or conversation between two or more characters.

Universitatea “Dunarea de Jos” din Galati

Facultatea de Litere

I.D.D.