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What Is a Play?

CHAPTER TWO

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What is a Play?• A play is the basic unit of theatre-it is

essentiall “what happens” in theatre– It is not a thing– It is an event

• The event of the play is action surrounding a conflict: drama frames and focuses action around a conflict that lends it meaning and significance

• Conflict is a struggle between two opposing forces• Conflicts are usually four basic types: man vs man,

man vs nature, man vs society, man vs self• Some also classify certain conflicts as man vs gods or

fate

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What is a Play?

– The word drama derives from the Greek dran: “something done”

– Drama is “what is done” in the theatre– It also refer to the literature of theatre

• Written plays have existed for 2500 years• Theatre is the place, the people & the plays in

performance, the occupation• Drama is the literature, the written play• Unlike other forms of literature, it is not fully realized

or complete in written form but achieves full power only in performance.

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Understanding Plays

• Plays can be classified by duration– “full – length play” lasts 2 to 3 hours and the

“well-made play” as defined by Henrik Ibsen was nearly always a three act play

– Plays were performed between lunch and dinner or dinner and bedtime and that was the time available

– Shakespeare said the 3 hours betwixt supper and bed time in Midsummer and “two hours traffic of our stage” in Romeo and Juliet

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Duration of Plays

• Average running time of Broadway “straight plays” is 2 hours and 1 minute

• Average running time of Broadway musicals is 2 hours and 26 minutes

• But one-act plays can be an hour or even just ten minutes long and are sometimes combined to make a full evening’s entertainment.

• Samuel Beckett’s Breath can be performed in 1 minute.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io_scJbhCOY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xifO2NIXVQ

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Duration of Plays

• Plays can be much longer than 2-3 hours• Tom Stoppards Coast of Utopia

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• Peter Brook’s Mahabharata

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• Tony Kushner’s Angels in America

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• Robert Wilson’s Ka Mountain ran over 168 continuous hours!

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Understanding Plays

• Plays can be classified in another way that most critics consider more relevant than duration

– According to genre (derived from the Old French word meaning “kind”)• What type of play is it?

-They can also be analyzed according to structure (will describe this later)

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Play Genres

• We classify plays according to genre– A play’s genre is its type– Discerning a play’s genre is subjective

• Scholars and critics can still disagree

• Two major genres of plays– Comedies– Tragedies

• Seemingly infinite other genres– Melodramas, histories, musicals, etc.

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Aristotle

• The first major genre classification was by Aristotle– Ancient Greek philosopher (384-322 B.C.)– In Poetics (335 B.C.) divided plays into

comedies and tragedies• Most influential work of theatre criticism in Western

history• Principles remain core building blocks in writing for

theatre and film

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Tragedy

• A profoundly serious play

• In the Poetics Aristotle used Oedipus Rex (The King) as his primary example

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According to Aristotle, tragedy tells a story that:

– centers on a person of high rank or stature, protagonist• Who possesses a tragic flaw (hamartia)-that

leads to reversal and self-recognition• Who undergoes a decline or change in

fortune• Results in suffering & death or demise• Elicits pity and terror from the audience• The audience then purges these emotions

(catharis; through empathy/identification with the protagonist)

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Tragedy

• Struggle, self-recognition and catharsis central to tragic drama .Oedipus struggles against his flaw; pride (hubris) which prevents him from seeing his errors and results in him stabbing his own eyes.

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Tragedy

• Hamartia—mistake or error in judgement; personality defect or “tragic flaw”

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Tragedy

• Protagonist (Greek: carrier of the action)

• Antagonist (opposer of the action)

• Ultimately, it is their tragedy and we experience relief at conclusion

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Modern Tragedy?• Arthur Miller’s Death of a

Salesman

• Tried to establish that tragedy can exist with protagonist of “low rank”

• Audience must decide; classification is opinion, not science

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Comedy

• Comedy, on the other hand– Humorously addresses topical and timely

situations; about ordinary life and people and thus usually lose popularity sooner (less universal

– Full stage chases, mistaken identities, lovers hiding in closets and under tables, sexual puns, switched potions, clever disquises (often transgender), misheard instructions and physical buffoonery

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Classic or Timeless Comedy

–Depends on acute human observation• Great comedies can transcend their

timeliness and may have scenes as tragic as many classical tragedies

• Shakespeare, Moliere, Aristophanes, etc

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History Play• Originated with Shakespeare who wrote

plays based on the lives of English Royalty (often to honor them and gain their patronage)

• Shaw’s Saint Joan, Brecht’s Galileo, Alan Bennett’s Madness of King George

• Led to the “documentary drama” of modern film & theatre

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History Play Docudrama• Come Hell and Highwater (about

Hurricane Katrina)• Plays about September 11th that

use court transcripts, oral histories and witness accounts, transcribed interviews, etc

• The Laramie Project (final project option)

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Tragicomedy• Attempt to blend two original

genres

• Treatment alternates from serious to humorous

• Hero lives at the end

• Tragedy that ends happily

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Melodrama• Popular in Victorian times (19th century)

• Spectacular staging, flamboyant dialogue, highly suspenseful, contrived plotting (twins, long lost orphans, etc)

• Simple confrontation between good & evil

• Always ends happily (what is “deserved”)

• Today—almost always staged as parodies and played for laughs

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Play Structure

• How the action of a play is structured is known as its dramaturgy

• Two primary ways to analyze dramaturgy:– The “vertical” axis

• What are the components of the play?

– The “horizontal” axis• What is the temporal experience of the play?

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The Vertical Axis

• What are the components of a play?

• Aristotle broke down dramaturgy to six parts (from most to least important):– Plot, character, theme, diction, music,

spectacle

• We can add a new component:– Convention

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The Seven Components• Plot

– The structure of actions• Character

– The depth and quality of people • Theme

– Abstract intellectual content• Diction

– The character of the text• Music

– Orchestration of sonic palette (noise and music)• Spectacle

– The visual aspects of the stage• Convention

– The agreement of “rules” between audience and performers

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The Horizontal Axis

• Plays occur over time– Plays exist as a shared experience

• The time of a play is divided into three groupings:– Preplay– Play– Postplay

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The Preplay

• The preplay transitions into the world of the play.– It attracts the audience to the theatre.

• Historically: processions, flags, speeches• Today: posters, billboards, advertisements

– It shifts focus to the play• Audience members are seated• The audience becomes a community• The preshow draws them in

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The Play

• The event of the play is sequenced into four features:– Exposition

• Gives audience information and structure

– Conflict• Establishes character decisions and personality

– Climax• The extreme point of conflict

– Denouement• End of conflicts and possible resolution

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The Postplay

• The ending of the agreement between audience and performers

• A traditional element is the curtain call– The actors bow to applause– A recognition of shared experience

• The audience continues the postplay outside the theatre– They engage in discussions – Their behavior is affected– This practice is known as dramatic criticism.