The Purpose of Dramatic arts tell stories on stage through action. The dramatic arts are one type of performing art, which also includes acting, pantomime, and puppetry. Each performing art has distinct attributes that determine how it tells a story. Because Music is often included as a performing art. The audience is an important feature for the performing arts: all performances are presented in front of an audience. Another important feature is that, unlike film and television, dramatic arts are performed live. Typically, dramatic arts are performed in a building called a theatre that has a stage space for the performance and seats for the audience, called the house or auditorium. The word theatre derives from the ancient Greek name for this space, theatron, which means “seeing place.” The most common dramatic art form is theatre or drama. In theatre, actors play characters and act out the story for an audience. This is a primary distinction between dramatic arts and performing arts. In dramatic arts, the story is represented on stage.
Ancient Greece is believed to be the origin of Western dramatic arts. Thespis is said to be the first actor. Before Thespis, narratives were chanted by a chorus. Thespis stepped out of the chorus and represented a character. Beginning in 534 BCE, the Ancient Greeks held annual drama competitions. Many well-known classical playwrights competed at these competitions, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. These playwrights are the authors of the only classical Greek plays that are still around. Beyond famous plays like Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex (c. 430-425), each playwright made major contributions to the dramatic form. For instance, Aeschylus added a second actor, which turned drama from a monologue into a dialogue between two characters. The Ancient Greeks performed in masks made of linen or cork.
After the Ancient Greeks, theatre flourished in Rome. It was a popular form of entertainment, along with gladiator fights, chariot races, and animal fights. Two well-known playwrights from this period are Terence and Plautus who went on to directly inspire playwrights for over a thousand years. The Catholic church grew concerned about theatre, primarily because theatre was associated with paganism and often mocked Christianity in its comedies. By the time Rome was captured in the 5th century CE, theatre and the dramatic arts had fallen out of favor.
Types of Drama
In The Poetics (c. 335-323 BCE), the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) identified six elements of drama that are still applicable today. The six elements are:
- Plot
- Character
- Theme
- Language
- Music
- Spectacle
Plot is the action of a narrative. The plot is a sequence of events that propel the story forward. In his book Backward and Forward, David Ball argues that plot is like a series of dominos, in which one domino falling over will trigger the next event, which will then trigger the subsequent event in a story. Plots begin with an inciting incident; an event that disrupts the status quo of the world of the play. Then the action rises toward a climax, the most heightened moment of the plot. The climax is typically the moment of change for the characters. This is followed by falling action, moving the plot to a new status quo.
Character is the person depicted in the drama and acted out by a performer. The main character is known as the protagonist. This role drives the action of the play. Though many might imagine the antagonist to be the villain, it’s actually a character who competes with the protagonist. Often, the protagonist and antagonist share a common objective, which places them in conflict with one another.
Theme is the central thought of the play. Some plays may argue a principle, raise a question, or try to teach the audience a specific lesson. In the dramatic arts, there is often more than one theme in a play, but the main theme is the central message the playwright wants the audience to keep with them.
Language is often how the theme is conveyed. In studying language, one might consider the word usages, metaphors, and other stylistic choices in the dialogue. In theatre, language is also used to differentiate characters. In A Street Car Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams, the characters of Stanley and Blanche come from different backgrounds. This is apparent in how each character speaks from their use of slang, dialects, and even their accents.
Aristotle viewed music and spectacle as the least important features of a drama. Music refers to the use of song in a performance and spectacle refers to the visual effects. Spectacle can also include the setting, which refers to where the place takes place and the visual elements that communicate it. While Aristotle believed these elements were superfluous to a good drama, they have gained prominence as storytelling techniques in the 19th and 20th centuries in melodramas and musical theatre.
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