Remember to use Cornell Style with a summary
 Need to express/communicate
emotions/feelings/ideas
 Need for social change
 Universal themes (good/evil)
 Show common ideas/emotions
 Oral tradition
 Narrative
 Storytelling
 Folktales
 Religious rituals/ceremonies
 Entertainment
 Adventure movies (Indiana Jones)
 Sci-Fi (Star Wars)
 Action (Batman)
 Etc.
 Express/communicate emotion/ideas/feelings
 When drama is performed on a stage in front of an
audience
 Parts that a playwright uses in the play
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Plot (the story)
Theme (meaning of the story)
Characters
Suspense
Language (dialect, slang, etc.)
Monologue (soliloquy)
Dialogue
Stage Directions
 5 main parts of plot:
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Exposition
Rising action
Climax
Falling action
Conclusion
 Setting – time and place
 Plays are divided into Acts which are further divided into
Scenes
 Very important in modern theater, less so in the past
 Scenery:
 Suggest a location, time period, or physical setting
(castle, doctors office, school, etc.)
 Flats – painted canvas covered frames
 Flats can also be curtains, wood, cardboard, Styrofoam,
paper mache, etc.
 Sound
 Sound effects or mood music
 Microphones if needed
 Lighting
 Creates effects that signify mood, time, and
place
 Colors are often used to give a sense of the
time of day
 Used to work with colors of costumes
 Make-up:
 Lighting can “wash out” actors faces, so make-
up is used to accentuate features
 Used to help create character
 Allows for creativity (fake noses, fake blood,
etc.)
 Includes fake hair and hair styles
 Costumes:
 Create feel for time, setting, and place
 Need to consider colors that will work well
with the lighting used
 Props:
 Set props – stationary items on the stage (sofas, chairs,
tables)
 Hand props – carried by the actors to enhance their
character (swords, handbags, feather dusters)
 Props are used to help build a sense of time, place,
socio-economic situations
 Acting, verbal and nonverbal, reflects a character’s motivation:
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Wants
Obstacles
Strategies
Age
Wealth
Where from
Emotions
Education
 Basically how everything from a character’s past, present, and future effects
their actions
 Empathy
 Main goal of actor
 To indentify w/ an actor
 Share feelings
 Speaking
 Breath control
 Volume/Projection
 Pronunciation
 Vocal expression:
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Diction (correct words/pronunciation)
Rate
Articulation (dialect)
Volume
 Nonverbal expression:
 Facial expressions
 Body alignment
 Gestures and basic movement
 Proscenium Stage – raised picture-frame stage (box
stage)
 Arena Stage – audience sits on all sides – often lower
than the audience
 Thrust Stage – extends into the seating area of the
audience – seating on three sides
 Cast – group of actors who perform in the play
 Crew – group of designers and technical staff working
behind the scenes
 Coordinates all important aspects of a production
 Audition and cast characters
 Meet with designers
 Deal with scheduling
 Creates the material to be performed
 Should be clear about the theme (meaning) they want to
convey
 The central “must have” in any production
 Royalty – money paid to a playwright or publisher for the
rights to perform a play
 Also referred to as a dramatist
 The person who backs a play by paying:
 Bills
 Salaries
 Royalties