Elements of
Drama
• Author of a play
Playwright
• People who perform a play
Actors
• Sets of actors that perform a
play
Cast
• Text of a play, with dialogue and
directions for actors
Script
• Units of action in a drama. Acts
are divided up into scenes.
Acts
• Small parts of an act.
• Most of the time they each have
a different setting.
Scenes
• Playwright’s technique for
creating believable characters
Characterization
• Advances the stories action.
• Most important
• Two types: Dialogue and
Monologue
Dramatic Speech
• Conversation between or among
characters
Dialogue
• Long speech that is spoken by a
single character.
• Often reveals a character’s
private thoughts and actions
Monologue
• Sets of bracketed information that describe
the scenery and how the characters should
move and speak
• Some playwrights use abbreviations
• Center Stage – C
• Stage Left – L
• Stage Right – R
• Upstage or rear of stage – U
• Downstage – front of stage
Stage Directions
Upstage
Stage Right
Center
Downstage
Audience
Stage Directions
Stage Left
• Construction on the stage that
suggests the time and place of
the action
• Scenery is another word for it
Set
• Small movable items that the
actors use to make their actions
look realistic
Props
• 4 Types
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Drama
Types of Drama
• Form of drama that often
features everyday characters in
funny situations
Comedy
• Events lead to the downfall of
the main characters
• Character can be an average
person, but is often a person of
great significance
Tragedy
• A word that is often used to
describe plays that address
serious subjects
Drama
• Scripts for films.
• Includes camera angles and can
allow for more scene changes
than a play
Screenplays
• Scripts written for television
• Similar to screenplays
Teleplay
• Written to be performed as
radio broadcasts
• Include sound effects and
require no set, stage or
directions that explain
movement.
Radio Plays
• What details in the paragraph
beginning “I heard the clink…”
let the readers know that Red
Rabbit is a horse?
Question 1
• I got up on the seat and almost bowled Uncle
over. For once Uncle did not worry about his
dignity but caught me up and returned my
hug.
“Ouch,” he said, and pushed me away. He
patted himself lightly on his chest. “I’m not
as young as I used to be.”
• What do these lines tell us about the
character and personality of uncle?
Question 2
• “But you don’t believe in flying machines.”
“I still don’t,” Uncle said sternly. “But I still feel as if I Owe
you something for what was done to you by that man who
once was my son. I’ll be there to haul your machine up the
hill, and I’ll be there to haul it back down when it doesn’t fly”
“We were all getting fat anyway,” White deer said, “especially
Uncle.”
• Why do you think it would be easy for the
author to adapt this portion of the excerpt
from prose into drama?
Question 3
• Miss Whitlaw: I could have gotten down
from the wagon by myself.
Uncle Bright Star: Watch gopher hole.
Miss Whitlaw: I’m younger than you.
• What do you learn about the characters
Miss Whitlaw and Uncle Bright Star
based on these three short lines?
Question 1
• Author’s Insight - The friendly competition
between Uncle Bright Star and Miss
Whitlaw wasn’t in the novel but it was
developed with the actors.
• What does the competition between
Uncle Bright Star and Miss Whitlaw add
to the drama?
Question 2
• Left-Handed Compliment – a compliment that is partly
an insult
• Uncle Bright Star: And I’ll haul that thing back down
when it doesn’t fly. Red Rabbit and me were getting fat
anyway. But look at how tall you’ve grown. And how
thin. And ragged. (pause) But you haven’t broken your
neck which was more than I ever expected.
• Which sentence in Uncle Bright Star’s sentences is a
left-handed compliment and how did you recognize it
as one?
Question 3
• Look at the picture on page 730, does
this hill look steep enough to launch
Dragonwings?
Question 4
• Windrider: Take the ropes. [Pantomimes
taking a rope over his shoulder as he faces
the audience.] Got a good grip?
Others: [Pantomiming taking the ropes.]
Yes, right, etc.
• Why is it necessary for the author to
include these stage directions?
Question 5
• Uncle Bright Star: [Imitating the
intonation of the Cantonese.] Push, push.
Work, work.
• Why do you think the author wanted the
actors to use the Cantonese accent with
these lines?
Question 6
• Author’s Insight: We needed to establish the hilltop
was flat so I had them trample the grass; but the
actors had such a good time doing it that I put it into
the stage direction.
• What does the last part of the author’s insight mean?
• Why, realistically, do you think grass would need to
be stamped down in front of the plane on the flat
hilltop?
Question 7&8
• Moon Shadow: Father, you did it.
[Wonderingly.] You did it.
• What about this line shows Moon
Shadow helped his father because of
duty rather than because he believed his
father would actually fly?
Question 9
• Windrider: Uncle says he’ll make me a partner
if I stay. So the western officials would have to
change my immigration class. I’d be a merchant,
and the merchants can bring their wives here.
Would you like to send for Mother?
• What thoughts and feelings do Windrider’s
words reveal to the audience?
Question 10