Dramatic conventions
CONVENTIONS: These are the established ways of working in Drama that explore meaning or deepen
understanding OR established practices in the theatre.
STRUCTURE CONVENTIONS: Include in this, story, time and action conventions - still imagediagramsmaps, montage.
STORY CONVENTIONS: Narrator, chorus, spoken thoughts, song, repetition, audience interaction.
These conventions add to the story by giving the audience more information about the character or
situation, or by repeating parts of the story to give strength to, or explain a moment in the story.
TIME CONVENTIONS: fast forward- frozen moment-flashback- split stage. These change the time
frames to allow the audience to see what happened in the past, what might happen in the future or
to freeze a moment in time.
ACTION CONVENTIONS: slow motion-Dance-Mime-Ritual. These use actions to explain and support
the story.
PROCESS CONVENTIONS: Deal with preparatory work towards character development eg role on the
wall—hot seating, mantle of the expert, teacher in role, visualization, telephone conversation. 3
THEATRE CONVENTIONS: Include the actor-audience relationships, exits-entrances, theatre
technologies.
TEXTUAL CONVENTIONS: Interior monologue, dialogue, stage directions.
DRAMA TECHNOLOGIES: Types of equipment that help to create, present, explain, document,
analyse, view, interpret or learn about dramatic work e.g. puppets, masks, lighting, props, set,
costume, make up, recording equipment, sounds etc
A convention is a technique employed regularly in the drama so that the audience come to
attach specific meaning to it. When a technique is used repeatedly in a drama the audience
recognise its significance. They buy into it as an established way of telling the story.
There are a range of dramatic conventions that you can explore to make your drama
interesting and engage the audience:
 slow
motion
 soliloquy (a solo
speech by an actor that gives an insight into what they are thinking)
 adding narration
 use of
an ‘aside’ (when a character directly addresses the audience to comment within
a scene)
 breaking into
song (as in Musical theatre)
 using a chorus
to comment upon the action
 splitting the
stage so that different spaces represent different locations
 using placards
 split
(signs) to give additional information to the audience
role or multi-role
 using music to
underscore the drama
What are the different dramatic conventions?
Dramatic conventions may be categorized into groups, such as rehearsal, technical
or theatrical. ... Technical conventions can include lighting, dialogue, monologue,
set, costuming and entrances/exits. Theatrical conventions may include split
focus, flashback/flashforward, narration, soliloquy and spoken thought.
Dramatic conventions are the specific actions and techniques the actor, writer or director has
employed to create a desired dramatic effect/style.
EPIC THEATRE DRAMATIC CONVENTIONS
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narration
direct address to audience
placards and signs
projection
spoiling dramatic tension in advance of episodes (scenes)
disjointed time sequences – flash backs and flash forwards – large jumps in
time between episodes (scenes)
historification – setting events in another place and/or time in order to distance
the emotional impact, yet enhance the intellectual impact for the spectator
(audience)
fragmentary costumes – single items of clothing representing the entire
costume
fragmentary props – single objects representing a larger picture (or setting)
song – like parables in the Bible, songs are used to communicate the
message or themes of the drama
demonstration of role – actors are encouraged not to fully become the role,
but rather to ‘demonstrate’ the role at arms length, with a sense of
detachment
multiple roles – actors commonly perform more than one character in a drama
costume changes in full view of the spectator (audience)
lighting equipment in full view of the spectator (audience)
open white lighting – due to its emotional impact, colored light on stage is
eliminated – instead, the stage is flooded with white light
alienation technique – a complex term translated differently by scholars from
the German “verfremdungseffekt”, involves the use of many of the above
conventions, with the ultimate aim of distancing the audience emotionally and
increasing their intellectual response to the drama