Reading and Study Questions: Drama
The history of drama can be traced back to ancient Greece, and drama itself came from a
Greek word meaning "action." In addition, drama is a genre of poetry that has epicness and lyrics
added to the art since the time of Aristotle. In the classic Greek plays, there are three act plays
known as three-act play. These acts usually appear in sequencials from beginning, middle, and
end. Most times the introduction is set in act 1 with act 2 focusing on the antagonist, and act 3 as
the resolution with the protagonist prevailing. Though this is the most typical structure for a
three-act play, the scenes in the acts can be moved around for particular plays.
I do not believe the limitations of play and screenwriting are too limiting for me. It is
because I believe even though drama writing has some limitations, the human mind and
imagination is limitless. I am not sure if my logic of why the genres of non-fiction and poetry
have preceded play writing and fiction is any true, but my initial thought is because poetry and
nonfiction are very real and personal to the writer, and perhaps even to the readers. Poetry are
works that are usually from the heart of the writer. All their emotions and thoughts are poured
into the poem. Furthermore, works on non-fiction are very personal because they are based on
true events. We then transfer these emotions and thoughts into plays and fiction to make them
somewhat "real." I remember as a child seeing the Disney animated movie The Lion King for the
first time. I cried when Mufasa died during the movie, and that was not the first or last time I
cried for characters from movies. I never gave it much thought until now; why is it that I cry for
fictional characters? I believe it is because of poetry and non-fiction, those genres laid the path
for fictional works to be "real."