PART I : Theory and Terminology
I.1
Let’s play
 Drama seems to be universal
I.2
Theatre or Drama
 Drama
performing the play
vs.
Theatre
watching the performance
 Drama studies
play as text
vs.
Theatre studies
play as performance
I.3
All the world’s…
 All the world’s a stage and the stage is a world on its own
 The bare necessities
I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty
space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of
theatre to be engaged. (Peter Brook)
I.4
Mimesis (imitation
 Mimesis (imitation) : the relation between reality and performance
∙ Aristotle : the mimetic art should obey the laws of probability
∙ since Middle ages : verisimilitude ↔ theatricality
I.5
Verisimilitude and Theatricality
 Verisimilitude
∙ resemblance of reality
∙ realism/naturalism
∙ Stanislavski’s ‘method acting’
∙ fourth wall (wall between actors and audience)
 Theatricality
∙ performance ≠ reality
∙ the performance doesn’t want to present itself as ‘real’
∙ Brecht’s ‘epic acting’
∙ breaking the fourth wall
∙ alienation effects
1. EXTRATEXTUAL
 Levels of dramatic communication
fictional mediadtion: the events are
being narrated
INTRATEXTUAL
ADDRESSER:
playwright,
actors, ...
fictional action : the events are
being performed
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2. Fictional mediation (epic drama)
ADDRESSEE:
3. Fictional action
audience
I.6
Analyzing drama
 A drama : a text written for performance
 Theatrical text : greater variation in performance, makes use of signifying practices,
media and special theatrical conventions (=’theatrical codes’) in order to create
dramatic effects
Actor-related codes:
∙ acoustic (speech, vocal quality, tone of voice, character style)
∙ visual (outward appearance –stature, physiognomy, costume, mask-, body language)
Stage-related codes:
∙ acoustic (loudspeakers, music, sounds)
∙ visual (stage set, props, lightning, writing, projections)
I.7
Text vs. Performance
 ‘closet plays’ : a play written to be read (mostly 17th to 19th century)
I.8
Characters
 Direct characterization : the character him-/herself or other figures comment on
his/her nature, behaviour, qualities (e.g. : soliloquy)
 Indirect characterization : the spectator gets to know the character through its actions
and words
I.9
The text
 Plays are traditionally divided into acts and scenes
∙ act : the major unit of a dramatic text.
classical plays: mostly 5 acts
modern plays: mostly 2 acts
∙ scene : an action unit within an act
 A key distinction is between primary and secondary text
∙ primary text : the text that is actually spoken by the characters
∙ secondary text : all textual elements that are not actually said in a performance
King Lear, I.1.35 (2)
GLOUCESTER (3)
I shall, my lord. (1)
Exit (with Edmund) (4)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Primary text
Act 1, scene 1, line 35
Speech prefix/heading
Stage direction/didascaly (actor, set, prop)
2
secondary text
I.9.1

Primary Text and Conventions of Speech
prologue : was spoken to the house before the play began. Often spoken in
rhyming couplets. The prologue was dropped in modern plays.

epilogue :
was spoken at the end of a play.

soliloquy :
when a character advanced the action by revealing his or her thoughts
and intentions to the audience

aside :
when an actor delivers a quick thought to the audience

chorus :
may serve as a commentator on the action
I.9.2
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Elements of the Secondary Text
dramatis personae : the list of characters (can contain some characteristics, relations between characters)
speech prefix/heading : the name of a character preceding a speech
stage direction : a description of a set or action
I.9.3
Stage Elements
Elements of drama that may or may not be mentioned or referred to in the actual text
 set : the object and the backdrop (usually briefly described in a stage direction)

properties or props : smaller, movable objects used by the actors

the fourth wall : imaginary wall separating the audience from the stage
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PART II : Historical overview
II.1 Antiquity
 crucial period for the development of drama
 The Golden Age of Athens : 5th century B.C.
 Aristotle : Poetics
he defined 3 unities to be respected in drama:
∙ time : the action depicted in a play should span no more than a day, any necessary
background needs to be “told” on stage, no flashbacks allowed
∙ place : the action should take place in one location only
∙ action : all actions should contribute to the plot
 During Renaissance most authors hardly bothered about these rules at all
II.1.1 Tragedy
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An imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude
pity and fear
catharsis : an expurgatory release from the affects of fear and pity for the audience
plot
un merited misfortune
identification and empathic response
hamartia : the fault or error which entails the destruction of the tragic hero
II.1.2 Comedy
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less stable a genre than tragedy
variation, even in antiquity
mocks human imperfections
straightforward tools (stock characters, masks, costumes,…)
greater distancing, hence less empathic response
happy ending
(vulgar) humor
II.2 Drama in medieval England
Niet kennen
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II.3 The Renaissance : Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
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The Golden Age of English drama
Sources : classical and medieval drama
Popular appeal of comedies, revenge tragedies and tragicomedies
Marlowe, Kyd, Shakespeare
Elizabethan Drama:
Exposition
Complication
Crisis
Resolution
(rising action)
(falling action)
II.4 The Stage in Different Sages
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Catastrophe