Dramatic Tension

Dramatic Tension

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Elements of Drama - 2022​

Open Ended

Name and describe O type of Tension found in drama.

​Defining Dramatic Tension

Dramatic tension can be defined as:

• a sense of anticipation or conflict within tasks, character relationships, problems [dilemmas], surprises and mystery in stories to create audience engagement.​

Open Ended

Your turn: How would you define dramatic tension? (write your own def

Tension of the Task

• One way to make a scene more interesting is to give the actors something difficult to do.

• What might make this task more difficult:

  • The actor is taking a walk in a park.

Open Ended

What made the actors task difficult to do? Write everything you can think of.

​Tension of Relationships

• When there is conflict between two people, tension of relationships may arise

Multiple Select

Which of these would cause Tension of Relationships

• Two friends arguing about where to sit for lunch.

• A mother gives her child a hug

• A teacher yells at a student for misbehaving.

• The antagonist (bad guy) stops the protagonist (the hero) from saving the day

​Tension of Surpise

• This is the easiest type of tension to spot.

• The tension is what happens BEFORE the surprise - when you know something is going to happen, but you don't know when

• Very common in horror movies

  • Jump scares are a type of tension of surprise.

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​Tension of Mystery

• ​When you know something has happened, but you don't know how.

• E.g. I know my phone was in my pocket a moment ago, but now it's gone

  • This tension comes AFTER the event has happened