Week 2.1 Drama Mini Lesson

Week 2.1 Drama Mini Lesson

Open Ended

What do you know/remeber about DRAMA?

Open Ended

What do you know/remmeber about DRAMA?

Multiple Choice

A drama is a

• Story with no dialogue

• Story that's meant to be acted out

• Piece of scientific research

• Short piece that's written in rhyme

​Drama

A drama or a play is a story that is meant to be acted out in front of an audience. “Drama” comes from the Greek word for “action.” The action, or the doing, makes the drama. When a play is performed, the actors and the audience are all in the performance space together. This is what separates drama from movies or television: the performance happens live, in front of the audience’s eyes.

​Drama

There are several different parts of a play text or script. Plays are usually divided into parts called acts. Shakespeare wrote all his plays in five acts, while most modern plays have one, two or three acts.

Acts can be further broken up into pieces called scenes. Scenes are a little like chapters in a book: they usually show action that happens all in the same place at the same time. A change in scene can signal a change in location or a change in time!

​Acts

• One of the primary divisions of a theatrical work, often made up of separate scenes.

"The first act of the play ended just as the main character's secret is revealed. I can't wait to see what happens next!"

​Scene

• A division of a play or an act of a play where the action takes place in one location without a break in time.

"The director wanted to rehearse the scene where Romeo meets Juliet at the party to make sure everything was perfect."

Multiple Choice

An act is a big section broken into ​ (a) ______ 
They’re sort of like chapters, but not quite the same.

• scenes

• sentences

• paragraphs

• 
  chapters

​Dialogue and Characters

The people in plays, like the people in books, are the characters. Plays are written in dialogue, with each character’s speech set off separately. The things a character says are called his or her lines. Every time a new character speaks, a new line starts.

Unlike in a book, there is no extra explanation that accompanies the dialogue. Everything you need to know about a character, like their personality, motives, or character traits, comes from the things they say and do.

​Stage Directions

Stage directions are often written in italics, which makes it easier to tell them apart from the dialogue. Common stage directions tell you when a character walks onto the stage, or “enters,” and leaves the stage, or “exits.” Stage directions are particularly helpful when reading a script. They can help you imagine what the play would look like when performed.

​Soliloquy vs. Aside

• Soliloquy: When one character speaks alone in a play

• Aside: When an actor speaks to the audience without other characters hearing him

Multiple Choice

Which of these is an example of a stage direction?

• George: Hello Emily!

• George: You made a fine speech in class.

• [Both face front, shy throughout]

• Emily: I was really ready to talk about the Monroe Doctrine.

Multiple Choice

The (a) ____ indicate that the lights should go right out after the actor says the last line of the play.

• stage direction

• dialogue

• curtain call

Match

Match the following vocabulary terms

• 
  dialogue

• setting

• Stage directions

• characterization

  
  

Max: what are we going to do today?

Scene: the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson

(on the phone, she sits down on the ben

John: (visibly angry) How could you have

• Max: what are we going to do today?

• Scene: the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson

• 
  (on the phone, she sits down on the ben

• John: (visibly angry) How could you have

Multiple Choice

The group of actors who play the characters in a play

• characters

• props

• acts

• people

Multiple Choice

What BEST EXPLAINS why an author would include a soliloquy in a drama?

• To provide comic relief in a serious scene.
• To reveal a character's inner thoughts and emotions.
• To summarize the plot for the audience.
• To introduce new characters to the story.

Multiple Choice

Based on this excerpt from Shakespeare's play, Othello, how does the use of stage directions help readers better understand the text?

IAGO. Awake...thieves! thieves!...

[Brabantio appears above at a window.]

BRABANTIO. What is the reason of this terrible summons?

• It displays the sadness of the scene.

• It compares Brabantio with Iago.

• It shows where Brabantio is standing.

• 
  It reveals Iago’s inner thoughts.

Fill in the Blanks

The lines actors says during a performance is called?

Multiple Choice

What is a flashback?

• When you say the word flashback in a scene

• when you want to bring the story back to the present

• when you want to show the audience something that happened in the pass