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DRAMA
HISTORY OF WESTERN
DRAMA
DRAMA
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Fiction in performance
A prose or verse composition intended for
representation by actors impersonating the
characters and performing the dialogue and
action
the general term for performances in which
actors impersonate the actions and speech of
fictional or historical characters for the
entertainment of an audience, either on a stage
or by means of a broadcast
a particular example of this art, i.e. a play
Aristotle's Drama Elements
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PLOT – what happens in a play; the order of
events, the story as opposed to the theme; what
happens rather than what it means.
THEME – what the play means as opposed to
what happens (plot); the main idea within the
play.
CHARACTER – the personality or the part an
actor represents in a play; a role played by an
actor in a play.
Aristotle's Drama Elements
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DICTION/LANGUAGE/DIALOGUE – the word
choices made by the playwright and the
enunciation of the actors delivering the lines.
MUSIC/RHYTHM – by music Aristotle meant
the sound, rhythm and melody of the speeches.
SPECTACLE – the visual elements of the
production of a play; the scenery, costumes,
and special effects in a production.
Greek Drama
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Three types of drama were composed in Athens
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Satyr
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Was not taken seriously until greek Enlightenment
Tragedy
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A drama which concerns better than average people
(heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from
good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an
elevated language
a fiction which is neither true nor believable
Purging of the soul (catharsis)
Character flaw
Greek Drama
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Three types of drama were composed in Athens
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Satyr
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Was not taken seriously until greek Enlightenment
Tragedy
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A drama which concerns better than average people
(heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from
good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an
elevated language
a fiction which is neither true nor believable
Purging of the soul (catharsis)
Character flaw
Elizabethan Theater
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Part of the English Renaissance Theater
Plays perfomed in England during the reign of
Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603)
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Jacobean theater – King James I (1603 - 1625)
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Caroline theater – King Charkes I (1625-1642)
Elizabethan Theater
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Three venues
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Inn yards
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The early days of Elizabethan commercial theater
Performances held in private London Inns.
Inexpensive.
Held indoors or the yard.
Audience capacity up to 500
Open air amphitheaters
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Think of a public outdoor structure like the Coliseum or a
small football stadium with a capacity of between 1500
and 3000 people
Elizabethan Theater
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Three venues
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Indoor playhouses
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A small, private indoor hall.
Open to anyone who would pay but more expensive with
more select audiences.
Audience capacity up to 500
Elizabethan Theater
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William Shakespeare
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Christopher Marlowe (could have been much better
than Shakespeare: died young)
Theatre had an unsavory reputation. London
authorities refused to allow plays within the city,
so theatres outside the authority of the city
administration
Elizabethan Theater
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The first proper theatre as we know it was the
Theatre, built at Shoreditch in 1576. Before this
time plays were performed in the courtyard of
inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen.
After the Theatre, further open air playhouses
opened in the London area, including the Rose
(1587), and the Hope (1613). The most famous
playhouse was the Globe (1599) built by the
company in which Shakespeare had a stake
Elizabethan Theater
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The Globe was only in use until 1613, when a
canon fired during a performance of Henry VIII
caught the roof on fire and the building burned
to the ground.
Theatre performances were held in the
afternoon, because, of course, there was no
artificial lighting. Women attended plays, though
often the prosperous woman would wear a
mask to disguise her identity. Further, no
women performed in the plays. Female roles
were generally performed by young boys.
Modern Drama
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Great influences
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19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen
the 20th-century German theater practitioner Bertolt
Brecht
each inspired a tradition of imitators, which
include many of the greatest playwrights of the
modern era
Different techniques but with the same effect
Modern Drama
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both modernist and realist and incorporates
formal experimentation, meta-theatricality, and
social critique
In terms of the traditional theoretical discourse
of genre
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Ibsen's work has been described as the culmination
of "liberal tragedy"
Brecht's has been aligned with an historicised
comedy
Modern Drama
Other important playwrights of the modern era
include
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August StrindbergAnton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind,
Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca,
Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard
Shaw, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur
Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène
Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich
Dürrenmatt, Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, and Caryl
Churchill
FORMS
DIFFERENT FORMS
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Opera
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arose during the Renaissance
attempt to revive the classical Greek drama
tradition in which both music and theater were
combined
Undergone a lot of changes and has become an
important part of theater nowadays
DIFFERENT FORMS
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Pantomime
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follow in the tradition of fables and folk tales, usually
there is a lesson learned, and with some help from
the audience the hero/heroine saves the day.
uses stock characters seen in masque and again
commedia dell'arte (comedy of the art of
improvisation), these characters include the villain
(doctore), the clown/servant
(Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons), the lovers etc.
has an emphasis on moral dilemmas, and good
always triumphs over evil
very entertaining making it a very effective way of
reaching many people
DIFFERENT FORMS
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Creative Drama
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dramatic activities and games used primarily in
educational settings with children.
started in the United States in the early 1900s
Winifred Ward is considered to be the founder of
creative drama in education, establishing the first
academic use of drama in Evanston, Illinois.
MINDANAO DRAMA
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Ritual and dance
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Sinakulo
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a Lenten play that is a dramatic presentation of the
Passion of Jesus Christ (his trial, suffering and
death).
performed during Holy Week in the Philippines for
eight nights, from Palm Sunday to Easter, to
present the entire sinakulo.
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Pasyon
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a verse narrative of the life and suffering of Jesus
Christ
structured in five-line stanzas, with each line
containing eight syllables
commonly sung during Holy Week, starting Holy
Monday
Huge crowds gather around the reader of the
pasyon to listen and reflect. The reading of the
pasyon is a traditional religious practice in the
Philippines.
It is seen by many of its practitioners as a vow or
panata.
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Komedya / moro-moro
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colorful theatrical tradition in the Philippines that
describes the conflicts between the Muslims and
the Christians
used by the Spanish as a method to spread
Christianity in the country
performed at the local fiesta
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Komedya / moro-moro
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Moro-Moro is a type of Secular Komedya
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portrays the clash between the Muslims and the
Christians where the forbidden romance between the
prince and the princess is settled by having the nonChristian be converted to Christianity or by his or her
death followed by a resurrection through divine
intervention.
Tibag or arakya is a popular secular komedya which is
featured during the annual Santacruzan. The story
evolves on the search for the Holy Cross by Queen Elena
and her son, Emoperor Constantino
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Komedya / moro-moro
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The Religious Komedya is also called Komedya de
Santo centers on the life of Christ or of any saint.
It usually seen during church celebrations.
The actors move in a stylized way, have
extravagant costumes and elaborately
choreographed war scenes.
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Awit
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The awit is a form of Filipino poetry
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it is closer to the narrative
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The following are characteristics observed in the
awit, Florante at Laura
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4 lines/stanza;
a rhyme scheme of AAAA
a slight pause on the sixth syllable
each stanza is usually a complete grammatically-correct
sentence
each stanza is full of figures of speech
the author is usually anonymous
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Korido
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Ang korido ay isang uri ng panitikang pilipino
isang uri ng tulang nakuha natin sa impluwensya ng
mga Espanyol
Ito ay may sukat na walong pantig bawat linya at
may apat na linya sa isang stanza.
Ang korido ay binibigkas sa pamamagitan ng
pakantang pagpapahayag ng mga tula.
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Awit vs. Korido
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Ang kaibahan ng awit at korido ay maaaring nasa
sukat at anyo:
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Mabilis ang bigkas ng korido, may kabagalan naman ang
awit
Ang korido ay may walong pantig at binibigkas sa
kumpas ng martsa “allegro”, samantala ang awit ay may
labindalawang pantig at inaawit na mabagal sa saliw ng
gitara o bandurya “allegro”
Ang ikinaganda ng awit ay sa mga aral na ipinahihiwatig
samantala sa korido ang ikinawiwili ng mga mambabasa
ay ang kuwento o kasaysayang napapaloob dito
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Sarswela
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(Espanyol: zarzuela bigkas)
Ang sarswelaay isang Kastilang uri ng lirikadramatiko
nagpapalit mula sa binibigkas patungo sa inaawit
na mga eksena
sinasama ang mala-opera at tanyag na awitin,
gayon din ang sayaw
lumawak ang uring ito sa mga kolonya ng Espanya,
kabilang ang Pilipinas na naging isang tradisyon
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Bodabil
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Bodabil is an indigenized form of vaudeville, which
had been introduced in the Philippines around the
turn of the 20th century.
It featured a hodgepodge of musical numbers,
short-form comedy and dramatic skits, and even
magic acts, often staged inside the theaters of
Manila.
Bodabil probed the vehicle for the popularization of
musical trends and musicians, performance genres
and performers.
Terms in Mindanao Drama
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Protest drama
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Dance Drama
SEDITIOUS DRAMA
Seditious
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Sedition is a term of law which refers to overt
conduct, such as speech and organization, that
is deemed by the legal authority as tending
toward insurrection against the established
order.
It includes subversion of a constitution and
incitement of discontent (or resistance) to lawful
authority. Sedition may include any commotion,
though not aimed at direct and open violence
against the laws.
A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes
the interests of sedition.
Seditious drama
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“...On its feet, rabid with fury and frenzy, for
three hours...”
Filipino patriots who, devastated by a superior
military power, with meager financial resources,
wrote play after play in the vernacular,
creatively transforming theater into guerilla
warfare, as a desperate last-ditch struggle to
keep revolutionary flames burning until the
restoration of Independence.
Walang Sugat
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Seditious Drama?
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Who are the main characters of the play?
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What happened in the story?
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What are the conflicts of the play? How is this
related to the history of the Philippines?
What are the elements of a sarswela? How are
these elements shown in Walang Sugat?
What was the role of the servant character in
giving comic relief to the audience?
Seditious drama
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Seditious play writers
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Aurelio Tolentino – Kahapon Ngayon at Bukas
–
Juan Matapang Cruz – Hindi Aco Patay
–
Gabriel Beato Francisco – Ang Katipunan
–
Pantaleon Lopez – Ave de rapiña / Ibong
Manlulupig