ONE OF THE GREATEST THINGS DRAMA CAN DO, AT ITS BEST, IS TO REDEFINE THE WORDS WE USE EVERY DAY SUCH AS LOVE, HOME, FAMILY, LOYALTY AND ENVY. TRAGEDY NEED NOT BE A DOWNER.

1. Drama

2. A drama is a story enacted onstage for a live audience.
A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story,
that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the
characters and performing the dialogue and action.
Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera
is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both
spoken dialogue and songs.
What Is Drama?

3.  A literary composition involving conflict, action
crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players
on a stage before an audience.
 A composition in prose or verse presenting, in
pantomime and dialogue, a narrative involving
conflict and usually designed for presentation on a
stage. Aristotle called it “imitated human action.”
 "When I read great literature, great drama,
speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind
has not achieved anything greater than the ability to
share feelings and thoughts through language."-
James Earl Jones

4. Famous Statements of Authors:
As David Berlo says, theatre is a distinguished
vehicle of communication, with a considerable
tradition and heritage. Many people would
classify the theater as an „entertainment‟ vehicle.
Yet countless examples could be given of plays
that were intended to have, and did have,
significant effects on an audience, other than
entertainment.

5.  Norris Houghton says that drama should
participate in the “real” action - that it should
express faithfully in the theater the artist's
conception of reality.
 "No literary form has more historical
importance than drama," by Seymour Reiter.

6. What Is Drama?
 Origins of Drama
 The word drama comes from the
Greek verb dran, which means
“to do.”
 The earliest known plays . . .
 were written around the fifth
century B.C.
 produced for festivals to honor
Dionysus, the god of wine and
fertility

7. Trivia
 In the 6th century BC, when the
tyrant Pisistratus, who then ruled the
city, established a series of new
public festivals. One of these, the
'City Dionysia', a festival of
entertainment held in honor of the
god Dionysus, featured competitions
in music, singing, dance and poetry.
And most remarkable of all the
winners was said to be a wandering
bard called Thespis.
 According to tradition, in 534 or 535
BC, Thespis astounded audiences by
leaping on to the back of a wooden
cart and reciting poetry as if he was
the characters whose lines he was
reading. In doing so he became the
world's first actor, and it is from him
that we get the word thespian.

8. Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves
characters who face a problem or conflict.
Climax
point of highest tension;
action determines how the
conflict will be resolved
Resolution
conflict is resolved;
play ends
Complications
tension builds
Exposition
characters and conflict
are introduced
Dramatic Structure

9. Elements of Drama
Structure/plot
Conflict
Theme
Setting
Character
Audience
 Sub-elements:
Imitation by actors
Dialogue
Scenery
Hand Properties
Costumes
Gestures
Sound Effects

10. Dramatic Structure
Conflict is a struggle or clash
between opposing characters
or forces. A conflict may
develop . . .
 between characters who want
different things or the same
thing
 between a character and his or
her circumstances
 within a character who is torn
by competing desires

11. • Tragedies pit human limitations against the
larger forces of destiny.
right and wrong
justice and injustice
life and death
Tragedy
A tragedy is a play that ends unhappily.
• Most classic Greek tragedies deal with
serious, universal themes such as

12. The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a
tragic hero. This hero
• is noble and in many
ways admirable
• has a tragic flaw, a
personal failing that
leads to a tragic end
rebelliousness
jealousy
pride
Tragedy

13. boy meets girl boy loses girl boy wins girl
Comedy
A comedy is a play that ends happily. The plot
usually centers on a romantic conflict.

14. The main characters in a comedy could be
anyone:
nobility servants
townspeople
Comedy

15. • Comic complications always
occur before the conflict is
resolved.
• In most cases, the play
ends with a wedding.
Comedy

16. Modern Comedy
 Modern Comedies
 In modern comedies, the genders in this romantic
plot pattern sometimes are reversed.

17. A modern play
• may be tragedy, comedy, or a mixture of the
two
• usually focuses on personal issues
• usually is about ordinary people
Modern Drama

18. Modern playwrights often experiment with
unconventional plot structures.
Modern Drama
long flashbacks
music
visual projections
of a character’s
private thoughts

19. When you read a play, remember that it is meant
to be performed for an audience.
Stage Directions
Playwright describes setting
and characters‟actions and
manner.
[Wyona is sitting on the couch.
She sees Paul and jumps to her
feet.]
Wyona. [Angrily.] What do
you want?
Performance of a Play
Performance
 Theater artists bring the
playwright‟s vision to life
on the stage.
 The audience responds to
the play and shares the
experience.

20. Performance of a Play
 Theater artists include
 Actors
 Directors
 Lighting technicians
 Stage crew

21. Setting the Stage
Stages can have many different sizes and
layouts.
“Thrust” stage
• The stage extends
into the viewing area.
• The audience
surrounds the stage
on three sides.

22. “In the round” stage is surrounded by an
audience on all sides.
Setting the Stage

23. Setting the Stage
Proscenium stage
• The playing area extends behind an opening
called a “proscenium arch.”
• The audience sits on one side looking into the
action.
upstage
downstage
stage left
stage right

24. Setting the Stage
Stages in Shakespeare’s
time were thrust stages.

25. Scene design transforms a bare stage into the
world of the play. Scene design consists of
• sets
• lighting
• costumes
• props
Setting the Stage

26. A stage’s set might be
realistic and
detailed
Setting the Stage
abstract
and minimal

27. A lighting director skillfully uses light to change
the mood and appearance of the set.
Setting the Stage

28. The costume director works with the director to
design the actors’ costumes.
• Like sets, costumes can be
detailed minimal
Setting the Stage

29. Props (short for properties) are items that the
characters carry or handle onstage.
• The person in charge of props must make sure
that the right props are available to the actors
at the right moments.
Setting the Stage

30. The characters’ speech may take any of the
following forms.
Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage
Monologue: long speech given by one character to others
Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or
to the audience
Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character; the other
characters onstage do not hear an aside
The Characters

31. Finally, a play needs an audience to
experience the performance
understand the story
respond to the characters
The Audience

32. The theater must "make its appeal to the
audience rather than to the
individual,”opines Edward A. Wright.
Without an audience there is no theater,
and the symbolic affinity interplay and
affinity between the two prevail. A
bifurcation between them would write
the total failure of drama and the theater.
Wright even insists that the theater
artist” must never forget that he is the
servant of the crowd.”

33. The End

34. Philippine Drama
(Dulaang Pilipino)
Topic Overview

35.  The Philippines has an old theater tradition. Ma.
Teresa Muñoz, in a comprehensive study of theater in
pre-Hispanic Philippines based on anthropological
findings, attests to the fact that even if it is difficult to
ascertain the theatrical forms of the early Filipinos,
much of it being “lost on contact with the new and
more aggressive culture,” the early Philippine drama
stemmed more from historical sources, since “that
theater which had its roots in religion and religious
practice was barely at the threshold of the structure
that constitutes that art.”

36.  We had drama even many
centuries before the
Spaniards set foot on
Philippine shores in 1521.
The many external
manifestations of this
imitation of action—dance,
pantomime, acting, song,
chant, recitation—be they
performed solely on in
combination, were found in
the numerous rituals
observed by the early
Filipinos.
 Men assemble now as their
forefathers did to discover
themselves and feel their
pulse as they experience
life‟s processes, what
August Strindberg terms
“life‟s two poles, life and
death, the act of birth and
the act of death, the fight for
the spouse, for the means of
subsistence, for honor, all
these struggles—with their
battlefields, cries of woe,
wounded and dead.”

37.  It is said that Ferdinand
Magellan himself was
treated to a very rare
presentation of a native play
“to celebrate the fact that the
Filipinos and Spaniards
were now brothers.” Father
Gaspar de San Agustin
also mentioned that the
early Filipinos were
“especially fond of
comedies and farces, and
therefore, there is no feast of
consequence unless there is
a comedy.”

38.  Lucila Hosillos, in her
treaties on the motive power
for Philippine identity and
greatness, states:
“Nationalism has helped
create the literature of the
Filipinos, and in the
country’s search for
national identity today,
literature has assumed
significance in the
definition of the Filipino
personality towards the
creation of a national
image.”
 Well-known Filipino drama
director and poet Rolando
Tinio expounds in his
“Theater and Its Sense of
Nationality” . “It is perhaps
the theater,” he stresses,
“which is the most national
of all the arts in the sense
that it is the most revelatory
of the specific quality of
civilization of its audience.”

39. Three Categories:
Mga Katutubong Dula (Ethnic Plays)
The Filipino Ethnic Plays or “Katutubong Dula” are plays based
on old Filipino folklore and old traditions. They show the
country‟s indigenous culture and traditions. The play,
Pamanhikan (Courtship), for example, focuses on the courtship
rituals in the pre-colonial times.

40. Mga Dula sa Panahon ng Kastila (Plays from the Spanish Era).
Plays
From the Spanish era have a decided influence from the
colonizers. A lot of them revolve around Catholic festivities like
Senakulo (Passion of the Christ), Pinetencia (Penitence) and
Flores de Mayo (May Procession). Some also portray the strain
between the Catholics and the Muslims, like the play Moro-Moro
(The Moors).

41. Dula sa Panahon ng Amerikano (Plays from the American Era)
 Finally, the American era ushered in the “sarsuwela” or plays
with singing and dancing. The sarsuwelas in this era were
mostly used as subversive propaganda and had themes about
patriotism and revolution.The most famous of these sarsuwelas
are those made by Severino Reyes, also known as “Ama ng
Dulang Pilipino” or “Father of Philippine Drama”. His most
popular works are: Walang Sugat (Not Wounded, 1902),
Paglipas ng Dilim (After the Darkness, 1920) and Bungangang
Pating (At the Mercy of the Sharks, 1921).

42. The age of the
zarzuelas is
considered the
“Golden Age of
Philippine
Drama,” as many
theater
authorities have
pronounced.

43. Famous Filipino Authors
 Nick Joaquin
 Wilfrido Ma. Guerero
 Roland Tinio
 Jose Rizal
 Francisco Balagtas
 Orlando Nadres
 Alberto Florentino
 Estrella Alfon

44. 10 Famous Playwrights

45. "A Midsummer
Night'sDream"
by William Shakespeare

46. "The Miracle Worker"
by William Gibson

47. "Death of a Salesman"
by Arthur Miller

48. "The Importance of Being
Earnest" by Oscar Wilde

49. "Antigone"
by Sophocles

50. "Fences"
by August Wilson

51. "Noises Off"
by Michael Frayn

52. "The Good Doctor“
by Neil Simon

53. "Our Town"
by Thoron Wilder

54. "Waiting for Godot"
by Samuel Beckett

55. The End
Thank you!!!

56. HAPPY TEACHER‟S DAY!!!
SIR JOSELITO “JOJO” FLORES

57. PINOY HENYO

58. TATARIN

59. FOREVER WITCHES

60. CARE DIVAS

61. KAPENG BARAKO

62. PARAISONG PARISUKAT