This document discusses why drama is taught to ESL students and provides information about elements of drama. It notes that drama develops self-expression, provides context for language use, and breaks up monotonous English lessons. The document defines drama and its origins, outlines students' responsibilities when studying plays, and describes elements like characters, acts, scenes, dialogue, conflict, and stage directions. It also contrasts features of ancient Greek drama, medieval religious plays, and modern drama.

1. Dr. Vijayeswari Subba Naidu
Jazan University
D
R
A
M
A

2. Why do we teach Drama to ESL Students
1. Drama is a unique tool, that simulates reality
and develops self-expression.
2. Drama techniques make students experience
language in operation and provide motivation
to use language embedded in a context and a
situation.
3. Drama techniques break the monotony of a
conventional English.
4. It prepares students to face their immediate
world better
5. There are opportunities to become competent
users of the English language because they can
use the language in operation

3. Etymology & Definition
• Drama began in ancient Greece. The word "drama"
has its roots in Greek words ‘dran’ meaning "to
act" and "to do."
• A play is a collaborative process, and the study of
drama involves the study of acting, directing,
writing, music and art. History, psychology, and
even religion also have a part in understanding
drama.
• Drama is a story told in front of an audience

4. Student’s Responsibilities
• Connect personal experiences to events in the drama
by using questioning techniques.
• Visualize the characters as you read stage directions.
• Evaluate characters' words and actions and
determine what motivates them.
• Notice character change and growth.
• Compare characters by making chart.
• Analyze monologues and soliloquies.
• Read the play aloud.
• Identify the setting and evaluate how it affects the
play's mood.
• Identify major and minor conflicts.

5. Elements of Drama
• Playwright-the author of a play
• Actors-the people who perform
• Acts-the units of action
• Scenes-parts of the acts

6. Dramatic Speech
• Dialogue-conversation
between or among
characters
• Monologue-long speech by
one single character
(private thoughts)

7. Conflict
• The internal or
external struggle
between opposing
forces, ideas, or
interests that create
dramatic tension.

8. Stage Directions
• Found in brackets [ ]
• Describe scenery and how
characters speak
• C, Center Stage
• L, Stage Left
• R, Stage Right
• U, Upstage or Rear
• D, Downstage or Front

9. Theatre
• Where a play
takes place or
enacted

10. Set
• Construction on the stage that shows time/place
• Could be called Scenery

11. Props
• Small movable
items that the
actors use to
make actions
look real

12. Characterization
• Is the playwright’s
technique for
creating believable
characters.
1) Indirect
2) Direct

13. Types of Drama

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

15. 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

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

17. The main characters in a comedy could be anyone:
nobility servantstownspeople
Comedy

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

19. Modern Comedy
• Modern Comedies
– In modern comedies, the genders in this romantic
plot pattern sometimes are reversed.

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

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

22. Comparison of Medieval and modern

23. Drama in Middle ages Modern Drama
Plays were primarily religious in
content.
Passion plays, mystery plays,
miracle plays and morality plays
depicted stories and themes from
Christianity.
Clergymen wrote plays with the
intention to give religious
instruction.
Humor crept into plays over time.
Modern drama has a
diversity of themes and
explores genres, cultures,
experiences and issues.
Themes

24. Acting Styles
Religious plays of medieval
times had informative, realistic
and melodramatic acting styles.
Characters were stereotypically
depicted in an informative
storytelling fashion.
Today, drama is realistic in
style but also symbolic,
ritualistic and even
abstract.
Experimentation with style
and presentation is
standard in modern drama.

25. Actors
Actors in the Middle Ages were
primarily male.
Actors were poor and considered
at the bottom end of society
Today, actresses fill countless
roles and are some of the
richest and most idolized
members of society.
Switching up gender and
gender roles is part of the
experimental process of
modern theatre

26. Settings
Medieval plays were
originally mounted in
churches.
As the plays' set designs
expanded, the performers
took their drama to the
streets.
Acting troops formed and
toured their plays in wagons.
The influence of street
performers, like travelling
musicians was there.
Today, some travelling
acting troops still exist,
but most performances
are either housed in
theatres or captured on
film and available on the
television and Internet.

27. Entertainment Value
In Medieval plays passion,
mystery, miracle and
morality could hardly
entertain, because they began
as vehicles to teach religion
rather than amuse the
masses.
But as spectacle, humor and
sensationalism became part of
these religious plays,
audiences responded with
awe, laughter and approval
Today, drama has more
subtle, intellectual and
intricate forms.
Technology still provides
sensationalism, but
sophistication has
become part of dramatic
entertainment.

28. How to read ?..- Instruction for
students

29. 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.

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

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

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

33. Proscenium stage
Setting the 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 leftstage right

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

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

36. A stage’s set might be
realistic and
detailed
Set
abstract and
minimal

37. A lighting director skillfully uses light to change the mood
and appearance of the set.
Light

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

39. 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.
props

40. 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

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

42. 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

43. 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

44. Learning Techniques
• Comparison : What are the differences between the
plays
• Induction: Based on the characters change and growth
and conflict and denouement what can we conclude?
• Deduction: Based on the rules of the tragedy and
comedy what could be the conclusion? What must
happen for the conspirators plot to work?
• Classification
– What qualities do the characters share?
– In what ways deviate?

45. Learning techniques - contd
• Error Analysis
– What errors in THE judgment and final action and in the
characters who fall into problem ?
• Abstraction
– What pattern does the characters exhibit?
– Is there anyone else we've read about that demonstrates
the same pattern?
– How can you avoid demonstrating this pattern in your life?
• Analyzing Perspectives
– Why the hero or heroine and the villain behave in a
particular way?
– How will you relate it to the writer’s period and to your
period?

46. Courtesy
• http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-
school-english-lessons/22731-teaching-
questioning-techniques/
• http://www.ehow.com/how_4823732_read-
drama-lesson-plan-part.html
• http://www.slideshare.net/cesvaldez13/7-
elements-of-modern-drama