Drama originated in ancient Greece and was performed as part of religious festivals. It later spread through the Roman Empire. The three main types of medieval European drama were mystery, miracle, and morality plays performed by the Christian Church. During the Renaissance, plays rediscovered Greek and Roman drama and were no longer restricted to religious themes. Shakespeare and other playwrights flourished in 16th century England. Asian countries also have long histories of drama, such as Sanskrit plays in ancient India, wayang puppet theater in Indonesia, Noh drama in Japan, and masked dance dramas in Korea.

1. DRAMA

2. WHAT IS DRAMA?
◼ Drama is a type of literature telling a story, which is intended to be performed to an
audience on the stage.
◼ Generally, while drama is the printed text of a play, the word theatre often refers to the
actual production of the text on the stage. Theatre thus involves action taking place on
the stage, the lighting, the scenery, the accompanying music, the costumes, the
atmosphere, and so on.

3. ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
◼ Plot: The events in a play.
◼ Setting: The time and place of a literary work.
◼ Characters: People or creatures in a play.
◼ Dialogue: Conversation in a play.
◼ Theme: The central thought of a play; the idea or
ideas with which a play deals.
◼ Scenery: The various elements that are used to
create a particular visual setting for a play.

4. TYPES OF DRAMA
◼ Tragedy: In the Greek sense, a play that ends with the death of at least one of the main characters.
In modern usage, it refers to a play that doesn’t have a happy ending.
◼ Comedy: In the Greek sense, it is a play that doesn’t end in death. In modern usage, it refers to a
play that ends happily or that is humorous.
◼ Tragicomedy: a play in which serious and comic elements are mixed.

5. ORIGINS AND A BRIEF
HISTORY OF DRAMA
◼ Drama is generally thought to have started in
Greece between 600 and 200 BC, although some
critics trace it to Egyptian religious rites of
coronation.
◼ Greek Drama: In Greece, dramatic performances
were associated with religious festivals. The Greeks
produced different types of drama, mainly tragedy
and comedy. Famous Greek tragedians include
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The best
writer of comedy was Aristophanes.

6. ORIGINS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAMA
◼ Roman Drama: The Romans inherited the drama traditions from the Greeks. The expansion of the
Roman Empire helped spread drama to many places in Europe and the Mediterranean world.
Seneca is the most important Roman tragedian.

7. ORIGINS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAMA
◼ Medieval Drama: The Middle Ages start with the fall of the Roman Empire. Most of Classical
learning was lost in medieval times. The Middle Ages were dominated by religion and the study of
theological matters. The Christian doctrine and Christian values were the measure of everything.
During the Middle Ages, drama was looked down upon as evil and a means of corruption.
However, faced with the need to spread the word of God to the illiterate masses, the Church came
to devise some form of dramatic performance to help in teaching Christian beliefs and biblical
stories. in which the characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions
(as death or youth) and in which moral lessons are taught.
◼ The three main types of medieval drama are mystery plays, about Bible stories, miracle plays
about the lives of saints and the miracles they performed, and morality plays, in which the
characters personify moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or youth)
and in which moral lessons are taught.

8. ORIGINS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAMA
◼ The Renaissance: The Renaissance is the period that followed the Middle Ages. It started in Italy in
the fourteenth century and spread to other parts of Europe. The word Renaissance is a French
word which means rebirth. The Renaissance period witnessed a new interest in learning and
discovery of the natural world. The works of the Greek and Roman writers were rediscovered. The
invention of the printing press helped make the production of books easier and cheaper, hence,
available to more people.
◼ Humanism: The humanist movement stressed the role of man and reason in understanding the
world and rejected the predominance of religious thinking.

9. ORIGINS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF DRAMA
◼ Renaissance Drama During the Renaissance, the works of Greek and Roman dramatists were
rediscovered and imitated. Plays were no longer restricted to religious themes. This happened first
in Italy and spread then to other parts of Europe.
◼ In England, drama flourished during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), who was a patron
of literature and the arts. Theatres were built in London and people attended plays in large
numbers. The most important dramatists were William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.

10. The Globe Theatre in

11. The Globe Theatre in

13. DRAMATIC TERMS
◼ Playwright: The writer of plays (dramatist). E.g. Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes
(1939)
◼ Stage directions: Instructions written in the script of a play, describing the
setting and indicating actions and movements of the actors.
◼ Soliloquy (Monologue): A speech in a play in which a character, usually alone
on the stage, talks to himself or herself so that the audience knows their
thoughts.
◼ Protagonist: The main character in a play.
◼ Antagonist: The character opposing the main character.
◼ Tragic hero: A character of high repute, who, because of a tragic flaw and fate,
suffers a fall from glory into suffering.
◼ Tragic flaw: A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the
tragic hero.

14. DRAMATIC TERMS
◼ Dramatis Personae: Known as the characters of the play. usually found on the first page of the play
itself.
◼ Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse. It is the preeminent dramatic verse English (as in
the plays of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare).
◼ Chorus: The course in Greek drama is a group of actors who speak or sing together, commenting
on the action. In Elizabethan drama, the course consisted of one actor who recites the prologue
and epilogue to a play and sometimes comments on the action (As in Doctor Faustus).
◼ Comic Relief: Humorous episodes in a play that is mainly tragic.

15. DRAMATIC TERMS

16. ◼ ENOUGH WITH THE HISTORY OF DRAMA IN WESTERN COUNTRIES! CAN YOU FIND
ANY INTERESTING DRAMA HISTORY AROUND ASIA??????
ACTIVITY
India
Malaysia
Indonesia
Japan
Korea