Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.

[1] The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action", which is derived from "to do"

(Classical Greek: , drao). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy. They are symbols

of the ancient Greek Muses, Thalia, and Melpomene. Thalia was the Muse of comedy (the laughing face), while Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy (the

weeping face). Considered as a genre ofpoetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyricalmodes ever

since Aristotle's Poetics (c. 335 BCE)the earliest work of dramatic theory. In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the

word "play" or "game"was the standard term used to describe drama until William Shakespeare's timejust as its creator was a "play-maker" rather than a

"dramatist" and the building was a "play-house" rather than a "theatre."[3] The use of "drama" in a more narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates

from the modern era. "Drama" in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedyfor example, Zola's Thrse Raquin (1873)

or Chekhov's Ivanov(1887). It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted to describe "drama" as

a genre within their respective media. "Radio drama" has been used in both sensesoriginally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to

describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio. The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before

an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature,

is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception. [5] The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical

Athenian tragedy Oedipus the King by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama. [6] A modern example is Long Day's Journey into

Night by Eugene ONeill (1956). Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include

both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue. Closet

drama describes a form that is intended to be read, rather than performed. [9]
In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance;

performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience One of the great flowerings of drama in England occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Many of these plays were written in verse, particularly iambic pentameter. In addition to Shakespeare, such authors as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas

Middleton, and Ben Jonson were prominent playwrights during this period. As in the medieval period, historical plays celebrated the lives of past kings,

enhancing the image of the Tudor monarchy. Authors of this period drew some of their storylines from Greek mythology and Roman mythology or from the plays

of eminent Roman playwrights such as Plautusand Terence. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in England during

the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym of Restoration comedy. [39] After public theatre had been banned by

thePuritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 with the Restoration ofCharles II signalled a renaissance of English drama.[40] Restoration comedy is

known for its sexual explicitness, urbane, cosmopolitan wit, up-to-the-minute topical writing, and crowded and bustling plots. Its dramatists stole freely from the

contemporary French and Spanish stage, from English Jacobean and Caroline plays, and even from Greek and Roman classical comedies, combining the

various plotlines in adventurous ways. Resulting differences of tone in a single play were appreciated rather than frowned on, as the audience prized "variety"

within as well as between plays. Restoration comedy peaked twice. The genre came to spectacular maturity in the mid-1670s with an extravaganza

of aristocratic comedies. Twenty lean years followed this short golden age, although the achievement of the first professional female playwright, Aphra Behn, in

the 1680s is an important exception. In the mid-1690s, a brief second Restoration comedy renaissance arose, aimed at a wider audience. The comedies of the

golden 1670s and 1690s peak times are significantly different from each other.The unsentimental or "hard" comedies of John Dryden, William Wycherley,

andGeorge Etherege reflected the atmosphere at Court and celebrated with frankness an aristocratic macho lifestyle of unremitting sexual intrigue and

conquest. The Earl of Rochester, real-life Restoration rake, courtier and poet, is flatteringly portrayed in Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676) as a riotous, witty,

intellectual, and sexually irresistible aristocrat, a template for posterity's idea of the glamorous Restoration rake (actually never a very common character in

Restoration comedy). The single play that does most to support the charge of obscenity levelled then and now at Restoration comedy is probably Wycherley's

masterpiece The Country Wife (1675), whose title contains a lewd pun and whose notorious "china scene" is a series of sustained double entendres.[41]During

the second wave of Restoration comedy in the 1690s, the "softer" comedies of William Congreve and John Vanbrughset out to appeal to more socially diverse

audience with a strong middle-class element, as well as to female spectators. The comic focus shifts from young lovers outwitting the older generation to the

vicissitudes of marital relations. In Congreve'sLove for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700), the give-and-take set pieces of couples testing their

attraction for one another have mutated into witty prenuptial debates on the eve of marriage, as in the latter's famous "Proviso" scene. Vanbrugh's The

Provoked Wife (1697) has a light touch and more humanly recognisable characters, while The Relapse(1696) has been admired for its throwaway wit and the

characterisation of Lord Foppington, an extravagant and affectedburlesque fop with a dark side.[42] The tolerance for Restoration comedy even in its modified

form was running out by the end of the 17th century, as public opinion turned to respectability and seriousness even faster than the playwrights did. [43]At the

much-anticipated all-star premire in 1700 of The Way of the World, Congreve's first comedy for five years, the audience showed only moderate enthusiasm for

that subtle and almost melancholy work. The comedy of sex and wit was about to be replaced by sentimental comedy and the drama of exemplary
morality.Western opera is a dramatic art form that arose during the Renaissance in an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama in which dialogue, dance,

and song were combined. Being strongly intertwined with western classical music, the opera has undergone enormous changes in the past four centuries and it

is an important form of theatre until this day. Noteworthy is the major influence of the German 19th-century composer Richard Wagner on the opera tradition. In

his view, there was no proper balance between music and theatre in the operas of his time, because the music seemed to be more important than the dramatic

aspects in these works. To restore the connection with the classical drama, he entirely renewed the operatic form to emphasize the equal importance of music

and drama in works that he called "music dramas".Chinese opera has seen a more conservative development over a somewhat longer period of time.These

stories 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.

This kind of play uses stock characters seen in masque and again commedia dell'arte, these characters include the villain (doctore), the clown/servant

(Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons), the lovers etc. These plays usually have an emphasis on moral dilemmas, and good always triumphs over evil, this kind of play is

also very entertaining making it a very effective way of reaching many people. Mime is a theatrical medium where the action of a story is told through the

movement of the body, without the use of speech. Performance of mime occurred in Ancient Greece, and the word is taken from a single masked dancer

called Pantomimus, although their performances were not necessarily silent. [58] In Medieval Europe, early forms of mime, such as mummer playsand

later dumbshows, evolved. In the early nineteenth century Paris, Jean-Gaspard Deburau solidified the many attributes that we have come to know in modern

times, including the silent figure in whiteface. [Jacques Copeau, strongly influenced by Commedia dell'arte and Japanese Noh theatre, used masks in the

training of his actors. tienne Decroux, a pupil of his, was highly influenced by this and started exploring and developing the possibilities of mime and

refined corporeal mime into a highly sculptural form, taking it outside of the realms of naturalism. Jacques Lecoqcontributed significantly to the development of

mime and physical theatre with his training methods.Creative drama includes dramatic activities and games used primarily in educational settings with children.

Its roots in the United States began 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. Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is one of the literary genres,

which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of a play written for theaters, televisions, radios and films. In simple words, a drama is a composition

in verse or prose presenting a story in pantomime or dialogue, containing conflictof characters, particularly the ones who perform in front of audience on the

stage. The person who writes drama for stage directions is known as a dramatist or playwright. Comedy Comedies are lighter in tone than ordinary writers,

and provide a happy conclusion. The intention of dramatists in comedies is to make their audience laugh. Hence, they use quaint circumstances, unusual

characters and witty remarks. Tragedy Tragic dramas use darker themes such as disaster, pain and death. Protagonists often have a tragic flawa

characteristic that leads them to their downfall. Farce Generally, a farce is a nonsensical genre of drama, which often overacts or engages slapstick humor.

Melodrama Melodrama is an exaggerated drama, which is sensational and appeals directly to the senses of audience. Just like the farce, the characters are

of single dimension and simple, or may be stereotyped. Musical Drama In musical drama, the dramatists not only tell their story through acting and dialogue,

nevertheless through dance as well as music. Often the story may be comedic, though it may also involve serious subjects. The first element of drama, namely

the thought, theme, and ideas of a production, describes what the play means as opposed to what happens throughout the plot. It deals with the overall

messages of a production. The second element of drama, action and plot, deals with what happens throughout the production as well as the main conflicts. It

includes the exposition, the rising action, climax, falling action and resolution of the play.The third element of drama, characters, describes the people involved

in the plot of the play. The fourth element, language, refers to the words chosen by the playwright as well as the way in which the characters speak them. The

dialect chosen helps drive the play and shapes the background of individual characters.The fifth element, music, refers to any music that drives the play forward

and heightens excitement or suspense throughout. Music is a part of most theatrical productions, but not all. The spectacle element, or the scenery, props,

costumes, and special effects should also be considered when studying drama, because these items play a large role in the production of a play. SIX

ARISTOTELIAN ELEMENTS OF A PLAY PLOT -The arrangement of events or incidents on the stage. The plot is composed of clearly defined problems for

characters to solve. (Kernodle, et al 6) Plot is to be differentiated from Story which is a chronological detailing of events that happened on and off

stage. Events happening off stage are introduced through exposition (narrative dialogue). The playwright must create a plot that is both credible and

astonishing. CHARACTER- The agents of the plot. Characters provide the motivations (reasons) for the events of the plot. Vivid characters (6) face and

overcome obstacles that we can recognize. (6) They provide the vehicle for conflict. THEME -The reason the playwright wrote the play. The examination of

patterns of life (6) can be didactic or just a slice of life.LANGUAGE- Vivid characters (6) facing and overcoming recognizable obstacles need to express

themselves in heightened language. (6) Dramatic dialogue consists of two parts: narrative and dramatic RHYTHM -The heart of the play. Plot, character,

language, and spectacle all have their individual rhythms in time.The combination of all these rhythms create the impelling force of the play leading to a final

climax and Denouement. Rhythm creates mood.SPECTACLE- Everything that is seen or heard on stage. Actors,sets, costumes, lights and sound. NOTE: All

plays have spectaclesome emphasize spectacle more than others.