the literary or philosophical study of the basic principles, form and techniques of poetry or of other imaginative writing in general.
Formal Components of a Play
Vital to drama:
1. Pretense
2. Conflict: outer, inner
Aristotle’s Poetics:
1. plot
2. character
3. thought
4. diction
5. spectacle
6. song
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Poetics: the literary or philosophical study of the basic principles, form and techniques of poetry or of other imaginative writing in general.
Aristotle teaching, from document in the British Library.
From: Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1976). Islamic Science:An Illustrated Study, World of Islam Festival Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 090503502X
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CONVENTIONS
of the Theater.
Conventions: Implicit rules governing a production or style of theater.
5 periods of Drama in the West, each with their own conventions.
1. Classical
2. Elizabethan
3. Neoclassical
4. Victorian
5. Modern: Early + Contemporary
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- Outdoor performances
- No scenery
- Has chorus
- All-male actors
- Have masks
- Aristotle’s unities
- Verse dialogue
- Greek: no violence on stage; offstage violence reported by Messenger
- Roman: on-stage violence
1. Classical Conventions
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Verse: metrical or rhymed composition
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- Courtyard theater, open in the center
- Daylight performances
- All-male actors–no masks
- Minimal use of chorus
- No scenery; verse created the settings
- Verbal dynamics, strong imagery
- Verse dialogue for upper-class characters;
prose for servants
- Soliloquy
- Aside
- On-stage violence
- Multi-layered entertainment
2. Elizabethan Conventions
Globe Theater
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“recognition scene”
photo: Paul Robeson as
Othello
Othello’s final speech
Clip: Laurence
Fishbourne as Othello
Shakespeare
wanted a
“people’s theater.”
Live theater.
“Soliloquy”
“To be, or not to be” speech with
Mel Gibson as Hamlet
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Othello, Act V, scene ii
I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak
Of one that lov’d not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex’d in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu’d eyes
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their med’cinable gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban’d Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc’d the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him thus.
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*
Othello. V, ii.
Othello to the dead Desdemona:
I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
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*
- Indoor performances
- Women now allowed to perform
- One stylized set
- Dialogue: Poetry in couplets
- Unities
- No on-stage violence;
use of Messenger
3. Neoclassical Conventions
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Farmelli in Female Role. Alberti Music of the World, p. 131.
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- Verisimilitude: sets, costumes, dialogue begin to imitate real life
- Proscenium opening as fourth wall/window
- Program introduction
- Sound effects
- Naturalism: introduced by K. Stanislavsky–
closer approximation of real life
Two kinds:
– well-made play structure: perfected by Ibsen
– plot less, flow-of-life structure: Chekhov
4. Victorian Conventions
