Theatre Appreciation -- SPD 141 -- Online Course

 

Logo for: Northern Virginia Community College --Student Centered / Community Focused

 Dr. Eric W. Trumbull, Professor, Theatre/Speech

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Style in Drama

Resource: Wilson, Appendix B

Objectives for this lesson:

Students will examine:

the influence of style of drama and theatre

elements of dramatic / theatrical style

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Style: The distinguishing characteristics of a play that reflect conventional practice.
- what are the conventions (agreements) and how are they treated? (Marsh Cassady, in Theatre: An Introduction [Lincolnwood, Il.: NTC Publishing, 1997], p. 28, calls "conventions" "devices the actors, the playwright, the designers, or the director use to expedite the production. An audience willingly accepts and expects such devices as a type of shorthand.")

Styles are usually associated with a period or with an "-ism."

Not only is Genre studies concerned with the type / form of the play, but also with the Style OF THE PLAY
(W/G 98-101, discuss STYLE of production, not of the drama).

Will the play be realistic:

heightened realism,
selective realism,
"super-realism,"
naturalistic -- a slice of life,
expressionistic,
constructivist
,
absurdist
,
classical
,
neoclassical
?


Will the play include a lot of symbolism, allegory?


Will the play be representational (or "realistic") or presentational (stylized)?

 


Important terms:

representational

presentational

allegory

conventions

 

This is the End of Unit One.

Here is a study guide for exam one (in MS Word format)
and here is a study guide for exam one (in text format)...

 

Begin Unit Two or Return to the First Page.

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Begin Unit Two: Theatre Personnel

 

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Last update: April 29, 2004