The Playwright

Note the spelling -- "wright" refers to a "maker" (similar to a "shipwright" or an iron worker who has "wrought" iron"). This suggests that it is something other than just literary.

The play is the framework upon which the performance rests.

A script not always necessary (commedia d'ell art [175...] and improvisation [175...] both use a scenario [ 281,319] -- a set of characters, situations, or relationships, ). but even without a written script -- uses elements of human behavior, but at the minimum is an "idea" of place, situation, character, image, or conflict, etc. In a scenario, many elements of a script are present. (Wilson & Goldfarb, 1 44, discuss the concept of the "authorless" theatre, and maintain that the playwright is still central to the theatre...)

Each age has its "standard" of what is acceptable; it depends on:

Tasks of the Playwright: (Wilson & Goldfarb,145)

1) select subject matter
2) determine focus and emphasis
3) establish purpose
4) establish point of view
5) develop dramatic structure
6) create dramatic characters

Tools of the Playwright:

Style:

Historical Background:

Most Western dramatic theory is based on, or a variation of, or a rejection of, Aristotle's Poetics (335 BC).

Horace in Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) interpreted Aristotle -- Aristotle for the Romans.

During the Renaissance (c. 1300 century AD), Aristotle was "rediscovered," primarily through a rediscovery of Horace

Aristotle examined the plays of one century earlier (the 5th century BC, the Golden Age of Greece) and came to conclusions.

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Aristotle suggested that a tragedy had at least six distinct parts...

Aristotle's Six Parts of a Tragedy

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Important terms:

decorum

commedia d'ell arte

scenario

improvisation

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