Chapter 1

THE PURPOSE AND AIM OF DRAMA

OF ALL THE ARTS, the drama is the closest to the people. No other art depends so much on the human element. The fullest enjoyment of a play comes from seeing it acted by a group of actors performing for another group, the audience. Every performance of a play is therefore different from every other performance, inasmuch as the actors never quite repeat themselves, and the audience are continually changing. A single individual may, in solitude, rad a play with pleasure and profit, and many plays are perhaps best enjoyed in this way; but the communal feeling between audience and actors is unquestionably one of the main reasons why the drama has always been popular.

The instinct for drama is universal in man. Children are born actors, and nothing delights them more than to play at pretending to be what they are not—their elders, their playmates, characters they have read or heard about in stories, or seen on television, even animals and supernatural beings. There “play at pretending,” to the great delight of themselves and their audience, is the root of all drama.

When primitive man came home to his family, after several days’ absence, bearing a slain animal on his shoulders, and told the story of his adventure, he revealed ability as a narrator or perhaps even as a minstrel or a hard; when he acted out for the edification of his family and friends, as it is not unreasonable to suppose that he might have done, he presented possibly the first drama. It is easy to imagine his actors, first as himself self, a talking his prey, then as the hunted animal at length brought down after a struggle, and finally as himself again, standing victorious over the body, beating his chest triumphantly with his fists to proclaim his own invincibility and the superiority of man over beast.

Chapter 1

THE PURPOSE AND AIM OF DRAMA

OF ALL THE ARTS, the drama is the closest to the people. No other art depends so much on the human element. The fullest enjoyment of a play comes from seeing it acted by a group of actors performing for another group, the audience. Every performance of a play is therefore different from every other performance, inasmuch as the actors never quite repeat themselves, and the audience are continually changing. A single individual may, in solitude, rad a play ...

PREFACE

Reading a play well is often more difficult than seeing it well performed. In order to experience the full impact of a playwright’s work, a reader must himself visualize and create all its dimensions. In a theatrical production the burden of interpretation is largely carried, with greater or lesser skill, by the director, actors and designers. Through speech, movement, gesture, rhythm, scenery, costume and lighting, the meaning and emotion of the play are communicated to the audience. The solitary reader misses the emotional contagion of a responsive audience, the atmosphere created by light, sound and speech, the cumulative effect of climatic action, and the personal qualities of the living actor. As an individual, you must exercise your imagination with cues from the printed page alone. To help you envision your own production, this anthology goes beyond the texts of the plays.

The opening chapter surveys the starting points and purposes of drama, its genres and techniques. This account may be read straight through, or piecemeal, and either before or after your own recreation of a play.

As a reader you have the opportunity for thoughtful analysis of the meaning, structure and symbolic aspects of the drama at your own pace. To enjoy a play fully is to realize that it is more than an evening’s division in the theater, more than so many words on a page; it is not once a personal statement of the dramatist and a clue to the culture that produced it.

I am grateful to the various persons and institutions for their assistance: to my associate in the Department of English, Professor William Melnitz of the University of California, Los Angeles; to Professor Thomas Marcparrott of Princeton University; to Professor Wendell Cole of Stanford University; to the Center Theater Group Ahmanson; to the Amazing Blue Ribbon 400 Committee. Again, I wish to express my gratitude to Rose Lam for giving her constant encouragement to my writing of this book.

October, 1983

Paul M. Lee

PREFACE

Reading a play well is often more difficult than seeing it well performed. In order to experience the full impact of a playwright’s work, a reader must himself visualize and create all its dimensions. In a theatrical production the burden of interpretation is largely carried, with greater or lesser skill, by the director, actors and designers. Through speech, movement, gesture, rhythm, scenery, costume and lighting, the meaning and emotion of the play are communicated to the audience. ...

Preface
1. The Purpose and Aim of Drama
2. What is a Play?
3. Conflict: The Essence of Drama
4. The Structure of a Play
5. Tragedy
6. Comedy
7. Serious-Drama, Comedy-Drama, and Other Types
8. Literary Movements and Reality in Drama
9. Elements of Drama
10. How to Judge a Play
Bibliography

Preface
1. The Purpose and Aim of Drama
2. What is a Play?
3. Conflict: The Essence of Drama
4. The Structure of a Play
5. Tragedy
6. Comedy
7. Serious-Drama, Comedy-Drama, and Other Types
8. Literary Movements and Reality in Drama
9. Elements of Drama
10. How to Judge a Play
Bibliography