-- 2007 : post your bio/profile : groups.yahoo.com/group/dramlit

theatre background knowledge/experience

why you are taking this class, expectations

... post! The study of Dramatic Literature (the great plays of the past and present) and the study of Theatre (the craft of presenting the living, breathing theatrical event) are two separate but interconnected areas:

Dramatic Literature focuses on the history of theatre, its conventions, types and settings through a concentrated survey of world drama. Training the ears to hear, the eyes to see, the mind to discriminate and the imagination to reach out develop insight into both drama and life. Students are encouraged to ask productive questions of a dramatic text and examine drama's relevance to all our lives. [ explain : word-by-word ] Theory : Character + Situation = Conflict
Inner Conflict (next time)

* from Preface to Drama: An Introduction to Dramatic Literature and Theater Art
Book by Charles W. Cooper; Ronald Press, 1955 (Notes)

... Oedipus Rex is notable for its use of dramatic irony: everybody in the audience knows from the start that Oedipus himself is the guilty party he seeks out for punishment. The viewers' enjoyment comes as they see and hear the facts accumulate, bit by bit, until it suddenly dawns on Oedipus that he is his father's murderer. The irony is heightened by blind Teiresias' many taunting and the chorus' musical references to "seeing the light" Oedipus, though his physical eyes can see, is blind to the truth; and when he finally does come to see the truth, ironically, he blinds himself. [ theory : tragedy ]

... "Hamlet reads Oedipus" [ "stage on stage" scene ]

Woman's Fate : Jocasta -- Ophelia & Gertrude -- Ms. Julie, Nora, 3 Sisters...

...

I-1

Grammar of Drama I : Plot vs. Story

* Dramatic Exposition : The presentation through dialogue of information about events that occurred before the action of a play, or that occur offstage or between the staged actions; this may also refer to the presentation of information about individual characters' backgrounds or the general situation (political, historical, etc.) in which the action takes place.

215 Dramatic Literature: Part One -- Intro.

In Europe the earliest extant work of dramatic theory, the fragmentary Poetics of Aristotle (384–322 BC), chiefly reflecting his views on Greek tragedy and his favorite dramatist, Sophocles, is still relevant to an understanding of the elements of drama. Aristotle's elliptical way of writing, however, encouraged different ages to place their own interpretation upon his statements…

6 Principles (Poetics)

Structure
Idea
Hero (Character)
Plot/Action/Story --

Texture
Language
Music
Spectacle (Show)

Film: when texture becomes structure?

Plot v. Story
1:10

/\
/plot\

/ --- story --- \

Composition (Hamlet, Oedipus)
The Classics (Greeks) Classic Antiquity

Exposition

Genre (Type of Hero) Aristotle: above average -- tragic, below -- comic.

Drama and Tragic-comedy. Next: 2: Chronotope (Time + Space) > Subjective POV

a comic strip!

dictionary + textbook : tragedy presents a complete story (an action) that is serious and important (has magnitude and bulk) and is dramatized for presentation on the stage rather than recounted by a narrator. When we come to the last part of the definition, though, there is disagreement. Aristotle says that tragedy produces the emotions of pity and fear but that there is a katharsis of these emotions. One of the translators above calls katharsis a “purgation” of emotions and the other a “purification.”

Tale of Drama : 3 Pigs and Aristotle

Genre, Hero, Situation, and etc.

Exposition : [ composition ]

... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure

[ dramatic composition page2 ? ] 

"3 Little Pigs" and Hamlet, First Reading

The Three (Sisters) : Not one, or two, or four.
(Repetition and difference)

How "little" -- age? 
(Character description)
Gender -- boys?
Older and younger brothers -- 
Orphans?
Why pigs? Not rabbits? 

Situation - summer.
Wolf = Life
(Symbolism)
Conflict (inner conflict)

MESSAGE -- THEMES (how are they introduced)

Why Hamlet is a single son?
...
The Greeks

2 Gentlemen of Verona and No Exit [ in class ]