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Key Concepts in Drama and Performance Key Concepts in Drama and Performance  Key Concepts in Drama and Performance
Paperback
£13.99
ISBN: 1403934363
Buy this title This book is intended for undergraduates on courses in drama, theatre or performing arts, providing an informative and accessible guide to the subject. It will help students understand their main textbooks and wider reading, will be a source of definitions for use in essays and other assignments, and will be especially useful as a revision aid. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction to the concepts it embraces, followed by an alphabetical listing of those concepts. Students are encouraged to use the frequent cross-referencing as a means of seeing their studies in a wider context and with an integrated approach. The book has a fully comprehensive index, allowing the reader to follow themes running through the entries.
This book is intended for undergraduates on courses in drama, theatre or performing arts, providing an informative and accessible guide to the subject. It will help students understand their main textbooks and wider reading, will be a source of definitions for use in essays and other assignments, and will be especially useful as a revision aid. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction to the concepts it embraces, followed by an alphabetical listing of those concepts. Students are encouraged to use the frequent cross-referencing as a means of seeing their studies in a wider context and with an integrated approach. The book has a fully comprehensive index, allowing the reader to follow themes running through the entries.
Contents
Introduction
Textual Concepts
Performance Concepts
Production Concepts
Staging Concepts
Critical Concepts
Bibliography
Index of Key Concepts
General Index
Sample Definitions
Episode As with so many terms and concepts used in drama, the episode has its origins in Greek tragedy long before the introduction of the concepts of Acts and Scenes. The ‘episodia’ were the segments of dialogue between the songs of the chorus following the ‘prologue’ and before the final exit of the chorus known as the ‘exodus’. These dialogue sections either consisted of ‘stichomythia’ (cf dialogue) or ‘tirades’ (see monologue).
Hero
The hero of Ancient Greece was originally mythological: a demi god who had qualities and performed deeds that set him apart from normal mortals. To some extent, this concept extended to drama but, in plays, the hero was a character of greater stature than other characters but also fallible. The hero of a play was the character whose actions and fate evoked the ‘pity and fear’ that Aristotle considered essential to the experience of witnessing tragedy and by that process the audience sensed catharsis. The classical hero was not only of noble or princely status but also imbued with noble potential that made his ultimate fall all the more poignant. By selecting significant figures from history as the heroes of tragedy dramatists were often flattering their wealthy patrons by showing how the higher ranks of society influenced the course of history. However, tragic heroes demonstrate by their political importance that they embody important cosmic ideas on behalf of humankind.
Tragedy
Probably the most discussed of all dramatic genres, tragedy had four major periods of pre-eminence and development: Athens in the Fifth century. B.C., Elizabethan England, Seventeenth century France and Nineteenth century Scandinavia. There have, however, always been plays that have some of the characteristics of tragedy. There have been many attempts to define the concept of tragedy and you may well eventually arrive at your own definition. It is not totally simplistic to say that a tragedy is concerned with human suffering and, because of some disastrous action, ends in unhappiness and often, in death.
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