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Varieties - PP – worksheet #2 – page 1
VARIETIES OF DRAMA
PowerPoint STUDY GUIDE - #2
Varieties of Drama:
The Stage and the School Chapter 6
Dr. Neighbours
Part #2 – Types of Comedy, Styles of Drama
 Ancient Greece classified Comedy in 3 ways
 ____________________
○ Characterized by scathing, satirical attach on political events and figures
 ____________________
○ Focused more on social occurrences; very speech heavy
 ____________________
○ Sentimental view of life and tried to appeal to audiences’ intellect rather than base sense of humor
 2 TYPES OF COMEDY:
 Low
○ Focus on
○ Relies on physical humor to generate
○ Characters and situations are usually
○ Play is usually exaggerated in style and performance
○ Example – “
”
 ______________
○ _______________________ humor
○ Relies almost exclusively on
, not physical action
○ Always a particular subject being ridiculed, just as with low comedy; difference is in how it is presented
TYPES OF LOW COMEDY
 #1  Based on improbable characters and implausible coincidence and events
 Include practical jokes and clowning
 Has physical indignities, such as ear pulling, shin kicking, pie throwing, etc.
 Usually include chase scenes
 Many plays have elements of farce
 May have
○ In a
some of the actors hide from the other actors onstage, overhearing
the onstage dialogue
○ May pop out to say something or talk to one another or make asides to the audience
 Examples:
 #2 –
 Not to be confused with the Americanization of Burlesque; Like farce, relies on physical comedy and exaggeration
 Usually less coherent than farces and are much more exaggerated; Mockery of a broad topic, such as style, societal
view, or literary form; Audiences should have previous knowledge of the play’s subject or they will not understand
all of the humor; Was a very European style of low comedy in the early 1900’s
 When it came to the U.S., evolved into the bawdy variety show that is a partial root of modern musical theatre
 #3  Mockery of a certain person or work
 Incorporates a caricature:
○ Exaggerated
(s) of the subject
 Like burlesque, requires prior knowledge of the subject being ridiculed
 Examples:
TYPES OF HIGH COMEDY
 #1 –
 Also called “
” because the main action of these plays take place
in the drawing rooms (dens) of upper-class citizens; Mocks the pretenses of the upper class
 Built on clever use of language; Includes puns, paradoxes, epigrams, and irony
 _
is clever, often attacking socially accepted standards of the day
 Extremely popular during the Restoration Period (late 1600’s)
○ Examples: Playwrights: Wycherly, Congreve, and Sheridan
Varieties - PP – worksheet #2 – page 2
 #2 
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
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Like parody or burlesque - Ridicules human folly, society views, or individuals
Unlike parody or burlesque – the satirist has a goal of changing something for the better by ridiculing it
It is
in its attack
Uses mockery in the language rather than in physical antics
Examples:
○ Ben Jonson, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, Tom Stoppard
Other Types of Drama
 #1  Deals with
characters, dreams, and imaginary times and places
 Usually occurs in a
that is often inhabited by spirits who have
supernatural powers, god from another world, witches, and flawless heroes
 Not a new trend – used by Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest
 Examples:
○ ________________
○ ________________
○ __________________
 #2 –
 Written with the style of romanticism; Features plots focusing on love affairs between flawless heroes & virtuous
heroines; Are ideally suited for each other and are presented as too good to be true
 Love affair has ups and downs, but always ends “happily ever after”
 Not a lot written today in the truest sense of definition
 Examples:
○ Shakespeare’s
○ Musical
 #3 –
 Although comedy, it lacks humor
 Reaction to Restoration drama and immorality present in it
 Marked by schmaltz:
○ Emotional and ideal presentation of material to an extreme
 The hero and heroine are so virtuous they seem to be caricatures
 Villain shows no redeeming characteristics
 Characters are flat; Plot is contrived; Virtue always prevails; Not a long-lived type of drama
 #4  Originated in 19th century England
 Marked by use of stock characters and implausible plots
 Present a trite storyline where a virtuous maiden is threatened by an evil villain but is rescued by a flawless hero
 Every act concludes with a climax, leaving the audience hanging for a resolutions
○ “
”
 Based on the structure of a tragedy, but focuses more on the actions of the characters rather than on their
motivations
 Lacks
that is in tragedy
 Presents a clear-cut view of
,
○ No room to question the motivations of the villainous character, who must be motivated by evil intent,
○ or the virtuous character, who in turn must be motivated by the search for right
 Good characters triumph
 #5 – Play of Ideas
 Also called a
play or a
 Deals with a social problem such as racism, classism, or sexism
 May also deal with questions of wrong and right or philosophical arguments
 Examples:
○ __________________________ – dealt with apartheid
 Elements may be also incorporated into other plays:
○ Enemy of People - standing for something you believe in
○ The Caucasian Chalk Circle – attacks selfishness
○ Raisin in the Sun – racism, poverty
 #6 –
 Serious; Penetrating and sometimes painful
Varieties - PP – worksheet #2 – page 3


Playwright battles the complexities of the human psyche and personal relationships
Examples:
○ O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night
○ Williams’
○ Norman’s ‘
○ Albee’s



Suspense is within solving a crime or a courtroom drama
Heightens dramatic effects and hooks audiences
Examples:
○ Ten Little Indians
○ The Mousetrap
○ (Agatha Christie)

Play that teaches moral concepts through characters who personify abstract qualities and concepts, such as truth,
justice, love, death, and humanity
Example: medieval play Everyman
 #7 –
 #8 -

"Special Forms of Drama” - These defy most traditional conventions and definitions
 #1 –
 Drama written, designed, and performed for children
 #2 –
 Long been a part of theatre throughout the world
 Skilled puppeteers can generate a drama as intense and powerful as any found on the traditional stage or as
whimsical and imaginative as “The Muppets” or “Sesame Street”
 #3  Play written to be performed by a sing actor
 Examples:
○ Historical dramas/recreations
○ The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe
○ Before Breakfast
 #4 –
 Very modern – late 20th century and present
 Form of monodrama that involves juxtaposing many different elements of theatre in a new way
 Could included video, film, music, dance, etc. – very multi-media
STYLES OF DRAMA
 STYLES: “A Thought about
to do a play”
• Style refers to the way in which a play is written, produced, and acted. Dramatists choose the style of language and
action they feel best expresses their ideas
• Directors and artists present plays in a style they feel suites the script
• Classifying plays by style is sometimes difficult because of combinations of styles
• Relies on theatrical conventions
• Elements of theatrics that help to convey particular interpretations – i.e. visual elements
 3 major stylizations
 _
 “
” theater
 Play is performed as if audience were watching the action through an imaginary fourth wall
 Common theatrical convention
 _
 Applies to new and experimental styles of any art form
 Once a style is accepted, it is no longer avant-garde
 _
 Acknowledges that an audience is present
 Characters may address the audience and some action may take place in the seating area
 Example:
TWENTIETH CENTURY STYLES AND TRENDS
1. -
Varieties - PP – worksheet #2 – page 4
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Focuses on emotions and imagination
Reaction to the strict neo-classicism that predominated French theatre in 17th century
Elaborate stage and featured ideal characters
_
is the main theme
Primary type is

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20th century; presents life as it actually is—often unpleasant and unhappy
Example: Henrik Ibsen’s

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Grew out of realism
Believes human beings have little self-determination but act in response to forces of nature and society that are
beyond their control
Is
as it depicts life with no holds barred
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In theatre symbolism uses one element—a character, a prop, or a piece of scenery—to represent something else
19th century though - reaction against realism
Examples: Ibsen’s The Wild Duck, Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard
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Characters and sets are distorted, oversimplified, and symbolic rather than realistic
Message is often the useless of human hopes and dreams in the face of mechanistic forces
Primarily German
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Developed by
A journalistic,
style
Uses signs, projections, films, and loudspeakers to present events in an episodic form
Reaction against emotionalism and naturalism
Examples: Brecht’s Mother Courage and The Threepenny Opera
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Early 20th century; also known as
Originated by playwright
In direct contrast to
Productions were not based on real life nor were staged on traditional picture-frame stages
Featured backgrounds of mechanical skeletons on various levels connected by arches, ramps, ladders, and
platforms
Actors moved with precise symbolic movements designed to take place of spoken language
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8.
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Mid-20th century (1950-1960’s)
Influenced by
essay “
”
Language is proven unreliable; does not establish meaning
Dialogue is usually meaningless or illogical or absent all together
Example: Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Comes from school of philosophy called
:
○ Thought is that we begin our lives in a random world that only offers us
○ We define ourselves through our
, our actions, and our relations with other
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Participation of members of the audience in the action of the performance
Examples: Cats and Tony and Tina’s Wedding

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“This is theatre. Accept it for what it is”
Makes no pretense of reality because dramatic situations are not real situations
Example: The Fantasticks (uses items that clearly are only for theatrics)

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Involves a fusion of all the
into
presentation.
Dance, mime, atmospheric music, and creative costuming and staging are all combined with high-tech audiovisual
special effects
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