Tragedy
Play
Drama &
Tragedy
A story acted out live and on stage.
Plays are meant to be performed. A play comes to life in each unique performance.
Tragedy
depicts serious and important events that end unhappily.
Innocent Heroes
- Some tragedies, such as Romeo and Juliet, portray the suffering of innocent characters who are not responsible for their own downfall.
• A tragedy usually ends with the deaths of the main characters.
• Their downfall may be the result of: (bottom of pg. 2)
1. character flaws that lead to unwise actions
2. fate (events beyond the characters’ control)
3. a little bit of both
Most classical tragedies deal with serious subjects—fate, life, and death—and center on a tragic hero.
A play can be a tragedy, a comedy, or, in modern drama, a mixture of the two.
Tragic heroes are usually noble figures that have a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to their downfall.
Examples: passion, ambition, rebelliousness, excessive pride, jealousy
Comedy
Comic Heroes
Lights, Curtains, ACTION!
The ins and outs of the stage.
A comedy ends happily. Although most comedies are funny, they may also make us think and question.
Bringing a Play to Life
Comic heroes may be ordinary people instead of nobility who eventually overcome their flaws and achieve happiness
The conflict in comedies is usually romantic.
• Complications can involve misunderstandings, mistaken identities, disguises, or transformation.
• The obstacle is always overcome.
The stage’s set might be realistic and detailed, abstract or minimal.
A set can be changed from scene to scene—sometimes with machinery and sometimes with just a change in lighting.
In a comedy, the characters usually face humorous obstacles and problems that are resolved by the end of the play.
A stage has its own coordinates
Rising action consists of a series of complications that occur when the main characters take action to resolve their problems.
Stage Directions: Playwright describes setting and actions and often uses the stage coordinates to help with direction.
The crisis, or turning point, is the moment when a choice made by the main characters determines the direction of the action.
In a tragedy, the action heads downward,
toward disaster.
In a comedy, the action heads upward,
toward a happy ending.
The crisis is the point when all the forces of conflict come together to create the greatest drama and tension of the play.
Shakespeare’s tragic plays usually follow a 5-part sequence:
Climax is the moment of greatest emotional intensity in the plot.
• In a tragedy, the final and greatest climax occurs near the end of the play and usually consists of the deaths of the main characters.
Falling action presents events that result from the action taken at the turning point.
With each event, we see the characters falling deeper into tragedy.
Crisis / Turning Point
Characters Within Plays
Exposition:
-establishes setting
-introduces characters
-explains background
-introduces characters' main conflict
Interpretation: Actors, directors, and designers interpret these directions creatively
Performance: Audience experiences the story through the actors’ speech and actions
Costumes tell us about the characters and the time and place. They can be elaborate or minimal.
Props are items that the characters
carry or handle onstage.
Resolution (or denouement) is the final part of the play.
• All the loose ends are tied up and the play is over.
Rising Action
Falling Action
Characters’ speech takes the form of:
- Dialogue—conversation between characters
- Monologue—a long speech by one character to one or more other characters
- Soliloquy—a speech by a character alone onstage, speaking to himself or herself or to the audience
Resolution
Exposition
Sometimes a character speaks to the audience or to another character in an aside, dialogue that is not supposed to be heard by the other characters onstage.