Introduction
Drama history can be traced back to ancient Greece, most notably Athens with the original forms of drama performed being Comedy, Tragedy, and Satire. These acts were made into competitions, in which the best plays in the three categories were selected and their writers awarded for the good scripts. There is also the aspect of incorporating music into the plays resulting in them being known as melodrama, or those that incorporate music and dance.
Drama acts may also be conveyed through song throughout as in Operas or even just read from a script. Certain aspects like improvisation in which the actors just develop their own scripts while on stage also exist, depicting the diversity in the drama that existed even back in history. The initial secular plays to be recorded were those that were used to depict history. Miracle and mystery plays have also evolved into more elaborate drama with the passage of time. Currently, there are forms of drama like Educational Drama, pantomime, tragedy, comedy, Farce, domestic drama, morality plays, and Opera, among others.
Comparison of Two different forms of Drama
Marlowe’s Faust; “Faustus searches for a new field of study” and Winters Tale; “Redemption”.
Faustus searches for a new field, is a kind of drama that incorporates a lot of musical theatres, combined with comedy and farce with a tinge of being a morality play. The characters are dressed in funny nonconventional regalia and the performance crosses the bound of normal day to day life, the fact that the roles played by the characters are nonexistent combined with the use of exaggeration and a lot of symbolism, gives this play an identity of being farce as well as allows the creation of highly improbable and funny situations. The setting of the stage is also unconventional with the lady character acting as a drummer, creating an environment of unreality which is then potentiated by the performances of the actors.
The act then creates an atmosphere where the audience expects anything from the play, in that they are prepared for scenes that are not meant to be a portrayal of things that would normally occur, but rather symbolic scenes which have a hidden meaning.
Redemption, on the other hand, utilizes tragedy as its style and incorporates domestic drama. It details events of day-to-day life with the characters cast into the lives of individuals who may or may not exist as it is more realistic and practical as compared to Faustus searches for a new field. The cast looks serious enough to pass for a realistic family within a realistic setting with the stage being set, in a way that depicts real life.
The first play (Faustus searches for a new field)connects with the audience by appealing to and engaging their imagination, while the second play achieves this by creating situations the audience encounters every day and can relate to very easily. The characters in the second play (Redemption), due to the kind of atmosphere created come off as more serious as compared to the first one creating an environment conducive for the scenes played.
In the context of the plays, there is more rigidity when it comes to Redemption and more restriction as to what the actors can do and not get out of character, but there is the entirely opposite situation when it comes to Faustus, where some improvisation might come off without being out of character. This then restricts what can pass off as believable in Redemption but gives the actors in the first play some leeway to breach the bounds of believability; as they make it come to be expected of them. The play “Faustus searches for a new field” is psychologically more complex than Redemption, and therefore really needs one to pay close attention; it also involves more physicality as the style of acting dictates due to the use of musical instruments in this case.
The use of masks rules out utilizing facial expression or body language as a mode of communication an aspect more extensively used in the case of Redemption. Since the use of instruments is incorporated into the first play, it forces the actors to be loud in order to be heard above the sounds produced by the instruments and this is a testament to their vocal abilities. Due to its being in the abstract, the play (Faustus) is delivered at a higher pace and therefore is shorter than redemption. Since believability is not the same as realism, this aspect of my analysis amounts to my opinion, and this will differ according to individuals as belief is relative.
References
- Edwin Wilson, Theatre Experience, 10th Edition (New York: McGraw Hill).
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
- Duchartre, Pierre Louis. 1929. The Italian Comedy. Unabridged republication. New York: Dover, 1966. ISBN 0486216799.
- Gordon, Mel. 1983, The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell’Arte. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. ISBN 0933826699.
- Johnstone, Keith, 1981, Improvisation and the Theatre, Revised Edition, 2007. ISBN 0713687010.