THE DRAMA

What is Drama?
The abridged Oxford Dictionary defines drama as a composition in

prose or in verse, adapted to be acted and is represented with

accompanying gesture, costume, scenery, as in real life.

Drama does not however, need a stage, nor does it need costume,

props and scenery. What it does need is an individual or group of

people who uses themselves their bodies and their minds- through
action and offers through speech to tell a story.

Drama in ancient Greek meant something that is acted out or lived

through. It is essentially social and involves contact, and the

negotiation of meaning. The group nature of the work imposes
certain pressure on the participant, but also brings considerable
rewards. (ONeil and Lambert, 1982)

 In drama, the essential requirement for human beings is being

developed such as the ability to take the role of other people.

Heathcote, et al. (1984) quoted that dramatic activity is the

direct result of the ability to role-play to want to know how to

feel in someone elses shoes. This experience is most obvious
in theatre.

Theatre is a direct experience that is shared when people

imagine and behave as if they were other than themselves in

some place at another time (Neelands, 1990)

As audience in a theatre, we allow actors to stand in for us,

but we still maintain our separation or distance. When we

identify with the characters the actors are playing, we enlarge
a domain of our being. The actors do not become the
characters they are playing, but they bring themselves and
their own experience to their interpretations of the roles in the
text.

 The actors, too, are experiencing both the subjective and

objective reality through the aesthetic distance of the drama.

Drama is a social encounter in a special place at a special

time. The actors and spectators move between real time and
imaginary time, from existential reality to dramatic reality.

A World-Wide Show
(A Dramatic Entertainment)

 Miss Saigon, which was produced by Cameron Makintosh of

England whose company received a Queens award for Export

Achievement was staged in the Cultural Center of the
Philippines in March 2001.

The title Miss Saigon was conceived by Alain-Boublil, a lyricist

and Claude-Michael Shonberg who wrote the musical score.

As to casting, the producers unanimously felt that they had to

tell the very real story authentically and as the music was
resolutely western despite its echoes of the Orient, they
needed Asian voices that could sing western music. This
world-wide search took them 10 countries including the
Philippines where they found the majority of their original
London cast. It is here that Miss Lea Salonga of the Philippines
became the first star of the show.

 Miss Saigon proved to be an overwhelming triumph when it

opened at Londons greatest musical theatre, Drury Lane.

In 1991, a New York production of Miss Saigon opened at the

Broadway theatre to a huge audience and even bigger

headlines.

Subsequently, similar successful productions have been

staged in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Budapest, Chicago, Toronto,

Seattle, Stuttgart, Sydney, Stockholm and Copenhagen.

In March 2001, the dramatic entertainment was staged at the

Cultural Center of the Philippines (souvenir program, 2001)

Development of Drama

1. Ancient Drama
Among the Egyptians of about 2000 B.C.E., drama existed in

religious ceremonies for the worship of Osiris.

There are some evidences of drama in the Book of Job and in

the song of Solomon, where occasionally there appear to be

parts for two speakers.

Drama, in forms of tragedy and comedy originated in Greece

in the festivals of Dionysus in the 5th and 6th centuries B.C.E.,

where poetry, a dithyrambic ode with song and dance, was
presented by a leader and chorus.

In the dramatic contests under Pisitratus, the duthyramb

developed into a drama.

 The earliest Greek dramatic production on record is the

tragedy won by Thespis of Icaria in about 543 B.C.E., when he

unconsciously separated from the chorus and made a solo and
late followed by the choir.

Following Thepsis, Greek tragedies reached its highest peak

in the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, And Euripides.

Aeschylus added a second, and Sophocles a third character to

the leader-chorus drama. Aeschylus characters are heroic and

super-human; his style is lofty and magnificent. Sophocles
characters are idealized but true to life, though life furnishes
no such models. His plots are modes of skill; his language, the
perfection of Attic Greek.

2. Medieval Drama
There was gradual development of the three kinds of medieval

play.

Mystery play- based on the Holy Scriptures, dealt with the life

of a saint or a miracle of the Virgin.

Morality play - chief characters represented abstract qualities

such as vice, humanity, or death; the tone was generally

philosophical and the moralities contained humor.

Secular drama- dealing with everyday characters such as

lawyers , the merchant, the student, the young wife, and the
old foolish husband.

3. Renaissance Drama
With the rediscovery of classical literature during this period, the

Greek and Roman dramatists were imitated first in Italy and later,
with the spread of humanism, in France, Germany, and England.

Other state performances , particularly the sport spectacles, were

meaningless, but the commedia dell arte was original and lifelike.
It was an unwritten impromptu drama, produced on platforms on
the streets by strolling players. Masks and costumes
conventionalized with time, told the audience what o expect of the
characters, all of whom were popular types, used again and again.

The most brilliant 16th century drama was from the English chiefly

because un the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, drama was the source of

entertainment for all classes of people.

4.Drama of the 17th, 18th, 19th Centuries

In England, the casual charm that characterized the

Elizabethan drama died out under the Puritan regime and did
not return until near the end of 18th century.

The theatres, closed during the Civil War and the

Commonwealth period, reopened under Charles I to produce

the sophisticated, witty, and coarse comedies of William
Wycherly, George Farguhar and others, and the bombastic,
spectacular and heroic tragedies of John Dryden and as th
Stuart reign ended, English comedy became maudlin and
sentimental and tragedy became stiff and dull.

In the middle of 18th century, the theatre was briefly revived b

th comedy of manners of Oliver Goldsmith and Richard

Seridan.

 French drama emerged in 17 th century, from its medieval and

religious influences.

German drama came to maturity much more slowly than did the

Roan and English dramas.

Before the middle of the 18 th century, the only playwright of note

was Hans Sachs, who wrote formal comedies and tragedies and
popular carnival plays.

Although English players introduced Marlowe and Shakespeare to

Germany at the end of 16th century, the theatrical performances

soon degenerated into improvised farce, featuring certain shock
characters, without however, the merits of commedia dell arte.

The popular 18th century drama in France was farcical comedy;

England, comedy of manners and domestic drama, complex plots

of adventure and triumphant love flourished in Italy and Russia.

5. Modern Drama
Credit should be given to Ibsen, a Norwegian dramatist, for

the development of the modern drama. His influence in

modern drama was immense.

The production of his work throughout Europe stimulated a

great burst of dramatic activity everywhere.

There was a brief revival of romantic fantasy in France;

symbolism was carried to great extremes; expressionism

appeared in Germany after World War I; comedy was
rejuvenated in England and U.S., French impressionism made
a small showing in the theatre; poetic drama reached new
heights in England, Ireland, France, Spain, and Unite States.

Oriental Drama

 Like Western drama, the drama of Asia originated as an

elaboration of liturgical practice. Eastern drama, in general, is

based on the concept of sangita(or sammita), the threefold art
of music, dance, and poetry, fused into a single artistic entity.

The emphasis is on performance rather than on the

intellectual significance of the subject matter.

Asian actors long ago rejected realistic presentation in favor of

abstraction and symbolism. In the 19th century, Western

influences began to be felt in the Asian theatre, resulting not
in the nature of assimilation, but in a complete break with
native tradition.

Thus, in modern times, the classical theatre in Eastern

countries subsists as a national heritage side by side with the

developing techniques of a new drama patterned after
European practice but strongly colored bylocal habit and taste.