Learn about dramatic and performing arts, including theatre, dance, and music. Discover the essentials components of drama like plot and character.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Dramatic Arts | Overview, Types & History
Table of Contents
- Dramatic Arts Definition
- History of Western Dramatic Arts
- Types of Drama
- Tragedy
- Comedy
- Melodrama
- Musical
- Types of Performing Arts
- Music
- Puppetry
- Dance
- Pantomime
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some examples of the dramatic arts?
Theatre is an example of the dramatic arts. There are many subgenres within theatre, including melodrama, musical theatre, and documentary dramas.
What are different names for performance art?
Performing arts can also be known as dance, musical performance or music, puppetry, pantomime, and mime. Performance is related to the dramatic arts.
Table of Contents
- Dramatic Arts Definition
- History of Western Dramatic Arts
- Types of Drama
- Tragedy
- Comedy
- Melodrama
- Musical
- Types of Performing Arts
- Music
- Puppetry
- Dance
- Pantomime
- Lesson Summary
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Dramatic Arts Definition
Dramatic arts tell stories on stage through action. The dramatic arts are one type of performing art, which also includes acting, pantomime, and puppetry. Each performing art has distinct attributes that determine how it tells a story. Music is often included as a performing art. The audience is an important feature for the performing arts: all performances are presented in front of an audience. Another important feature is that, unlike film and television, dramatic arts are performed live. Typically, dramatic arts are performed in a building called a theatre that has a stage space for the performance and seats for the audience, called the house or auditorium. The word theatre derives from the ancient Greek name for this space, theatron, which means "seeing place." The most common dramatic art form is theatre or drama. In theatre, actors play characters and act out the story for an audience. This is a primary distinction between dramatic arts and performing arts. In dramatic arts, the story is represented on stage.
History of Western Dramatic Arts
Ancient Greece is believed to be the origin of Western dramatic arts. Thespis is said to be the first actor. Before Thespis, narratives were chanted by a chorus. Thespis stepped out of the chorus and represented a character. Beginning in 534 BCE, the Ancient Greeks held annual drama competitions. Many well-known classical playwrights competed at these competitions, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. These playwrights are the authors of the only classical Greek plays that are still around. Beyond famous plays like Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (c. 430-425), each playwright made major contributions to the dramatic form. For instance, Aeschylus added a second actor, which turned drama from a monologue into a dialogue between two characters. The Ancient Greeks performed in masks made of linen or cork.
After the Ancient Greeks, theatre flourished in Rome. It was a popular form of entertainment, along with gladiator fights, chariot races, and animal fights. Two well-known playwrights from this period are Terence (195-159 BCE) and Plautus (c. 254-c. 184 BCE), who went on to directly inspire playwrights for over a thousand years. The Catholic church grew concerned about theatre, primarily because theatre was associated with paganism and often mocked Christianity in its comedies. By the time Rome was captured in the 5th century CE, theatre and the dramatic arts had fallen out of favor.
 |
Though the Catholic Church was critical of theatre in Rome, the church can be credited with theatre's revival nearly 500 years later. In this form, drama became a tool for spreading Christian doctrine. The first recorded female playwright was a German nun named Hrotsvitha (935-973) who adapted the plays of Terence and Plautus to teach Christian values and Latin. Later in the Middle Ages, plays began to be performed outside of churches. Mystery plays told stories from the Bible, while Miracle plays told stories about saints. Some of these plays were performed as part of an annual feast on pageant wagons, which were carts that served as a stage, so the drama could be performed around town. As theatre became increasingly secular, a new form called Morality plays was introduced, which emphasized ethics rather than religion. The most famous morality play is Everyman (c. 1510) by Anonymous.
Toward the end of the 16th century and into the 17th, drama found favor as popular, secular entertainment once again. Playwrights like William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in England and Lope de Vega (1562-1635) in Spain were writing both comedies and tragedies for the general public. In Elizabethan England, theaters were multi-level structures in the shape of an "O." In the center stood a group of low-paying ticket holders known as the "groundlings" who were a rowdy bunch: they often talked, ate, and sang during the performance. Shakespeare and his contemporaries kept this in mind as they wrote their plays. As such, they strategically repeated plot points and kept the play's action lively to hold their attention.
Types of Drama
In The Poetics (c. 335-323 BCE), the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) identified six elements of drama that are still applicable today. The six elements are:
- Plot
- Character
- Theme
- Language
- Music
- Spectacle
Plot is the action of a narrative. The plot is a sequence of events that propel the story forward. In his book Backward and Forward, David Ball argues that plot is like a series of dominos, in which one domino falling over will trigger the next event, which will then trigger the subsequent event in a story. Plots begin with an inciting incident; an event that disrupts the status quo of the world of the play. Then the action rises toward a climax, the most heightened moment of the plot. The climax is typically the moment of change for the characters. This is followed by falling action, moving the plot to a new status quo.
Character is the person depicted in the drama and acted out by a performer. The main character is known as the protagonist. This role drives the action of the play. Though many might imagine the antagonist to be the villain, it's actually a character who competes with the protagonist. Often, the protagonist and antagonist share a common objective, which places them in conflict with one another.
Theme is the central thought of the play. Some plays may argue a principle, raise a question, or try to teach the audience a specific lesson. In the dramatic arts, there is often more than one theme in a play, but the main theme is the central message the playwright wants the audience to keep with them.
Language is often how the theme is conveyed. In studying language, one might consider the word usages, metaphors, and other stylistic choices in the dialogue. In theatre, language is also used to differentiate characters. In A Street Car Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams, the characters of Stanley and Blanche come from different backgrounds. This is apparent in how each character speaks from their use of slang, dialects, and even their accents.
Aristotle viewed music and spectacle as the least important features of a drama. Music refers to the use of song in a performance and spectacle refers to the visual effects. Spectacle can also include the setting, which refers to where the place takes place and the visual elements that communicate it. While Aristotle believed these elements were superfluous to a good drama, they have gained prominence as storytelling techniques in the 19th and 20th centuries in melodramas and musical theatre.
Tragedy
Tragedy is a story in which the protagonist fails to achieve their objective or dies. Aristotle argued that tragedy is the fall of a great man. According to Aristotle, a great man is a person of noble birth. During the drama, the protagonist will struggle with a fatal flaw, known as hamartia, which ultimately causes their fall. The most famous example of this is the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Oedipus begins the play as the king of Thebes, but due to his inability to recognize the consequences of his own actions, he ends the play blind and in exile. Another famous example of tragedy is Hamlet (1603) by William Shakespeare. Like the character of Oedipus, Hamlet exhibits a fatal flaw that leads to his downfall. Tragicomedy differs from tragedy by having a happy ending where the protagonist avoids death or failure.
Comedy
Comedy reverses the trajectory of tragedy, meaning that comedy concerns low characters moving up in status. Comedy typically ends happily, often in a marriage, such as in Much Ado About Nothing (1598) by William Shakespeare. There are many forms of comedy, including low comedy, which makes use of physical humor and bawdy jokes, and high comedy, which often makes use of wordplay. Other examples of comedy include Tartuffe (1664) by Voltaire and She Stoops to Conquer (1771) by Oliver Goldsmith. Farce is a comedic form that uses crude and physical humor to its limits. Satire, on the other hand, is a comedic form that uses humor for political and social commentary. Improv is a comedic tradition in which there is no rehearsal. Performers make their act up in the moment and often engage directly with the audience.
Melodrama
Melodrama is a genre of performing art that was popularized in the 19th century in Europe. Typically, melodramas feature virtuous heroes who are pursued by villains. For these characters, morality is absolute. Melodramas often feature disguises, abduction, and luck. In the 19th century, melodramas heavily utilized spectacle. During this period, audiences saw avalanches, earthquakes, and floods on stage thanks to massive set pieces and advanced special effects.
Bourgeois theatre developed in Europe during the 18th century. Unlike its meaning in Marxist parlance, where it refers to landowners and those who have capital, bourgeois theatre was made by and for a broad range of social groups. Typically, the genre had a middle-class protagonist. Thematically, this type of theatre suggested that self-express is a source of truth. An example of the genre is The London Merchant (1731) by George Lillo.
Historical docu-drama, otherwise known as documentary theatre, uses documents and interviews to create a drama based on real, recorded events. A well-known example is the Living Newspaper unit that was part of the Federal Theatre Project in the United States during the 1930s. This troupe performed plays based on headlines in the newspaper. Another example is Anna Deavere Smith's play Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (1992). In this play, Smith interviewed many residents in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and then later performed their words verbatim as part of her one-woman show.
Musical
Musical theatre is a genre in which the included songs are essential to advancing the narrative. Musicals typically alternate between spoken dialogue and song, which distinguishes them from operas, a form of musical performance that is completely sung. Opera originated in the 17th century in Italy but quickly spread throughout Europe. Well-known examples include Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet and La Boheme (1896) by Giacomo Puccini. The melodrama The Black Crook (1866) is regarded as the first musical because it inserted songs for the inclusion of a French ballet troupe that was stranded in New York City. It was not until Show Boat (1927) that the songs and story were unified. Oklahoma! (1943) took this further by using song and dance to forward the musical's plot. 1940 to 1968 is considered the Golden Age of Musical Theatre.
Types of Performing Arts
While drama uses representation to communicate a narrative, there are many performing arts that tell stories through movement, music, and objects. These include music, puppetry, dance, and pantomime.
Music
There are many genres of music ranging from classical music, traditionally played on string instruments, to rock and roll, played on electric guitar and percussion. All over the world, there are different traditional forms of music, including the Latin American Samba, Gagaku from Japan, and the Yoruban style Juju. Different genres use a variety of musical instruments and vocal techniques to construct their unique sounds. Music may be performed as an instrumental (no voice), with both instruments and voice, or acapella (no instruments).
Puppetry
Like music, puppetry can be found in many forms all over the world. In puppetry, stories are told with puppets rather than actors. Puppets are objects that often resemble humans or animals that can be animated to tell the story. Some puppets are controlled by the operator or puppeteers' hand, while others are controlled by rods or strings. Punch and Judy are stock characters in a traditional English puppet show. These are examples of glove puppets and are fully sculpted. Conversely, Wayang is a traditional Indonesian form, using a two-dimensional shadow puppet controlled by a rod. Marionettes are controlled using strings from above. Typically, the puppeteer is obscured so the audience does not see them. However, this is not the case in forms like Bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet theatre, where the principal operator is visible, but the secondary and tertiary operators are hidden.
 |
Dance
Dance is a diverse form of artistic movement that includes subgenres like ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary. Traditional forms like folk dancing are passed down generationally and can be related to social dancing, which deviates from dance for performance by inviting people to participate. Performance dance is set to music and choreographed, which is an artistic practice that creates sequences of movement.
Pantomime
Pantomime is a performing art that originated in Ancient Rome. In this form, it was a storytelling dance. Pantomime returned as a form of popular entertainment in the 18th century, where it served as a short afterpiece performance to larger plays. Although pantomime is often confused with mime, they are distinct. Pantomime is an ensemble of actors who speak and use props, while mime is a silent, prop-less solo performance form. Today, pantomime is a popular performance genre in England, particularly around Christmas, where familiar stories are comedically retold with the addition of music and dance. Pantomime often features audience interaction and the spectators often call out to the performers!
Lesson Summary
The dramatic arts are live forms of storytelling. Theatre and drama use actors to to represent narratives composed of plots and characters, that convey themes through language, music and spectacle. The most popular genres are tragedy and comedy. Traditionally, tragedy is the story of the fall of a great man, where comedy is the rise of the common man. Melodramas contain clear cut morality and simple plots that revolve around intrigue. Bourgeois theatre was a popular form that centered the common man as the protagonist. Documentary theatre constructs narratives from real events. Musicals and operas are dramatic forms that use music as a storytelling technique. Musicals use both song and dialogue, where operas are completely sung.
Non-representative performing arts include dance, music, puppetry and pantomime. Each form varies greatly around the world. Dance is artistic movement to music that is often choreographed. Music can be made with instruments, with the voice, or using both. Puppetry is a performance form that uses a puppet, rather than an actor, to tell the story. Pantomime is a popular performance genre that differs from mime through its use of an ensemble, spoken word, and props.
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Dramatic Arts Definition
Dramatic arts tell stories on stage through action. The dramatic arts are one type of performing art, which also includes acting, pantomime, and puppetry. Each performing art has distinct attributes that determine how it tells a story. Music is often included as a performing art. The audience is an important feature for the performing arts: all performances are presented in front of an audience. Another important feature is that, unlike film and television, dramatic arts are performed live. Typically, dramatic arts are performed in a building called a theatre that has a stage space for the performance and seats for the audience, called the house or auditorium. The word theatre derives from the ancient Greek name for this space, theatron, which means "seeing place." The most common dramatic art form is theatre or drama. In theatre, actors play characters and act out the story for an audience. This is a primary distinction between dramatic arts and performing arts. In dramatic arts, the story is represented on stage.
History of Western Dramatic Arts
Ancient Greece is believed to be the origin of Western dramatic arts. Thespis is said to be the first actor. Before Thespis, narratives were chanted by a chorus. Thespis stepped out of the chorus and represented a character. Beginning in 534 BCE, the Ancient Greeks held annual drama competitions. Many well-known classical playwrights competed at these competitions, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes. These playwrights are the authors of the only classical Greek plays that are still around. Beyond famous plays like Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (c. 430-425), each playwright made major contributions to the dramatic form. For instance, Aeschylus added a second actor, which turned drama from a monologue into a dialogue between two characters. The Ancient Greeks performed in masks made of linen or cork.
After the Ancient Greeks, theatre flourished in Rome. It was a popular form of entertainment, along with gladiator fights, chariot races, and animal fights. Two well-known playwrights from this period are Terence (195-159 BCE) and Plautus (c. 254-c. 184 BCE), who went on to directly inspire playwrights for over a thousand years. The Catholic church grew concerned about theatre, primarily because theatre was associated with paganism and often mocked Christianity in its comedies. By the time Rome was captured in the 5th century CE, theatre and the dramatic arts had fallen out of favor.
|
Though the Catholic Church was critical of theatre in Rome, the church can be credited with theatre's revival nearly 500 years later. In this form, drama became a tool for spreading Christian doctrine. The first recorded female playwright was a German nun named Hrotsvitha (935-973) who adapted the plays of Terence and Plautus to teach Christian values and Latin. Later in the Middle Ages, plays began to be performed outside of churches. Mystery plays told stories from the Bible, while Miracle plays told stories about saints. Some of these plays were performed as part of an annual feast on pageant wagons, which were carts that served as a stage, so the drama could be performed around town. As theatre became increasingly secular, a new form called Morality plays was introduced, which emphasized ethics rather than religion. The most famous morality play is Everyman (c. 1510) by Anonymous.
Toward the end of the 16th century and into the 17th, drama found favor as popular, secular entertainment once again. Playwrights like William Shakespeare (1564-1616) in England and Lope de Vega (1562-1635) in Spain were writing both comedies and tragedies for the general public. In Elizabethan England, theaters were multi-level structures in the shape of an "O." In the center stood a group of low-paying ticket holders known as the "groundlings" who were a rowdy bunch: they often talked, ate, and sang during the performance. Shakespeare and his contemporaries kept this in mind as they wrote their plays. As such, they strategically repeated plot points and kept the play's action lively to hold their attention.
Types of Drama
In The Poetics (c. 335-323 BCE), the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) identified six elements of drama that are still applicable today. The six elements are:
- Plot
- Character
- Theme
- Language
- Music
- Spectacle
Plot is the action of a narrative. The plot is a sequence of events that propel the story forward. In his book Backward and Forward, David Ball argues that plot is like a series of dominos, in which one domino falling over will trigger the next event, which will then trigger the subsequent event in a story. Plots begin with an inciting incident; an event that disrupts the status quo of the world of the play. Then the action rises toward a climax, the most heightened moment of the plot. The climax is typically the moment of change for the characters. This is followed by falling action, moving the plot to a new status quo.
Character is the person depicted in the drama and acted out by a performer. The main character is known as the protagonist. This role drives the action of the play. Though many might imagine the antagonist to be the villain, it's actually a character who competes with the protagonist. Often, the protagonist and antagonist share a common objective, which places them in conflict with one another.
Theme is the central thought of the play. Some plays may argue a principle, raise a question, or try to teach the audience a specific lesson. In the dramatic arts, there is often more than one theme in a play, but the main theme is the central message the playwright wants the audience to keep with them.
Language is often how the theme is conveyed. In studying language, one might consider the word usages, metaphors, and other stylistic choices in the dialogue. In theatre, language is also used to differentiate characters. In A Street Car Named Desire (1947) by Tennessee Williams, the characters of Stanley and Blanche come from different backgrounds. This is apparent in how each character speaks from their use of slang, dialects, and even their accents.
Aristotle viewed music and spectacle as the least important features of a drama. Music refers to the use of song in a performance and spectacle refers to the visual effects. Spectacle can also include the setting, which refers to where the place takes place and the visual elements that communicate it. While Aristotle believed these elements were superfluous to a good drama, they have gained prominence as storytelling techniques in the 19th and 20th centuries in melodramas and musical theatre.
Tragedy
Tragedy is a story in which the protagonist fails to achieve their objective or dies. Aristotle argued that tragedy is the fall of a great man. According to Aristotle, a great man is a person of noble birth. During the drama, the protagonist will struggle with a fatal flaw, known as hamartia, which ultimately causes their fall. The most famous example of this is the tragedy of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Oedipus begins the play as the king of Thebes, but due to his inability to recognize the consequences of his own actions, he ends the play blind and in exile. Another famous example of tragedy is Hamlet (1603) by William Shakespeare. Like the character of Oedipus, Hamlet exhibits a fatal flaw that leads to his downfall. Tragicomedy differs from tragedy by having a happy ending where the protagonist avoids death or failure.
Comedy
Comedy reverses the trajectory of tragedy, meaning that comedy concerns low characters moving up in status. Comedy typically ends happily, often in a marriage, such as in Much Ado About Nothing (1598) by William Shakespeare. There are many forms of comedy, including low comedy, which makes use of physical humor and bawdy jokes, and high comedy, which often makes use of wordplay. Other examples of comedy include Tartuffe (1664) by Voltaire and She Stoops to Conquer (1771) by Oliver Goldsmith. Farce is a comedic form that uses crude and physical humor to its limits. Satire, on the other hand, is a comedic form that uses humor for political and social commentary. Improv is a comedic tradition in which there is no rehearsal. Performers make their act up in the moment and often engage directly with the audience.
Melodrama
Melodrama is a genre of performing art that was popularized in the 19th century in Europe. Typically, melodramas feature virtuous heroes who are pursued by villains. For these characters, morality is absolute. Melodramas often feature disguises, abduction, and luck. In the 19th century, melodramas heavily utilized spectacle. During this period, audiences saw avalanches, earthquakes, and floods on stage thanks to massive set pieces and advanced special effects.
Bourgeois theatre developed in Europe during the 18th century. Unlike its meaning in Marxist parlance, where it refers to landowners and those who have capital, bourgeois theatre was made by and for a broad range of social groups. Typically, the genre had a middle-class protagonist. Thematically, this type of theatre suggested that self-express is a source of truth. An example of the genre is The London Merchant (1731) by George Lillo.
Historical docu-drama, otherwise known as documentary theatre, uses documents and interviews to create a drama based on real, recorded events. A well-known example is the Living Newspaper unit that was part of the Federal Theatre Project in the United States during the 1930s. This troupe performed plays based on headlines in the newspaper. Another example is Anna Deavere Smith's play Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities (1992). In this play, Smith interviewed many residents in Crown Heights, Brooklyn and then later performed their words verbatim as part of her one-woman show.
Musical
Musical theatre is a genre in which the included songs are essential to advancing the narrative. Musicals typically alternate between spoken dialogue and song, which distinguishes them from operas, a form of musical performance that is completely sung. Opera originated in the 17th century in Italy but quickly spread throughout Europe. Well-known examples include Carmen (1875) by Georges Bizet and La Boheme (1896) by Giacomo Puccini. The melodrama The Black Crook (1866) is regarded as the first musical because it inserted songs for the inclusion of a French ballet troupe that was stranded in New York City. It was not until Show Boat (1927) that the songs and story were unified. Oklahoma! (1943) took this further by using song and dance to forward the musical's plot. 1940 to 1968 is considered the Golden Age of Musical Theatre.
Types of Performing Arts
While drama uses representation to communicate a narrative, there are many performing arts that tell stories through movement, music, and objects. These include music, puppetry, dance, and pantomime.
Music
There are many genres of music ranging from classical music, traditionally played on string instruments, to rock and roll, played on electric guitar and percussion. All over the world, there are different traditional forms of music, including the Latin American Samba, Gagaku from Japan, and the Yoruban style Juju. Different genres use a variety of musical instruments and vocal techniques to construct their unique sounds. Music may be performed as an instrumental (no voice), with both instruments and voice, or acapella (no instruments).
Puppetry
Like music, puppetry can be found in many forms all over the world. In puppetry, stories are told with puppets rather than actors. Puppets are objects that often resemble humans or animals that can be animated to tell the story. Some puppets are controlled by the operator or puppeteers' hand, while others are controlled by rods or strings. Punch and Judy are stock characters in a traditional English puppet show. These are examples of glove puppets and are fully sculpted. Conversely, Wayang is a traditional Indonesian form, using a two-dimensional shadow puppet controlled by a rod. Marionettes are controlled using strings from above. Typically, the puppeteer is obscured so the audience does not see them. However, this is not the case in forms like Bunraku, a traditional Japanese puppet theatre, where the principal operator is visible, but the secondary and tertiary operators are hidden.
|
Dance
Dance is a diverse form of artistic movement that includes subgenres like ballet, jazz, tap, and contemporary. Traditional forms like folk dancing are passed down generationally and can be related to social dancing, which deviates from dance for performance by inviting people to participate. Performance dance is set to music and choreographed, which is an artistic practice that creates sequences of movement.
Pantomime
Pantomime is a performing art that originated in Ancient Rome. In this form, it was a storytelling dance. Pantomime returned as a form of popular entertainment in the 18th century, where it served as a short afterpiece performance to larger plays. Although pantomime is often confused with mime, they are distinct. Pantomime is an ensemble of actors who speak and use props, while mime is a silent, prop-less solo performance form. Today, pantomime is a popular performance genre in England, particularly around Christmas, where familiar stories are comedically retold with the addition of music and dance. Pantomime often features audience interaction and the spectators often call out to the performers!
Lesson Summary
The dramatic arts are live forms of storytelling. Theatre and drama use actors to to represent narratives composed of plots and characters, that convey themes through language, music and spectacle. The most popular genres are tragedy and comedy. Traditionally, tragedy is the story of the fall of a great man, where comedy is the rise of the common man. Melodramas contain clear cut morality and simple plots that revolve around intrigue. Bourgeois theatre was a popular form that centered the common man as the protagonist. Documentary theatre constructs narratives from real events. Musicals and operas are dramatic forms that use music as a storytelling technique. Musicals use both song and dialogue, where operas are completely sung.
Non-representative performing arts include dance, music, puppetry and pantomime. Each form varies greatly around the world. Dance is artistic movement to music that is often choreographed. Music can be made with instruments, with the voice, or using both. Puppetry is a performance form that uses a puppet, rather than an actor, to tell the story. Pantomime is a popular performance genre that differs from mime through its use of an ensemble, spoken word, and props.
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Video Transcript
What Are Dramatic Arts?
Have you ever taken a drama class, acted in a school play, or danced in a recital? If so, you've already participated in the dramatic arts. The dramatic arts are a form of narrative performed on a stage in front of an audience. These stories and the way they are portrayed manifest in a wide variety of styles, also known as genres.
The two oldest genres are tragedy and comedy, but both had slightly different meanings than how they are used today. In simplest terms, tragedy involves a story where the protagonist fails or dies. A comedy has a happy ending and the protagonist wins. Sometimes these are funny stories, but in classical theater, these terms just related to the positive or negative outcome of the story. Let's take a closer look at comedies today.
Types of Comedy
Today, comedy often refers to amusing stories, not just ones with happy endings. That said, I'm sure you've noticed that there are different kinds of humor. You would expect different laughs from a sitcom than watching an indie film.
Let's take a look at the most common types of comedy:
- High comedy is a form of comedy that relates to our example of the indie film. These are usually serious stories that are humorous in an intellectual or thoughtful way. Films like Bottle Shock (2008), Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (1990), and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) are examples of high comedy.
- Low comedy is a form of comedy that usually evokes uncontrollable laughter, sometimes from improbable situations. Just about any sitcom you think of falls under this umbrella. If the situation portrayed is outrageously ridiculous and unbelievable, a low comedy may be deemed a farce.
- Improv, short for improvisation, is a comedy form without a script. Performers ask the audience for suggestions, and the actors perform on the spot by using the suggestions.
Drama
Drama refers to stories with serious subject matter. There are three subtypes of drama worth mentioning. Melodrama uses action to build interest and excitement, such as fights and chases. The theme is usually good versus evil. The second type is bourgeois drama, which is a dramatic tale with middle or lower class characters. Finally, we have the historical/docu-drama that tells a real story with dramatic elements.
Types of Performance
Next, we have types of theatrical performance that are not based on the subject matter of the story. These pertain to how the performers act out the stories and the style or devices they use. These types are used to tell stories from all of the genres we previously discussed.
Musical
Musical productions involve any form of storytelling that includes music. First, we have a type known simply as musicals. These productions include song passages and spoken dialogue. This is an important distinction to make; it differs from an opera because an opera requires the performers to sing every line. The dance genre also falls under musical performance because the dancers perform to music. A dance production tells a story through its performance. We see this in ballets like Swan Lake or The Nutcracker.
Puppetry
Puppetry is actually quite ancient, dating back over 3,000 years. In this form, at least one character must be a representational object, whether it looks like a person, an animal, or something else. These puppets are controlled by a puppeteer who may even give it a voice. Puppets are usually marionettes, but they can be made from socks or use small items on fingertips.
Pantomime and Mime
Pantomime takes a traditional play and encourages the audience to engage with the story. In Britain, many parents take their children to pantomime productions of fairy tales where actors ask questions of the audience, encourage them to shout out warnings, and become involved with the story. Mime, on the other hand, involves a performer or several performers acting out a circumstance without speaking, often without props.
Lesson Summary
The dramatic arts include any type of stage production that tells a story to an audience through performance. These stories can be separated along the earliest genres of tragedy, which involves a story where the protagonist fails or dies; comedy, which has a happy ending and the protagonist wins; and with drama, stories with serious subject matter. Each genre has their own subsets based on the subject matter, character, or type of action.
Improv is a unique form of comedy in which there is no script and the performers must improvise scenes on the spot. In drama, two popular forms are melodrama, which uses action to build interest and excitement, and bourgeois drama, a dramatic tale with middle or lower class characters.
Other dramatic art forms are categorized by devices or techniques used in the production. Musicals employ song or dance to various types of composition; puppetry uses at least one puppet in place of a human playing a character. Finally, people tend to confuse pantomime, a performance that interacts with the audience and requests their participation, with mime, which involves performers conveying a story or scene without speaking.
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Dramatic Arts | Overview, Types & History
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