What is drama and its elements?

Drama is the act of portraying a story in front of an audience. It involves the characters and events of the story being brought to life on a stage by actors and their interactions (verbal and non-verbal) through its events.

Of various forms of drama, plays are the most popular. Some other formats are dance performances, radio shows, puppet shows, etc. The history of drama goes back to Aristotle and his treatise ‘Poetics’ which gives a critical analysis of Sophocles’ Greek play, ‘Oedipus Rex’.

Plays aim to show through action and dialogues what the written text of the story delineates. It has a written blueprint called the script which has all the information regarding the characters, their dialogues, and the stage setting like mise-en-scene, etc.

The various characteristics of drama are:

Themes in Drama

It represents the basic idea of the text. It can be as direct as the title of the drama to very obscure and needs careful thought and analysis. The action and its plot makes the audiences immerse in the drama and try to extract the theme behind it.

Plot in Drama

The sequence of events or actions in a play is called its plot. It represents what happens in the drama. The clarity and coherence of the plot are essential to give the drama a logical and undisturbed flow.

The various characters follow a pattern of interactions and movements through various stages of the plot. These stages are initial disturbance or conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and finally the resolution of the conflict.

Characterization in Drama

The way in which the characters are portrayed and developed is known as characterization. The characters act out the story in front of the audience. They are the agents of movement and progression in a drama.

They are responsible for perusing and traversing the plotlines. A character has its distinctive appearance, beliefs, thoughts, flaws, personality, age, and dialogues. Actors in the play have the responsibility of bringing the characters to life.

The various characters in any drama are the protagonist (represents the theme), the antagonist (the villain of the drama), anti-hero (the object of sympathy), etc.

Characters may include the narrator who introduces other characters and informs about the various interactions and happenings in the drama.

Setting, Spectacle, and Descriptions

The setting represents when and where the drama unfolds. It can have multiple places or confined to a single space. The historical and social context, time period and the location of the story is set are all included in the design of the setting of any drama.

Example: Merchant of Venice is set in the 16th century Venice. Spectacle involves the complete range of aspects of dramatic production from the setting, make-up, costumes to special effects.

The visual elements add more information for the audience to register and help create a unique world or atmosphere and bring to life the playwright’s ideas. The direction is an essential constituent of effective stagecraft.

Stage directions are provided to the actors to follow and ensure unity of movement on stage. The organization of props and lighting is also crucial in any performance.

Descriptions provide a wealth of information about various things from the setting and its elements, characters, and their thoughts, plot and its web of action, etc. The coherence of details is important to keep the audience engaged and richness is important to keep them entertained.

Language in Drama

The word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the language. The dialogues are the lines that the characters speak and often represent their feelings and emotions.

Language and dialogues delivered by the characters move the plot and action along, provides exposition, and defines the distinct characters. Each playwright can create their own specific style in relationship to language choices they use in establishing character and dialogue.

Monologues and soliloquies help are speeches that incorporate information difficult to be extracted through dialogues. Example: “To be, or not to be“, a soliloquy from Hamlet.

Music in Drama

It provides the cadence to the dialogues and adds an element of the theatrical presentation. Though not indispensable in a drama, music provides sounds to the action in the drama.

It creates patterns and rhythm of those patterns. It is used to enhance the experience of the audience and provide heightened sensorial stimulation for the audience.

It also adds more power to the ideas presented in the play like a tragedy, heroism, optimism, loss, etc. Even the thoughts and desires of the characters are depicted through various musical elements and compositions.

The right kind of sound effects or music greatly supplements the ebb and flow of emotions in the play. Read more about Drama.

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The elements of drama began with Greek philosopher Aristotle who stated in The Poetics (c.335 BC) each dramatic performance (tragedy) must contain the six key elements of plot, character, thought (theme), diction (language), melody (music-dance, song, rhythm) and spectacle. This is history’s first surviving example of dramatic theory.

In contemporary drama education, there is no prescribed or definitive list of the elements of drama. Below is a list of 30 of the most common elements of drama with my own descriptors, gained from over 30 years of teaching practice in drama education. Where similar terms mean the same (such as focus and emphasis), I have included both terms. I trust this post may prove useful for both drama/theatre teachers and their students, alike. Enjoy! – Justin Cash

30 Elements of Drama

1. Action

Action, or dramatic action, refers to the propelling of the plot from one moment to the next in the drama. This will naturally relate to the structure of the play, as the action moves forward from the early stages (exposition) to the inciting incident, rising action, one or more crises, the climax, falling action, and then the conclusion. See the “Structure” entry further down this list for more information on how plays are formed.

2. Audience

Of all the essential elements of drama, the audience must exist for it to be considered a performance – a play without an audience should be considered a rehearsal.

An audience can specifically refer to the engagement actors have with their audience through performance, known as the actor-audience relationship. The exact nature of this relationship can vary depending on the style of the performance.

For example, a performer in a purely naturalistic drama may ignore the audience altogether (they may even have their back facing the audience), while a performer in a realistic drama may be aware of the presence of an audience but not perform directly to them, whereas a performer in an epic theatre play by Bertolt Brecht may regularly break the fourth wall and interact directly with sections of the audience. Manipulating exactly how a performer relates and engages with the audience in a performance can be both an academic exercise and fun at the same time.

3. Climax

Most dramas will have one or more crises in the development of the plot. A crisis is a key moment of dramatic tension and conflict in the play, usually occurring between two or more characters and having serious implications for the outcome of the plot. The ultimate crisis, or highest peak, is usually called the climax and often (but not always) occurs toward the end of a play. There can also be more than one climax in a drama, although this is uncommon. An anti-climax is also possible.

4. Conflict

Conflict is one of the key elements of drama. Playwright George Bernard Shaw once said ‘No conflict, no drama’. How right he was! A drama that lacks conflict is normally dull and uninspiring. As a rule, conflict should always be considered an essential ingredient for all dramatic performances.

Conflict can be between two or more characters, or simply one (inner conflict). Many Elizabethan soliloquies contain inner conflict (‘To be or not to be…’ is an excellent example). Conflict on stage can be verbal, physical, or non-verbal. Conflict differs from tension in that it is often a fixed and permanent part of the structure of a play embedded in the fabric of the drama, often from the outset, with characters destined to clash with one another.

5. Contrast

Without the careful use of contrast, performances are boring and lack tension. In simple terms, contrast is a point of difference. An obvious example of contrast is a sad scene followed by a happy scene. But contrast can be created in more subtle and sophisticated ways, such as manipulating the drama to create a change in setting, pace, or time.

The contrast between characters should also be considered. Contrast can be created by changes in language, timing, mood, lighting, energy, relationships, situation, and more. Careful use of contrast as one of the elements of drama in performance can keep an audience actively engaged, throughout.

6. Convention

A convention is an acting or staging technique. Examples of conventions include the use of a narrator, an aside, a soliloquy, a direct address, the use of placards, songs, etc. Conventions are often associated with performance styles, which in turn are commonly associated with one or more theatre practitioners. Sometimes conventions are linked more generally with the way theatre was performed in a certain era, for example, the conventions of absurdism or Elizabethan theatre.

7. Dramatic Moment

A moment, or dramatic moment, is self-explanatory. It is a specific moment in the play, usually lasting only a short time, where the action is dramatic in some way. But being dramatic does not always mean loud noises and lots of moving characters. A dramatic moment can be a poignant moment of stillness or silence. Dramatic moments can also occur with only a single actor and even without sets and props, such is the power of drama. The tempo and rhythm of a play often change when a dramatic moment occurs. Tension is often manipulated when creating dramatic moments and the element of contrast is commonly employed.

8. Energy

Energy is the intensity of a character’s actions in the drama. Many plays contrast one or more high-energy characters with low-energy characters. Energy, therefore, refers to both vivacious and vibrant characters as well as slow, dispirited, or tired characters. Before a character can be portrayed with a certain type of energy, the performer must possess this energy. In general terms, energy can also refer to the intensity of specific performances or the type of show being performed (e.g. a musical).

9. Focus / Emphasis

Focus has multiple meanings in drama and performance. While it can often be used interchangeably with the term concentration, as an element of drama, focus is more often associated with emphasis. Unlike in movies or television, where the filmmaker can zoom into the actor or area in question, in the theatre, we need to employ other techniques to attract the focus of the audience.

How do we channel the attention of the audience to a certain area of the stage in order to give this particular space appropriate emphasis? How do we focus the lens of the spectator on the small bird in the hand of the actor downstage left? What directorial techniques can we employ to place focus on the two pirates sneaking onto the ship upstage? How can we use theatrical lighting to ensure emphasis is placed on the character who is singing? These are all challenges associated with focus and emphasis in performances.

10. Language / Text

The use of language in performance can be verbal, vocal, or non-verbal. Language is normally spoken text. It is the written script realised in performance. While normally spoken by the actor, language can also be chanted or sung. Language can also deliberately be nonsensical for dramatic effect.

The choice of language as one of the elements of drama is crucial, as it forms a major means of communicating the story of the drama to the audience. Exactly how the actor in a performance chooses to use language is usually determined by the expressive skill of voice. However, language can also be non-verbal, commonly referred to as body language. The elements of voice and language should not be confused. Using the voice is the process of speaking the verbal language.

11. Dramatic Metaphor

Metaphor in drama involves a second reference in order to enhance the meaning of the first. For example “The man is a goose”. The description of the qualities of the first reference (the man) is enhanced by knowledge of the second reference (the fact that a goose is considered a silly waterfowl by its looks, big feet, and awkward behaviour).

A literary example of metaphor can be found in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, set in the Salem witch trials of 1692-93, but actually about the spread of Communism in 1950s America (the time and place of the play’s writing).

Bertolt Brecht employed a similar dramatic metaphor in his work The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a play set in 1930s gangster-ridden Chicago that was really about Hitler’s Germany. George Orwell’s Animal Farm was not about animals at all, but Russia and the Soviet Union under Communist Party rule.

Dramatic metaphors, however, should not be confused with the use of symbols. When an object is used as a symbol, it is replaced by the symbolic meaning – for example, the red rose is now replaced by the feeling of love. However, with dramatic metaphor, the second reference enhances this meaning without replacing it.

12. Mood / Atmosphere

The mood is the feeling or tone of a performance and is naturally associated with the atmosphere. It refers to ambiance or aura and is often created through a combination of several elements of drama and production areas working in harmony. The atmosphere of performances are closely linked with everyday feelings such as fear or desire.

The mood in drama can be created via sound, lighting, movement, props, setting, rhythm, contrast, conflict, and more. It is also possible to create a particular mood or atmosphere in just one moment or scene in a play. Therefore you can have more than one mood presented in a single performance.

13. Movement

Movement is the self-explanatory act of a performer moving in the drama according to the character’s objective, motivation, surrounding circumstances, and interaction with other characters. The physical action of movement often defines character relationships and situations. While certain types of movement can involve walking (and the hundreds of different ways of doing just this), running, sliding, falling, etc, stage space needs to be used, including upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right, etc.

14. Plot / Story

The plot is the action of the drama. Many plays have more than one plot, often consisting of the main plot and one or more (less important) plots known as subplots. Shakespeare’s dramas are classic examples of plays with multiple plots keeping the audience engaged at every turn.

The “story” of a drama is usually considered any action referred or implied to on stage, but not seen. This is often the backstory of various characters revealed in the early part of the drama (exposition). The story differs from the plot of the drama in that the plot must be seen by the audience.

15. Posture

Posture is the position in which a character holds their body when standing or sitting (not moving). Posture can define a character’s attitude, social status, inner feelings, rank, and more. Posture is similar to a character’s pose or stance.

16. Relationships

Relationships are also sometimes considered one of the elements of drama. This refers to the interrelationships between characters in a play. Character connections affect the way the plot evolves. These relationships may be friendly, conflicting, romantic, of equal status, or otherwise. Some relationships in a drama may be fixed, while others may be variable and subject to change as the plot evolves.

17. Rhythm

Rhythm is more commonly a musical term. In drama, rhythm refers to timing and pace. It also means the beat or tempo of the whole performance. As a rule, rhythm should never be the same throughout the drama, regardless of its length. Rhythm can follow the emotional state of one or more characters or the atmosphere of the play at particular moments.

Rhythm is closely linked to movement. An everyday ritual presented on stage, such as getting ready for work in the morning, can involve repetitive and rhythmic actions and gestures. What is the rhythm of the long line of people in the unemployment queue? What is the rhythm of the classroom scene where students are misbehaving with the substitute teacher? How does the rhythm contrast in these two examples?

Rhythm can also have a place in the delivery of dialogue. The most obvious example is the text of Shakespearean dramas delivered using iambic pentameter. But all character dialogue, no matter how informal, should have a particular rhythm attached to it.

18. Role / Character

Role and character lie at the heart of all drama because, without these elements, the drama would not exist. Role and character are often used interchangeably to mean the same, while sometimes these terms are separated. The role is normally associated with role-playing in drama, which can occur at any level. Taking on a role often occurs as part of the process of drama and not always the product (performance). However, it is also entirely acceptable to ask an actor what his or her role is in the play.

Role-playing is popular in drama improvisation games and often involves quick transitions into roles with little or no preparation, sometimes involving a stimulus. While adopting a role is critical in understanding the essence of drama, it is often considered less complex than portraying a character. Characters often have sophisticated backstories and undergo changes during the development of the plot. Portraying a character involves the application of expressive and performance skills. In professional theatre, there are numerous acting methods for developing and sustaining character (e.g. The Method).

19. Setting / Place

Setting refers to the location of a scene, play, or musical. It is one of the fundamental elements of drama. Many dramas have more than one setting. Productions with physical sets normally have clearly defined settings, but smaller dramas and one-person plays (monodramas) may have little or no sets or props to help identify locations. In these examples, the performer will use dialogue and other expressive skills in order to denote a setting, including any changes. This is known as an implied place or setting.

20. Situation

The situation in drama refers to the given circumstances of the dramatic action happening in the play. This is a straightforward concept. What is the setting of the play (time, location, etc)? What are the circumstances of the given scene (an argument, marriage proposal, a betrayal of friendship, medical emergency, school assembly, election campaign, etc)? Clearly conveying the situation in the play at any particular time makes the drama coherent for the audience.

21. Sound / Music

Contemporary theatre relies on sound and music in a number of ways. While theatre has traditionally used lighting to create an atmosphere in performance, sound and music is being increasingly manipulated to create mood. The use of sound can involve the implementation of technology, such as sound effects and soundscapes. Actors and their bodies can also construct effective sound in performance. Small props can create sound effects that can be used live during a show. Sound in drama can even involve the absence of sound!

22. Space

Space is one of the critical elements of drama, referring to the effective use of available space in performance. Space can be both horizontal and vertical. Performers can be upstage or downstage, stage left or stage right. Different levels of space can also be utilised such as sitting, bending over, lying down, crawling, or physically using another level of a stage set.  In order to use space effectively, movement becomes an important factor.

Effective use of space also involves clearly communicating to the audience where the action is taking place. This may include any changes in location that occur in the performance, particularly if little or no sets or props are being used and there is a heavy reliance on the audience’s imagination – otherwise known as implied space in the drama. Sometimes theatre buildings or specific productions can be created using a particular space such as traverse staging, proscenium arch, thrust staging, or arena/in the round.

23. Spectacle

Historically, the spectacle was one of the obligatory elements of drama outlined by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in The Poetics. Aristotle referred to spectacle elements as costumes, scenery, actor gestures, and the sensory effects of the resonance of the performer’s voice (sound).

In a contemporary context, spectacle refers to all the visual elements of a play – those incorporating theatre stagecraft and production areas. These can include stage sets, lighting, costumes, props, make-up, special effects, and multimedia. Spectacle in contemporary theatre is probably more important today than it was centuries ago due to the advent of technology and its integration into all levels of the theatre.

24. Structure

Structure, or dramatic structure, refers to the backbone of a drama. A typical structure of a play involves the exposition and initial action at the beginning, an inciting incident where the conflict and point of attack within the play are revealed, rising action involving conflict and one or more crises, and the ultimate crisis known as the climax, then the falling action towards the latter part of the drama leading to the conclusion, which is not always a happy resolution. The French word denouement is often used to define a play’s ending. Translated into English, denouement means the untying or unravelling of the knot, in other words, the untying of all the complexities of the plot into a suitable conclusion.

Non-typical structures involve cyclical plots that end where they began, evident in some absurdist plays. The simple fact that Shakespeare and his contemporaries always wrote plays in a five-act format is also an example of structure. In later years, a three-act format was common, further reduced to two acts. Today, short one-act plays consisting of numerous brief scenes are a common dramatic structure in contemporary theatre.

25. Symbol

The symbol is one of the principal elements of drama. The use of symbols in dramatic performance can be one of the simplest and also most complicated of all techniques. Symbolism implies a greater meaning than the literal suggestion. Props are the easiest to work with because objects in everyday life are symbols in society (a rose symbolises love; a cross symbolises Christianity). Symbols can also be found in the use of colour. We often symbolise purple with royalty, red with anger or desire, black with evil and darkness, or white with purity and innocence.

Colour association can be worthwhile symbols with costumes, sets, and props. But the most sophisticated use of symbols occurs with the application of gesture and movement. A particular gesture performed by a character early in performance can be repeated in another context and have a very different meaning. Used only once, a gesture can also be a powerful symbol. All of these examples can be combined for an even better effect.

26. Tension

Tension is sometimes referred to as dramatic tension and usually lies with the development of suspense. As the audience anticipates certain outcomes in the plot, the tension builds. Tension differs from conflict in that it is usually a transient occurrence that may take place multiple times in a single play. An obvious example of rising tension occurs in a mystery play or whodunit. In these instances, the audience is left in a constant state of suspense trying to determine the real culprit. The development of tension therefore usually parallels the advancement of the plot, leading to a crisis or climax. Tension is closely linked with the element of timing.

27. Theme

Theme refers to what a play is about (often the central idea), while what specifically happens on stage is the plot. Through the dramatic action of the plot, the deeper meaning of the play is revealed. A single play can consist of multiple themes. Extracting a theme from a play involves viewing it with a wider lens and seeing the bigger picture. Is the play about a group of friends from different cultures really about racism? Examples of themes in plays are power, revenge, mateship, love, greed, nature, good versus evil, coming of age, family, isolation, redemption, injustice, etc.

28. Time

The notion of time is one of the indispensable elements of drama in most performances. In period drama, time may be as broad as a particular era, such as the 1880s. Other dramas loosely convey a modern or contemporary portrayal of time. Some plays contain a specific time that must be conveyed to the audience. These may involve the season of the year, month, day, or even hour. More generic use of time involves the use of the future, although this can also be specific by stating the actual year.

Time can also refer to how long the drama takes to perform. This can be of particular importance in naturalistic dramas where the length of stage time in a play may equal real-time in the theatre. Flash forwards, flashbacks, and other disjointed time sequences in a drama can also refer to changes in time. Alternatively, plays can deliberately appear timeless within the world of the play. Some absurdist dramas deliberately follow this structure.

29. Timing

Timing in performance refers to the dramatic timing of movements and gestures. We often take our movements for granted in everyday life, but when performing, the use of our bodies must be carefully considered and controlled. Timing can be manipulated to demonstrate authentic, stylised, or non-realistic movements and gestures. The timing of movements of a tired old man will differ from those of an energetic young schoolboy. Similarly, the gestures of a tyrannical dictator will differ from the suppressed people living under his regime. Rhythm, pace, and movement are particularly affected by timing in drama.

30. Voice

As one of the elements of drama, voice is critical to most performances. A drama without the use of voice is considered a movement piece or a mime. While some would place the voice in the category of a performer’s expressive skills, it is nevertheless an element essential to nearly every drama. Vocal variety can be achieved via the use of projection, pitch, tone, rate (pace), emphasis, diction (articulation/enunciation), rhythm (beat), pause, intonation,  tempo, subtext, and even silence.