The Drama Medium
The Drama Medium refers to the different ways in which dramatic meaning is communicated to an audience.
These include the use of:
- Costume
-Period – costume that reflects the time of the play.
-Stylized – not representative of the time in history.
-Minimalist – very simple costume – a basic costume that all of the cast wear with a few simple items to signify character/role.
- Masks/Make-up
- Sound and music
-This includes everything that the audience hears. Recorded live music, sound effects, different ways the voices of the actors are amplified etc.
- Lighting
-Lights to create a range of effects, moods or to direct the audience’s attention.
- Space and Levels
- Space means the area between and around the actors and the space in which the drama takes place. It can include space between the audience and actors.
-Levels used by the actors either high or low – how they affect the way we see characters and their relationships.
- Set and props
- Movement, mime and gesture
- Movement is all physical action and gesture is a single movement – fist clenching etc.
- Voice
-How it is altered to convey feeling and expression – pitch, tone, etc.
- Spoken Language
-Choice of words to convey specific ideas about character, plot or theme.
Explorative Strategies
Explorative strategies are ways of using drama to explore topics, themes, issues, play texts and performance.
The strategies you are most likely to use are:
- Still Image
-Freezing in a pose as if in a photograph.
- Thought-tracking
-Stopping during drama to reveal your character’s thoughts at that moment.
- Narrating
-Giving a spoken commentary alongside what is happening on stage.
- Hot-Seating
-Actor has questions fired at her or him and responds in character.
- Role-play
-Pretend to be someone else by putting yourself in a similar position and imagining what that person might say, think and feel.
- Cross-cutting
-Re-ordering scenes but ‘cutting’ forwards and backwards to different times.
- Forum Theatre
-A scene is acted out to a group of people who stop the action and suggest improvements or add in a role, or take over an existing role.
- Marking the moment
-Identify or ‘mark’ a significant moment in your drama through discussion, freezing a point of action, adding captions, thought-tracking or using lighting.
The Elements of Drama
The elements of drama are the different parts of a dramatic performance. These relate to the story being told, the themes being developed and the ways the characters are presented.
The elements of drama include:
- Action, plot and content
-What happens in the drama.
- Forms
-The way that the story is told – using a narrator – playing multiple characters – cross-cutting (jumping between times or scenes) – monologues – using dance or music – soundscapes – physical theatre
- Climax and anti-climax
-Climax is when a sense of expectation is built up and the tension is released. Anti-climax is when the same sense of expectation is built up but the key moment doesn’t come, or is delayed, or not serious.
- Rhythm, pace and tempo
-The speed with which the action moves along and how it changes. Changes in rhythm, pace and tempo are also reflected in speech.
- Contrasts
-Contrasts are create when opposites are put together to produce a specific effect or impression such as, speech v silence, stillness v activity, or, contrasts in location, theme or characterisation.
- Characterisation
-How you use voice, gestures, movement to create a believable character.
- Conventions
-Techniques typically used in drama performance to help you explore and portray character, themes, issues, etc. Examples include – slow motion to show a physical event that can’t be shown on stage – Still image to capture a moment – audience asides – soliloquy a character speaking their inner thoughts on their own on stage – dividing the stage to show more than one location at a time.
- Symbols
-A symbol is a recurring object or image that represents a theme or idea within a piece of drama.