Drama
Drama/acting: get your act together
Drama is a peculiar mode of fictional performance based entertainment delight which is generally presented with the combination of dialogues, music, songs and dance. The background music score helps the fictional story make an impact on the audiences as well make the point to be proven in the story line up more pivotal.
The drama has many ancestral roots and the history of drama is far more complex and complicated than the subject drama itself. Drama performances has been in practice from the very early ages of the Greek and the roman kingdoms and were performed locally for amateur groups with nominal amount taken from the public as well as in king’s court for the king and the high official.
Drama as defined by the Greeks had three forms termed as comedy, tragedy and satire. The origin of all these forms as the sub categories of drama is yet not clear. The competitions for these forms of drama were given to different authors in ancient ages by the Greeks and the winners were chosen out of the first three contenders. Thespis was chosen winner in 543 B.C.
How many forms of drama actually exist or existed cannot be ever said for sure but what can be generalized from whatever data is available at the present is that the western drama and its history as three links to Greek, medieval and Elizabeth and Jacobean age. In the medieval age the drama form saw a change and took more or less a religious enactment. It was also enacted into tragedy and comedy depending totally on the theme of the drama.
The twilight of medieval era paved ways for the dawn of new era, the Elizabethan era, which can be rightly called the golden era of the Drama. This era saw a culmination of great writers like Shakespeare, Ben Johnston, Thomas Middleton, and Christopher Marlowe etc. During this period, verse was used to express the ideas and concepts in the plays, for example iambic pentameter. Moreover, in the writings of this era you could easily hint the flavor of Roman mythology and Greek mythology.
Other than the contemporary works of the west, the eastern hemisphere had also developed there knack for drama. It was mostly popular in Japan and India, where the former had its No Drama the Indians had there own forms. In India famous playwrights like Kalidasa and Bhasa popularized the art of drama. They were cherished at the king’s council as well as the village assembly. Natya Shastra is considered to be the most primitive drama of the Indian culture. It was written by Bharata Muni in the 3rd century B.C.
In contrast to the Indian drama the Japanese form was serious documentary combining music, dance and drama. These were developed near around 14th century A.D. by the Japanese and the technique of dance and drama performance was passed on from one generation to another. Even the military was seen performing No drama as it was supported by the government. The counterpart of No drama is Kyogen and in it they lay more stress on words than music.
Besides, the forms of Drama that is presently known are opera and pantomime. The renaissance period saw the rise of western opera. It was just an effort to revitalize the classical form of the Greek drama in which both theatre and music were combined. Though opera has changed enormously in the past four centuries under the influence of classic music but it still holds a very important position. In one way or the other you would feel that opera provided just the right balance between theatre and music.
The other form of drama—pantomime equally got fame and accompanied opera even when the later reached to the highest pedestal of sublimity and grandeur. The special forte of pantomime laid stress on its ability to reach to common masses. This form of drama was like folk and fable tales in which a moral was always to be found. The basic concept always circulated around the good’s triumph over the evil.
These days drama has become a form of education by which people try to communicate with the general mass. We may also look at it this way that there are various people who are trying to get educated for performing in a drama. These two different ways of looking at the perspective of drama has risen due to its popularity. Drama, which was a form of art or recreation in the past, has become the occupation of many.
At the same time it is true that by the help of drama people can be educated. Maybe for this reason alone it is also used for therapeutic purposes. The impact of the role-play in any drama is vital for every person in it. Through it, they get to learn new things that which they have never thought in the past; by simply interacting with others as the character would. This feature is made use in Drama therapy, a subjective method, which is used to treat people with extreme psychological and emotional problems.
There are various other ways in which drama has evolved in its form. It does not require a stage any more for the actors to perform, nor does it need to be based for entertainment. It has become the means of awareness and education, but when needed it does not hold back to amuse its audience.