(FTU) Lesson Topic 1: Drama Discourse

Lesson Topic 1: Drama Discourse

Drama is a genre in the literary world that people also refer to as dramatic literature.

If you have ever seen or read any plays, these fall into the genre of dramatic literature. Drama, or dramatic literature, is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. Authors write drama for the purpose of performance—to put on a show for the audience.

Each play, or drama, that you read is divided into acts and scenes. An act is a major division of drama, and the scenes appear within the acts. The scenes are the division of an act into smaller parts.

Typically, when a scene change occurs, many of the props change, also because the play is changing to a different setting. Props are short for "properties," or the pictures, furnishings, historical nuances, and so on, that provide the stage's background.

Within the scenes, actors and actresses have lines. Lines are the words making up a part of a drama that are spoken by the actors and actresses. The actresses and actors in the play are referred to as the cast, and they each have a script to memorize. The script contains stage directions, which are written instructions in the script of a drama given to the director, actors, and crew.

Practice understanding the drama terms using the crossword puzzle below.