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  • - [Instructor] Hello readers.

  • Today let us talk about drama.

  • Enter stage right and let us tread the boards together.

  • Drama, also known as theater or plays,

  • is a specialized kind of story

  • that is meant to be performed.

  • If you've ever seen a movie, a television show or a play,

  • or if you've ever heard a play

  • on the radio or through a podcast,

  • you've experienced the magic of the dramatic arts.

  • Writing a drama is different than writing a poem or story.

  • And that means that reading one is different, too.

  • So I'm gonna show you part of a short drama

  • on the Khan Academy website

  • in order to go through the parts of a play.

  • Okay, so here we have the title of the piece,

  • My Unusual Aunt.

  • But it's followed by something you maybe haven't seen before

  • which is the Cast of Characters.

  • This tells us who's in the play,

  • a 12 year old named Isabella, and her aunt Yasmin.

  • Now these are the characters

  • the actors will be performing in the drama.

  • There may be other people referenced.

  • Like for example in this piece

  • Isabella refers to her Dad being asleep in Scene Two.

  • But he never shows up on stage.

  • A play is decided into scenes,

  • which you can think of like chapters in a book.

  • Scenes are sections of a drama

  • that are separated by time or location.

  • Scene One takes place in the evening outside.

  • Scene Two takes place at Isabella's house some time later.

  • How do we know that?

  • The setting and stage directions.

  • So this italic slanty text here in the brackets

  • tells us where the scene is set in time and space.

  • It says Evening: Isabella is walking her dog Stanley.

  • A bat dives down.

  • The name Isabella is in all capital letters

  • to make sure the actor playing Isabella notices.

  • And from this we know several things.

  • Isabella is in this scene, she's outside,

  • she's walking her dog, and it's nighttime.

  • So if this were a stage play,

  • we'd maybe see a set that looks

  • like Isabella's neighborhood.

  • She's walking the dogs, maybe we'd see

  • a little bit of sidewalk or a fire hydrant.

  • There's more italics in this bit,

  • and it what are called stage directions.

  • An actor wouldn't read this aloud during a performance.

  • Instead, stage directions tell the team

  • putting a drama together what is happening on stage.

  • So a bat dives down.

  • That's gonna be a puppet or a prop

  • operated by a puppeteer or a stage hand.

  • And then we have this line of dialogue

  • spoken by Isabella reacting to the bat.

  • Ugh, since when do we have bats in the neighborhood?

  • C'mon Stanley, let's run home.

  • So characters have lines.

  • The character name indicates which character is speaking.

  • Sometimes you'll have a stage direction

  • just before a line of dialogue,

  • as we can see in Scene Two.

  • And Yasmin points to a giant trunk before she talks,

  • but the actor playing her wouldn't say

  • pointing at giant trunk aloud.

  • That's a physical action

  • the script is asking her to perform.

  • These are the basic components of a stage play.

  • The characters and their descriptions,

  • the way the play is divided into scenes,

  • the stage directions that tell actors

  • and others what to do,

  • and the lines of dialogue that actors have to deliver aloud.

  • These are the building blocks of a play.

  • And now that you know that,

  • you know just enough to be dangerous.

  • Go write a play!

  • Tell it I sent you.

  • You can learn anything, David out.

- [Instructor] Hello readers.

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