 Drama: March 21, 2007 Issue [#1605] |
  Drama
This week: Edited by: StephBee  
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3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
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Drama:
#1 - The Greek word for "action."
#2 - A real life situtation or succession of events having the dramatic progression or emotional content typical of a play.
What makes such shows like "Criminal Minds," "Friends," and "Rome" stand out from many of their contemporaries? They're masterfully written. Let's take a look at one of the masters of drama, William Shakespeare. |
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Who hasn't heard of the Bard of Avon?  He's considered one of the world's preeminent drama writers, renown for his plays and poems. How can we bring a little bit of Shakespeare into our own writing?
Shakespeare's plays usually followed a standard formula. Each play starts with an introduction to the characters the situtation. In Act II, we have the rising action. Act III is usually the climax. We have our hero making a certain choice in which he or she will have to follow it through to its consequences. Act IV is the falling action. Act V is the conclusion where we learn the final outcome. Its still a dynamic template we can loosely adapt to our modern day stories as well.
Shakespeare's plays were the first to expand such areas as characterization, plot, action, and language. Who could forget such rich characters like "Hamlet," the flamboyant "Kate" from The Taming of the Shrew, and the wickedly delightful witches from MacBeth? These characters are not only memorable, but dynamic and vivid, and accentutate the positive when it comes to characters.
Once honed as a writer, Shakespeare addressed such themes as betrayal, murder, lust, power, and ambition. His later plays dealt with redemption and the use of magic along with other fantastical elements. These themes are still popular today in modern writings. We can apply the above to our stories to make them interesting and appealing.
Shakespeare facts
 Richard II and King Lear are the only two plays containing no prose.
From 1788 to 1820 performances of King Lear were prohibited on the English stage due to the insanity of the reigning monarch, King George III.
Love's Labour's Lost has the highest percentage of rhyming lines of all of Shakespeare's plays.
The first known staging of the play All's Well That Ends Well was 1740.
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Picks this week focus on the element of tragedy, one of Shakespeare's major categories of plays and poetry.
| |  | Addiction (E)
This is a poem about personal struggles against something thats hard.
#1229415 by coreyblade  |
Editor's note: You hear so much about this topic in the news, I included it here.
Editor's note: I thought this was very sad and tragedic. In a way, it reminded me of Romeo and Juliet
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This item number is not valid.
#811115 by Not Available. |
Editor's note: Here's another topic that's in the news these days.
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This item number is not valid.
#1223478 by Not Available. |
Editor's note: When ambition takes you down a narrow road...
| | | Indecision (E)
Choose your own destiny, for you can be crueler to your self, than fate can.
#1232347 by Dark Knight |
Editor's note: The tragedy of indecision. We've all been indecisive about something in our lives.
Editor's note: A personal favorite, dealing with loss. |
Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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What's your favorite Shakespearean play or poetry? Why? Let me know. Share your thoughts. 
Do you have any ideas for a drama newsletter? Let me know. Would you like me to look more in depth at one of Shakespeare's plays or poetry? Tackle something else? Feedback welcomed!
Here's some thoughts & comments on my last newsletter.
bazilbob
Hey, great newsletter on different types of drama, very interesting! I'm doing a unit in drama as part of my literature with creative writing degree, and I've learnt that it's better to write dialogue about anything except what's really going on, but to show what's really going on between the lines by how things are said. I've also learnt to remember status, and the change in status, taking it to mean not just a person's status in society as a whole, but that everyone has a status in every relationship. Maybe you could do a newsletter on status at some point?
That's the challenge isn't it, showing what's going on between the lines by how things are said? Status is very important. Great idea for a newsletter. I think an earlier drama newsletter by Turkey DrumStik  dtd 2/14/2007, touched on social mores and social mobility, but we can look at status in depth in a future newsletter.
kiyasama
Wonderful newsletter, Steph. I'm more familiar with the Greek and Noh drama, so the others were a pleasure to read and learn about. Thanks for the plug of my story as well! And keep up the excellent work.
Aw, thank you Kiya. I'm not very familiar with Noh drama myself, but I loved reading Antigone in high school. I even named my first car Antigone!
StephBee Works for LAPD as a 911 Dispatcher in her day job. Her hobbies include writing, watching "Rome," and hanging out with her kids.
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