SYSTEMATIC

APPROACH TO THE
CONCEPTS OF DRAMA
AUTHOR: ALI NAJAT
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ABOUT AUTHOR

Ali Najat currently a level 300 English Language student at the University of Education Winneba, completed her basic

education at the Yaa Asantewaa School in Kumasi in the year 2009. She also completed the Anglican Junior high school

‘A’ in the year 2012. She then moved to the Islamic Senior High School in Kumasi and completed in the year 2017. The

author hails from Nigeria, she is currently single and not searching.

AKNOWLEDGEMENT
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INTRODUCTION

Dear learner, you are welcome to our first lesson on drama which is one of the genres of literature. By the way have you

ever asked yourself what distinguishes a drama from a play and a theatre? Then sit back and relax as I take you to the

beautiful world of drama.

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WHAT IS A DRAMA?

A drama is a genre of literature which is an imitation of an action. It involves a work written for performance by an actor or

actors. This is where the confusion lies, because a lot of students take play to be the same as drama. But drama is the written

script meant to be acted as a play. So by now we should have in mind that drama is not what we see on stage but a play,

since drama is the written aspect of a play on paper.

Drama typically consists of dialogue which is broken up into acts and scenes. Therefore a drama can said to be composition

in prose or verse presented in dialogue and it is written in acts and scenes. Now let us move to the next concept, which is a

play.

WHAT IS A PLAY?

The staging of a drama text is referred to as a play. That is, a play is meant to be seen and it is also the dramatic

performance on stage. So at this point of our discussion we should have it in our minds that, a play is not a written text but a

theatrical performance.

For now we can say from the various definitions that, the most significant difference between these two entities is that,

drama refers to a form of written literature that is intended for performance and it is meant to be read while a play is meant

to be seen since it is a theatrical performance.

WHAT THEN IS ATHEATRE?

The term theatre is defined from the Greek word ‘theasthai’ which means ‘to behold’. A theatre is said to be the scenario or

the stage on which the play drives the drama. Then we can say that, a theatre is play plus environment. It comprises of the

stage, actors, background, costumes, lighting, sound effects and most importantly the audience. The most dominant features

in a theatre are a space to perform, actors and the audience. This is to say that, a theatre ceases to exist without the

aforementioned features.

At this point that our lesson is coming to an end, we should be able to distinguish between a drama, play and theatre. We

said a drama refers to a written play and used in the sense of theatre. A play is a stage presentation of a drama text that is

meant to be seen and it is used in the sense of literary composition.

ACTIVITY 1

A. Explain the concept of drama

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B. Define theatre in your own words?

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C. How different is a play from a drama?

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