Drama: notes

Parts of a play

• Act: a main division of a play. Scene: a smaller part within an act.
• Stage directions: the writer's notes on movement, tone and setting, often in brackets.
• Dialogue: talk between characters. Monologue: one character speaks at length.
• Soliloquy: a character speaks thoughts aloud when alone on stage.
• Aside: a short remark to the audience that others on stage do not hear.

Kinds of play

• Tragedy: serious, and ends in the downfall of the hero.
• Comedy: light, and usually ends happily.
• Tragic hero: a good person brought down by a flaw or by fate.

Effects

• Dramatic irony: the audience knows something a character does not.
• Tension: the sense that something is about to happen.
• Props, costume and set: objects, clothes and scenery that show character and place.

Reading a script

• Picture the play on stage and ask how an actor would say each line.