It can often times get somewhat confusing when describing the differences between drama and theater.
In general terms Drama often refers to the written, intellectual and or emotional context of a situation, which is intended for an audience. This includes the script and or text for a show. Theater refers to the overall spectacle of the drama, that being how a drama is staged, showcased and performed.
What is Drama?
Drama derives from the Greek word ‘Drao’ which means action or to do. Drama seeks to provide a writer a link to his or her audience where their works are read, performed an interpreted. Drama can refer not only to the written word, but also interpretive genre, such as mime, dramatic dance where dancers have a narrative to follow, but also singing such as Opera, Ballet and Musical Theater.
Often in Drama a writer can explore plot structure, exposition, rising action, conflict, climax, and denouement. The audience can experience and study the protagonist and antagonist, theme and morals attributed.
The audience can view a Drama being performed and they can interpret the storyline from their own lens and draw conclusions from what they themselves, see, hear and feel as a result of that performance.
Drama is the action in written form, created to be performed using dialogue and physical actions to be interpreted by an audience.
Drama is Embedded with The Created Work or Script
Drama is a written interpretation, scenario or story which usually involves dialogue, physical actions within a story.
The Theater Artists
Theater Artists are also the performers in a show or theatrical piece. They are the people who interpret the script (drama) and present in a form which is intended for an audience to view (theater).
The practitioners who shape and create the drama are mainly:
- The playwrite, screenwriter, or writer
- The actors
- The director
The writer/creator establishes a storyline of sorts depending on the genre. The director aids in the interpretation of the piece. The actors interpret the piece by using their voice and bodies to engage an audience, which turns the dialogue in text form into a performance.
All other artists involved such as costume designer, props master, lighting designers and operators, backstage crew assist helping to create a theatrical piece for an audience. They aren’t not directly involved in the written drama or dialogue itselt.
These artists are part of the theatrical production rather than the drama/script/action itself.
Often times a Drama is intended for reading where the audience interprets their ideas about the work. For example in ancient times, drama was often read to an audience, where the audience had to derive their own understanding.
In more modern times dramatic plays are written to portray a storyline or plot, which is reenacted out by a performance of some kind.
Drama is embedded in the plot, theme, morals, values and issues within the script or works.
It seems that even the great Greek philosopher Aristotle added his dramatic philosophical theories in the mix by developing six elements for drama, which can be gleaned from his book Poetics.
- Plot
- Character
- Theme (some translators prefer “thought”)
- Diction
- Music
- Spectacle
This list seems simple, but it is quite informative when you consider that they are written, according to Aristotle himself, in order of importance! The plot is paramount, while spectacle is something we could do without.
Modern Interpretation of Drama as a Genre
Drama is also considered an actual dramatic genre. It is not quite comedy in nature, nor is it necessarily tragic as in ancient greek theater. Many television series and films are considered dramatic in nature. For example; The Godfather, Shawshank Redemption and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are considered great dramas.
The filmsite.org considers dramatic movies as: …are serious presentations or stories with settings or life situations that portray realistic characters in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between.
What is Theater?
Theater is the house, space or place where drama operates within.
Theater is the Spectacle of a Written Piece
Theater is where stage business takes place, where discipline, protocols, staging, crew, cast and creativity come together to produce an end product, that being a production or a given genre. It is where the audience is pivotal to the genre, because without an audience you will just have drama. The audience brings the drama alive.
Theater is also considered the genre spectacle that an audience sees. An audience could see a play, Musical show, Poetry or Opera as part of a theatrical experience.
Theater is considered the macro of a theatrical performance where-as ‘drama’ is considered to be the dialogue and action embedded within the genre.
The Cambridge Dictionary refers theater as: a building, room, or outside structure with rows of seats, each row usually higher than the one in front, from which people can watch a performance, a movie, or another activity.
Theater in its rudimentary term means the physical building, or the house of performance or even a place for the spectacle to take place. It is where the action of a dramatic written or otherwise concept is realised.
Why People Go to the Theatre and Not The Drama
People say they are going to the theater which says they are going to see a performance of some kind in a place where there are seats, a stage, stage sets, props, and lighting.
People don’t say they are doing to a drama, they say they are going to the theater because it is the experience as a whole they will be experiencing.
If they are going to a reading of a playwright’s work, they would more likely experiencing the drama of the script. There is no true performance, but often this is a platform to derive a mock audience’s interpretation.
Types of Theatre Houses
There are many different examples of theater or theatrical houses.
From Ancient Greeks and Romans theaters we have the amphitheatre, where citizens would sit in the open spaces to watch Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr Plays.
In Medieval times Europe had moveable stages usually utilized in liturgical plays. Through today with the more traditional and modern theatres such as the Proscenium Arch theater, the thrust theater, and Flexible theaters to name a few.
The following blog explains the differences between the various types of theatrical spaces and stages that we have had over the years to today. Check out my other blog post here.
From Proscenium arch, to end theaters, thrust theaters, Opera Houses, Black Box theater houses, to outdoor arenas.
In more modern times theaters
In a nutshell: Drama is often in structural form where certain elements of a narrative in terms of human experiences are embedded within the creative work. Theatre is the physical construct where dramatic narratives are produced, performed and experienced.
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