Elements of Drama: Dialogue, Stage directions

• Dialogue is the actors' spoken words in a play.
• Stage directions are usually italicized and in brackets, indicating actions or setting.
• Setting includes the placement of furniture, the size, shape, colour of props, and costume styles/colours.

Satire and Tone

• Satire uses irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to expose vice or folly.
• Satirical tone is the mocking tone used to make fun of characters and their faults, setting the mood.

Dramatic Form and Action

• Dramatic form refers to the sequencing and pacing of the action in a play.
• Action in a play should quickly engage the audience with the characters and situation.

Plot Structure

• Plot structure typically includes a main plot, with subplots in longer plays.
• A subplot is a secondary set of incidents involving secondary characters and dramatic questions.
• Exposition introduces characters and provides background information at the beginning of the play.
• Dramatic incitement is the incident that starts the main action, posing a dilemma or problem.
• Dramatic question is the central question that the play seeks to answer.
• Complication is the main action where characters respond to the inciting incident, also known as the rising action.
• Climax/Crisis occurs late in the play, answering the dramatic question.
• Resolution is the final section where things are resolved, also known as the denouement.

Tragedy

• Tragedy is a serious play about the disastrous downfall of central characters.
• Catharsis is achieved in tragedies by arousing fear and pity in the audience.
• Hubris refers to the protagonist's downfall due to their tragic flaw.
• Divine Retribution/Nemesis is an unbeatable source of harm or ruin.

Comedy

• Comedy is a play meant to amuse the audience by showing common human frailties and allowing them to feel superior to the characters.

Tragicomedy and Melodrama

• Tragicomedy combines elements of tragedy and comedy, offering a potentially happy ending or blending serious and light moods.
• Melodrama is sensational drama with one-dimensional characters and emotionally exaggerated conflict.

Language

• Language impacts the audience's understanding of the characters, mood, and pace.
• Formal language avoids slang and colloquialisms, suitable for academic writing.
• Informal language uses slang, colloquialisms, and conventions of spoken language.
• Dialect is a language variety distinguished by phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, used by a specific group.
• Prose is ordinary spoken or written language without metrical structure, commonly used by playwrights.
• Verse is metrical lines of poetry, used for dramatic effect.

Pace and Tone

• Pace is the flow of the play, where brisk dialogue builds anticipation and longer passages add significance.
• Tone is the emotion conveyed in the dialogue.

Dramatic Devices

• Aside is a stage whisper or comment directed to another character or the audience, often creating laughter.
• Soliloquy reveals a character's inner thoughts and feelings when alone on stage.
• Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more than the characters, foreseeing a different outcome.
• The Unities, according to Aristotle, are unity of action, place, and time.
• Inference is when the audience reads meaning into what is not directly stated.

Grammar

• Homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
• Subject-verb agreement ensures the verb matches the subject's number, even when separated by other words.
• Collective nouns can take singular or plural verbs depending on context.
• Indefinite pronouns can be singular or plural based on context.

Production Elements

• Full production requires professional memorization and most resources.
• Blocking is the planned movement of characters on stage.