This introduction to drama explores the aims and techniques of the particular playwrights and their plays.

In drama, we are the creators. Like in a skeleton, the bones of drama only work together. The human context -- the situation, the people and their relationships -- are the flesh. The body is given shape and animated by the way we focus those basic elements, and how we place them in space and time. We breathe life into the body through the story and the tension we create, and we give it language and movement to express itself, clothing the drama with its mood and symbols. In 1987, Brad Haseman and John OToole released Dramawise, a dynamic guide to drama education. This book stands as a definitive text for teachers, students and drama practitioners, shaping many classroom programs and curricula at a state, national and international level. This is the successor. It reaches beyond the original concepts, offering newly challenging drama activities that reflect complex questions in todays society. The result is a complete coursebook for students and teachers of secondary-school drama, featuring activities that thoroughly detail each element of drama. This is done using process dramas and plays from the wider world. Practical drama activities are supported with in-depth discussion of each of the elements of dramatic form, as well as traditional and contemporary dramatic meanings and approaches to play-making contextualised by the elements of theatre.

Louis Catron imbued experienced and fledgling playwrights with inspiration, guidance, and a passport to maximizing their writing skills as well as their overall ability to transform written words into a stage production. He understood that being a playwright is more than putting pen to paper. It involves expressing a personal point of view, bringing a vision to life, developing dimensional characters, structuring a play’s action, and finding producers, directors, and actors to bring the work to life. In the second edition Norman Bert infuses the enduring merits of Catron’s original work with examples, technological developments, and trends geared to today’s readers. Bert’s play references are familiar to contemporary students, including examples from plays written since 2000. He includes useful information on web-based research and the electronic submission process. A new chapter focuses on the playwright’s responsibility to lay the groundwork for production elements like casting, design, theatre architecture as it impacts audience–performer relationships, staging modes, and the uses and expectations of stage directions. Also new to this edition are reading resources for delving deeper into topics discussed.

An original and invaluable model of the elements of drama in context. O'Toole demonstrates how dramatic meaning emerges, shaped by its multiple contexts, and illuminates the importance of all participants to the dramatic process.

"The Fourth Evangelist understood the elements of Greek drama and employed them to construct the Gospel's plot. Scholars of literary criticism in the Bible and students of drama alike will find in this text a detailed, compelling, and interdisciplinary study that will answer questions left open by prevailing theories and launch avenues of research that have yet to be explored."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Intended for the inexperienced drama student as well as serving as a useful review for the experienced student, this book sets forth its principles briefly and with a modest amount of illustrative material. The author's suggestions should enhance classroom discussion and participation when used alone or in combination with individual dramas or works from anthologies. Topics addressed are: the nature and elements of drama, traditional plays, help in overcoming the initial difficulties in the reading of a play, and understanding the play in both its exposition and its drama. Originally published by Macmillan in 1966.

The beautiful Martina Josefina Catalina Cucaracha doesn't know coffee beans about love and marriage, so when suitors come calling, what is she to do? Luckily, she has her Cuban family to help! While some of the Cucarachas offer Martina gifts to make her more attractive, only Abuela, her grandmother, gives her some useful advice: spill coffee on his shoes to see how he handles anger. At first, Martina is skeptical of her Abuela's suggestion, but when suitor after suitor fails the Coffee Test, she wonders if a little green cockroach can ever find true love. After reading this award-winning retelling of the Cuban folktale, readers will never look at a cockroach the same way again. Carmen Agra Deedy delivers a delightfully inventive Cuban twist on the beloved Martina folktale, complete with a dash of café Cubano.

From legendary playwright August Wilson comes the powerful, stunning dramatic bestseller that won him critical acclaim, including the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. Troy Maxson is a strong man, a hard man. He has had to be to survive. Troy Maxson has gone through life in an America where to be proud and black is to face pressures that could crush a man, body and soul. But the 1950s are yielding to the new spirit of liberation in the 1960s, a spirit that is changing the world Troy Maxson has learned to deal with the only way he can, a spirit that is making him a stranger, angry and afraid, in a world he never knew and to a wife and son he understands less and less. This is a modern classic, a book that deals with the impossibly difficult themes of race in America, set during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s. Now an Academy Award-winning film directed by and starring Denzel Washington, along with Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Viola Davis.

Craft your fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability. An imprisoned man receives an unexpected caller, after which "everything changed..." And the reader is hooked. But whether or not readers will stay on for the entire wild ride will depend on how well the writer structures the story, scene by scene. This book is your game plan for success. Using dozens of examples from his own work - including Dropshot,Tiebreaker and other popular novels - Jack M. Bickham will guide you in building a sturdy framework for your novel, whatever its form or length. You'll learn how to: • "worry" your readers into following your story to the end • prolong your main character's struggle while moving the story ahead • juggle cause and effect to serve your story action As you work on crafting compelling scenes that move the reader, moment by moment, toward the story's resolution, you'll see why... • believable fiction must make more sense than real life • every scene should end in disaster • some scenes should be condensed, and others built big Whatever your story, this book can help you arrive at a happy ending in the company of satisfied readers.