REVIEWER IN CREATIVE WRITING

Drama in literature refers to the performance of written dialogue and stage action.
It's a literary genre that allows actors to act out a writer's words directly to an audience.
Drama film is a genre that relies on the emotional and relational development of
realistic characters. ... Whether heroes or heroines are facing a conflict from the
outside or a conflict within themselves,
A. Elements of Drama
1. Act - One of the major divisions of a play or opera.
2. Scene - The place where some act or event occurs.
3. Exposition - Background information regarding the setting,characters, plot.
4. Conflict – Struggle between opposing forces.
5. Complication - A series of difficulties forming the central action in a narrative
6. Climax - That point of greatest emotional intensity, interest, or suspense in a narrative.
7. Denouement - refers to the outcome or result of a complex situation or
sequence of events.
8. Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune from good to bad.
9. Characterization - The choices an author makes to reveal a character’s personality, such as
appearance,actions, dialogue, and motivations.
10. Protagonist - The character the story revolves around.
11. Antagonist - A character or force that opposes the protagonist.
12. Main plot – The main action in a play or story.
13. Subplot - Secondary action that is interwoven with the main action in a play or story.
B. Literary Devices in Drama
1. Imagery - The author’s attempt to create a mental picture in the mind
of the reader
2. Motif - Recurring theme in a literary work
3. Symbolism - when an object is meant to be representative of
something or an idea greater than the object itself.
4. Dramatic Irony – involves the reader (or audience) knowing something
about what's happening in the plot, about which the character(s) have
no knowledge 5. Tragic Irony - A character's actions lead to consequences that
are both tragic, and contrary to the character's desire and
intentions.
6. Juxtaposition - The arrangement of two or more ideas, characters,
actions, settings, phrases, or words side-by-side or in similar
narrative moments for the purpose of comparison, contrast, rhetorical
effect, suspense, or character development.
C. Forms of Drama
1. Comedy - A literary work that is amusing and ends happily.
2. History - The past events relating to a particular thing.
3. Tragedy - A dramatic presentation of serious actions in which the chief character has a
disastrous fate.
4. Tragic-comedy - A drama in which aspects of both tragedy and comedy are found.
5. Theatre of the Absurd - A form of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by
employing disjointed, repetitious, and meaningless dialogue, purposeless and
confusingsituations, and plots that lack realistic or logical development. This theatrical style
originated in France in the late 1940's.
6. Satire - A kind of writing that holds up to ridicule or contempt the weaknesses and
wrongdoing of individuals, groups, institution, or humanity in general
7. Farce - A type of comedy based on a farfetched humorous situation, often with ridiculous or
stereotyped characters
8. Modern Drama - Modern drama is the Western development of drama in the late 19th century
9. Melodrama - A dramatic work which exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the
emotions.
D. Features in Drama
1. Monologue- A form of dramatic entertainment, comedic solo, or the like by a single speaker
2. Dialogue - Conversation between characters in a drama or narrative.
3. Soliloquy - A dramatic or literary form of discourse in which a character talks to himself or
herself or reveals his or her thoughts without addressing a listener
4. Aside - An actor’s speech, directed to the audience, that is not supposed to be heard by other
actors on stage
5. Set - The time, place, physical details, and circumstances in which a situation occurs.
6. Stage direction - A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and
actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play.
7. Stage Conventions - Certain devices used within a performance that are accepted as
portraying an event or style without necessarily being realistic. (eg costumes)
8. Chorus - A group of characters who comment on the action of a play without participation in
it.
9. Dramatic Unites - the three unities of time, place and action observed in a classical drama.
10. Disguise - To modify the manner or appearance of in order to prevent Recognition
E. Techniques in drama
1. Vocal dynamics
Your lines are just words until you deliver them. In order to accurately portray different
characters and emotions, you need to expand your vocal toolbox and learn about the ways that
range, pitch, and pronunciation affect your performance. Sometimes you need to adopt an
unfamiliar accent. Other times, you might change your pitch to communicate building anger,
excitement, or sadness.
2. Body language and mechanics
Actors bring their characters to life by moving, reacting, and even standing in nuanced ways that
are natural for their character. Very subtle differences in posture, walking speed, or even the
force with which you pick up a prop can speak volumes about your character’s intentions.
3. Use and awareness of space
It is important to be aware of not just your “marks” on stage, but also of the actors who must
interact with or move past you. Your position on the stage or set affects everything from the
lighting and sound to camera angles and audience perspective.
4. Improvisational Techniques
You might associate improvisation with comedy clubs, and sketch shows, but on-the-spot
creativity is a skill that comes in handy for actors of every discipline Mastering these drama
techniques will make it easier to shed your own identity and become your character.
What is Intertextuality?
Sometimes, a work of literature refers to another important work in subtle or direct ways. This is
called intertextuality. It may be as simple as references to another text or the literary themes in
that text, or it may build on what the reader already knows from the original text. Either way,
this is an important concept in literature.
Importance of Intertextuality
Even though it’s a solitary activity, reading can actually be a shared experience. You and your
favorite writers have read many of the same books. When an author and the reader have a
common understanding of a text, this allows the author to communicate to the reader in terms
of that original text. Intertextuality is important because it is another form of communication
between the reader and the author.
What Are the Types of Intertextuality?
Intertextuality can take many forms, and you will recognize many of them from your favorite
books. Here are some types of intertextuality you may have encountered:
• Allusion - This literary device involves directly referring to something else, often another
literary text. Examples of allusion may be as simple as referring to a character or quoting a line.
• Parody - When one piece of writing uses many of the same elements of another but does it in a
new and funny way, this is an example of parody. The parody may copy the setting, plot,
characters, or other parts of the original work.
WHAT IS IT
• Pastiche - A pastiche borrows elements from one or more works and reconfigure them to
create something new. It is generally a respectful type of borrowing that gives credit to the
original and is not plagiarism.
Examples of Intertextuality
1. James Joyce’s Ulysses was a deliberate retelling of Homer’s Odyssey but transplanted out of
ancient Greece into modern-day Dublin. The various chapters in Joyce’s novel correspond to the
adventures of Odysseus in Homer’s epic poem. For Joyce, the point of this deliberate
intertextuality was to show that ordinary people can experience something heroic in their
everyday lives.
2. Steven Pressfield’s novel The Legend of Bagger Vance, which was adapted into a movie
starring Will Smith, was originally written as a re-telling of the Hindu epic Bhagavad Gita – the
name “Bagger Vance” is supposed to sound like “Bhagavad.” In the original Hindu epic, the
god Krishna discusses the importance of enlightenment and warrior virtues with Prince Arjuna –
the novel/movie transplants this ancient story onto the links of a golf course.
3. The actor Christopher Guest appeared in countless comedic movies in the 1980s, including
such classics as The Princess Bride (1987) and This Is Spinal Tap (1984). In the earlier film, he
plays a heavy metal guitarist whose amplifier, as we learn in one scene, can be turned up to 11
instead of the usual. Three years later, he appeared on screen again playing a man with
6 fingers on his right hand – the character had 11 fingers instead of 10. Fans have wondered
ever since whether this was a deliberate reference to Spinal Tap or just an accident: deliberate or
latent intertextuality?
4. Fan fiction is a great example of deliberate intertextuality. In fan fiction, authors enter the
fictional worlds of other authors and create their own stories. For example, a Lord of the Rings
fan fiction might tell the story of minor characters or add new characters to the world of Middle
Earth. Sometimes, fan fiction becomes extremely successful in its own right – 50 Shades of Grey
was originally written as Twilight fan fiction.
5. Martin Luther King’s writing was heavily influenced by the work of Mohandas Gandhi,
especially in the area of nonviolent resistance. Much of this intertextuality was deliberate, with
King explicitly crediting Gandhi as one of his influences. Scholars, however, have debated
whether there might have been other aspects of Gandhi’s writing, such as his aesthetic style,
that also influenced King in a more latent way.

STAGING MODALITIES
Staging is the process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space
for a play or film.

TYPES OF THEATER STAGES

1. PROSCENIUM
Possesses an architectural frame, known as the proscenium arch, although not always arch in
shape. The stage is gently sloped rising away from the audience.
2. THRUST
As the name suggests, these projects or ‘thrust’ into the auditorium with the audience sitting on
three sides. The thrust stage area itself is not always square but may be semi-circular or half a
polygon with any number of sides. Such stages are often used to increase intimacy between
actors and the audience.
3. THEATRES IN-THE-ROUND
These have a central performance area enclosed by the audience on all sides. The arrangement is
rarely ‘round’: more usually the seating is in a square or polygonal formation. The actors enter
through aisles or vomitories between the seating. Scenery is minimal and carefully positioned to
ensure it does not obstruct the audience’s view.
4. BLACK-BOX OR STUDIO THEATRES
These are flexible performance spaces which when stripped to their basics are a single room
painted black, the floor of the stage at the same level as the first audience row.
5. PLATFORM
These usually consist of a raised rectangular platform at one end of a room. They can either have
a level or raked sloping floor. The audience sit in rows facing the stage. The stage is open and
without curtains, they are sometimes known as end stages or open stages.
6. HIPPODROMES
Similar to circuses and have a central arena surrounded by concentric tiered seating. Deep pits
or low screens often separate the audience from the arena.
7. OPEN AIR THEATRES
These outdoor theatres that do not have a roof although sometimes parts of the stage or
audience seating will be covered. These stages may make use of the neutral light as it changes
during the day, particularly sunset.
8. PROMENADE
A promenade theatre is when people move around from stage to stage. It makes people feel like
they are more of a part of the performance and is more of an experience than a play. It is used
most of the time for plays that are set in the medieval era.