The Elements of Drama

by J.L. Styan

This is an introduction to the drama, singling out and discussing its various elements, with detailed and generous quotation from masterpieces. Styan emphasizes that plays are meant to be judged in performance, not in the study, and that the play is something created by a co-operation of author, actor, producer and audience. The actor is doing something for the author's words; he is making the play work; and so is the spectator as he responds to the art of the actor, the producer and the playwright. It is a unique relationship, and the play in performance must be judged by 'theatrical' standards as well as literary ones. Styan begins with the elements of a dramatic text and the way they are built together. For every aspect - words, movement, tempo - and for larger considerations, such as verse-drama, convention, 'character', and audience-participation, Styan provides close analyses of excerpts from plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov, Wilde, Shaw, Strindberg, Pirandello, Synge, Anouilh, Sartre, Eliot and others. These detailed expositions give an insight into the aims and techniques of the particular playwrights as well as into the general themes. This is an ideal introduction to the art of the theatre for the general reader and the student of literature.

Genres: Theatre

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

Reviews

[Ante Banović · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stajen, J.,L. (1970). Elementi drame. Umetnička akademija u Beogradu : Beograd. – lektor: Milenka Šafarik

Ezra Pound: “Ako publika dobije striptiz, ona će progutati i poeziju.”
Knjiga namjenjena ljubiteljima kazališta, studentima drame i onima koji odlaze u kazalište. Knjiga ostavlja dojam forme esejističkog izlaganja. Styan pokušava objasniti vrstu aktivnosti koju gledatelj treba poduzeti prilikom nazočenja nekoj predstavi. Autor obuhvaća verbalne, vizualne i zvučne elemente, odnosno kodove (pristupajući tim fenomenima bez znanstvene terminologije). Styanovo smatranje da čin čitanja dramskog teksta nije dovoljan svrstaje ga u jednu od struja privrženijima tekstu predstave (a ne tekstu drame). Knjiga učestalo tematizira dramski dijalog i on čini osnovu analiza u knjizi i temu ove knjige.

[Albie]

The Elements of Drama by John L. Styan (1960)