Notes About Reading Drama

Reading drama is different from reading fiction because it is so much sparer. The author tells the reader or actor very little about the characters, usually only in the stage directions which the viewers of a play don't see.

Characters

The first thing you want to get straight about the play is the characters; plot in drama is largely defined by the interactions between CHARACTERS. So there are two things you need to figure out:

• We call this finding the "through-line".
•  A good way to establish a through-line is to think about motivation: what makes each character tick? What do they want, what motivates their actions and words?
• Actors often think in terms of finding the"SPINE" of a character, the essential quality that holds them together.
• What do we find out about the history of each character in the play? What does their past tell us about them now?
• Pick a character to specialize in. Using that character's past history, construct your sense of that character's spine or motivation. What makes him or her tick? What is their ruling passion. How do they relate to each of the other characters?

• We call this finding the "cross-lines".
• This play is about two families and five different social levels, so we have to understand how each of the characters in each level relate to each other and to those at other levels
• How does Ferdinand relate to  his father? To Prospero? To Miranda?  How Does Caliban relate to Prospero, to Miranda, to Trinculo and Stephano?
• What is each character's relationship with every other character.

Ariel ------- Prospero

Miranda  ------ Ferdinand

Alonzo  ------  Gonzalo   ---  Antonio   -----Sebastian

Stephano   -- Trinculo

Caliban

• The complication is the beginning of the action, where all the conflicts gets set up, the wires get crossed, the people oppose each other, the lovers get lost from one another etc. What gets complicated in this play?

• The reversal or "PERIPETIA" is a sudden turn in the action of a play, the moment in a tragedy where the hero falls (like when Adam bites the apple or Macbeth murders the king). Are there any sudden turns in this play?

• Another kind of crisis can be a crisis of knowing, a sudden illumination, understanding, or recognition (like when Oedipus finally figures out that he is the murderer he has been searching for). What are the crucial moments of recognition in the play? Who recognizes what? What does this tell us about the THEMES of the play, the meanings it is exploring, the message it wants to get across?

• The resolution is the way the play gets resolved in the end. If it's a comedy, the play generally ends with a marriage, a party, a dance. Comedies end with the hero's integration into society. Tragedies are about the hero's isolation from society, so they typically end in death or exile. How does this play end? Is it a comedy or a tragedy?

Theme
Other ways of getting at the THEME involve paying attention to what the playwright emphasizes.

1. What ideas and concerns are repeated, brought up again and again?

2. What ideas have the strongest, most vivid imagery and/or figurative language associated with them?

3. What would you identify as the most important line in the play?

4. How does the title fit in?