Drama Structure – Drama is one of the oldest literary works and has survived to this day.
While other literary works are becoming extinct, dramas are still being staged in many countries
around the world. In various senses, drama is a literary work that describes human life in
their daily life.
Discussing drama is incomplete if we don’t discuss its history. Actually there are several
opinions about when and where drama was first invented. The first opinion states that drama was
first discovered and staged in the era of Ancient Egyptian civilization around 4000 BC.
The second opinion, as well as the strongest opinion, states that drama first appeared in the era of
Ancient Greek civilization around 5 BC. Back then, the Ancient Greeks sang verses in praise of
the gods at Greek festivals. Gradually, these poems and songs then turned into performances
that performed plays with various characters.
Since then, drama shows have become popular and have been staged everywhere. Initially, drama
was just a way for people to worship the gods they worshiped. Over time, drama has become a
favorite form of entertainment that is always eagerly awaited.
Besides being increasingly popular, drama has also experienced many developments. If in the
past the story was only limited to the worship of gods, now the stories that are staged are becoming
increasingly diverse. Check out the explanation about the drama structure below!
Dramatic Structure
Drama structure is very important in a performance. The structure of the drama itself consists
of certain aspects.
1. Prologue
If a book has a preface, a play has a prologue. The structure of the drama prologue is at the
beginning of the play, and briefly describes the story in the play. In addition to a brief
story about the drama that will be played, the prologue also provides an overview of the characters,
setting, and several other aspects.
2. Dialogue
The next drama structure is dialogue. A drama won’t be drama if it doesn’t have dialogue.
You could say dialogue is everything in a performance, not just drama but literary and artistic
performances.
In drama, the existence of dialogue becomes even more important because with dialogue, the characters can
describe the story in the drama, starting from the prologue, problems, conflicts, to the epilogue.
The dialogue will also introduce us to the various characters in the drama, complete with their
respective characters.
The dialogue itself is broken down into several parts, namely an introduction that introduces the
characters, situations, and events that were happening at that time. Complications that tell
about the conflicts that arise between the characters in the drama. Lastly is the resolution,
or the solution to the conflict that appears as well as being the end of a show.
3. Episodes
Episodes are identical to soap operas that air on television. Actually, it’s not just soap
operas that have episodes, dramas too. Basically, episodes are part of a drama’s script or
script, and are aired sequentially.
Even so, the drama episodes are not as long as the episodes we usually see in Indonesian soap operas.
Usually dramas only consist of a few episodes, and the number doesn’t reach dozens, let alone
thousands.
4. Scene
Even though the episodes are not as long as soap operas, a drama, no matter how short it is, must consist
of many scenes. The scene itself is a change of events in a play.
Usually marked by changes in settings and screens, as well as the players. The changes were
deliberately made so that the drama performance would be interesting and not bore the audience present.
A drama starts from the prologue scene, then goes into the core story and ends at the
epilogue.
5. Epilogue
If the prologue is the introduction, then the epilogue is the closing word in a play. Given
its function, the epilogue is placed at the end of a story. The epilogue itself contains the
ending story in a play and the conclusion of the story in the play itself.
Although it doesn’t seem important at first glance, the epilogue is actually very important.
After all, every story needs an ending and the audience also needs an explanation. The
ending of the story usually determines whether the drama is good enough or not.
There are dramas that have a good plot but a disappointing epilogue. Conversely, many dramas
that may feel confusing at the beginning, but the plot gets better, then ends very well and makes the
audience feel satisfied.
4 Characteristics of Drama You Need to Know
By knowing the structure of drama, we also need to understand that there are many kinds of literary works,
and sometimes they are similar to one another. In order for you to be able to tell which is a
drama and which is another literary work, you must know their characteristics.
Here are 4 characteristics of drama that you need to know!
1. Having Dialogue
At the beginning of its appearance, drama was the chanting of verses sung to worship the gods of the
Ancient Greeks. Over time, people started replying to each other’s verses until it finally
turned into a complete storytelling with different plays and characters. This story then
attracted a lot of interest, and finally it was shown to the public.
In the past, people flocked to the theater to watch plays. Currently, drama performances can
not only be watched on the theater stage, but also watched on television screens and won millions of viewers
from various countries.
2. Have a Moral Message Conveyed
One of the main characteristics of a drama is the dialogue between the players. These
dialogues then form a story. It’s not arbitrary, a dialogue writer not only has to make a story
that is interesting and worthy of being staged, but also has a moral message to be conveyed to the thousands
of people who watch it.
This moral message is usually inserted between dialogues or becomes a conclusion that can be drawn by the
audience. In addition to dialogue writers, drama actors must also be able to convey a moral
message to the audience through the acting they display. If it’s only acting, then the story of
the drama will only be interesting but doesn’t have any lessons that can be taken by the audience.
3. Presenting Conflict
Not only giving a moral message, a good drama must also have conflict. Conflict is very
important to make drama look interesting and not boring. The more complicated the conflict that
arises, the better the drama. On the other hand, the conflict must also be clear.
Apart from being a playwright, the actors also have an important task of conveying the conflict to the
audience. To do so, the players must not only be good at acting, but also understand the script
so they can master the roles entrusted to them.
4. Language style
Finally, there is a style of language that is no less important than other characteristics.
Language style can also be a way to show a period, social class in roles, to conditions.
For example, a drama about a kingdom in the past. The players definitely have a
different style of language. Players who play the role of the king certainly have a different
language style from ordinary people.
Elements in a Drama
In addition to characteristics, drama also has several elements that cannot be changed. What
elements? Here are the answers and full explanations!
1. Theme
The theme becomes the first element in making a drama story. A drama must have a clear theme.
With a definite theme, we at least have a clear picture of the storyline, how many characters are
playing, what is the character of each character, to the background of the story in the drama.
From all of the above, in the end the production team can estimate how much it will cost and the creative team
can imagine what kind of decoration to make for each scene, plus the costumes that must be used by the
characters.
2. Storyline
After determining the theme, we can create a storyline in the play. Starting from the initial
story, the conflict, until the end story. The story line is very important because it
determines how interesting the play will be.
Apart from quality, the storyline will also determine the drama’s popularity. If the storyline
is boring, the audience will also get bored, even going home while the show is still going on and never
coming back. However, an interesting storyline will not attract more people to watch, but also
make other people fail to move on, and come back to watch it. In fact, it’s so good, it’s not
uncommon for someone to watch a drama many times.
3. Figures
A drama will not run without characters in it. The name of a drama, usually played by many
characters. Whether it’s the main character, or a minor character who only appears
intermittently.
In the past, drama characters were chosen just like that. Now, the players have to go through
a number of castings to be able to act as a character. In addition to an appropriate
appearance, drama actors must also have good acting skills so that the drama performance looks more
convincing and the moral message that the story writer wants to convey is conveyed to the audience.
4. Character
In a drama, each character certainly has a different character or behavior. Imagine if all the
characters in the drama you are watching have the same or almost similar characters, it is guaranteed that
the drama will run very boring.
A drama usually consists of two characters, namely the protagonist alias good behavior as well as antagonist or
bad behavior and makes the audience annoyed and even angry with him.
5. Background
Besides having a clear theme, plot, characters, and characters, a good drama also has a clear background.
If the actors and actresses have to portray the characters well, then the setting will be the job
of the creative team.
It is the people on the creative team who have to think about what kind of setting is appropriate to
describe the situation, time and conditions in each scene. The appropriate setting will make
the plot of the drama even more interesting.
6. Conveyed Messages
As previously discussed, a drama must not only have an interesting story and plot, but also a moral message
to convey. Without a moral message, a drama will only be interesting but does not teach
anything.
Usually, a moral message is inserted in the dialogue of the players. It can also be mentioned
at the end of the story.
Types of Drama You Need to Know
So far, most of us only know about romance genre dramas. Indeed, compared to a certain type or
gender, romance dramas are indeed interesting. But besides that, drama is also divided into
several types. Anything?
1. Tragedy
From the name alone, you can probably guess how sad this drama is. Yup, dramas with this type
of tragedy usually have sad or heartbreaking storylines. Even if the plot is not sad, this type
of drama usually has a tragic ending that will make you feel sad for days because of the story of the main
character who is so unlucky.
2. Opera
Those of you who like singing or music might really like this type of drama. Opera is a type
of drama in which the dialogue is replaced by singing and musical accompaniment.
In a way, this opera is the type of drama that is most similar to the drama at the beginning of its
appearance. In Indonesia, opera is less popular. But abroad, opera-type dramas
still have many fans.
3. Comedy
If tragedy has a sad plot, then comedy is just the opposite. You know, if anything related to
comedy is very funny.
In contrast to tragedy dramas, comedy genre dramas are actually very fun to watch and really keep you
entertained. This one drama made the audience laugh out loud throughout its performance.
4. Tragecomedy
“ Laughing at the suffering of others ” might be the right sentence to describe the situation in a
tragicomedy drama. For those of you who are confused, tragicomedy is a type of drama that
combines tragedy and comedy.
So, the storyline of this type of drama is actually quite tragic, but instead of bringing it with sadness,
the actors actually act very witty. The story is sad, but instead of crying, you’ll be laughing
the whole way through.
5. Melodrama
Melodrama is actually very similar to opera. The difference is, if dialogue operas are
performed with singing and musical accompaniment, melodramas still use ordinary dialogue.
However, as the name implies, so that the audience can feel the story more deeply, this dialogue is
accompanied by music. Usually melodramas have sad storylines, almost as sad as tragedy
dramas.
6. Tableau
Okay, among all the types of drama that have been mentioned, tableau is probably the most foreign type of
drama to all of us. In fact, this type of drama is rarely staged, even in European or American
countries. Tableau is also very different from other types of drama. Where’s the
difference?
You see, if opera is performed with singing, and melodrama is performed with musical accompaniment, at
least the two types of drama still have dialogue. Tableau? This type of drama
actually has no dialogue at all.
Now, because it does not have dialogue, tableau dramas only rely on movements or what is known as
pantomime. Usually, tableau dramas have a funny and entertaining storyline.
7. Farces
Apart from tableau, farce is also quite foreign to Indonesian ears. Understandably, in our
country, the popular dramas are tragedies, comedies, and a combination of the two.
For those of you who don’t know, ferce is a type of drama where the characters act funny and make the audience
laugh.
At first glance, bringing a drama performance looks easy. But what we see, will not always be
the same as the reality. What you see is easy, not necessarily easy for others.
So even with a drama show. Behind a cool show, there is a lot of effort that is done.
Starting from the writers who try to make an interesting story, the creative team who makes the
setting according to the story, and the actors who practice to master their roles. All of that
requires hard work, right?
For Sinaumed’s who want to learn about the structure of drama and all things drama, you can
visit sinaumedia.com so you have #MoreWithReading information.