Page 28 - Thietre Arts

Theatre Arts For Secondary Schools

Activity 1.6

Compose five to ten verses of any form of recitation of your choice and perform.

Drama
The term drama comes from a Greek word ‘dran’ which means to act or to do. Drama
is an imitation of life. It portrays life in a way of a play that is performed on stage
before an audience. Any drama should have a well-plotted story, actors or actresses,
a performing area and the audience as shown in Figure 1.14. Actors or actresses are
assigned characters’ roles that tell the story through actions on a performing area.
These characters can be human beings, other living things, non-living things or
spiritual beings.

However, not all actions can be called drama. An action qualifies to be a drama if it is
an imitation of an earlier action, real or imagined, with conflicts in it. For instance, a
hunter who goes to a forest, kills an antelope and takes it home while dancing, produces
no drama. It only becomes drama if a complicated hunting journey is re-enacted by
actors or actresses representing the hunter and the antelope before the audience for
entertainment or any other purpose.

Figure 1. 14: Drama performed on the stage at school

Basic elements of drama
The elements of drama help to create engaging narratives that captivates audiences
and convey powerful messages. The following are the fundamental elements of drama:

20 Student’s Book Form One

18/10/2024 18:39
Theatre arts form 1.indd 20
Theatre arts form 1.indd 20 18/10/2024 18:39