Page 147 - English_Form_3

Play/drama

(a) Read and act out the following dialogue between a student and a drama
director.
FOR ONLINE READING ONLY

Student: Good morning, Director!
Director: Good morning! How are you?
Student: I’m fine, thank you. I was looking for you.
Director: Oh, you are welcome. What can I do for you?
Student: I have a lot of questions about drama. Could you help me?
Director: What exactly do you want to know about drama?
Student: I’m interested in knowing specific elements that make drama different
from other genres.
Director: Terrific. There are several types of elements of drama. We have
production-related elements such as acts and scenery, stage direction,
dialogue, props, curtains, and costumes, to mention a few. These
elements make it possible to perform/act drama on stage rather than
being read as a book.
Student: Thank you so much. But would you explain a bit more?
Director: Oh! Yes. the major divisions of a play (like chapters in a novel) are
known as Acts. Sometimes, the acts are subdivided into scenes.
Moreover, the setting of a play is shown on the stage. If the play
is taking place in a market, the stage will have market stalls, etc.
Production-related elements work hand-in-hand with performance
elements. These include acting, gestures/mimes, facial expressions
and voice projection.
We can also have literary elements of drama such as plot, characters,
conflict, theme or thought, and language, also called dialogue.
Student: But we have dialogues in novels as well.
Director: Perfect! We experience description or narration in novels, whereas the
whole drama depends on dialogue. There is no description in drama
except what is needed to show the setting on stage and tell the actors
what to do.
Student: Oh yes. So, these instructions are the words written in italics?
Director: Brilliant! Those are called stage directions. They are written in italics
and/or in brackets to describe what is on stage or tell the characters
when to enter and leave, and how to speak. These words are for the
producers and the actors, not the audience.

English for Secondary Schools Student’s Book Form Three
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17/09/2025 16:34:48
ENGLISH F3 PB.indd 140
ENGLISH F3 PB.indd 140 17/09/2025 16:34:48