What is Drama

Knowing What is Drama makes the Actor Authentic. Authentic Acting is knowing how to access your emotions to release your talent into Drama. Into Craft., into Expressions that fit the canvas of your acting scenario.

Proper Drama is a natural occurrence within the scene after releasing the emotion using Emotional Preparation Techniques. The Dramatic Event happens and the Actors bustle with activity in response to the Drama occurring, if it affects them. 

Some Main Quotes of this Acting Article:
“Behaving how you are with feeling, or how you are activated is key in acting.“
“Acting craft is the talent of releasing emotion into Drama.“
“Acting is ‘the Thing’ you live in”

Copyright 2019, 2022 Simon Blake
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The Function of Drama in Art

Drama is the internal struggle of moves the storyline. Drama is often connected to the unseen emotions which function the story lines movement. Drama helps to impetus the movement and changes within the script. That meaning moves the storyline from meaningful scene to meaningful scene.

In essence the function of drama in art is the depth and not the surface of the art piece.

Why Take Acting Classes?

Acting classes help you find and practice in real-time emotional availability. There is nothing farce about finding your own meaning within an acting class.

Meaning is the depth of which drama builds upon.

Finding the Dramatist within ourselves is our finding our own emotional brushstrokes. Regardless of the form of drama taking acting classes can give you the needed practice to warm up your talent and keep it activated.

If the Drama does not affect you then it is not your responsibility to perform its action.  Drama is the ghost in acting that you want to be affected by if you can craft the happening to occur to you naturally.  

Acting craft is the talent of releasing emotion into Drama. This helps to answer the question what is drama.

Drama is not something that is an accident, but a craft., a skill an ability to express your own talent.

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When Does Drama Occur

It can occur as you live in the real time occurrence of the scene or can occur prior to the scene’s event.  If the event occurs prior to the scenes event the Actor is responsible for achieving that emotional awakening of the prior event before they enter the scene. 

The Actor does not have the responsibility of the Drama but rather the responsibility of living truthfully after being affected by the Dramatic occurrence. 

Drama that occurs within your scene is another occurrence.  Pretending the occurrence happened when it didn’t happen in the scenes real timing is fake acting.  Just because the Drama is scripted to occur does not mean that the Actor has the responsibility to react if it does not strike them in a dramatic way.  This is the art to the craft of acting. 

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The Thing you Live In

Involving yourself in what encapsulates you, is key.  If you design your relationship with Drama in a certain way you will be able to be affected by it.  Being affected means being open to it yet often surprised by its timing.  You need to remember that Drama is the thing that you live within and that you are not the event even when you are experiencing the Acting.

If you recognize that the event is a fluid thing and an occurrence that can come and go even when you are present within a scenario you can develop yourself not to be intimidated by it.  When action occurs, your training needs to be pointed towards how to live in it rather than to implement the events of Drama.  

Many times, Drama is the external event that happens to the Actors.  In several instances scenes start with a prior experience that the Actor is responsible to bring into the scene.  In these cases, the Actor needs to know the craft of Emotional Preparation and how to self-stimulate themselves emotionally to have that vivid result of the prior experience that begins the scene. 

Even when the scene begins with a prior experience it does not mean that the Actor is responsible to carry the intensity of the reality of the entire scene.  Drama when used well will activate at different times during scenes encounter as does the emotion of the scene.  

Not Creating Drama

Being creative and adding to the structured scenes in acting is part of the Actors creative process.  However, living out false or created Drama that is not within the scenes context always takes away from the scene.  It is not trying to recreate the experience that you are already in. 

Behaving how you are with feeling, or how you are activated is key in acting.

If you don’t feel it don’t participate in a fake way like you really care unless it is carried by rich subtext.  Whatever happens on the surface in understanding what is Drama needs to be supported by underlying activation.  When there is active emotional life beneath the Drama there is honest give and take between the Actors and they are affected by the Drama in crystal clear ways.  

The clarity of the Actors comes from them not creating the Drama they are in but being able to submerge into it with the undercurrent of meanings beneath it.  Letting go of the meaning during the time of working in the acting scenarios is another key that unlocks artistic fluidity in acting. 

Most often what creates Drama is the uncertain outcome of an event.  So, if you try to create the suspense you are creating a certainty to the event which is often designed not to be certain.  Thus, you are taking away the suspense of discovery from your own work if you try to create Dramatic Effect.

Learning craft in acting, which answers what is acting, is the ability to have very little drama in life. Acting techniques help you to put your drama in your acting. Thus, you are clearer in life to handle more and be more organized.

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Opening Yourself up to Drama

It is important for Actors to open themselves up to the event but not to create the Drama.  Opening yourself to the Drama means that you open yourself to the finding out about the experience that you are in. 

You want to be able to give yourself as an Actor the ability of having interest in your dramatic situation.  This means that you give yourself reasons to want to explore your Dramatic situation.  Giving yourself reasons to explore is opening up yourself to the dramatic elements in your acting. 

For instance, you have an arrival at a house.  If there is not a dramatic element that makes you want to explore the house than you may need to give yourself one.  If there is a dramatic element in the script than you as an Actor still need to do the work to give yourself further intrigue.  

Adding reasons to be open to the dramatic circumstance amplifies your acting without acting or pretending the drama.  There is a big difference between being alert to the dramatic circumstances and pretending that an event exists. 

Opening yourself up to what is drama gives you the edge of being in a scenario rather than being outside of a scenario.  

Giving Yourself a Doing

Many Actors open themselves up to their environments or circumstances by giving themselves a doing within the script.  They find that giving themselves a task within the script even when the script did not instruct such, adds to their natural intrigue of the dramatic scenario.  

If you are involved in a doing like measuring a dead body when you get to a crime scene as a detective in a script you become more open to the circumstances and more interactive with it.  

Advanced Actors often will give themselves additions during their scenes that will be actual intrigues that they have as people as well as actors.  On a western set the cowboy may play with their holster believing that someone may still be in the empty saloon they are entering. 

This may not have been in the script but the action of giving themselves that doing intrigues them into the circumstances instead of just walking in to do the scene and finding their best friend injured behind the bar.  

You have the right to suggest as an Actor to the Director additional Doings that will help you to find and explore what is acting in your scenes.  

Acting Articles on Emotional Preparation here

What is Drama

The keys to drama unleash the creativity within the actor to match the intensities of the script. Great Actors are able to access themself and spark self activations to put emotions into their acting. Drama is that ability that Actors possess to access themselves in both dance and theater.

How the Playwright adds Drama for Actors

Playwrights have to trust that Actors will put the drama of themselves into their acting roles. Whether the Actor represents racial & social justice or lives in real-time an emotional journey Drama is the key element.

Playwrights Definition of Drama

Synonym exploration of key words or phrases in the Playwrights work will lead to exploration of drama for Actors. The playwrights gifts the actor emotional elements within their work. The goal first is to find the book work of the playwright. Next is the hard work of finding the emotion and the drama from within.

The Actors job is to sort what the Drama means then attach their own emotion into their acting. The use of Drama performed by Actors is always better with the undercurrent of an activated emotion.

Use of Drama in Ballet

Expressions & Equations in ballet color the cultivation of drama on stage. Whether you are doing a melodrama ballet piece on William Shakespeare or more of a classical drama you access your emotions to do your craft.

Drama is the interaction of emotion in acting. In every artform the interaction is the drama that exchanges characters directions and motives. You of course are the character in the real-time experience of the Imaginary Circumstances.

While you are in front of the audience or just off stage your morality plays a narrator to your function as you dance and live a real-time story.

Example of Drama in Life

Life too often may take a dramatic form. Life without drama may be a simple and peaceful existence. That hecticness is the drama of life we feel as we succeed in life.

Tragic drama is our interaction in life with tragic events. Romantic acting is the romance we live in real-time in life that often we can draw upon for art.

Drama in Literature Reflects Life Experience

Drama is the literature of meanings that reflect life experiences. The use of a happy ending in an arch of a romantic comedy gifts hope to your audiences as they witness your experience.

Type of Drama in life to Bring into Acting

One-dimensional concepts are not usually thought-provoking. The greatest dramatists are the ones that combine ideas to make sense with one another. An Actor in an imaginary circumstances may have had a terrible day yet still stops to smell the flowers and give a neighbor a gift. These actions are the drama because they are the interactions chosen within the imaginary circumstances.

When the story is told it is certain the drama has unfolded.

Actors need to work hard on techniques to access their emotions. The Emotional Preparation Technique is one way to access the practice of emotion. Rehearsing by practicing self activation of emotions that fit the narrative of the scene is a learned process.

Research and Study Skills

In Emotional Preparation the dramas are written by the Actor to rehearse towards scene work. The research and study skills are part of the Emotional Preparation aspects. The Emotional Activation is when the Actor self activates their emotion.

Self activation of emotion is far different than dramatic traditions that plays are usually part of only performing emotion. Instead the research and study skills work to accurate activate an emotional range within the Actor.

Sparking ones own emotion in self activation is the key to practice of drama.

Types of Drama in the Theatre

If you are doing a sentimental comedy you must know what sentimentality is. If an action is meant to be performed it will be better performed with an activated emotion. When performed in front of a live audience the audience will be able to tell the difference.

Comedy, Tragedy and Asian Drama

The typical comedy, tragedy and Asian Drama still require an active emotion to be in their best form. To be sensational and extravagant you will want to have depth of drama in your acting.

The funniest comedies are often very serious in nature.

The key to doing Tragedy well is the concept of hope. If you add hope to tragedy is it better and more palpable to the audience. It will be easier to watch as well be easier for the Actor to go in and out of the depth required.

Asian Dramas may have big stage directions but still need emotions to undercurrent their functions.

Western Drama vs Mime

Mime is a type of performance art that involves the use of gestures and body movements to convey a message or story. Mime is almost always without any words. Western drama, on the other hand, is a type of performance art that relies on dialogue and action to tell a story. Both forms of performance art have their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Mime is often seen as being more accessible than western drama, as it does not require any spoken language. This can be an advantage if the audience does not share a common language with the performers. Mime can also be used to convey emotions and feelings more effectively than words alone. However, mime can be difficult to understand if the audience is not familiar with the form, and it can also be quite static compared to western drama.

Western drama, on the other hand, is often seen as being more intellectually demanding than mime, as it requires the audience to follow along with the spoken dialogue. This can be an advantage if the story is complex or if the performers are skilled at delivering their lines. However, western drama can also be difficult to understand if the audience is not familiar with the culture or context in which it is set.

First Known History of Western Drama

The first known history of western civilization can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. The Greeks were a highly advanced society with a rich culture and history. They had a strong influence on the development of western civilization. Other early cultures that had an impact on the west include the Romans, Celts, and Germans. Western civilization has its roots in these ancient cultures.

Westerns often fell into becoming different styles the same way that on different television sets a certain style starts to develop within a show.

What Modern Actors Learn from Greek Drama

The history of drama leads to Greece and Greek Drama. Languages also tell the story. There is an old saying that states watch out here “comes the Greek”. This was about the rich history and the additions that Greek Dramas gifted modern drama.

Audience’s and Character’s amplify the performance in an authentic way for the stage but a way that would stick out in life.

The main thing is that all acting is a type of Interaction.

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Copyright 2019 – 2022 Simon Blake, All Rights Reserved.

About Simon Blake

Simon Blake has studied between 30000 – 40000 acting exercises and studied over 8-10++ thousand acting students work in acting. Studying their Emotional Preparation to their Spoon River Work. Studying every area of Meisner training work with well over 30 Teachers including himself.

“Learning Emotional Preparation for Musicians, Artists, Creator and Actors is incredible.  Applying Activated Emotion prior to doing is key!”

Simon Blake runs and operates the website EmotionalPreparation.com which teaches Actors how to add Emotion to their acting.   Using improved acting techniques for Actors and Music.

To contact Simon Blake for help or suggestions use the contact page.  

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Tags: Acting with Drama, Drama for Acting, what is drama