TABLE OF CONTENTS
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.
Alfred Hitchcock (1899 - 1980)
1. The BEFORE – setting the stage, Prologue
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Themes and drama
1.3 Dramatic or non-dramatic
1.4 The routine of composition
1.5 Dramatis personae
2. Beginning things right – the foundation and building blocks of drama
2.1 Where it all starts - the point of attack: Shakespeare and Ibsen
2.2 Exposition
2.3 The first act
2.4 “Curiosity” and “Interest”
2.5 Foreshadowing vs forestalling
3. Keeping the Pace and Interest: The Main Body, Middle and Unfolding drama
3.1 Tension and it’s suspension
3.2 Preparation: The finger-post
3.3 The obligatory scene
3.4 The peripety (about-turn)
3.5 Probability, change and coincidence
3.6 Logic
3.7 Keeping a secret
4. Ending things on a good and high note – The essentials of a Drama Ending
4.1 Climax and Anticlimax
4.2 Conversion
4.3 Blind-alley themes … and others
4.4 The full close
5. Afterthoughts and Final Words – The Epilogue
5.1 Character and psychology
5.2 Dialogue and details
Conclusion
A dramatic critic is a man who leaves no turn unstoned.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
Has anybody ever seen a drama critic in the daytime?
Of course not. They come out after dark, up to no good.
P. G. Wodehouse (1881 - 1975)