Play it Up
Movies, television, YouTube, and novels are the heart of entertainment today. Everyone loves a story! From the beginning, people acted out stories of the hunt, the battle, the creation of the world. The Greeks had festivals celebrating drama and they believed that truth about life was communicated in their plays. The Roman's too loved the theatre. They took it to new extremes by staging floods and murders where people and animals actually died. The church reacted against these excesses and banned all dramatic presentation.
Imagine a world without any stories, a world where entertainment is forbidden. They didn't call it the Dark Ages for nothing! Then someone decided that entertainment was okay as long as it was related to God and the church. From there, drama grew through The Globe Theatre of Shakespeare, the comedies of the French Restoration, to Broadway, and on to Hollywood.
Yet few really enter into the relationship and understand all the facets of drama. Aristotle, a Greek philosopher from way back at the beginning of drama, developed a theory that will help you understand all the pieces that make drama compelling. The graphic below identifies the six elements of drama according to Aristotle's theory. Click on the six element headings to learn more about each. Then, read The Crucible Act 1. When you finish, complete the self check on the next page.
