A drama is a literary prose telling a story of human interest, and usually depicting lives of people and enacted using actors in a stage play. It is always live and performed before an audience. A single drama is a collaborative effort pooled for the different modes of production, text flow and research in the flow of an adopted literature.
Drama is a form of entertainment that has not lost its vigor even in modern literature, to think it started its humble beginnings to ancient Greece in which actors first performed in an open-air amphitheater. Today, its popularity continues despite technological innovation that is giving a new face to cinema.
The earliest forms of drama originates from various cultures the world over being tragedies, comedies, and romance (all under drama in literature), and represented as genres of poetry while the dramatic mode interspersed with epic lyrics. The first ever recorded drama was Aristotle’s Poetics, published in circa 335 BCE.
Here are different types of drama and their characteristics based on historical origin:
Athenian drama
Originated in ancient Greece, and named after the ancient city-state Athens where different genres of drama (tragedy, comedy, satyr) were written and performed. The Greeks conceptualized the idea of an actor that “acts out” the scenes along with other actors.
Romanian drama
Was more extensive than the Athenian drama, and initially were acted out after the sophisticated works of Roman literature, comedies, and tragedies. In the 2nd century BC, drama became part and parcel of the Roman culture.
Medieval drama
Involved religious enactment, the type of plays that were performed in cathedral premises. They depicted miracles and mystery plays with focus on propagating morality with the help of specially interspersed interludes.
Modern drama
Is a collaboration of innovative contributions, such as the roles of imitators. Modernist drama involves experimentation and social critique, and has a realist approach. Renowned playwrights of modern dram include George Bernard Shaw, Anton Cheknov, Arthur Miller, and Maurice Maeterlinck, among others.
All over the world, drama is an area in literature bespectacled with realism, making it an interesting and enjoyable way to learn about a culture’s desires and aspirations, tragedy, and comedy