Other sources include the morality plays that evolved out of the mysteries, and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Greek tragedy.
Shakespeare's plays are considered by many to be the pinnacle of the dramatic arts.
The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception.
The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional generic division between comedy and tragedy.
Realism first achieved popularity in the novel, but Ivan Turgenev and other playwright began to experiment with it in their dramas in the late nineteenth century.
Japanese N? drama is a serious dramatic form that combines drama, music, and dance into a complete aesthetic performance experience.
The expression classicism as it applies to drama implies notions of order, clarity, moral purpose and good taste.
The earliest theoretical account of Indian drama is Bharata Muni's Natya Shastra that may be as old as the 3rd century B.C.E.
The use of "drama" in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from Nineteenth-century theatre.
Naturalism was a movement in European drama that developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Plato, in a famous passage in "The Republic," wrote that he would outlaw drama from his ideal state because the actor encouraged citizens to imitate their actions on stage.
Theories of drama date back to the work of the Ancient Greek philosophers.
N? drama was supported by the government, and particularly the military, with many military commanders having their own troupes and sometimes performing themselves.
From the beginning of the empire, however, interest in full-length drama declined in favor of a broader variety of theatrical entertainments.
The performers were generally male (for both male and female roles), although female amateurs also perform N? dramas.
To restore the connection with the traditional Greek drama, he entirely renewed the operatic format, and to emphasize the equally importance of music and drama in these new works, he called them "music dramas".
Brecht's own social and political focus departed also from surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty, as developed in the writings and dramaturgy of Antonin Artaud, who sought to affect audiences viscerally, psychologically, physically, and irrationally.
From the 1980s both dramas experimented with ensemble casts, which featured not just a classic hero, but a number of different "lead" actors and blending a number of different story lines simultaneously.
Sometimes grouped with the unity of action is the notion that no character should appear unexpectedly late in the drama.
The term drama comes from a Greek word meaning "action" (Classical Greek: ?????, drбma), which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: ????, drб?).
Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy, such as Йmile Zola's Thйrиse Raquin (1873) or Anton Chekhov's Ivanov (1887).
Five comic dramatists competed at the City Dionysia (though during the Peloponnesian War this may have been reduced to three), each offering a single comedy.
The Roman comedies that have survived are all fabula palliata (comedies based on Greek subjects) and come from two dramatists: Titus Maccius Plautus (Plautus) and Publius Terentius Afer (Terence).
Ibsen's work helped to rewrite the rules of drama and were further developed by Chekhov, remaining an important part of the theater to this day.
into several Greek territories between 270-240 B.C.E., Rome encountered Greek drama.
In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) dramas have been written to be read rather than performed.
Noh dramas are highly choreographed and stylized, and include poetry, chanting and slow, elegant dances accompanied by flute and drum music.
Epic theater was a reaction against other popular forms of theater, particularly the realistic drama pioneered by Constantin Stanislavski.
The enactment of drama in theater, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, is a widely used art form that is found in virtually all cultures.
Western opera is a dramatic art form, which arose during the Renaissance in an attempt to revive the classical Greek drama tradition in which both music and theatre were combined.
Indian theater began with the Rigvedic dialogue hymns during the Vedic period, and Sanskrit drama was established as a distinct art form in the last few centuries B.C.E.
The Ramayana and the Mahabharata stories have often been used for plots in Indian drama and this practice continues today.
A number of theatrical movements arose which rejected the nineteenth century realist model, choosing instead to play with the language and elements of dramatic convention which had previously been dominant.
By the beginning of the second century B.C.E., drama was firmly established in Rome and a guild of writers (collegium poetarum) had been formed.
From Ibsen forward, drama became more interested in social concerns, challenging assumptions and directly commenting on issues.
One of the great flowerings of drama in England occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Miracle and mystery plays, along with moralities and interludes, later evolved into more elaborate forms of drama, such as was seen on the Elizabethan stages.
The theatrical culture of the city-state of Athens produced three genres of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play.
To resist, the British Government had to impose "Dramatic Performance Act" in 1876.
Aeschylus' historical tragedy The Persians is the oldest surviving drama, although when it won first prize at the City Dionysia competition in 472 B.C.E., he had been writing plays for more than 25 years.