Drama\'s Origin and Its Appeal

¶ … Origin and Appeal of Drama

A generally accepted theory is that drama's origins lie in prehistoric human beings and their rituals which contained music, dance, masks, costumes, a specific performance area, and a division between audience and performance. Later, in Egypt about 4,000 BC texts were written on tomb walls with plot, characters, and stage directions for enacting the body's resurrection. Between 3,000 and 2,000 BC other plays developed which were performed at the coronation of the pharaoh (coronation plays), celebrated pharaoh's 30th year on the throne (jubilee plays), and which were part of religious festivals (passion plays).

Western drama as we know it today started about 600 BC in the ancient city-state of Athens when a Greek poet named Thespis got the idea for an innovation to music. At that time a Greek chorus, with a leader, sang songs about legendary heroes. Thespis, who was probably the leader of the chorus, began to impersonate a character in dialogue with the chorus of singers and called it tragedy. Later, the people of Athens began to hold an annual contest in tragedy at the festival for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fertility and revelry, and Thespis won the first prize at the first competition. After Thespis developed tragedy with one character and a chorus, Aeschylus came along and started using two characters. This made it possible to act out conflicts. Aeschylus explored the relationship between men and the gods in his plays. Then, Sophocles increased the number of actors to three (Ancient Drama web site) and explored themes about the true nature of man. Later, Euripides wrote plays in which human beings were portrayed more realistically and questioned social conditions. Aristotle wrote the first book Poetics about this literary form between 335 and 322 BC (Theatre History Thru Renaissance web site).

The word drama comes from a Greek word that means action because there are parts for actors to perform or act out. When a drama is staged in a theater with an audience, the audience pretends that what is happening on stage is real and forgets that the action is not real. This is called the willing suspension of disbelief. The play allows the audience members to feel what it is like "to be another person or in a situation that we would not normally encounter such as, being a general in a war" (Drama: Definition and much more web site). Thus, the audience members participate in the action and learn from it. By entering into the world of another person, and seeing it from someone else's point-of-view, the audience members gain understanding. Audience members forget their own identities and problems, as they immerse themselves in the problems and conflicts of the drama. Drama is a safe way to gain vicarious experience and broaden perceptions of the world. It can also be very entertaining.