Elements of Play: Most successful playwrights follow the theories of playwriting and drama that were established over two thousand years ago by Aristotle. In his work the Poetics, Aristotle outlined the six elements of drama in his critical analysis of the classical Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by the Greek playwright Sophocles, in the fifth century B.C.
The six elements as they are outlined involve:
Thought/theme/ideas, action/plot, characters, language, music and spectacle.
(a) Thought/theme/ideas: What the play means as opposed to what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is clearly stated in the title. It may be stated through a dialogue by a character acting as the playwright’* voice or it may be the theme is less obvious and emerges only after some study or thought. E.g., the abstract issues and feelings that grow out of the dramatic action.
(b) Action/plot: The events of a play, the story as opposed to the theme i.e., what happens rather than what it means. The plot must have some sort of unity and clarity by setting up a pattern by which each action initiating the next rather than standing alone without connection to what came before it or what follows. In the plot of a play, characters are involved in a conflict that has a pattern of movement. The action and movement in the play begins from the initial entanglement, through rising action, climax and falling action to resolution.
(c) Characters: These are the individuals presented in the play that are involved in pursuing the plot. Each character should have his/her own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio-economic background and language.
(d) Language: Refers to the word choices made by the playwright and the pronunciation of the actors of the language. Language and dialogue delivered by the characters move the plot and action forward, provides exposition and define the distinct characters. A playwright can create his/her own specific style in relationship to language choices he/she use in establishing character and dialogue.
(e) Music: Music can encompass the rhythm of dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean the aspects of the melody and music compositions as in a musical theatre. Each theatrical presentation delivers music, rhythm and melody in its own distinctive manner. Music is not a part of every play. But, music can be included to mean all sounds in a production. Music can expand to all sound effects, the actors’ voices, songs and instrumental music played as underscore in a play.
Music creates patterns and establishes the tempo in the theatre. In the aspects of the musical, the songs are used to push the plot forward and move the story to a higher level of intensity. Composers and lyricists work together with playwrights to strengthen the themes and ideas of the play. Characters’ wants and desires can be fortified for the audience through lyrics and music.
