Should I Teach You A Drama?

          If you are a teacher, you should know a drama. You can teach your students how to perform a drama. Don’t say that you are not an actor or a star so you cannot teach your students a drama. 

          As a teacher, it is better to do all things, including teaching a drama. It is not hard to teach a drama to your students. 

By teaching students a drama, as a teacher you can make your students more expressive. They will know how to express their feeling in front of public. If they do that, they can raise up their self-confidence. 

          Is it important to teach students a drama?

          Of course yes, as a foreign language teacher, you have to be able to teach your students drama in English. You have to do some steps before giving them some Shakespeares’ plays. Don’t be afraid of teaching your students a drama. It is not a boring lesson. You should change into one of the interesting lessons that your students always wait for.

                                                    What is a drama?

                                               

              When you see on stage some people  do something with some kinds of expressions on their faces and act as if they were in that situation.  They have performed a drama.  The word ‘drama’ came from Greek. It means ‘action.’ The derivation of the word ‘to do’ or ‘to act.’ 

Such as this picture:

                   (Bawang Merah and Bawang Putih, by Sanggar Ananda)

There are many kinds of drama that we know from where the places are:      
1. Western drama                                                                                                      
Based on the classical Greece. The society at that time liked to express their expression on the stage. The theatrical cultures produced three genres of drama only. There were tragedy, comedy and the satyr. They often made all in some cmpetitions to celebrating the god Dionysus. 

2. Roman drama

Based on the Wikipedia, it came from the expansion of the Roman Republic (509–27 BCE) into several Greek territories between 270–240 BCE. Their important dramas were tragedies and comedies. 

3. European Drama

Based on the Wikipedia, in the Middle Ages, drama took a special part in the society from religious enactments of the liturgy. All stories about them were presented  from the cathedrals. They werer about moralities and interludes.You can see on the Elizabethan stages. The uniques of the dramas in this era were written in verse, especially iambic pentameter. You can see at Shakespeare’s plays. Their storylines were based on the Greek and Roman Mythologies. 

4. Modern drama

          The pioneers of this era were Henrik Ibsen from Norwegian at the 19^th century and Bertoit Brech at the 20^th century from Germany. They were modernist and realist. Ibsen’s had many works based on the liberal tragedy and Brechts was a historical comedy. The other playwrights were  Antonin Artaud, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard Shaw, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, and Caryl Churchill.

5. Asian drama

  a. India

          The origin of the drama was from the Sanskrit drama. It was developed from Greek and Roman drama. It was between the 2^nd century BCE and the first century CE. There were hundreds of plays were written between the first century CE and the 10^th. It was called the relative peace period until  Islam came into India, drama was discouraged and forbidden. Then it developed again while the British came into India. The period of the British Empire from the mid-19^th century until the mid-20^th

6.Modern Indian drama

          The famous modern playwright at that period was Rabindranat Tagore. He got the Noble Prize for Literature in 1913 for his plays. Here is one of the his plays. The title was Waterfall.                                                                                        

STRANGER :What's that there put up against the sky? It is frightful! 
CITIZEN         : Don't you know? You're a stranger, I see,It's the Machine. 
STRANGER    :Machine! What Machine?

CITIZEN: The Royal Engineer, Bibhuti, has been working at it for the last twenty-five years. It's just been finished. A festival is now being held in honour of the occasion.

http://www.tagoreweb.in/Render/ShowContent.aspx?ct=Plays&bi=72EE92F5-BE50-40D7-3E6E-0F7410664DA3&ti=72EE92F5-BE51-4087-2E6E-0F74106)

b. Modern Urdu drama of India and Pakistan

          It was influenced by North India dramatic traditions. Such as  Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh. Based on Wikipedia, his dramatic experiments led to the famous Inder Sabha of Amanat and later this tradition took the shape of Parsi Theatre. Agha Hashr Kashmiri is the culmination of this tradition. Sometimes this drama was influenced by Modern Indian theatre. It was the origin of the Bombay Film industry later.

www.indianetzone.com

7. China

Guan Hanqing was one of the great Chinese dramatists, who was known  for his "zaju" plays. Zaju was a kind of the traditional drama from Chinese which had a happy ending and it was full of songs, dancing just like an opera. 

                                        www.english.cr.cn

                                                               (Zaju Drama)

8. Japan

          Japanese Nō drama is a serious dramatic form that combines drama, music, and dance into a complete aesthetic performance experience. It developed in the 14th and 15th centuries and has its own musical instruments and performance techniques, which were often handed down from father to son. The performers were generally male (for both male and female roles), although female amateurs also perform Nō dramas. Nō drama was supported by the government, and particularly the military, with many military commanders having their own troupes and sometimes performing themselves. It is still performed in Japan today.[43]