Kala Bharati

Kala Bharati

...Creating Knowledgeable Artists

Drama and Theatre

Drama is derived from the word ‘Dramanon’ which means ‘to do’ or ‘to act’, so drama is an action. It is action done by actor on the stage. This action depends on the sequences and dialogues written by the dramatist.

‘Theater’ means to ‘see’ or to ‘view’. The audiences observe the performance of the drama while art critique views it. Thus we have performers on the stage and the observers off the stage that is in the auditorium. The term ‘Theatre’ includes both, that is, performance and its viewing. It is known as ‘Rangbhumi’.

Theatre is an art that presents the world aesthetically through dramatic action performed by actors before spectators.

The basis of theatre is dramaturgy. The synthetic nature of theatrical art makes it a collective art involving the efforts of the playwright, director, set designer, composer and actor. The building material of the theatre is the living person of the actor. It is through actor that the playwright and director realize their conceptions. The most important feature of theatre is that the creative act takes place before the eyes of the spectator.

Drama is one of the most ancient art forms. It has capacity to entertain masses. It also educates to some extent. Man has imitative instinct. Drama is born out of this instinct. Greeks called it mimetic instinct. Children have tendency to imitate anything surrounding them. They imitate other personalities in their own way. Adolescents imitate differently because they are grown up and have their experiences about the world. Their imitation is deliberate and intentional. Thus the basic source of drama is the mimetic instinct of man. Later on drama developed itself so much that it became powerful device which could change the social consciousness and became the powerful source of cultural change affecting the moral and human values.

Drama has a social role to fulfill. Its progress is directed towards asserting harmony between man and humanity. As we know, the supreme goal of art is all-round development of socially significant and intrinsically valuable individual; it is capable of spiritualizing scientific and technological progress, of illuminating it with the ideals of humanism.

We have three kinds of drama –

  1. The traditional drama played in Theater.
  2. The dramas telecast by the electronic media.
  3. The invisible drama broadcast on radio.