Act (drama)

An act or elevator is in the drama, a major portion of the plot, its conclusion is signified by the fall of the curtain. In some older German pieces of expression act will literally translated as action; in others it is as an elevator, from drawing the curtain at the beginning of each act referred to.

In the French classical music there was very precise, almost pedantic ideas about the nature and number of the file ( usually Drama ) for which you invoked the ancient world.

Sometimes the division into acts (the logic of the plot corresponds to ) and confuses the structure in images (after the scenes of action) or mixed because closes after each act or image of the curtain. According to the rules of French classicism an act should take place only in one place and at one time. In larger pieces every act contains several images, and each image usually contains several scenes. In the drama since the 20th century, the classification is usually given in file and replaced by considerations of whether and where a pause is appropriate.

Number of Act

The one-act plays are made interludes between the acts of larger pieces in 17-18. Century emerged. In the 18-19. Century led to several one-act plays on the same evening, or a combination of einaktigem drama and ballet einaktigem etc.

Simple, little complicated actions can be performed in one or two acts. The most common since the 18th century, however, the outlines in three and five acts.

Three acts

When the dramatic action is divided into three sub-divisions, namely the information on the conditions (exposure), the escalation of the conflict until the climax ( development ) and the solution ( comedy ) or catastrophe ( tragedy), is the division into three acts obvious.

Since, however, included the development in relation to the other two files, the exposure and solution, is by far the richer part and is often difficult to condense into an act, it breaks down into the larger pieces again into three parts, so that the whole of five files is.

Five acts

Classical and neo-classical plays and operas are characterized since the 17th century by five acts. The structure of the drama in five acts goes back to the poetry of Horace and meets not absolute for the ancient Greek theater. However, the comedies of the Roman poet Plautus and Terence, all five acts.

Gustav Freytag divided the five acts as follows:

Four acts

The division into four acts is less common, especially in the 19th century. More than five acts are also rare. If the substance of such a scale is that not being able to accommodate in five acts thinks him the poet, as he hangs on a pre-or injury ( prologue, epilogue ).

Dramaturgy of an act

At the end of an act of a stoppage occurs ( interlude called ) that you want the audience indulge time to become aware of the received impression and putting yourself in the right mood for what follows. Apart from this make in larger dramas external circumstances such as the tag on the scene, the occurrence of such rest points are required. Sometimes each act of the play has its own title.

The name interlude probably arises from the fact that in the past were ( especially in the English folk theaters ) listed in the intervals of other actors small spacers or dances, in their place later musical in modern theater productions occurred (see Entr'acte, interlude ).

It is a key requirement of the drama that the acts are not made arbitrarily or only in consideration of the outward appearance, but commanded by the inner necessity. Every single act is to form for themselves a kind of whole, at the same time but again a member which constitutes only in conjunction with other members, that is, with the other document, a living organism. Although so every act in and of itself to the audience to give a certain satisfaction, so he should not weaken the power of the same on the further development, but rather increase it.

Sources and Literature

• Gustav Freytag, the technique of the drama, Leipzig. Hirzel 1863 reprint Stuttgart: Reclam, 1983 ISBN 3-15-007922-5.

Thereafter, in order to refer to the Meyers article, can you { { Meyers Online | page } | } belt use.

• Part of a drama