Student Question
Do script and audience interact in drama the same way text and readers do?
Quick answer:
In drama, the interaction between script and audience differs from that between text and reader. Drama involves multiple layers, including actors and directors who interpret the script, providing a visual and auditory experience. Audiences typically experience the story for the first time during the performance. In contrast, readers engage directly with a text, interpreting it independently and imagining details. Thus, the dramatic interaction is mediated by performers, whereas reading is a solitary, interpretive process.
There are a few things to consider. In drama, the script reveals the story, but the script consists of dialogue, stage directions, etc. Also, the dialogue must be memorized and delivered by the actors. So there are levels in drama that do not exist in reading literature because of the actors' performance, which is how the audience will respond to the work. The audience interacts with the script, then, in a way that is interpreted by the director and the actors. Plus, the audience most likely does not have any knowledge of the story or what is going to happen, because usually the audience has not read the play before the performance. This is not always so, however.
The reader responds to the text solely on his own. There is no actor, no director, no stage directions. The text is the "script" but the reader is the only interpreter. The...
Unlock
This Answer NowStart your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
reader is left to imagine what the characters are like on his own, whereas in drama, the characters are revealed through the actors' acting and the director's directing.
In the case where a person has read the play and then sees a performance, the two are combined, such as with Shakespeare's plays. Or, sometimes one will view a play or a movie after having read the work. This can be disappointing because things that are written down do not translate to being performed, so playwrights, screenwriters, directors, etc. do not use all of words when translating the work to the screen or to the stage. Also, essential elements of plot can be changed. That is why one is often disappointed by a screen or stage adaptation of a novel, for example.
You have to take these considerations and put them into an essay. Make sure to use examples to specific works, if this is a requirement for the assignment. If you are looking for a fairly modern example, may I recommend Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn. There is the novel, which was written first, but the author is also an actress and a playwright, so several years after writing the novel, she turned it into a play. The play is quite different from the novel, the characters are not all the same, and it was quite a challenge for her to translate her fiction into performance. You can do some research on this. Since you are in graduate school, I am guessing that you will have to use some concrete examples.
Do scripts and audiences interact like texts and readers in drama?
Script and audience interact in drama in the way texts and readers interact in novels. ( I am assuming the last part of that statement).
This statement is both true and untrue. First of all, the comparison is valid because the relationship between a text and its reader parallels the relationship between a script and the audience of the play that it represents. In both cases, the reader/audience takes away important elements of character, plot, theme and human nature in general from the words generated by the script and the novel.
However, the interaction is far more interpretive between the reader and the text. The reader must supply all of the visualization, the sound, the look of the characters, the weather, the smell of the chicken broiling - all of the details - for himself. He must make use of the text to bring these ideas to life in his own mind. If the text is persuasive, he must understand the precise meanings of the words in order to be persuaded because he cannot hear the delivery or see the facial expressions of the speaker.
In a drama, the script is already interpreted before it gets to the audience. A production company has hired actors, built a visual set, and trained the actors in how the say each line. The volume, the tone of voice, the appearance of the actors - all of these are predetermined for the audience. In fact, it is doubtful that the audience has even seen a script.
Thus, the reader of a text relates and interacts on an interpretive level while the audience and a script interact through a third party which actually produces the play. Thus the interaction is more dependent upon the ideas of this producer.
I hope this helps!