Reading Drama

When reading popular and classical drama, keep in mind that you will be using all of the skills that you have developed thus far. But drama is unlike other kinds of literature because it is written to be performed, not read. To fully understand a dramatic passage, you need to know how playwrights have traditionally communicated ideas to actors and audiences—with dialogue and stage directions.

Dialogue: Drama is almost totally dialogue. However, in drama, quotation marks are not used to set off a character’s words. Instead, the name of the character appears before the lines he or she speaks. Usually the name is in capital letters.

Stage directions: At the beginning of a play and for each new scene in the play there are stage directions that describe the setting, the characters, and the characters’ actions. Stage directions are separated from the dialogue by parentheses. Sometimes stage directions appear after a character’s name. These tell the actor who is playing the part how to say the lines.

See pages 249–281 in Contemporary's GED Language Arts, Reading for more information on reading drama.