Dramatic Structure and Dialogue

Drama was considered a genre of poetry by the ancient Greeks. Aristotle offered drama as a general term to describe forms of poetry that were acted. The Roman writer Horace stated that the purpose of drama was to either delight (comedy) or instruct (tragedy).
Drama is about imperfections we don’t always like morally good people.
“Cut quarrels out of literature and you will have little history, drama or fiction left” (Robert Lynd).
“Drama is life with the dull bits cut out” (Hitchcock).
Great drama is about conflict. Every scene, every line of dialogue must move the conflict along.
So what is conflict? The clash of opposing forces. These forces can be other people, nature, society, our own selves, fate or God.

So what does a successful drama need?
Conflict, characters, setting, dramatic structure and good dialogue.
Characters: you need a least one (dramatic monologue). Your character should be someone with magnitude, or importance. Some common person who stands for all of us. He needs to be a person who faces some sort of conflict. The setting/plot should reflect the time in which you live.
If we’re talking about environment (this is just an example), it could be a story about a person who lives in a place where there is no clean water and this person’s mother is dying from disease associated with drinking polluted water.

So what’s the conflict here?
What must the main character overcome? How will they overcome it? Or will they overcome it? Is there a solution?
DISCUSSION OF “NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN”
Dramatic Structure: Exposition, inciting event, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution
EXPOSITION: Introduction to the setting and characters. It is usually the first 10-15 minutes of a play or movie.
INCITING EVENT: Where the problem/conflict starts.
RISING ACTION: The esculation of the problem – the complications that arise while the main character tries to solve the conflict.
CLIMAX: The height of the action, problem.
FALLING ACTION/RESOLUTION: The action after the climax that leads to a resolve of the conflix.
Dialogue: characters need to have a goal every time they speak. They want to get something from the other character(s). There must be conflict in the dialogue.
“You dialogue shouldn’t be –what’s called—to much on the nose. Your character shouldn’t be saying exactly what they’re thinking.” --Marcy Kahan
“Characters shouldn’t actually answer each other’s lines, they should jump off each others lines onto something else, or turn corners or surprise people. This will also create movements.”

Discuss dialogue from NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.
Dialogue should have subtext – or larger meaning beyond the words (this meaning can come out with non-verbal communication: body language, tone of voice, etc.)

SIX LINES – dialogue/acting game. Purpose of this game is to develop characters and dialogue.

Remaining Time: WRITE A MONOLOGUE from a character who is associated with some form of Social Advocacy.