Level+1+Drama

=Welcome to Level 1 Drama=


 * [|Easter] || [|Jordan] || [|Morehu] ||
 * [|Brandon] || [|Peter] || [|Lina] ||
 * [|Maria] || [|James] || [|JT] ||
 * [|Sione] || [|Agape] || [|Codie] ||

Term 4 Well the end of the year is in sight and we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we don't have to stress about exams! That should cheer you up when you are thinking about all your other subjects. Despite only having a short term for the Seniors we have no time to rest and will launch straight into a unit of devising around the relavant topic of gun control. This unit will require you to think for yourselves and involve yourself thoroughly in creating a piece of theatre. Hopefully we will then perform these pieces to our up and coming Year 10 Drama students. Make sure you think carefully about who can be relied upon and apply yourself as hard during these last few weeks.

Below is an extract of Melodrama to help you gain a better understanding.

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=Melodrama= Poster for //[|The Perils of Pauline]// ([|1914]). The word "**melodrama**" is a [|portmanteau] word, formed by combining the words "[|melody]" (from the [|Greek] "melōidía", meaning "song") and "[|drama]". In its original sense, melodrama refers to theatre in which music is used to increase the spectator's emotional response or to suggest character types. While this use of music is nearly ubiquitous in modern film, in a melodrama these musical cues will be used within a fairly rigid structure, and the characterizations will accordingly be somewhat one-dimensional: Heroes are unambiguously good, villains unambiguously bad, and musical cues upon entrance of either will be unambiguous in signaling these facts to the audience. In other words, a melodrama tends to be a formulaic production, with a clearly constructed world of connotations: a villain poses a threat, the hero escapes the threat (or rescues the heroine) and there is (generally) a happy ending. However, the term is also used in a broader sense to refer to a [|play], [|film], or other work in which emotion is exaggerated and plot and action are emphasized in comparison to the more character-driven emphasis within a [|drama]. Melodramas can also be distinguished from [|tragedy] by the fact that they are open to having a [|happy ending], but this is not always the case. 

Melodrama in opera and song
Beginning in the 18th century, melodrama was a technique of using short pieces of music in contrast to, and sometimes accompanying, spoken drama. [|Jean-Jacques Rousseau]'s [|Pygmalion], with music by [|Horace Coignet], is generally regarded as the first example of the form. This was a [|monodrama]. Written in 1762, this was first staged in [|Lyon] in 1770. It was then taken up by [|Goethe] in [|Weimar] in 1772 with music by [|Anton Schweitzer]. Some 30 other monodramas were produced in Germany in the fourth quarter of the 18th century. [|Georg Benda] developed the [|duodrama] with his 1775 works //[|Ariadne auf Naxos]// and //[|Medea]// and this form of melodrama was taken up by other composers, notably [|Mozart] in //[|Zaide]// and //[|Thamos, König in Ägypten]//, [|Beethoven] in //[|Fidelio]// and [|Carl Maria von Weber] in //[|Der Freischütz]//. The technique was also used in [|lieder] and song. By the end of the 19th century the term melodrama had nearly exclusively narrowed down to a specific [|genre] of salon entertainment: more or less rhythmically spoken words (often poetry) - not sung, sometimes more or less enacted, at least with some dramatic structure or [|plot] - synchronized to an accompaniment of music (usually piano). It was looked down on as a genre for authors and composers of lesser stature (probably also the reason why virtually no realisations of the genre are still remembered). This was probably also the time when the connotation of cheap [|overacting] first became associated with the term. As a cross-over genre mixing narration and chamber music it was eclipsed nearly overnight by a single composition: [|Schoenberg]'s [|Pierrot Lunaire] (1912), where [|Sprechstimme] was used instead of rhythmically spoken words and which took a freer and more imaginative course regarding the plot prerogatives. A few [|musicals] and [|operettas] contain melodramas in this sense of music played under spoken dialogue, for instance, [|Gilbert and Sullivan]'s [|Ruddigore] (itself a parody of melodramas in the modern sense) has a short "melodrame" (reduced to dialogue alone in many productions) in the second act;[|[1]] [|Jacques Offenbach]'s [|Orpheus in the Underworld] opens with a melodrama delivered by the chararacter of "Public Opinion"; and other pieces from operetta and musicals may be considered melodramas, such as the "Recit and Minuet"[|[2]] in [|Gilbert and Sullivan]'s [|Sorcerer]. In musicals, several long speeches in [|Lerner] and [|Loewe]'s [|Brigadoon] are delivered to the accompaniment of rather beautiful, evocative music. In a similar manner, Victorians often added "[|incidental music]" under the dialogue to a pre-existing play, although this style of composition was already practiced in the days of [|Ludwig van Beethoven] (//[|Egmont]//) and [|Franz Schubert] (//[|Rosamunde]//). This type of often lavish production is now mostly limited to film (see [|film score]) due to the cost of hiring an orchestra. Modern recording technology is producing a certain revival of the practice in theatre, but not on the former scale. A particularly complete version of the older form, [|Sullivan's] incidental music to [|Tennyson's] [|The Foresters] is available online,[|[3]] complete with several melodramas, for instance, No. 12 found here.[|[4]] The [|John Williams]' score to [|Star Wars], and [|Korngold's] score to [|The Adventures of Robin Hood] are excellent examples of the modern usage. The classic and contemporary melodramas are still very popular in today's society. 

[[|edit]] Victorian Stage Melodrama
According to Michael Booth in his classic study //English Melodrama// the [|Victorian] stage melodrama featured a limited number of [|stock characters]: the hero, the villain, the heroine, an old man, an old woman, a comic man and a comic woman engaged in a sensational plot featuring themes of Love and Murder. Often the good but not very clever hero is duped by a scheming villain, who has eyes on the [|damsel in distress] until fate intervenes at the end to ensure the triumph of good over evil. The first English play to be called a melodrama or 'melodrame' was //A Tale of Mystery// (1802) by [|Thomas Holcroft]. This was an example of the [|Gothic] genre, a previous theatrical example of which was //The Castle Spectre// (1797) by [|Matthew Gregory Lewis]. English melodrama was influenced by German //[|Sturm und Drang]// drama and Parisian melodrama of the post-Revolutionary period (Booth 1991: 151). Other examples of early Gothic melodramas include //The Miller and his Men// (1813) by [|Isaac Pocock], //The Woodsman's Hut// (1814) by [|Samuel Arnold] and //The Broken Sword// (1816) by [|William Dimond]. Another popular sub-genre, beginning in the 1820s, was the nautical melodrama such as The Red Rover (1829) by [|Edward Fitzball] and //Black-Eyed Susan// (1829) by [|Douglas Jerrold]. Later melodramas developed domestic and urban situations such as //The Streets of London// (1864) and //The Corsican Brothers// by [|Dion Boucicault]; and //Lost in London// (1867). The villain was always the central character in melodrama and crime was a favorite theme. This included dramatisations of the murderous careers of [|Burke and Hare], [|Sweeney Todd] (first featured in //The String of Pearls// (1847) by [|George Dibdin Pitt]), the murder of [|Maria Marten] in the Red Barn and the bizarre exploits of [|Spring Heeled Jack]. Early silent films, such as //[|The Perils of Pauline]// had similar themes. Later, after silent films were superseded by the 'talkies', stage actor [|Tod Slaughter], at the age of 50, transferred to the screen the Victorian melodramas in which he had played villain in his earlier theatrical career. These films, which include //[|Maria Marten or Murder in the Red Barn]// and //[|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]// are a unique record of a bygone art-form. 

[[|edit]] American Racial Melodrama
Linda Williams, in her book //Playing the Race Card//, argues that “melodrama has been, for better or worse, the primary way in which mainstream American culture has dealt with the moral dilemma of having first enslaved and then withheld equal rights to generations of African Americans”. By exploiting what Williams considers main points of the melodramatic mode, American culture created feeling “for the virtue of some and against the villainy of others” as it justified discrimination against black figures that defied white supremacy and created sympathy for those who suffered by accepting it passively. According to “The American Melodramatic Mode,” the first chapter of Williams’ book, one of the essential points of the melodramatic mode is a home. She writes that melodrama begins, and wants to end, in a “space of innocence,” and if a protagonist, whom she calls the “victim-hero” can return to this home, the narrative ends happily, and unhappily if he or she cannot. A second point is that “melodrama focuses on victim-heroes and on recognizing their virtue”. This virtue is usually recognized by suffering, if virtue is not obvious. This melodramatic recognition of virtue happens either “too late” or “in the nick of time,” and it involves a feeling of loss. The wide use of black and white melodrama in novels reflects the realistic impact of society's imposed stereotypes of [|African Americans] as opposed to its construction of white people. By constructing African Americans as uncivilized, exotic and hypersexual, white supremacy made them unable to be recognized as fully human and to have what Williams named a "space of innocence"--an ideal place in which one would be recognized as virtuous. This portrayal of [|black people] as constrained by society's views is depicted in Larsen's Quicksand, whose "victim-hero", Helga Crane, is a mullato that suffers violent impositions of stereotypes, and is ultimately unable to find a place where she belongs. Through the portrayal of a black minstrel performance and through the protagonist’s struggle to overcome the binary of civilization/savagery and its ultimate consequences in this novel, Larsen critiques the race/gender system of the 1920s, which perpetuated the stereotypes of black Americans while reasserting white virtue. While the virtue of the traditional melodramatic protagonist would be ultimately recognized, usually through suffering, Helga Crane is never considered as virtuous, even though the entire novel describes her struggle to overcome the binary of civilization/savagery, and her later unbearable suffering as the wife of Reverend Green and mother of his many children. The fact that after her extensive journey, Helga Crane is still restricted by stereotypes is Larsen's denunciation of a society that constructed African Americans as solely sensual, uncivilized and animalistic creatures, who could by no efforts be considered virtuous. Other racial melodramas, such as [|Uncle Tom's Cabin], portray a different side of the melodramatic depiction of African Americans. In Stowe's novel, the title character is recognized as virtuous at the time of his death. This recognition, however, comes "too late" and is a mere acknowledgment of compassion for his suffering. Uncle Tom's attribute, as seen by the white readers at the time of the novel's publishing, was his ability to endure suffering. In our days, in which “[|Civil Rights]” and “[|Black Power]” are movements that have started to gain the recognition they deserve, Linda Williams’ prediction that melodrama is “the alchemy by which African Americans would themselves eventually reframe both the Tom tradition of white sympathy for blacks and the anti-Tom tradition of sympathy for beleaguered whites to their own ends” has proved to be true. Some would say that minorities, after centuries of being discriminated against, have learned to use melodrama in their favor. This, as many would agree, was the case with the [|O. J. Simpson murder trial] and controversial verdict. Aware of centuries of the unjust melodramatic portrayal of the suffering of white females at the hands of black males, the defense in the murder trial focused on blaming the police for mishandling the evidence and being biased towards the white victims. According to Williams, “the alleged attack on the blond white woman by the jealous black ex-husband invoked and ‘anti-Tom’ lens that immediately racialized the case”. The racial depiction of the defendant as a villain, however, “collided … with a predominantly ‘black’ jury’s perception that every movement of the white police was an effort to frame the black defendant”. Therefore, even though [|O.J. Simpson]’s guilt became less questionable after the publishing of the book entitled “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer,” which related the methods he would have used if he had killed his ex-wife and her friend, he is lawfully acquitted of the murders, because of a play on racial melodrama. After a long fight against the melodramatic portrayal of African Americans as savages and villains, the fear of racial discrimination was used in this case to nullify valid accusations against an African American. The stereotypes of black people as exotic, uncivilized and hypersexual, once solely violent to innocent African Americans who even resorted to the perpetuation of these stereotypes through the use of [|blackface], have lately, to a certain extent, been distorted to account for legitimate accusations, even though these stereotypes continue to oppress many African Americans.

Check out this fine example of Melodrama Fun! media type="youtube" key="uk6CuLjAyGE&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425"

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