10 Things To Know Before Writing An Essay On Drama

Students are frequently assigned to write about drama for their theatre or literature classes. Before you set about crafting an essay on a play you have just read or a theatre performance you have recently watched, consider the following things.

Selecting the Subject Matter

1. In your drama essay, you may focus on a range of topics. They include the time period when a play was written, a playwright’s biography, language, plot, characters, scenery, the setting of a play, etc.


2. You may explore one of the aforementioned topics or combine several of them in your piece of writing. For example, you may focus only on a specific drama character. Or, you may investigate a particular idea in view of the plot, setting, and characters’ words.


3. Most of the drama topics should be narrowed down. For example, writing about the language of a play in general is difficult. Therefore, do research on how language is used to depict who characters are or study how a playwright uses dialogues to convey the mood, time, and setting of a play.


4. An even wider selection of topics is available if you decide to write about a particular theatre performance. You may analyze costumes, set design, lighting, particular actors, the audience response, and even the theatre building itself.


5. You may focus both on a written drama and a particular theatre performance in your essay. For example, you may analyze whether the set design helps present the main ideas of a play or do research on why actors didn’t succeed to convey the values of a play.



Planning

6. To cope with the task well, you should know the requirements. Read the assignment details carefully or talk to your teacher.


7. If there are no any specific requirements, define your goals. Do you want to persuade the reader to agree with you on a particular drama topic or are you eager to vividly describe your experience? Understanding your goals will help you approach the task correctly.



Conducting Research

8. In an expository or an argumentative drama essay, you should support your position with solid evidence. Look through the theatre and arts library section in search of relevant information. Online sources can be helpful as well.


9. Narrative and descriptive papers about drama can be based only on your personal experience. However, remember about other nuances of these types of academic writing.


10. The assistance of true experts in the field will make your paper only better. Consult with frequent theatre-goers or ask for the opinion of a drama critic.