HAMLET TO HAMILTON
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  • Episode Guide
    • Seasons >
      • Season One >
        • S1 E1: Defining Verse Drama
        • S1 E2: Content Dictates Form
        • S1 E3: Schwumpf, There It Is
        • S1 E4: Heresy!
        • S1 E5: So You Think You Know Scansion?
        • S1 E6: Whose Line (Ending) Is It Anyway?
        • S1 E7: What's My Line (Ending)?
        • S1 E8: First Folio and Emotive Formatting
        • S1 E9: The Rules of Emotive Formatting
        • S1 E10: Silences, Spacing, Stage Directions & Shared Lines
      • Season Two >
        • S2 E1: The Earliest Arthur: Thomas Hughes
        • S2 E2: Verse Drama Meets Opera: John Dryden
        • S2 E3: Burlesque and Verse Drama: Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"
        • S2 E4: Defenestrating Lancelot!
        • S2 E5: Empowering Guinevere
        • S2 E6: More Hovey, More Honey
        • S2 E7: Melodrama!
        • S2 E8: Gilbert and Sullivan Do King Arthur...Kinda
        • S2 E9: King Arthur and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Play
        • S2 E10: New Arthur, New Millennia
        • S2 E11: A Philosophical "King Arthur" by Lucy Nordberg
        • S2 E12: The First Folio in the 21st Century: Daniel James Roth's "The Tragedy of King Arthur"
        • S2 E13: Stage Violence and Verse: "The Table Round" & "The Siege Perilous" by Emily C. A. Snyder (2019)
      • Season Three >
        • S3 E1: So You Think You Know Soliloquies?
        • S3 E2: Redefining Verse Drama, Pt. 1 - Four Types of Verse
        • S3 E3: Deep Dive: Exploring Hamlet's Seven Soliloquies
        • S3 E4: Deep Dive: Exploring Macbeth's Soliloquies
        • S3 E5: The Villain Soliloquies: Richard III, Iago, Edmund Don John...and Petruchio?
        • S3 E6: "Madness" in Soliloquy:- Re-examining King Lear, Lady Macbeth and Ophelia
        • S3 15: Discovering Character Through Line Breaks - Part 3
    • Bonus Episodes >
      • Interviews >
        • Interview: Tim Carroll
        • Interview: Peter Oswald
        • Interview: Glyn Maxwell
        • Interview: Kasia Lech
        • Interview: Caeden Musser
        • Interview: Deb Victoroff
      • Round Tables >
        • Round Table of the Round Table: Lucy Nordberg, Daniel James Roth, Emily C. A. Snyder
        • Round Table: Daniel James Roth, Grace Bardsley, Benedetto Robinson
      • BAR(D) TALKS
      • Unhinged Rants
  • Additional Resources
    • Types of Verse >
      • What is Verse?
      • Prose vs. Poetry
    • Meter and Scansion >
      • What is Meter?
      • Rhythm and Prosody
      • Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
      • Prosody (Wikipedia)
    • Contemporary Verse Dramatists >
      • 18th Century
      • 19th Century
      • 20th Century
      • 21st Century
    • Timeline of Arthurian Verse Drama
  • Patreon
    • Fractured Atlas

Function

Overview

Not all scripts are the same.  Some tell a story, while others overwhelm you with spectacle.  Which is better?  Neither.

Aristotle in his Poetics laid out the Elements of Tragedy: elements which have been applied to every type of storytelling thereafter.  In Western cultures, Aristotle's assertion that plot and character are the most important parts of story has become the norm.  However, it is possible to have a script that is nothing but philosophy.  Or a script that is nothing but spectacle.

With FUNCTION we are interested in what sort of performance we are creating.  That is, which Elements of Performance are prioritized.  Or, how do we want our script to functionally to be presented?

Please note that the Taxonomy of Performance is the intellectual property of Emily C. A. Snyder.

Elements of Performance

Before we dive into Function it's important to understand the Elements of Performance.  Let's look at Aristotle's list first:

Aristotle's Poetics

  1. Plot - The action of the script
  2. Character - The actors who do the action of the script
  3. Theme - What the script is about philosophically
  4. Diction - The words of the script and their specificity and quality
  5. Music - The musical arrangement to support the emotion of the script
  6. Spectacle - The visuals and spectacular elements of the performance of the script

While this is a good start, it's not inclusive of all forms of Performance, or even all forms of storytelling.  Not all stories have much action.  Or are about anything in particular.  Many forms of Performance never speak a word, or have a single note, or can be seen at all.  Therefore, I offer the following:

Snyder's Elements of Performance (purposely not numbered; subject to refinement)
  • Actor - The person doing the Performance
  • Action - What happens during the Performance
  • Theme - What the Performance is about philosophically
  • Expression - (From previous) What senses are engaged during the Performance (as necessitated by the script)
  • Production - What senses are engaged during the Performance (from the Interpretation of the script)

Function

FUNCTION: Which Elements of Performance are emphasized in a script.
  • Narrative: Emphasis on storytelling by prioritizing action (plot) and performer (character)
  • Thematic: Emphasis on philosophy told in theatrical form by prioritizing theme
  • Atmospheric: Emphasis on spectacle by prioritizing expression and production elements
None of these are better than one another, although one may prefer one above the other.  In Western culture, we've been taught to prefer Narrative storytelling.  However many people do seek out educational Thematic performances, or prefer to be overwhelmed by Production with spectacular events.

It may be helpful to consider Function like a chart.  Many Performances will include some percent of these Elements.  But which ones are prioritized?  You'll notice that we are not yet asking about the quality of any of these classifications.  Only about which ones are considered most important by the performance.

Here's my assessment about T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, and which Elements he seems to prioritize.  Which is, he seems to be mostly invested in his theme and the way he expresses that theme through his poetry.

Take a moment to look at a script that intrigues you.  How would you assess the script's function?
Picture
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Resources

Read the source material for yourself:
  • Aristotle's Poetics

RELATED EPISODE: The Plays of T. S. Eliot

Intellectual property of Emily C. A. Snyder
© 2022

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  • Home
    • Team
    • Turn to Flesh Productions
    • DM Me Podcast
  • Episode Guide
    • Seasons >
      • Season One >
        • S1 E1: Defining Verse Drama
        • S1 E2: Content Dictates Form
        • S1 E3: Schwumpf, There It Is
        • S1 E4: Heresy!
        • S1 E5: So You Think You Know Scansion?
        • S1 E6: Whose Line (Ending) Is It Anyway?
        • S1 E7: What's My Line (Ending)?
        • S1 E8: First Folio and Emotive Formatting
        • S1 E9: The Rules of Emotive Formatting
        • S1 E10: Silences, Spacing, Stage Directions & Shared Lines
      • Season Two >
        • S2 E1: The Earliest Arthur: Thomas Hughes
        • S2 E2: Verse Drama Meets Opera: John Dryden
        • S2 E3: Burlesque and Verse Drama: Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"
        • S2 E4: Defenestrating Lancelot!
        • S2 E5: Empowering Guinevere
        • S2 E6: More Hovey, More Honey
        • S2 E7: Melodrama!
        • S2 E8: Gilbert and Sullivan Do King Arthur...Kinda
        • S2 E9: King Arthur and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Play
        • S2 E10: New Arthur, New Millennia
        • S2 E11: A Philosophical "King Arthur" by Lucy Nordberg
        • S2 E12: The First Folio in the 21st Century: Daniel James Roth's "The Tragedy of King Arthur"
        • S2 E13: Stage Violence and Verse: "The Table Round" & "The Siege Perilous" by Emily C. A. Snyder (2019)
      • Season Three >
        • S3 E1: So You Think You Know Soliloquies?
        • S3 E2: Redefining Verse Drama, Pt. 1 - Four Types of Verse
        • S3 E3: Deep Dive: Exploring Hamlet's Seven Soliloquies
        • S3 E4: Deep Dive: Exploring Macbeth's Soliloquies
        • S3 E5: The Villain Soliloquies: Richard III, Iago, Edmund Don John...and Petruchio?
        • S3 E6: "Madness" in Soliloquy:- Re-examining King Lear, Lady Macbeth and Ophelia
        • S3 15: Discovering Character Through Line Breaks - Part 3
    • Bonus Episodes >
      • Interviews >
        • Interview: Tim Carroll
        • Interview: Peter Oswald
        • Interview: Glyn Maxwell
        • Interview: Kasia Lech
        • Interview: Caeden Musser
        • Interview: Deb Victoroff
      • Round Tables >
        • Round Table of the Round Table: Lucy Nordberg, Daniel James Roth, Emily C. A. Snyder
        • Round Table: Daniel James Roth, Grace Bardsley, Benedetto Robinson
      • BAR(D) TALKS
      • Unhinged Rants
  • Additional Resources
    • Types of Verse >
      • What is Verse?
      • Prose vs. Poetry
    • Meter and Scansion >
      • What is Meter?
      • Rhythm and Prosody
      • Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
      • Prosody (Wikipedia)
    • Contemporary Verse Dramatists >
      • 18th Century
      • 19th Century
      • 20th Century
      • 21st Century
    • Timeline of Arthurian Verse Drama
  • Patreon
    • Fractured Atlas