Think of theatrical performances and you immediately think of popular operas and musicals that have involved theater and drama not just in recent times, but in the last few centuries. Many of Shakespeare’s popular works have been composed in stage and stage performances, as well as musicals that have been very popular throughout the world.
In October 2014, The Lion King celebrated 15 years of stage presence at the Lyceum Theater in London, where it first opened in 1999, with huge crowds still drawn. That’s an outstanding achievement and the facts prove it: by then it had grossed over £4bn worldwide, surpassing Phantom of the Opera, which was the previous record holder. To put it into better perspective, the global revenue for The Lion King surpassed even the combined worldwide revenue for the six highest-grossing Harry Potter films.
However, critics were skeptical whether the stage shows still dominate audiences in terms of visual majesty or are mere remnants of tourist interest to foreigners visiting a local city or country. The response to your questions has been very favorable to stage shows, which only underlines that the public loves a show that has all the elements of theater and drama.
What are the basic elements of a stage show? Unlike movies and television, stage shows are live performances and living, breathing forms of art. Broadly speaking, the main elements are:
• Script or Text – the starting point of a theatrical performance and which is the domain of the playwright.
• Scenario or plans: form the model that a director uses to build the production
• Process – a coordination of the creative efforts made by the director, actors, dancers, musicians, technicians, etc.
• Product: the final result of the process that will be seen by the public
• Audience – the essential aspect of each art; the very physical presence of an audience transforms the performance.
But the most important element for the success of a show or a play is the story, the script or the text. This is where the importance of the playwright dominates all other elements. Aristotle, the Greek philosopher and writer, established over 2000 years ago the ‘theories of dramaturgy’ or the Elements of Drama which have since been followed by many successful playwrights throughout the centuries. In Aristotle’s critical analysis of various Greek plays and dramas, the six elements that describe a story or script involve:
• Ideas / Topic / Thought
• Action / Plot
• Characters / players in the script –
• Idiom
• Music
• Show
In addition to the above, the other main elements of drama include the subcategories of comedy, melodrama, tragedy, and tragicomedy. The success of Shakespeare’s writing is attributed to this one aspect, that is, each of his works can be placed in a category of drama.