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What is Drama — Definition, Examples & Characteristics

rama, an intricately captivating facet of human expression, skillfully weaves together narratives through powerful performances, invoking a myriad of emotions and profound thoughts.  It forms an extraordinary intersection where the art of the written word harmoniously intertwines with the dynamic artistry of physical depiction, breathing life into stories that resonate on both the grand stages and the silver screen. But what is drama, actually? Where does it come from, and what makes a story dramatic? Let’s find out.

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What is Drama Defined By?

First, let’s define drama.

Let's first pin down a clear definition of drama to understand what exactly constitutes this powerful form of art.

DRAMA DEFINITION

What is drama.

Drama is a captivating literary genre that is brought to life through performance. With its roots tracing back to the Greek word 'dran,' meaning 'to do' or 'to act,' drama encompasses a wide range of artistic expressions. It delves into the complexities of human emotions, intertwining the lives of characters in a web of conflicts and resolutions. Through compelling narratives and vivid portrayals, drama not only entertains but also stimulates deep contemplation and introspection. 

It offers a unique platform for exploring the human condition and shedding light on the diverse facets of the human experience. Whether on stage or screen, the power of drama lies in its ability to transport audiences into different worlds, allowing them to witness the triumphs, tragedies, and intricacies of life unfold before their eyes.

Types of Drama

History of drama, drama — a rich and varied history.

The history of drama is woven with threads from many civilizations, cultures, and time periods. Its evolution is a fascinating journey that traces the path of human societal progression.

Ancient Origins

Thespis, Athens, and The Origins of Greek Drama  •  Crash Course Theater

Over time, this ancient art form evolved, giving birth to the theatrical traditions that continue to shape and inspire contemporary performances. From the grand amphitheatres of ancient Greece to the modern stages of today, drama has transcended time, leaving an indelible mark on the human experience.

Drama Across Cultures

Throughout the centuries, drama has transcended borders and permeated diverse cultures and continents. Each region offered its own distinctive and captivating interpretation of this timeless art form. 

Whether it's the grandiose tragedies of ancient Greece, the refined Noh theater of Japan, or the vibrant and energetic Broadway productions, the universal language of drama continues to evolve and captivate audiences worldwide, connecting people through the power of storytelling.

Renaissance Leap

During the Renaissance, a remarkable leap occurred in the realm of drama. Playwrights such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe emerged onto the scene. They made profound contributions that forever shaped and elevated the genre. Their works captivated audiences with their eloquent language, intricate plots, and profound exploration of human emotions.

History of Ideas  •  The Renaissance

Through their masterful storytelling, they transported audiences to worlds both familiar and fantastical, leaving an indelible mark on the history of theater. The Renaissance became a golden age for drama, thanks to the artistic brilliance and creative ingenuity of these celebrated playwrights.

Evolution and Movements

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, drama underwent an intriguing evolution, propelled by influential artistic movements that sought to capture the essence of societal changes and delve into the depths of human psychology. 

The emergence of Realism , with its emphasis on depicting life as it truly is, provided a stark contrast to the fantastical realm of Surrealism , which explored the subconscious and challenged conventional notions of reality.

These dramatic movements, in their distinct ways, pushed the boundaries of theatrical expression, leaving an indelible mark on the artistic landscape of their time.

WHAT IS DRAMA AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

The power of performance.

The power to bring the written word to life in a captivating and powerful manner lies at the heart of drama. Through physical embodiment, characters become more than mere words on a page. From expression to gesture to costume, performers bring nuance and depth to their characters that can often only be conveyed through performance. 

Through facial expressions, actors can convey a wide range of emotions, from joy to sorrow, anger to love. The subtle movements of the eyebrows, the curl of a lip, or the sparkle in the eyes can speak volumes and create a connection between the audience and the character. 

I, Tonya  •  Drama Examples

Physical gestures can communicate meaning and intention. A simple hand movement, a wave, or a pointing finger can convey a message, emphasize a point, or reveal a character's personality.

From the grand sweeping movements to the delicate subtleties, gestures add another layer of communication to the performance.

Drama Examples  •  Gestures and Performance

The choice of costume can instantly transport the audience to a specific time period or setting. It can reflect a character's status, personality, or even their hidden desires.

The colors, fabrics, and styles of the costumes enhance the visual storytelling and provide cues about the characters and the world they inhabit.

Costume Design — The Hidden Layer of Movie Magic

This transformation from text to living art is what makes drama so unique and powerful; it has the ability to transport an audience to a world of imaginative storytelling. The impact of expression, gesture, and costume on the stage brings the characters and their stories to life, creating a memorable and immersive experience for all.

Related Posts

• What is Comedy? →
• A Brief History of Motion Pictures →
• What is Theme in Literature and Film? →

Various Types of Drama

In exploring the captivating world of drama, it's essential to recognize its diverse forms. The drama genre comes in diverse types, each with its unique storytelling techniques and thematic explorations. 

Hamlet  •  Tragedy Drama Examples

Comedy offers light-hearted plots with humorous outcomes. It aims to entertain and bring joy to the audience. A classic example is Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest , a witty and satirical play that explores mistaken identities and societal conventions.

Many wonder what is the difference in drama vs melodrama and how what distinguishes each. Melodrama exaggerates characters and emotions, creating intense and dramatic situations. It often includes exaggerated gestures and passionate dialogue. 

A famous melodramatic example is Gone with the Wind , a sweeping epic set during the American Civil War, filled with love, betrayal, and sacrifice.

Gone With the Wind  •  Drama Examples

Farce relies on slapstick humor and absurd situations to generate laughter. It often involves mistaken identities, misunderstandings, and chaotic events. One well-known farce is Michael Frayn's Noises Off , a play within a play that hilariously depicts the backstage antics of a dysfunctional theater troupe.

Historical Drama

Hamilton  •  Drama examples

Musical drama.

Musical dramas use singing and dancing to enhance the storytelling experience. They combine music, lyrics, and choreography to convey emotions and advance the plot. One iconic musical drama is Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera , a haunting love story set in the Paris Opera House.

Each type of drama offers a unique narrative style and provides audiences with diverse and captivating theatrical experiences.

What is Drama Evolving Toward?

Evolution of drama.

Throughout history, drama has evolved, skillfully adapting to societal changes, technological advancements, and shifting audience preferences. From ancient Greece to the digital performances of today, drama has transformed, remaining a dynamic medium of storytelling.

In the contemporary world, drama pushes boundaries, exploring complex themes and reflecting diverse realities. It sparks conversations and inspires change. 

Drama evolves, reflecting its environment and audience preferences. Looking ahead, the genre will adapt and innovate, maintaining its vital role as a conduit for storytelling and a catalyst for thought and conversation. 

Through its evolution, drama underscores the need for human connection, empathy, and understanding, reinforcing its enduring relevance and impact.

What is Comedy?

While the intensity and depth of drama allow us to dive into complex emotions and narratives, it's the lighter, more humorous side of storytelling that often provides a much-needed respite. This brings us to our next topic, comedy, an art form that uses humor as its central theme.

Up Next: Comedy Explained →

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When & How to Write Drama

• Definition & Examples
• When & How to Write Drama

How to Write Drama

• Start with characters . The best dramas are usually character- driven. They have a cast of main characters (usually fewer than 10), plus a handful of supporting characters. These characters should all be very distinct from one another, and the main characters should be authentic and life-like. This way, the audience can relate to them and cares what happens to them.
• Introduce conflict. All stories revolve around conflict, and this is especially true in drama. The conflict could be anything – the simplest example is political conflict or war, but you might also have competing love interests, clashes in personality, or simply a struggle against misfortune.
• Don’t forget about comic relief. Unless you’re writing a tragedy (see section 6), there should be at least some amount of humor in your drama. Otherwise, the negative emotions will get overwhelming and the experience will be too unpleasant for the reader. Give a few funny lines to your characters, or add an amusing situation somewhere to cut the tension – just make sure that this comic relief arises naturally from the story and it doesn’t feel like you’re cramming it in.

When to Use Drama

Drama is great for a creative writing project. It offers opportunities to work on character development, story structure, and a whole other set of writing skills. Every once in a while, you may also find a place for drama in formal essays , but you have to be careful.

For example, history essays are often more enjoyable to read if you craft them with a “dramatic” eye – focusing on a small set of main characters, contrasting these characters and their various desires, and fully describing the conflict at the center of the story. These techniques, in combination with good research and persuasive logic, can turn a good essay into a great one. However, you do have to be careful – too much drama in a formal essay can start to seem distracting, and you don’t want to give the impression that you’re more committed to the entertainment value than to the research and analysis.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Onomatopoeia
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Personification
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
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What is Drama? Definition, Examples of Drama as a Literary Term

Home » The Writer’s Dictionary » What is Drama? Definition, Examples of Drama as a Literary Term

Drama definition in literature: A drama is defined as a piece of literature of which the intended purpose is to be performed in front of an audience.

What is Drama in Literature?

Drama meaning: A drama is a type of literature that is written for the purpose of being performed in front of an audience. This type of writing is written in the form of a script, and the story is told through the lines of the characters played by actors.

Example of Drama

The television show Grey’s Anatomy is considered to be a genre. This show is written with the intended purpose of actors performing the lines for their viewing audience.

Types of Drama in Literature

Comedy : A comedy is a type of drama that is written to be entertaining or amusing for the audience.

• The television show Seinfeld is considered a comedy. This sitcom follows the lives of four friends and the humorous situations they encounter together.

Tragedy : A tragedy is a type of drama that can be described as serious in nature and often includes a catastrophic ending.

• William Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet is an example of a tragedy. In this play, two young children fall in love and feel the need to hide this from their parents due to their feuding families. However, their rash thinking leads them to their ultimate deaths.

Farce : A farce is a subcategory of comedy. Theses low comedies include ridiculous and slapstick comedic situations in order to create humor for the audience.

• The movie Dumb and Dumber is an example of a farce. This movie follows the story of two caricatures on a mission to return a briefcase to a beautiful lady. Throughout the film the two encounter several ridiculous and crude situations.

Melodrama : While it originally referred to dramas that included accompanying music, melodramas now refer to plays that include highly emotional situations in order to play on the feelings of the audience.

• The play Les parents terribles by Jean Cocteau is an example of a melodrama that involves several layers of over dramatic situations including cheating and suicide.

Musical Drama : Musical dramas refer to plays in which characters engage in dialogue but also include scenes in which the passion of the character is so great he expresses himself in song.

• Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera is a well-known example of a musical drama that tells the story of obsession.

The Function of Drama

Dramas serve the function of entertainment for the audience. While reading a story is powerful, watching the story be performed by actors adds a level of realism to the work. In the age of binge watching, many people enjoy spending leisure time watching dramas specifically in the forms of movies or television.

Summary: What is a Drama in Literature?

Define drama in literature: In summation, a drama is a work of literature written for the intended purpose of being performed for an audience. Dramas are written in the form of a script and actors perform interpretations of the characters involved in order to tell the story the viewers versus reading a story in novel form.

Final Example:

The hit Grease by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, is an example of a musical drama. In this popular play and movie, viewers are taken through the story of high school love between two teens who are completely opposite outside the love they share for each other.

ENG 125 & 126 - Creative Writing: Drama

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Drama Defined

Definition:  A prose or verse composition, especially one telling a serious story, that is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action.

Elements:  

• Structure -- This deals with how to setup the beginning, middle and end of a play and is even more crucial in drama than any other genre of writing.
• Characters -- People will act out the story on stage. Characters should be well-developed and not appear as stereotypes.
• Dialogue -- This is crucial in plays because everything happens through the spoken word.
• Theme -- Plays often deal with universal themes which encourage discussion of ideas. 
• Production -- Costumes, props and lighting are some of the necessary items for putting on a play.

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Drama and Creative Writing

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Here's what you need in order to apply:

• Royal Holloway's institution code: R72

Make a note of the UCAS code for the course you want to apply for:

• Drama and Creative Writing BA - WW48
• Click on the link below to apply via the UCAS website:

Key information

Duration: 3 years full time

UCAS code: WW48

Institution code: R72

Campus: Egham

Drama and Creative Writing (BA)

By combining the study of Creative Writing with Drama, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how theatre performance and creative writing interact - whether you specialise as a playwright, or choose to take the poetry or fiction options in creative writing.

Choosing to study Drama at Royal Holloway will put you at the centre of one of the largest and most influential Drama and Theatre departments in the world. You'll create performances, analyse texts, and bring a range of critical ideas to bear on both. On this course the text and the body, thinking and doing, work together. There's no barrier between theory and practice: theory helps you understand and make the most of practice, while practice sheds light on theory.  By moving between the two, you'll find your place as an informed theatre-maker, and by studying a variety of practices, by yourself and with others, you'll get knowledge of the industry as a whole, and learn how your interests could fit into the bigger picture.

We are top-rated for teaching and research, with a campus community recognised for its creativity. Our staff cover a huge range of theatre and performance studies, but we're particularly strong in contemporary British theatre, international and intercultural performance, theatre history, dance and physical theatre, and contemporary performance practices.

Studying Creative Writing at one of the UK's most dynamic English departments will challenge you to develop your own critical faculties. Learning to write creatively, you'll develop your own writing practice.

Course units are taught by nationally and internationally known scholars, authors, playwrights and poets who are specialists in their fields who write ground-breaking books, talk or write in the national media and appear at literary festivals around the world.

• Complementary disciplines for the aspiring playwright.
• Explore creative skills including dance or puppetry.
• Assessment through performance and coursework.
• Specialise in different literary forms: poetry, playwriting or fiction.
• Build a portfolio, creating, critiquing and shaping your own artistic work.

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.

Course structure

Core modules.

You will take the following modules in Drama:

• Theatre and Performance Making 1
• Theatre and Text 1

You will take the following modules in Creative Writing:

In this module you will develop an understanding of a range of literary and cultural writing forms through reading, discussion and practice. You will look at poetry, drama and prose fiction alongside stand-up comedy, adaptation, translation, songwriting, and other forms of creative expression and articulation. You will learn how to offer clear, constructive, sensitive critical appraisals, and how to accept and appropriately value criticism of your own work.

In this module you will develop an understanding of a range historical perspectives on the function, forms, and value of creative writing. You will look at the genesis of particular genres, such as the short story, the novel and the manifesto, and consider relationships between historical genres and the contemporary writer. You will interrogate your own assumptions about creative writing and critically examine the relationship between creative writing and society.

 You will take two from the following modules in Creative Writing:

• Playwriting

You will choose one of the following modules. Each of these modules consists of a year-long independent project, working closely with a staff supervisor from the appropriate field.

• Playwriting 2

 You will take the following module in Creative Writing:

This module concentrates on a particular mode of writing, genre, theme, issue or idea. You will be encouraged to make creative work in relation to the focus, and develop your writing practice in relation to wider contexts relevant to the contemporary writer.

Creative Writing Special Focus courses are open to both creative writing and non-creative writing students.

Optional Modules

There are a number of optional course modules available during your degree studies. The following is a selection of optional course modules that are likely to be available. Please note that although the College will keep changes to a minimum, new modules may be offered or existing modules may be withdrawn, for example, in response to a change in staff. Applicants will be informed if any significant changes need to be made.

• All modules are core

Optional modules in Drama may include:

In this module you will develop an understanding of non-traditional approaches to performance making that constitute the broader term ‘devised’ practice. You will look at methods of engaging with contemporary life, focussing on a number of key areas of devised practice, including their contexts, forms, and modes of documentation. You will consider the generative roles played by autobiography, the body, political activism and everyday life and use theoretical and practical research to develop your own performance pieces.

In this module you will develop an understanding of the methods of theatre directing. You will look at the role of the director from preparing a play text to staging a successful production, considering the collaborations between actors, designers, playwrights and producers. You will exmaine a variety of approaches to classic texts and new writing, and hone your skills by directing your peers in short scenes from a play of your choice.

In this module you will develop an understanding of the difference between stage acting and acting for camera. You will learn techniques for 'translating' your stage acting skills to mediated performance. You will collaborate through the year with directing students in the Department of Media Arts on an internal monologue film, a silent film, and a short scene, and these can later be used as part of an audition reel.

In this module you will develop an understanding of a range of theatre forms that integrate dance and drama. You will look at the variety of ways that practitioners have chosen to bring text and movement into creative dialogue, using scores, play texts, choreography and movement processes. You will examine the values and principles that drive such experimentation and reflect on the historical, political and cultural contexts within which these practitioners worked. You will consider the work of practitioners such as Pina Bausch, DV8, Frantic Assembly, Complicite, Caryl Churchill and Martin Crimp, and develop a small group performance devised in response to selected texts and styles of movement/dance.

In this module you will develop an understanding of the role of spatial design in a performance context. You will look at how designers respond to and make space for theatre to happen, and through the study of visual composition and visual langauge, will explore the role of spatial design in a performance context. You will consider the the work of a variety of practitioners and will test out your design ideas in a series of practical and performance workshops focusing on textual analysis, space and place, object, performer and the spectator.

In this module you will develop an understanding of how theatre practitioners have frequently sought to represent social reality in order to critique it. You will look at the naturalist stage of the late nineteenth century through to contemporary verbatim performance, and explore the methods and implications of theatre’s 'reality-effects'. You will consider why so many theatre companies and practitioners in the twenty-first century have turned to documentary, tribunal, verbatim and other forms of reality-based performance, and examine a range of contemporary plays and performance texts from around the world, building an awareness of the politics, possibilities and limitations of 'staging the real'.

In this module you will look at the work of debbie tucker green, one of the most exciting black playwrights of the early twenty first century, who's critical acclaim has recognised her original experimental linguistic virtuosity. You will explore the the performance possibilities of her playtexts, considering writing form alongside the topical social and political human rights issues she portrays, such as genocide, urban teenage violence, sex tourism and mental health. You will consider tucker green’s impact as a black British woman playwright by situating her plays in relation to trends in plays by other contemporary black British women playwrights, and examine her work within the context of 21st Century black British new writing.

In this module you will develop an understanding of the wide-ranging discussions of ecology and environmentalism in Shakespeare's plays. You will look at the relations between humans and the natural world, and consider contemporary environmental debates and theatre practices. Guest speakers, such as David Haygarth, Head of Energy and Sustainability at Royal Holloway, will address scientific and commercial topics such as the UN 15 sustainable development goals, and the Caryl Churchill Theatre’s green credentials. You will explore a range of plays by Shakespeare which stage the natural world, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, King Lear, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. You will also examine how environmentalism can impact both theatre and Shakespeare in performance.

In this module you will develop an understanding of children's theatre and the current success of theatre for young audiences. You will look at the innovative performance styles of theatre companies such as Oily Cart and Theatre-rites, and consider how their work has been pushing the boundaries of contemporary theatre. You will examine the Unicorn theatre, the first purpose-built theatre for children in London; playwrights such as Charles Way, Philip Ridley, Neil Duffield, Mark Ravenhill and David Greig; and the work of theatremakers such as Mark Storor and Sue Buckmaster, who bring a blend of visual art, puppetry and live art to performances for children. You will critically analyse how performance installations can excite children’s imaginations, focusing on the visual, tactile and aural elements of theatre and performance.

In this module you will develop an understanding of the diverse art forms that investigate memory in dynamic conversation and the nature of art, history, and humanity. You will look at the disruption to the purpose, value, and nature of art in the aftermath of the cataclysmic events of the Holocaust, and move through the twentieth century to consider different cultures of memory, memorialisation, trauma, and witnessing. You will examine a wide range of cultural textual and performative genres, including first-hand testimony, plays, films, graphic novels, museums, and public monuments.

In this module you will develop an embodied understanding of culture. You will look at different cultural contexts for dance production, considering the context of where, when and how you dance. You will examine the cultural production and consumption of dance, exploring theories grounded in cultural studies and their implications on dance and dancing bodies, such as Marxism, post-modernism, feminism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, gender and sexuality, and psychoanalysis. You will focus on popular dance, global popular culture, and dance on screen, and investigate the relationship between dance practices and the social, political and economic context in which they emerge. You will be encouraged to devise performances which creatively engage with cultural studies.

• Theatre and Ideas: Ideas of Gender and Sexuality
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Tragedy
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Adaptation
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of the Musical
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Acting
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Money
• Theatre and Ideas: The Idea of Casting
• Love, Gender and Sexuality
• Race Relations in Theatre, Film and Television
• Shakespeare
• Naturalist Theatre in Context
• Creative Learning and Theatre
• Physical Theatre
• Shakespeare on Camera
• The Actor's Voice
• Actor Training in a Globalised World
• Group Project
• Final Year Project - Special Study
• Final Year Project - Dissertation
• Taught Dissertation

Teaching & assessment

Each year, you'll take two modules in each subject. Drama explores a whole range of dramatic and theatrical forms, conventions, periods, traditions and activities. You'll learn how to get intellectual ideas across in presentations and through performance. You'll also learn to work well in teams. In your first year, a foundation course, you'll get a grounding in contemporary theatremaking and critical theories. In your second and final years, you'll study alongside single honours students, taking half of your modules in Drama.

In your first year of Creative Writing, you'll take two introductory modules, before going on in your second year to specialise in two literary forms. In your final year, you'll wrap up by taking one of those forms to honours level.

The course has a flexible structure: students take twelve course units, four per year. Some are compulsory, and others you can choose. In your second and third years, you'll make up the marks that count for your final degree award. You'll also take a study skills course during your first year, to equip you with writing skills to make your degree count. This course won't count towards your final degree, but you'll need to take it to pass on to second year.

You'll be assessed through examinations, essays, seminar presentations, practical assignments and creative portfolios. In Drama modules, you'll often be assessed as part of a group.

Entry requirements

A levels: aaa-aab.

Required subjects:

• A in an essay-based Arts and Humanities subject at A-Level
• At least five GCSEs at grade A*-C or 9-4 including Maths and English.

Where an applicant is taking the EPQ alongside A-levels, the EPQ will be taken into consideration and result in lower A-level grades being required. For students who are from backgrounds or personal circumstances that mean they are generally less likely to go to university, you may be eligible for an alternative lower offer. Follow the link to learn more about our  contextual offers.

We accept T-levels for admission to our undergraduate courses, with the following grades regarded as equivalent to our standard A-level requirements:

• AAA* – Distinction (A* on the core and distinction in the occupational specialism)
• AAA – Distinction
• BBB – Merit
• CCC – Pass (C or above on the core)
• DDD – Pass (D or E on the core)

Where a course specifies subject-specific requirements at A-level, T-level applicants are likely to be asked to offer this A-level alongside their T-level studies.

English language requirements

All teaching at Royal Holloway (apart from some language courses) is in English. You will therefore need to have good enough written and spoken English to cope with your studies right from the start of your course.

The scores we require

• IELTS: 7.0 overall. Writing 7.0. No other subscore lower than 5.5.
• Pearson Test of English: 69 overall. Writing 69. No other subscore lower than 51.
• Trinity College London Integrated Skills in English (ISE): ISE IV.
• Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) grade C.

Country-specific requirements

For more information about country-specific entry requirements for your country please visit here .

Undergraduate preparation programme

For international students who do not meet the direct entry requirements, for this undergraduate degree, the Royal Holloway International Study Centre offers an International Foundation Year programme designed to develop your academic and English language skills.

Upon successful completion, you can progress to this degree at Royal Holloway, University of London.

There are plenty of performance opportunities to get stuck into while you're here, and they'll stand you in good stead when you graduate. You'll be familiar and confident in performance situations (skills which are vital for leading meetings and make you viable for visible leadership roles). You'll come off as credible and composed. You'll also walk away with considerable experience of technical, intellectual, imaginative, and practical skills, valued by most employers. Aside from these performance skills, you'll also get skills in research and project management from the academic side of the course. 

Our industry links mean you'll be able to pursue work experience with theatres and creative arts agencies. Recent graduates in the Department of Drama & Theatre have gone into careers in acting, writing, broadcasting (including at the BBC), literary agency, arts management, sound design, marketing/PR, teaching and community theatre work, as well as postgraduate study in different fields. Lots of our graduates also start their own performing arts companies. Find out more about what our graduates are doing now.

Fees, funding & scholarships

Home (UK) students tuition fee per year*: £9,250

EU and international students tuition fee per year**: £23,800

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6.5–Writing About Drama

Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt

Drama holds a unique position among literary genres as it exists both as a written text and performed texts. It is similar to film in this regard, but unlike film, the written script itself (as opposed to any performance) is what is analyzed. This is not to say that individual performances cannot be analyzed, but that this approach is far less common in English and literature classes. Theater and performance classes, however, will privilege the individual performance.

If you are to analyze a specific performance for an essay, that performance will likely be available as a filmed version or have primary accounts or images that you can draw from. In essays that focus on a particular performance, you’ll be thinking about the dramatic elements—how an actor portrays their character, how different characters interact, how lightning and sound affect a particular scene, and how the camera or staging frames a character. All performances are adaptations of a script, and as adaptations, you may wish to judge them accordingly. The criteria for an adaptation will vary; however, the strongest analysis will be less concerned with fidelity to a particular script (unless that was an aim of the performance) and more judging the performance on its own merits as a piece of art, entertainment, or criticism.

When writing about a script (as opposed to a specific performance), you may use all of the traditional literary tools associated with close reading, both prose and poetry. The challenge of drama is that the majority of information on setting, character, and theme will be conveyed in dialogue. As a reader, you will need to pay attention to clues (some obvious, some less so, and many open to interpretation) in what characters are saying. Moreover, as plays are meant to be spoken, you can pay attention to the individual sounds characters make. A character may have their own distinct speech patterns as a way for a listener to distinguish them more readily from other characters, or the playwright may choose to write in verse following a particular poetic structure.

Writing about drama often entails writing about the culture in which the play was created and performed. For most cultures, drama serves as a way to think through popular ideas, whether those be humanity’s relationship with the divine, power structures, and the multiple facets of human identity. As you read and write, what sorts of ideas seem to be underlying the worldview espoused in the play? How do those ideas compare with the worldviews that would have been popular at the time or are popular today? How does the playwright present those views? Are they to be accepted? Are they critiqued or modified? Once again, look to the dialogue and the relationships among the various characters. A character’s actions (or inaction) and the other characters’ reactions to them will often indicate a playwright’s intended meaning.

The final note on writing about drama for you to consider is that most drama is designed to be flexible in meaning. What you are looking for in an analysis is not necessarily the “correct” interpretation, but one that is supported by the script and the reasonable ways it may be performed. Multiple meanings exist in drama by design as the final form of a performed text only occurs after analysis and play by readers, directors, actors, and the many contributors it takes to put on a performance. Ultimately, you will need to be attuned not only to words in the script but also the many ways those words can be delivered.

Attribution:

Hagstrom-Schmidt, Nicole. “Drama: Writing About Drama.” In Surface and Subtext: Literature, Research, Writing . 3rd ed. Edited by Claire Carly-Miles, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Christie Anders, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, R. Paul Cooper, and Matt McKinney. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License .

6.5--Writing About Drama Copyright © 2024 by Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Elements of Creative Writing

J.D. Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa

Rachel Morgan, University of Northern Iowa

Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright Year: 2023

ISBN 13: 9780915996179

Publisher: University of Northern Iowa

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Robert Moreira, Lecturer III, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 3/21/24

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

As far as I can tell, content is accurate, error free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is relevant and up-to-date.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 5

I would agree that the text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 5

Text is modular, yes, but I would like to see the addition of a section on dramatic writing.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Topics are presented in logical, clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

Navigation is good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical issues that I could see.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I'd like to see more diverse creative writing examples.

As I stated above, textbook is good except that it does not include a section on dramatic writing.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: One Great Way to Write a Short Story
• Chapter Two: Plotting
• Chapter Three: Counterpointed Plotting
• Chapter Four: Show and Tell
• Chapter Five: Characterization and Method Writing
• Chapter Six: Character and Dialouge
• Chapter Seven: Setting, Stillness, and Voice
• Chapter Eight: Point of View
• Chapter Nine: Learning the Unwritten Rules
• Chapter One: A Poetry State of Mind
• Chapter Two: The Architecture of a Poem
• Chapter Three: Sound
• Chapter Four: Inspiration and Risk
• Chapter Five: Endings and Beginnings
• Chapter Six: Figurative Language
• Chapter Seven: Forms, Forms, Forms
• Chapter Eight: Go to the Image
• Chapter Nine: The Difficult Simplicity of Short Poems and Killing Darlings

Creative Nonfiction

• Chapter One: Creative Nonfiction and the Essay
• Chapter Two: Truth and Memory, Truth in Memory
• Chapter Three: Research and History
• Chapter Four: Writing Environments
• Chapter Five: Notes on Style
• Chapter Seven: Imagery and the Senses
• Chapter Eight: Writing the Body
• Chapter Nine: Forms

Back Matter

• Contributors
• North American Review Staff

Ancillary Material

• University of Northern Iowa

About the Book

This free and open access textbook introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing in the genres of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review, the oldest and one of the most well-regarded literary magazines in the United States. They’ve selected nearly all of the readings and examples (more than 60) from writing that has appeared in NAR pages over the years. Because they had a hand in publishing these pieces originally, their perspective as editors permeates this book. As such, they hope that even seasoned writers might gain insight into the aesthetics of the magazine as they analyze and discuss some reasons this work is so remarkable—and therefore teachable. This project was supported by NAR staff and funded via the UNI Textbook Equity Mini-Grant Program.

About the Contributors

J.D. Schraffenberger  is a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of two books of poems,  Saint Joe's Passion  and  The Waxen Poor , and co-author with Martín Espada and Lauren Schmidt of  The Necessary Poetics of Atheism . His other work has appeared in  Best of Brevity ,  Best Creative Nonfiction ,  Notre Dame Review ,  Poetry East ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Rachel Morgan   is an instructor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the author of the chapbook  Honey & Blood , Blood & Honey . Her work is included in the anthology  Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in American  and has appeared in the  Journal of American Medical Association ,  Boulevard ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Grant Tracey   author of three novels in the Hayden Fuller Mysteries ; the chapbook  Winsome  featuring cab driver Eddie Sands; and the story collection  Final Stanzas , is fiction editor of the  North American Review  and an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where he teaches film, modern drama, and creative writing. Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize, he has published nearly fifty short stories and three previous collections. He has acted in over forty community theater productions and has published critical work on Samuel Fuller and James Cagney. He lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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8: About Drama

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• Page ID 40480

• Heather Ringo & Athena Kashyap
• City College of San Francisco via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

• describe the elements of drama.
• identify drama-specific literary devices.
• perform drama-specific literary analysis.
• write a literary analysis essay on a play.
• 8.1: What is Drama?
• 8.2: Elements of Drama
• 8.3: Reading and Responding to Drama
• 8.4: Featured Playwright - William Shakespeare
• 8.5: Drama Discussion Questions, Assignments, and Supplemental Resources

Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, overview of playwriting.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Mark Leib

Successful playwriting depends not only on dialogue, but on intelligent plotting, credible characterization, and the ability to develop a theme through 70 to 90 pages of encounters and exchanges (in a full-length play). The pleasures of writing drama can be significant. Writers for the stage can have the satisfying experience of watching an audience hang on every word, laugh at every witticism, and show their appreciation at the play’s end with grateful applause.

Writing for the theater also allows the playwright the advantage of having actors, designers, and a director with whom to collaborate; it’s the rare playwright who hasn’t learned more about their play during rehearsals. Of course, there are difficulties too: at first, the necessity of writing only what can be seen or heard within the walls of a small theater may seem to limit the playwright in comparison with, say, a novelist or screenwriter. But with practice, it turns out that there are solutions to most of these problems and that the ingenuity with which the writer finds these answers can be part of the magic of the stage experience. In fact, “magic” is the right word to describe a successful play: somehow it rises above its flesh-and-blood interpreters and becomes urgently important, funny, inspiring, or devastating. The writer who chooses to work in dramatic or comedic plays can, at best, deliver an experience that will never be forgotten.

Intelligent plotting is essential. Most plays are constructed around the idea of someone who wants something, who faces an obstacle (external or internal) and then struggles with this obstacle until a result is reached. For example, Hamlet wants to kill his uncle Claudius but faces obstacles within himself ( Hamlet , Prince of Darkness ); Blanche DuBois wants to settle down in a conventional marriage in New Orleans but is opposed in this by Stanley Kowalski ( A Streetcar Named Desire ). The playwright must provide desires for their characters and then determine which ones will be fulfilled and which stymied. If the obstacles are too small, the play will lack suspense; if they’re unreasonably great, the play will lack credibility. In a play with more than a few characters, the playwright must manipulate the action so that all the various desires and struggles on the stage can be interwoven. It’s no coincidence that one of the definitions of drama is “conflict.” The playwright must know how to write thinkable conflicts and grab the spectator’s attentions therewith.

Characterization

Characterization is another skill that the writer for the stage must come to master. In realistic drama—still the most popular sort—characters must be “round” and not “flat,” meaning that they must have multiple dimensions, a thinkable combination of virtues and vices, as well as the needs, hopes, inhibitions, and fears of real human beings. Every good playwright is a good psychologist, understanding that, for example, despite all his anger, Biff Loman still loves Willy Loman ( Death of a Salesman ); Amanda Wingfield is not merely a harridan ( The Glass Menagerie ); and Iago’s varied explanations for his hatred of Othello ( Othello , the Moor of Venice ) are the products of a man who fundamentally doesn’t know himself. With less than a hundred pages to work within, the dramatist must learn to sketch characters in such a way that a whole personality can appear once a performer takes the role. This is a talent best developed when working with the actors and the director: there’s no substitute for the writer of seeing their characters actually on stage. Still, much can be learned from the comments of intelligent readers or even from a cold reading with non-professionals taking the play’s parts.

And then there’s dialogue. Here the playwright must strive to find a credible form of discourse that avoids cliché and artificiality and that varies just as characters do: a professor of philosophy shouldn’t sound like a dog trainer, and a harried urban shop girl shouldn’t sound like a wealthy heiress. The secret of good dialogue is selectivity—finding the conversation that most reveals the lives of the speakers, finding the expression that means more than itself, finding the word that the audience can instantly absorb and interpret. The playwright needs to be aware that “realistic” dialogue isn’t always the most suitable choice–that that the absurdities of Ionesco , the elegance of Shaw , the repeated expletives of Mamet are sometimes more appropriate than the more “authentic” sounds of the real world outside the theater. Further, “on-the-nose” dialogue, with which characters say precisely what they mean, isn’t nearly as interesting as “off-the-nose” dialogue, that which proceeds through indirection and ambiguity. Some playwrights, like Chekhov and Pinter , employ what might be called “pause-and-effect.” Others, like Beckett , use a highly charged poetic diction that packs far more energy than a more conventional vocabulary. Every play, the playwright will find, makes its own special demands where dialogue is concerned, and the writer must learn to readjust with each new work.

Finally, there’s theme. It’s not enough to present characters speaking interestingly with each other while engaged in some action; the playwright must have something to say. A typical play might demand two precious hours from a busy, burdened spectator. In this regard, the playwright is no different from the novelist or poet: they must have a purpose that the literary work embodies, a theme or conviction that the drama communicates. Sometimes the idea might be socio-political, as in Ibsen’s A Doll’s House ; sometimes it’s psychological, as in that same playwright’s Hedda Gabler , or even metaphysical, as in his late play The Master Builder . The primary commandment for playwrights is “Thou shalt not waste the audience’s time.” Theatergoers, like readers of short stories or novels, want to be rewarded for investing attention (and often money) in a play: if they’re lucky, they’ll find that the dramatist has illuminated some area of human life, perhaps made existence a little more comprehensible. A playwright who’s able to shed a little light on a spectator’s life has lived up to a high calling. Such a writer need not worry that their efforts are misspent.

“The Play’s the Thing”

The art of the dramatist has been practiced in the Western world for 2,500 years and has given us the great works of Sophocles , Shakespeare , Strindberg , and Shaw . But this history is not enough: every age has its own truths and needs the artists who can express them in a contemporary way, employing recognizable characters. If they will learn to develop plots that express a well-considered theme, characters that win the spectators’ credence, and dialogue that leads an audience to think and feel deeply, the result can be riveting. Four hundred years after the Bard first said it, the play’s still the thing. The scribe who chooses to write for the stage is taking on a venerable—and potentially powerful—occupation.

Brevity – Say More with Less

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Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing

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What this handout is about

This handout identifies common questions about drama, describes the elements of drama that are most often discussed in theater classes, provides a few strategies for planning and writing an effective drama paper, and identifies various resources for research in theater history and dramatic criticism. We’ll give special attention to writing about productions and performances of plays.

What is drama? And how do you write about it?

When we describe a situation or a person’s behavior as “dramatic,” we usually mean that it is intense, exciting (or excited), striking, or vivid. The works of drama that we study in a classroom share those elements. For example, if you are watching a play in a theatre, feelings of tension and anticipation often arise because you are wondering what will happen between the characters on stage. Will they shoot each other? Will they finally confess their undying love for one another? When you are reading a play, you may have similar questions. Will Oedipus figure out that he was the one who caused the plague by killing his father and sleeping with his mother? Will Hamlet successfully avenge his father’s murder?

For instructors in academic departments—whether their classes are about theatrical literature, theater history, performance studies, acting, or the technical aspects of a production—writing about drama often means explaining what makes the plays we watch or read so exciting. Of course, one particular production of a play may not be as exciting as it’s supposed to be. In fact, it may not be exciting at all. Writing about drama can also involve figuring out why and how a production went wrong.

What’s the difference between plays, productions, and performances?

Talking about plays, productions, and performances can be difficult, especially since there’s so much overlap in the uses of these terms. Although there are some exceptions, usually plays are what’s on the written page. A production of a play is a series of performances, each of which may have its own idiosyncratic features. For example, one production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night might set the play in 1940’s Manhattan, and another might set the play on an Alpaca farm in New Zealand. Furthermore, in a particular performance (say, Tuesday night) of that production, the actor playing Malvolio might get fed up with playing the role as an Alpaca herder, shout about the indignity of the whole thing, curse Shakespeare for ever writing the play, and stomp off the stage. See how that works?

Be aware that the above terms are sometimes used interchangeably—but the overlapping elements of each are often the most exciting things to talk about. For example, a series of particularly bad performances might distract from excellent production values: If the actor playing Falstaff repeatedly trips over a lance and falls off the stage, the audience may not notice the spectacular set design behind him. In the same way, a particularly dynamic and inventive script (play) may so bedazzle an audience that they never notice the inept lighting scheme.

A few analyzable elements of plays

Plays have many different elements or aspects, which means that you should have lots of different options for focusing your analysis. Playwrights—writers of plays—are called “wrights” because this word means “builder.” Just as shipwrights build ships, playwrights build plays. A playwright’s raw materials are words, but to create a successful play, they must also think about the performance—about what will be happening on stage with sets, sounds, actors, etc. To put it another way: the words of a play have their meanings within a larger context—the context of the production. When you watch or read a play, think about how all of the parts work (or could work) together.

For the play itself, some important contexts to consider are:

• The time period in which the play was written
• The playwright’s biography and their other writing
• Contemporaneous works of theater (plays written or produced by other artists at roughly the same time)
• The language of the play

Depending on your assignment, you may want to focus on one of these elements exclusively or compare and contrast two or more of them. Keep in mind that any one of these elements may be more than enough for a dissertation, let alone a short reaction paper. Also remember that in most cases, your assignment will ask you to provide some kind of analysis, not simply a plot summary—so don’t think that you can write a paper about A Doll’s House that simply describes the events leading up to Nora’s fateful decision.

Since a number of academic assignments ask you to pay attention to the language of the play and since it might be the most complicated thing to work with, it’s worth looking at a few of the ways you might be asked to deal with it in more detail.

There are countless ways that you can talk about how language works in a play, a production, or a particular performance. Given a choice, you should probably focus on words, phrases, lines, or scenes that really struck you, things that you still remember weeks after reading the play or seeing the performance. You’ll have a much easier time writing about a bit of language that you feel strongly about (love it or hate it).

That said, here are two common ways to talk about how language works in a play:

How characters are constructed by their language

If you have a strong impression of a character, especially if you haven’t seen that character depicted on stage, you probably remember one line or bit of dialogue that really captures who that character is. Playwrights often distinguish their characters with idiosyncratic or at least individualized manners of speaking. Take this example from Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest :

ALGERNON: Did you hear what I was playing, Lane? LANE: I didn’t think it polite to listen, sir. ALGERNON: I’m sorry for that, for your sake. I don’t play accurately—anyone can play accurately—but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life. LANE: Yes, sir. ALGERNON: And, speaking of the science of Life, have you got the cucumber sandwiches cut for Lady Bracknell?

This early moment in the play contributes enormously to what the audience thinks about the aristocratic Algernon and his servant, Lane. If you were to talk about language in this scene, you could discuss Lane’s reserved replies: Are they funny? Do they indicate familiarity or sarcasm? How do you react to a servant who replies in that way? Or you could focus on Algernon’s witty responses. Does Algernon really care what Lane thinks? Is he talking more to hear himself? What does that say about how the audience is supposed to see Algernon? Algernon’s manner of speech is part of who his character is. If you are analyzing a particular performance, you might want to comment on the actor’s delivery of these lines: Was his vocal inflection appropriate? Did it show something about the character?

How language contributes to scene and mood

Ancient, medieval, and Renaissance plays often use verbal tricks and nuances to convey the setting and time of the play because performers during these periods didn’t have elaborate special-effects technology to create theatrical illusions. For example, most scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth take place at night. The play was originally performed in an open-air theatre in the bright and sunny afternoon. How did Shakespeare communicate the fact that it was night-time in the play? Mainly by starting scenes like this:

BANQUO: How goes the night, boy? FLEANCE: The moon is down; I have not heard the clock. BANQUO: And she goes down at twelve. FLEANCE: I take’t, ’tis later, sir. BANQUO: Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose!

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a torch

Give me my sword. Who’s there?

Characters entering with torches is a pretty big clue, as is having a character say, “It’s night.” Later in the play, the question, “Who’s there?” recurs a number of times, establishing the illusion that the characters can’t see each other. The sense of encroaching darkness and the general mysteriousness of night contributes to a number of other themes and motifs in the play.

Productions and performances

Productions.

For productions as a whole, some important elements to consider are:

• Venue: How big is the theatre? Is this a professional or amateur acting company? What kind of resources do they have? How does this affect the show?
• Costumes: What is everyone wearing? Is it appropriate to the historical period? Modern? Trendy? Old-fashioned? Does it fit the character? What does their costume make you think about each character? How does this affect the show?
• Set design: What does the set look like? Does it try to create a sense of “realism”? Does it set the play in a particular historical period? What impressions does the set create? Does the set change, and if so, when and why? How does this affect the show?
• Lighting design: Are characters ever in the dark? Are there spotlights? Does light come through windows? From above? From below? Is any tinted or colored light projected? How does this affect the show?
• “Idea” or “concept”: Do the set and lighting designs seem to work together to produce a certain interpretation? Do costumes and other elements seem coordinated? How does this affect the show?

You’ve probably noticed that each of these ends with the question, “How does this affect the show?” That’s because you should be connecting every detail that you analyze back to this question. If a particularly weird costume (like King Henry in scuba gear) suggests something about the character (King Henry has gone off the deep end, literally and figuratively), then you can ask yourself, “Does this add or detract from the show?” (King Henry having an interest in aquatic mammals may not have been what Shakespeare had in mind.)

Performances

For individual performances, you can analyze all the items considered above in light of how they might have been different the night before. For example, some important elements to consider are:

• Individual acting performances: What did the actor playing the part bring to the performance? Was there anything particularly moving about the performance that night that surprised you, that you didn’t imagine from reading the play beforehand (if you did so)?
• Mishaps, flubs, and fire alarms: Did the actors mess up? Did the performance grind to a halt or did it continue?
• Audience reactions: Was there applause? At inappropriate points? Did someone fall asleep and snore loudly in the second act? Did anyone cry? Did anyone walk out in utter outrage?

Response papers

Instructors in drama classes often want to know what you really think. Sometimes they’ll give you very open-ended assignments, allowing you to choose your own topic; this freedom can have its advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, you may find it easier to express yourself without the pressure of specific guidelines or restrictions. On the other hand, it can be challenging to decide what to write about. The elements and topics listed above may provide you with a jumping-off point for more open-ended assignments. Once you’ve identified a possible area of interest, you can ask yourself questions to further develop your ideas about it and decide whether it might make for a good paper topic. For example, if you were especially interested in the lighting, how did the lighting make you feel? Nervous? Bored? Distracted? It’s usually a good idea to be as specific as possible. You’ll have a much more difficult time if you start out writing about “imagery” or “language” in a play than if you start by writing about that ridiculous face Helena made when she found out Lysander didn’t love her anymore.

If you’re really having trouble getting started, here’s a three point plan for responding to a piece of theater—say, a performance you recently observed:

• Make a list of five or six specific words, images, or moments that caught your attention while you were sitting in your seat.
• Answer one of the following questions: Did any of the words, images, or moments you listed contribute to your enjoyment or loathing of the play? Did any of them seem to add to or detract from any overall theme that the play may have had? Did any of them make you think of something completely different and wholly irrelevant to the play? If so, what connection might there be?
• Write a few sentences about how each of the items you picked out for the second question affected you and/or the play.

This list of ideas can help you begin to develop an analysis of the performance and your own reactions to it.

If you need to do research in the specialized field of performance studies (a branch of communication studies) or want to focus especially closely on poetic or powerful language in a play, see our handout on communication studies and handout on poetry explications . For additional tips on writing about plays as a form of literature, see our handout on writing about fiction .

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Carter, Paul. 1994. The Backstage Handbook: An Illustrated Almanac of Technical Information , 3rd ed. Shelter Island, NY: Broadway Press.

Vandermeer, Philip. 2021. “A to Z Databases: Dramatic Art.” Subject Research Guides, University of North Carolina. Last updated March 3, 2021. https://guides.lib.unc.edu/az.php?a=d&s=1113 .

Worthen, William B. 2010. The Wadsworth Anthology of Drama , 6th ed. Boston: Cengage.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Picture Prompts

125 Picture Prompts for Creative and Narrative Writing

What story can these images tell?

By The Learning Network

For eight years, we at The Learning Network have been publishing short, accessible, image-driven prompts that invite students to do a variety of kinds of writing via our Picture Prompts column.

Each week, at least one of those prompts asks students: Use your imagination to write the opening of a short story or poem inspired by this image — or, tell us about a memory from your own life that it makes you think of.

Now we’re rounding up years of these storytelling prompts all in one place. Below you’ll find 125 photos, illustrations and GIFs from across The New York Times that you can use for both creative and personal writing. We have organized them by genre, but many overlap and intersect, so know that you can use them in any way you like.

Choose an image, write a story, and then follow the link in the caption to the original prompt to post your response or read what other students had to say. Many are still open for comment for teenagers 13 and up. And each links to a free Times article too.

We can’t wait to read the tales you spin! Don’t forget that you can respond to all of our Picture Prompts, as they publish, here .

Images by Category

Everyday life, mystery & suspense, relationships, science fiction, travel & adventure, unusual & unexpected, cat in a chair, happy puppy, resourceful raccoon, cows and cellos, people and penguins, opossum among shoes, on the subway, sunset by the water, endless conversation, falling into a hole, lounging around, sneaker collection, the concert, meadow in starlight.

Related Picture Prompt | Related Article

Public Selfies

Night circus, tarot cards, castle on a hill, security line, batman on a couch, reaching through the wall, beware of zombies, haunted house, familial frights, witches on the water, blindfolded, phone booth in the wilderness, shadow in the sky, a letter in the mail, hidden doorway.

Point of No Return

Darkened library, under the table, playing dominoes, looking back, a wave goodbye, out at dusk, conversation, walking away, alone and together, a new friend, heated conversation, up in a tree, hole in the ceiling, under the desk, at their computers, marching band, band practice, in the hallway, in the lunchroom, the red planet, tech gadgets, trapped inside, astronaut and spider, computer screen, special key, tethered in space, on the court, in the waves, city skateboarding.

Fishing in a Stream

Over the falls.

Under the Sea

Sledding in the mountains, cracked mirror, wilderness wayfaring, car and cactus, walking through town, tropical confinement, travel travails, roller coasters, atop the hill, climbing a ladder, under the ice, other selves.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Picture Prompts here.

School of the Arts

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• Creative Writing
• Creative Writing MFA Program
• Department of Theatre, Film and Creative Writing

Graduate College Awards honor excellence in the Creative Writing MFA Program

The Graduate College Awards, held this year on April 25, 2024, honored three individuals within the Creative Writing MFA Program for exceptional work and mentorship. Professor Mitch Wieland, Director of the Creative Writing MFA Program, received the Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award. Ayotola Tehingbola, who graduated this year with an MFA in fiction, received the Presidential Scholar Award in Performance and Visual Arts. Caleb Merritt, a current MFA student in poetry, received the Audience Choice Award for the Three-Minute Thesis Competition. In a lovely turn of coincidence, Tehingbola nominated Professor Wieland for the mentorship award. “ I have felt supported by Mitch in these past three years,” Tehingbola said. “Mitch is a patient teacher and he front-loads the foundations. He also makes the business of writing a priority. From applying to grad school to preparing me for my job interview, Mitch was a solid.” For Professor Wieland, who helped found the MFA program at Boise State, mentorship undergirds his teaching philosophy. “ As a graduate student, I had the good fortune to study with George Garrett, a legendary writer and teacher famous for his mentorship,” Professor Wieland said. “My approach to mentorship is to be like George and pass it on. I’m very thankful Boise State recognizes all the mentorship our tireless graduate faculty does week in and week out.”

Graduate College Awards

Excellence in Graduate Mentoring Award: Professor Mitch Wieland, Director of the Creative Writing MFA Program. 

Presidential Scholar Award in Performance and Visual Arts: Ayotola Tehingbola, MFA alum

Three-Minute Thesis Competition Audience Choice Award: Caleb Merritt, MFA student 

You can learn more about the Creative Writing MFA Program here.

The 45 Best Comedies of All Time, Ranked

From 'City Lights' and 'Duck Soup' to 'Borat' and 'Bridesmaids', this is Collider's ranking of the best, funniest comedy movies ever made.

Of all the cinematic genres, comedy is the hardest to truly master. Humor is so context-dependent, and changes so wildly from person to person (let alone between generations) that many comedies struggle to have a strong, immediate impact, and a lot of the ones that do soon become outdated and glaringly of their time. However, there have been plenty of comedy movies throughout cinematic history that have proven themselves to be timeless and stand among the best movies of all time.

In a sprawling range that spans from masterpieces of the silent era to striking satires and 70s spoofs, and even to some instant classics of the modern age, comedy cinema is littered with hilarious hits. United by runaway creativity and a universal embracing of the sheer, unbridled joy of a good laugh, these quintessential comedy classics are sure to leave audiences in stitches.

45 'Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery' (1997)

Directed by jay roach.

Offering emphatic proof that spoof movies didn’t completely die in the 80s, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was the perfect parody of what was, at the time, a dwindling Bond franchise. It follows the titular spy, an agent from the 1960s awoken from cryogenic sleep to face off against his arch nemesis, Dr. Evil ( also played by Mike Myers ), when he returns to Earth and holds the planet to ransom.

The spy spoof is relentless in its pursuit of gags, taking direct aim at 007’s more anachronistic and chauvinistic tendencies with reckless abandon. The end result is so ridiculous that it works, hinging on its parody prowess and its central goofiness to stand among the most brilliantly ingenious dumb comedies ever made. The catchphrases alone are enough to leave fans in hysterics.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

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44 'Arsenic and Old Lace' (1944)

Directed by frank capra.

A delightful pivot to the macabre from Frank Capra , Arsenic and Old Lace is a black comedy gem that has maintained its hilarious punch over the decades. It focuses on Mortimer Brewster ( Cary Grant ), a notorious marriage detractor who is amazed to find himself in love and eager to marry. When he travels home to tell his family the news, he is disturbed by a corpse hidden in the window seat, a discovery that forces Mortimer to take more notice of his aunts’ misdeeds.

Grant excels at the film’s particular blend of fast-paced, frenzied storytelling and the dark comic allure that bubbles to the surface as he learns his aunts are serial killers. While its shock factor has dissipated over the years, Arsenic and Old Lace still thrives as a brilliant comedy that does justice to the Joseph Kesselring play it was based on.

Rent on Apple TV

43 'In Bruges' (2008)

Directed by martin mcdonagh.

Martin McDonagh has risen to great heights with his ability to mesh black comedy with dramatic punch, notably doing so with the Oscar-nominated The Banshees of Inisherin , which also made exceptional use of stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson . However, the writer-director's funniest movie is still his debut feature, In Bruges , with the anxiety-inducing crime-dramedy following two Irish hitmen as they are sent to the picturesque Belgian city of Bruges after a job goes horribly wrong.

Embedded within the film's dark comedic allure, there is an unpredictable tale of morality and regret which was largely defining of the picture's brilliance. Also running with fabulous, profanity-laden dialogue, occasional strong violence, and an unforgettably erratic yet hilarious villainous performance from Ralph Fiennes , In Bruges is a laugh-a-minute comedy that thrives as a contemplative tale of crime and remorse as well .

42 'The Jerk' (1979)

Directed by carl reiner.

The movie which saw Steve Martin truly make the leap from a stand-up comic to a leading man in Hollywood comedies, The Jerk was the actor's first starring role in film. Serving primarily as a vehicle for Martin's effervescent and highly energetic brand of goofy comedy to take center stage , The Jerk follows Navin Johnson (Martin), the adopted son of a black family whose sheltered naivety explodes into a journey of self-discovery which takes him to St. Louis.

Embarking on one chaotic misadventure after another, Navin goes from rags to riches and back to rags again all while pursuing the love of cosmetologist, Marie Kimble ( Bernadette Peters ). Even finding an unlikely diehard fan in Stanley Kubrick , The Jerk displays Martin at his high-octane best and proves that, when it comes to being stupid, there is no greater genius than Steve Martin.

41 'Galaxy Quest' (1999)

Directed by dean parisot.

Lovingly referred to as one of the best, albeit unofficial, Star Trek movies ever made, Galaxy Quest is one of the more underrated spoof movies , winning admirers aplenty through the love and affection it shows its source material. Jason Nesmith ( Tim Allen ) is a washed-up star of the once-popular sci-fi series ‘Galaxy Quest,’ which has attracted a dedicated cult following. As he and his former co-stars get by appearing at conventions, they are approached by an alien race who has mistaken the series to be historical records and enlists the cast to help them fight an intergalactic tyrant.

Capitalizing on its sensational premise, Galaxy Quest dazzles as a fun-fueled sci-comedy that doesn’t skimp on elements of action and adventure either. Buoyed by an exceptional supporting cast that includes Sigourney Weaver , Alan Rickman , Sam Rockwell , and Tony Shalhoub among others, it transcends its comedy framework to simply be a stunning, pure-hearted spectacle of sci-fi adventure.

Galaxy Quest

40 'a night at the opera' (1935), directed by sam wood.

A successful vaudeville and Broadway comedy troupe through the early part of the 20th century before they made the transition to film with the advent of the talkies, the Marx Brothers were arguably Hollywood's greatest comedic talents through the 30s and 40s. The first film of the group's post-Zeppo era , A Night at the Opera sees the three brothers infiltrating the highbrow opera scene to help a young aspiring singer, Rosa ( Kitty Carlisle ), achieve her dreams while thwarting her enemies.

Featuring witty wordplay, physical comedy, and musical numbers, as well as elaborate set pieces like the famous stateroom scene , the film has become an all-time comedy classic. The feverishly upbeat movie is jam-packed with gags while allowing the brothers a rare chance to show off a more sympathetic side to their anarchic personas.

Watch on Tubi

39 'Heathers' (1989)

Directed by michael lehmann.

A critical counter-punch to the sunny optimism of many '80s teen comedies , Heathers offers a masterclass in cynical and subversive dark comedy. Tired of the elitist and cruel clique led by three girls, all of whom are named Heather, Veronica Sawyner ( Winona Ryder ) teams up with her rebellious new boyfriend, J.D. ( Christian Slater ), to devise a twisted plot that will rid the school of the rigid and oppressive social order. However, things spiral out of control when J.D.'s plan escalates to full-blown murder.

An astute deconstruction of high school tropes, Heathers takes plenty of potshots at teenage alienation and schoolyard hierarchies . Despite being a box office flop on release, it has become a cult film of significant acclaim. More than 35 years on from its release, it still feels pointed and modern, thanks in no small part to its inventive dialogue written by Daniel Waters .

38 'Superbad' (2007)

Directed by greg mottola.

Following three high school boys in their pursuit to gain access to a party and hook up with the girls they like, Superbad has become a modern teen comedy classic with its mix of awkward adolescent angst and vulgar hilarity. It focuses on Seth ( Jonah Hill ), Evan ( Michael Cera ), and Fogell ( Christopher Mintz-Plasse ), a trio of unpopular youths who try everything to illegally obtain alcohol in order to attend a student house party.

A wild adventure of chaotic, teenage exuberance that ranges from the absurd and audacious to the surprisingly heartfelt, Superbad excels as both a vibrant and vile comedy, and an earnest meditation on friendship . Writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg loosely based the film on their own experiences as teens in Vancouver in the late 1990s. It is further enhanced by an incredible supporting cast including Rogen, Emma Stone , Joe Lo Truglio , and Bill Hader .

Rent on Amazon

37 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004)

Directed by edgar wright.

The first film in Edgar Wright ’s famous ‘Cornetto Trilogy’, Shaun of the Dead is a true modern classic of comedy cinema, as well as a brilliant nod to the history of zombie horror cinema. It follows an aimless sales assistant, Shaun ( Simon Pegg ), whose uneventful life is imbued with new meaning when the dead rise. Desperate to save his mother and his failing relationship, Shaun sets out with his lazy flatmate to face the zombie apocalypse.

With Wright utilizing his trademark style, Pegg and Nick Frost performing at their hilarious best, and plenty of comical yet shocking bloody effects, it has become one of the all-time great horror comedies . It also served as a significant big-screen success for Wright following his hit series Spaced , while Shaun of the Dead ’s toying with an established American film genre in zombie horror enabled it to reach an international audience .

Shaun of the Dead

36 'office space' (1999), directed by mike judge.

Office Space is Mike Judge 's send-up of corporate culture and the drudgery of the modern workplace. Starring Ron Livingstone , it follows software engineer Peter Gibbons who despises his mundane job at a soulless, life-sapping tech company. Further frustrated by his micromanaging boss, Bill Lumbergh ( Gary Cole ), and the mind-numbing routine of cubicle life, Peter finds clarity when a hypnosis session goes askew, inspiring him and his co-workers to take revenge on their boss.

Judge's story taps into the understated, maniacal rage that the monotonous boredom of such jobs can instill in many employees, an achievement complemented by hilarious performances from all involved. Its commentary on the modern workplace and its resonant ideas have made Office Space a cult classic comedy that has influenced pop culture through the memes that have spawned from it.

Office Space

35 'the producers' (1967), directed by mel brooks.

A Mel Brooks masterpiece that danced on society's sensitivities, The Producers followed washed-up Broadway producer Max Bialystock ( Zero Mostel ) and his timid accountant Leo Bloom ( played by Gene Wilder ) as they hatch a devious scheme to get rich quick. Realizing that if they can get people to invest in a play which flops that they'll be able to keep the leftover money, Max and Leo gather financiers for their surefire musical flop, "Springtime for Hitler."

The Producers received only mixed reviews upon release, with many critics finding its narrative detailing two Jews trying to profit off Hitler to be in poor taste (it is worth noting the film was released at a time when WWII was in living memory for most). However, it has come to be celebrated as a daring and divine success, with its searing mockery of the entertainment industry and its willingness to explore controversial topics making it a timeless classic.

The Producers (1967)

34 'hot fuzz' (2007).

The first and best entry of Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost's acclaimed 'Cornetto' Trilogy, Hot Fuzz saw the idiosyncratic filmmaker firing on all cylinders. When elite London police officer Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is transferred due to making everyone else in his station look bad, he lands in the sleepy country town of Sandford. When a series of violent murders hit the town, Angel and his partner Danny Butterman (Frost) begin investigating the malicious mystery.

Wright and Pegg's script is consistently hilarious, as is every single one of the performances, but what truly made Hot Fuzz distinct as a comedy masterstroke was its visual gags . Wright is peerless among his generation when it comes to visual humor, be it his smash cuts and dynamic camera moves or simple set pieces like Nick Frost running through a fence. He was at his very best with Hot Fuzz which is a masterpiece of modern comedy. All those who agree say "Yarp."

33 'Life of Brian' (1979)

Directed by terry jones.

Throughout cinematic history, there is no comedic troupe that has become as notorious, nor as polarizing, as Monty Python . More so than any other film that they made, Life of Brian exhibits the comedy group's appetite to dismantle sacrosanct ideas and serious topics in attention-grabbing ways. It revolves around Brian of Nazareth ( Graham Chapman ), a man born on the same night as Jesus and who is often mistaken to be the Messiah, even as he inadvertently becomes the face of a revolutionary group's stance against the Romans.

The Monty Python movie is a fantastic satire of religious dogmatism, packed with hard-hitting references to Christianity , politics, history, and even classic literature. From gags like Biggus Dickus to "what did the Romans ever do for us?", and, of course, to the finale which sees Brian and his comrades in crucifixion looking on the bright side of life, Life of Brian is loaded with moments which are as gut-bustlingly hilarious as they are iconic.

Life of Brian

32 'the big lebowski' (1998), directed by joel & ethan coen.

One of the most beloved achievements of the Coen Brothers , The Big Lebowski blended elements of quirky comedy with film noir to be an intriguing yet absurd mystery as well as a uniquely hilarious modern classic. It centers on Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski ( Jeff Bridges ), an easygoing slacker and avid bowler who becomes embroiled in a criminal conspiracy when he is mistaken for a millionaire also named Jeffrey Lebowski. As the Dude seeks compensation for his soiled rug, he is sucked into the L.A. criminal underbelly and a bizarre kidnapping case.

Utterly surreal, joyously silly, and endlessly quotable, The Big Lebowski became an instant cult classic . Also featuring unforgettable supporting performances from the likes of John Goodman , Steve Buscemi , John Turturro , and Philip Seymour Hoffman , it is nothing short of a sublime comedy masterpiece, with many who abide regarding it among the best films ever made.

The Big Lebowski

31 'modern times' (1936), directed by charles chaplin.

The master of the silent era, Charles Chaplin made many of cinema's earliest masterpieces, with Modern Times viewed to be among the best silent films ever made. Serving as Chaplin's last performance as his iconic tramp character, the film follows a fired factory worker as he struggles to adjust to the industrial advancements of a rapidly evolving America. Befriending an orphaned and homeless young woman, he strives to find his place in the new-age world.

It shouldn't be lost on modern audiences that Chaplin's decision to make Modern Times a mostly silent picture when the film industry had embraced the talkies was met with some strong criticism. In hindsight, it's a perfect metaphor for what the film is about; a humble worker lost in a mechanical world where new is best and advancement is everything. A masterful blend of physical comedy and thoughtful themes, its social criticism has only grown more poignant over time .

Modern Times

Watch on Max

30 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' (1987)

Directed by john hughes.

One of the greatest road comedies, Planes, Trains and Automobiles sees stars Steve Martin and John Candy at the peak of their powers, with their chemistry sublime as the friendly yet perpetually squabbling travel companions. With Thanksgiving fast approaching, advertising executive Neal Page (Martin) is desperate to get back to his family in Chicago, but when inclement weather grounds his flight home, he finds himself hitting the road with the overall joyous Del Griffith (Candy) in a bid to get home in time for the holiday.

Thriving with the odd-couple dynamic, the film excels at creating conflict between the two vastly different personalities . By the end of the film, though, most audiences have come to be charmed by the two men's complicated and hilarious, yet undeniably heartfelt friendship. The stellar performances by Martin and Candy have earned it a place among the most beloved road trip movies .

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

29 'snatch' (2000), directed by guy ritchie.

Guy Ritchie ’s cult classic crime-comedy stands as one of the most unique and captivating films the genre has seen in recent decades. It follows a variety of crooks embedded in London’s criminal underbelly as a stolen diamond worth a fortune becomes a key focus. It also focuses on Turkish ( Jason Statham ) and his efforts as a promotor of illegal fights who finds himself indebted to a ruthless mobster who runs rigged bouts.

Snatch is an achievement in engrossing style, alluring grit, and Guy Ritchie’s trademark characters and dialogue that have defined the director’s brilliance for years. The meticulously interwoven plots are imbued with a dark comedy and a razor-sharp wit that have seen Snatch ascend to be a masterpiece of controlled chaos that holds up incredibly well upon multiple rewatches.

28 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' (2004)

Directed by adam mckay.

"Great Odin's raven!" Will Ferrell has played a number of iconic characters throughout his career, but none can top Ron Burgundy , a pompous and chauvinistic '70s news anchor. The film follows Ron's ego-driven journey as he competes with his colleagues, navigates his complicated relationship with his female co-anchor, and ultimately finds himself in a battle for his career.

He's joined by an ensemble cast made up of comedy heavy-hitters like Christina Applegate , Paul Rudd , David Koechner , and Steve Carell . However, it is undoubtedly Ferrell who served as the captivating star, with his masterful performance giving a pointed focal point to the infantile film, while also presenting one of the most iconic characters in American film (comedy or otherwise). Additionally, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy also served as Adam McKay 's feature film debut.

Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

27 'this is spinal tap' (1984), directed by rob reiner.

Turning things up to eleven, This is Spinal Tap is one of the greatest and most influential mockumentaries ever made, tracking the British glam rock/heavy metal band . With Christopher Guest , Michael McKean , and Harry Shearer starring as the band members, the film follows Spinal Tap's American comeback tour and the many mishaps that come with it. Filmmaker Marty Di Bergi ( Rob Reiner ) documents the tour, conducting interviews with the band members.

Flying by at a breezy 82 minutes, This is Spinal Tap crams an unbelievable amount of jokes, music moments, and character work into its runtime. Satirizing the music industry and celebrity culture, it contains many unforgettably hilarious moments , such as the band members stuffing vegetables down their trousers and the disastrous mini-Stonehenge fiasco, to be, pound-for-pound, one of the funniest movies ever made.

This is Spinal Tap

26 'groundhog day' (1993), directed by harold ramis.

A quintessential American classic, Groundhog Day sees Bill Murray star as Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman who finds himself stuck in a time loop when he travels to Punxsutawney to cover the annual Groundhog Day. Doomed to keep living the same day over and over again until he finally gets it right, Phil experiences everything from despair to acceptance and elation before he finally prevails.

With a clever screenplay and a powerhouse performance from Murray , who showcases his comedic prowess and some impressive dramatic chops as well, Groundhog Day not only thrived as a work of comedic genius but as a powerful story of self-discovery as well. It has endured for over three decades as a rousing and triumphant comedy that has transcended generations and won over tens of millions of fans through its earnest, unpretentious presentation.

Groundhog Day

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Book News & Features

Ai is contentious among authors. so why are some feeding it their own writing.

Chloe Veltman

The vast majority of authors don't use artificial intelligence as part of their creative process — or at least won't admit to it.

Yet according to a recent poll from the writers' advocacy nonprofit The Authors Guild, 13% said they do use AI, for activities like brainstorming character ideas and creating outlines.

The technology is a vexed topic in the literary world. Many authors are concerned about the use of their copyrighted material in generative AI models. At the same time, some are actively using these technologies — even attempting to train AI models on their own works.

These experiments, though limited, are teaching their authors new things about creativity.

Best known as the author of technology and business-oriented non-fiction books like The Long Tail, lately Chris Anderson has been trying his hand at fiction. Anderson is working on his second novel, about drone warfare.

He says he wants to put generative AI technology to the test.

"I wanted to see whether in fact AI can do more than just help me organize my thoughts, but actually start injecting new thoughts," Anderson says.

Anderson says he fed parts of his first novel into an AI writing platform to help him write this new one. The system surprised him by moving his opening scene from a corporate meeting room to a karaoke bar.

Authors push back on the growing number of AI 'scam' books on Amazon

"And I was like, you know? That could work!" Anderson says. "I ended up writing the scene myself. But the idea was the AI's."

Anderson says he didn't use a single actual word the AI platform generated. The sentences were grammatically correct, he says, but fell way short in terms of replicating his writing style. Although he admits to being disappointed, Anderson says ultimately he's OK with having to do some of the heavy lifting himself: "Maybe that's just the universe telling me that writing actually involves the act of writing."

Training an AI model to imitate style

It's very hard for off-the-shelf AI models like GPT and Claude to emulate contemporary literary authors' styles.

The authors NPR talked with say that's because these models are predominantly trained on content scraped from the Internet like news articles, Wikipedia entries and how-to manuals — standard, non-literary prose.

But some authors, like Sasha Stiles , say they have been able to make these systems suit their stylistic needs.

"There are moments where I do ask my machine collaborator to write something and then I use what's come out verbatim," Stiles says.

The poet and AI researcher says she wanted to make the off-the-shelf AI models she'd been experimenting with for years more responsive to her own poetic voice.

So she started customizing them by inputting her finished poems, drafts, and research notes.

"All with the intention to sort of mentor a bespoke poetic alter ego," Stiles says.

She has collaborated with this bespoke poetic alter ego on a variety of projects, including Technelegy (2021), a volume of poetry published by Black Spring Press; and " Repetae: Again, Again ," a multimedia poem created last year for luxury fashion brand Gucci.

Stiles says working with her AI persona has led her to ask questions about whether what she's doing is in fact poetic, and where the line falls between the human and the machine.

read it again… pic.twitter.com/sAs2xhdufD — Sasha Stiles | AI alter ego Technelegy ✍️🤖 (@sashastiles) November 28, 2023

"It's been really a provocative thing to be able to use these tools to create poetry," she says.

Potential issues come with these experiments

These types of experiments are also provocative in another way. Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger says she's not opposed to authors training AI models on their own writing.

"If you're using AI to create derivative works of your own work, that is completely acceptable," Rasenberger says.

Thousands of authors urge AI companies to stop using work without permission

But building an AI system that responds fluently to user prompts requires vast amounts of training data. So the foundational AI models that underpin most of these investigations in literary style may contain copyrighted works.

Rasenberger pointed to the recent wave of lawsuits brought by authors alleging AI companies trained their models on unauthorized copies of articles and books.

"If the output does in fact contain other people's works, that creates real ethical concerns," she says. "Because that you should be getting permission for."

Circumventing ethical problems while being creative

Award-winning speculative fiction writer Ken Liu says he wanted to circumvent these ethical problems, while at the same time creating new aesthetic possibilities using AI.

So the former software engineer and lawyer attempted to train an AI model solely on his own output. He says he fed all of his short stories and novels into the system — and nothing else.

Liu says he knew this approach was doomed to fail.

That's because the entire life's work of any single writer simply doesn't contain enough words to produce a viable so-called large language model.

"I don't care how prolific you are," Liu says. "It's just not going to work."

Liu's AI system built only on his own writing produced predictable results.

"It barely generated any phrases, even," Liu says. "A lot of it was just gibberish."

Yet for Liu, that was the point. He put this gibberish to work in a short story. 50 Things Every AI Working With Humans Should Know , published in Uncanny Magazine in 2020, is a meditation on what it means to be human from the perspective of a machine.

"Dinoted concentration crusch the dead gods," is an example of one line in Liu's story generated by his custom-built AI model. "A man reached the torch for something darker perified it seemed the billboding," is another.

Liu continues to experiment with AI. He says the technology shows promise, but is still very limited. If anything, he says, his experiments have reaffirmed why human art matters.

"So what is the point of experimenting with AIs?" Liu says. "The point for me really is about pushing the boundaries of what is art."

Audio and digital stories edited by Meghan Collins Sullivan .

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• mary rasenberger
• chris anderson
• sasha stiles
• authors guild

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Chloe Lukasiak: The surprising reason I ‘envy’ JoJo Siwa’s ‘Dance Moms’ experience

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Chloe Lukasiak wishes she had a “game plan” going into “Dance Moms” like JoJo Siwa. 

Ahead of Wednesday night’s reunion special on Lifetime, the competition dancer-turned-reality star tells Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” podcast that Siwa had a leg up on the original cast because she was able to watch the unscripted hit as a fan before entering the fray herself. 

“I kind of envy the people who watched it, created a game plan and then went on knowing exactly what they wanted to do,” says Lukasiak, who made her TV debut at 9 alongside mother Christi Lukasiak.

“Because, like I said, cameras came to us and then it was like, all of a sudden, the drama needed to be heightened.”

Chloe’s “Dance Moms” narrative was often centered around her rivalry with co-star Maddie Ziegler, which she feels was “manufactured” by dance teacher Abby Lee Miller who often bludgeoned the former into thinking she was second best. 

“At 9, I have no idea who I am. So if somebody else is telling me, ‘This is who you are, you’re second,’ then I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I must be second.’ It was like a slow progression of the negativity I felt that was coming towards me,” recalls the Pepperdine University graduate, now 22. 

“I think if I had come at it from a different angle and … been far away from it and then approach it, I think I definitely would’ve put some mental walls up. But I didn’t put any [up],” she elaborates. “I was completely vulnerable at all times.” 

Notably, Siwa, now 20, joined “Dance Moms” in 2015’s Season 5, four years after it premiered.

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The “Karma” singer recently revealed on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she knew exactly what she wanted out of the show from the moment she was cast — which was fame — even if it meant dealing with unrelenting criticism from Miller, now 58.

“I saw what she was like on TV and I somehow, as a kid, could always see the bigger picture,” she explained, noting that she was often placed at the bottom of Miller’s infamous “pyramid” ranking. 

“I would be at the bottom of the pyramid and my mom would be pissed,” the former Nickelodeon actress said of her mother, Jessalyn Siwa. “She’d be so mad and she’d with all day on set about it and then we’d get in the car and she’d be, like, actually mad about it.”

But JoJo was grateful for any type of attention — negative or otherwise — as she knew it would translate into more screentime.

“The person at the top of the pyramid gets congratulations. The person at the bottom, though, gets the whole storyline of the TV show,” she remembered telling her mom. “And she was like, ‘How the f—k do you know that?’” 

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Miller recently admitted that she has regrets over being a bit tough on her students at times.

“No matter how harsh I was on the kid, they weren’t gonna get it,” the Abby Lee Dance Company founder said while filming an upcoming episode of ABC News’ “IMPACT x Nightline.” “They just didn’t have the talent.”

After two consecutive seasons as a full-time cast member on “Dance Moms,” JoJo signed a deal with Nickelodeon, for which she performed in various shows, released a discography and starred in her own feature film titled “The J Team” for the network.

Meanwhile, she developed an endless selection of merchandise for children — from bows and bedspreads to ice cream and crayons. 

JoJo, like the rest of her “Dance Moms” counterparts — including reunion participants Chloe, Kalani Hilliker, Kendall Vertes and sisters Brooke and Paige Hyland — has transitioned into adulthood as best she can, even rebranding herself as a pioneer of “gay pop” after coming out as queer in 2021. 

Chloe, for her part, studied creative writing at Pepperdine University and is in the early stages of penning her debut novel, which she tells Page Six has “nothing to do” with the dance world.

While she’s currently focused on flourishing as an author, the Elevé Dance Competition co-founder says a return to reality TV isn’t entirely off the table. 

“Going back into reality TV,” she says, “honestly sometimes I feel like I could kill it.” 

“Dance Moms: The Reunion” airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. 

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