Melodrama, Naturalism and Realism

MELODRAMA -

To explore the art of melodrama and what that entails we did a series of exercises looking into the 3 main stock characters that appear in all melodramatic plots. These are the villain, the hero and the damsel in distress. The main focus of the exercise was to find a very bold obvious, almost stereotypical, way to represent each of these archetypes through our physicality. 

The Villain -

This stock character is presented as sly and devious. The physicality of which mostly revolves around a low and crouched stance, to show their doggy nature and provide a sense of unknowing and secrecy. The villain was often seen wearing a mask or having a large cloak so that you weren't able to tell exactly who they were, adding to their mysterious and shady character. A common theme among everyone's physical representations of the villain was a exaggerated facial expressions, often most involving the mouth as if they were cackling. This plays on the stereotypical images of a villain we all carry in our heads, therefore by making use of these stereotypical features you make the character easily reconcilable for the audience. 

The Hero -
This stock character is mostly defined by the strong stance of planting your feet, pushing your chest out and holding your arms slightly bent to the side, a good example of this is superman's stance in the photo on left. The fact that the physicality for this archetype is still evident in film and theatre today shows how recognizable and durable this presentation of the hero is, to have lasted the test of time. The second key characteristic that a lot of people took to in the exercise was a line of sight that goes far into the distance, as if you are standing there to be admired. The hero is to be associated with strength and therefore the plating of the feet is important, in contrast to the villain or the damsel who are most likely to a more weak or feeble stance. The open chest shows power as it conveys the sense that he doesn't need to hid or run away as he is so powerful.

The Damsel In Distress - 
The damsel in distress would have the weakest stance out of all three stock characters as she is the one who needs saving by the hero from the villain and therefore she has is portrayed as having no power to match or combat with these two characters. A common theme cropping up among some the physical representation soft the damsel was the idea of being love struck or flirtatious. This was generally shown by a bendy, weak stance that leans to the side to convey a kind of coyness, often emphasized by the head turning back to look at whoever they're flirting with. 


NATURALISM - This is a style of drama that is based upon the accurate and precise depiction of detail in the things you do upon stage. This could be both emotionally or physically, both with the actions you preform and your physicality as your character. It is supposed to be based on truth and able to give an extremely accurate and realistic portrayal of the real word. 

REALISM - This is similar to naturalism in the aspect that its object is also to represent the play as accurately and as true to real life as possible. However, unlike naturalism, this doesn't mean that the up most attention to realistic detail must be payed. Naturalism aims to show a realistic and recognizable portrayal of real life through acting out every single detail that would be carried out in real life, where as realism aims to depict a natural; and realistic picture through only showing the key details that define whatever it is you are trying to convey. This style is commonly used in soap operas and other tv shows as they feel it is unnecessary and irrelevant to the plot to show every tiny detail whats happening, it would most probably become very boring

The way we explored these two styles and the difference between them in the lesson was via the example of miming the making of a cup of tea. First making of tea was mimed in a huge amount of detail so no action that you would have to do in reality was left out, the kettle was boiled and while it was boiling she went on her phone.. then she got the tea bag and put it in her tea.. gave it a stir .. ect, ect. By the end it was very obvious that she was miming the making of a cup of TEA and not a cup of coffee or coca or any other drink. The mime was clearly successful as everyone was able to see what she was doing, however it took a very long time and by the end I was getting extremely bored. This then spurred the discussion of how we could do the same mime while still being able to identify the action without taking so long.In order to do this we establish that the mime would have to take place using the key actions that people use to identify the making of a cup of tea. Eg: the getting of the tea bag or the pouring of the kettle. This is what we later discovered to be the art of realism, while the first mime portrayed the art of naturalism.