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Drama
A word derived from the Greek for acting. Drama from its earliest times to today retains this essential sense of performance in which actors assume roles, act, and speak. In theory, one could have a wordless drama, as in a mime or a dumb show, but the usual form employs characters and dialogue as well as action, and often music, song, and dance. Drama occurs across the media, on TV, radio, stage, film; combines with different genres, as in docudrama, which dramatizes real events; and can feature in the classroom as pedagogic strategy. Western tragic drama was traditionally preoccupied with great men and women (comedy more often representing the lower classes), but contemporary drama—for example, the “kitchen sink drama” of the mid 20th century—often ...