Drama

I do not think I am twisting the usual meaning of drama if I define it as a presentation before spectators by performers who take on roles and who interact with each other to further a story or a text intended for such presentations. This is intended as a working definition simple enough to be recalled easily. Indeed, it is so simple that I should point out that it makes one or two distinctions that are perhaps not immediately obvious. First, to say that performers "take on roles" leaves open the possibility that they are not within the roles to other performances as such alternative phrases as "performers in character" or "characters represented by actors" do not. To say that the performers "interact with each other" might seem unnecessary , but is in fact important, for in traditional societies there are many performances in which different characters appear successively and simultaneously but, nevertheless , do not interact. And I say "to further a story" because a progression of the story may not provide the structure of the performance.