Anact is a major division of atheatre work, including aplay,film,opera,ballet, ormusical theatre, consisting of one or morescenes.[1][2] The term can either refer to aconscious division placed within a work by aplaywright (usually itself made up of multiple scenes)[3] or a unit of analysis for dividing adramatic work into sequences. The wordact can also be used for major sections of otherentertainment, such asvariety shows,television programs,music hall performances,cabaret, andliterature.
An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action,climax, andresolution. Ascene normally represents actions happening in one place at one time and is marked off from the next scene by a curtain, a blackout, or a brief emptying of the stage.[1]
The elements that create theplot of a play and divide it into acts include theexposition, which sets up the rest of thestory by giving basic information. Another element is theinciting incident, which starts all the action that will follow. Going along with the inciting incident, themajor dramatic question is formed, which holds the rest of the play. The majority of the play is made up of complications, which change the action. These complications lead to thecrisis, which is thefinal plot point. At this point, the major dramatic question is usually answered. Finally, the play culminates with a resolution, or thedénouement, where everything comes together and the situation has been resolved.[4] These elements of the plot are the main things used to divide a play into acts and sometimes scenes. In some scenarios, the play may not end with a resolved situation; it may leave the audience on a peak and have asequel to it, otherwise known as acliffhanger.
Though there is no limit to the number of acts in a dramatic work, some may have been derived from different interpretations ofAristotle'sPoetics, in which he stresses the primacy of plot over character and "an orderly arrangement of parts",[5] and others may have been derived fromFreytag's Pyramid.[6]
Roman theatre dividedplays into a number of acts separated by intervals. Acts may be further divided intoscenes.[7] In classical theater, each regrouping between the entrances and exits ofactors is a scene, while later use describes a change of setting.[citation needed]
Modern plays often have only one level of structure, which can be referred to as either scenes or acts at the whim of the writer, and some writers dispense with firm divisions entirely.[citation needed] Successive scenes are normally separated from each other in either time or place, but the division between acts has more to do with the overall dramatic structure of the piece. The end of an act often coincides with one or more characters making an important decision or having an important decision to make, a decision that has a profound impact on the story being told.[citation needed]
Contemporary theatre, in line withscreenwriting and novel forms, tends towards athree-act structure. Manyoperettas and mostmusicals are divided into just two acts, so, in practice, theintermission is seen as dividing them, and the wordact comes to be used for the two-halves of a show whether or not the script divides it into acts.
Aone-act play is a short drama that consists of only one act; the phrase is not used to describe a full-length play that does not utilize act-divisions. Unlike other plays which usually are published one play per book, one-act plays are often published inanthologies or collections.[8]
In a three-act play, each act usually has a differentmood. In the most commonly used structure, the first act has many introductory elements (that is, who, what, when, where, why, and how); the second act is usually the darkest, with theantagonists having a greater compass; and the third act has a resolution (dénouement), often with the protagonists prevailing.
Until the 18th century, most plays were divided into five acts. The work ofWilliam Shakespeare, for example, generally adheres to a five-act structure.[10] This format is known as thefive-act play, and was famously analyzed byGustav Freytag inDie Technik des Dramas (Dramatic techniques). The five acts played specific functions in the overall structure of the play similar to that ofFreytag's pyramid.[11][12]
A similar five-part structure is also used in traditional JapaneseNoh drama, particularly byZeami Motokiyo. Zeami, in his workSandō (The Three Paths), originally described a five-part (fivedan) Noh play as the ideal form. It begins slowly and auspiciously in the first part (jo), building up the drama and tension in the second, third, and fourth parts (ha), with the greatest climax in the thirddan, and rapidly concluding with a return to peace and auspiciousness in the fifthdan (kyū).[13]
As part of atelevision program, each individual act can be separated bycommercials.
Infilm, a number of scenes grouped together create a story. The three-act structure is commonly referred to infilm adaptations of theatrical plays.
ACT, major portion of a play. It may have one or more components, called scenes. It derives from the Roman theater, which was influenced by the earlier Greek theater's practice of separating sections of the ...
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