Sunday, May 11, 2008

Melodrama

Via the Queen of Mars, from today's Theatresource Writer's Forum:

What's the difference between drama and melodrama?

If you're talking about what's actually happening, then virtually nothing you say will be "over the top". But if you're talking about something which isn't an action, you can veer off into Telenovela land.

This seems very insightful yet I'm not sure I completely understand it. Yet.
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2 comments:

  1. Joshua James5/12/2008 03:28:00 PM

    I always looked at it thusly -

    Drama is emotion based on necessity via the actions and or events of the plot.

    Melodrama is drama for the sake of drama only, regardless of the action or necessity therein.

    It's a little broad, but not a bad starting point. Like the friend who also got dramatic for the sake of being dramatic . . . that's melodrama.

    The buddy who holds it in until it pops - that's drama.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrew Bellware5/12/2008 04:22:00 PM

    As always, Josh James is much smarter than me.

    ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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