An act is a major division of a
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
work, including a
play
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
,
film,
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...
, or
musical theatre, consisting of one or more
scenes.
The term can either refer to a
conscious
Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...
division placed within a work by a
playwright (usually itself made up of multiple scenes) or a unit of analysis for dividing a
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
tic work into sequences. As applied, those definitions may or may not align. The word ''act'' can also be used for major sections of other
entertainment
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have developed over thousa ...
, such as
variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp ...
s,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
programs,
music hall performances,
cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...
, and
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
.
Acts and scenes
An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action,
climax, and resolution. A
scene
Scene (from Greek σκηνή ''skēnḗ'') may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Scene (subculture), a youth subculture from the early 2000s characterized by a distinct music and style. Groups and performers
* The Scene who reco ...
normally represents actions happening in one place at one time, and is marked off from the next scene by a curtain, a black-out, or a brief emptying of the stage.
To be more specific, the elements that create the
plot of a play and divide it into acts include the
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
* Expository writing
** Exposition (narrative)
* Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...
, which gives information, setting up the rest of the
story
Story or stories may refer to:
Common uses
* Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events)
** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting
* Story (American English), or storey (British ...
. Another element is the inciting incident, which starts all the action that will follow. Going along with the inciting incident, the
major dramatic question
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
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 the
crisis
A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...
, which is the
final plot point. At this point, the major dramatic question has usually been answered. Finally, there is "the resolution, also known as the
denouement
Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and schola ...
", which is the end of the play, where everything comes together and the situation has been resolved, leaving the audience satisfied with the play as a whole. These more specific elements of plot are the main things used to divide a play into acts and sometimes scenes, Sometimes the play may not end as a resolved situation, it may leave the audience on a peak and have a sequel to it.
Though there is no limit to the number of acts in a dramatic work, some may have been derived from different interpretations of
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...
's ''
Poetics'', in which he stresses the primacy of plot over character and "an orderly arrangement of parts" and others may have been derived from
Freytag's Pyramid.
History
Roman theatre was the first to divide
plays
Play most commonly refers to:
* Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment
* Play (theatre), a work of drama
Play may refer also to:
Computers and technology
* Google Play, a digital content service
* Play Framework, a Java framework
* P ...
into a number of acts separated by intervals. Acts may be further divided into
scenes.
In classical theater, each regrouping between entrances and exits of actors is a scene, while later use describes a change of setting.
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. Successive scenes are normally separated from each other in either time or place, but the division between acts is 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 which has a profound impact on the story being told.
Contemporary theatre, in line with
screenwriting
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
Screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, de ...
and novel forms, tends towards a
three-act structure. Many
operettas
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
and most
musicals are divided into just two acts, so, in practice, the
intermission
An intermission, also known as an interval in British and Indian English, is a recess between parts of a performance or production, such as for a theatrical play, opera, concert, or film screening. It should not be confused with an entr'acte ( ...
is seen as dividing them, and the word "act" comes to be used for the two-halves of a show whether or not the script divides it into acts.
Varieties
One-act plays
A
one-act play
A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in wri ...
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 in anthologies or collections.
Three-act plays
In a three-act play, each act usually has a different
mood. In the most commonly used structure, the first act has a lot of introductory elements (that is, who, what, when, where, why, and how); the second act is usually the darkest, with the antagonists having a greater compass; and the third act has a resolution (
dénouement
Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and schola ...
), often with the protagonists prevailing.
* Act one: The conflict of the story is discovered. The
exposition
Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to:
*Universal exposition or World's Fair
* Expository writing
** Exposition (narrative)
* Exposition (music)
*Trade fair
A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...
, the introduction of the
protagonist and other characters that the protagonist meets, take place,
[Cannell, S. J. (n.d.). What is the three-act structure? ecture transcript] as well as the
dramatic premise and
inciting incident (the incident that sets the events of the story in motion) occurs approximately halfway through the first act.
* Act two: The main character encounters an obstacle that prevents the character from achieving his or her dramatic need. This is known as the complication. The main character reaches his or her lowest point, seems farthest from fulfilling the dramatic need or objective, and seems to have no way to succeed.
* Act three: The
climax occurs as well as the resolution (dénouement), a brief period of calm at the end of a play where a state of equilibrium returns.
Five-act plays
Until the 18th century, most plays were divided into five acts. The work of
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, for example, generally adheres to a five-act structure. This format is known as the
five-act play, and was famously analyzed by
Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag (; 13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright.
Life
Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the school at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of ...
in ''Die Technik des Dramas'' (Dramatic techniques). The five acts played specific functions in the overall structure of the play, but in performance, there was not necessarily any clear separation between them.
A similar five-part structure is also used in traditional Japanese
Noh
is a major form of classical Japanese dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Developed by Kan'ami and his son Zeami, it is the oldest major theatre art that is still regularly performed today. Although the terms Noh and ' ...
drama, particularly by
Zeami Motokiyo
(c. 1363 – c. 1443), also called , was a Japanese Aesthetics, aesthetician, actor, and playwright.
His father, Kan'ami, Kan'ami Kiyotsugu, introduced him to Noh theater performance at a young age, and found that he was a skilled actor. Kan ...
. Zeami, in his work "''
Sandō
A in Japanese architecture is the road approaching either a Shinto shrine or a Buddhist temple.Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version. Its point of origin is usually straddled in the first case by a Shinto ''torii'', in t ...
''" (The Three Paths), originally described a five-part (five ''dan'') 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 third ''dan'', and rapidly concluding with a return to peace and auspiciousness in the fifth ''dan'' (''kyū'').
Other media
As part of a
television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
, each individual act can be separated by
commercials.
In
film, a number of scenes grouped together bring an audiovisual work to life. The three-act structure is commonly referred to in
film adaptations of theatrical plays.
See also
*
Acting
Notes
References
*
*
{{Authority control
Drama
Narrative units