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The Elements of Plays
话剧的元素
A typical play contains the following elements: acts and scenes, characters, dialogue, plot, setting, and stage directions.
一部典型的话剧包含以下元素：剧幕和场景、人物、对话、情节、布景和舞台指示。
Acts and Scenes
剧幕和场景
Playwrights break the action of their plays into larger sections called acts, with individual acts broken up into smaller sections called scenes. Each scene is essentially a vignette that presents a pivotal moment in the plot or in the development of the characters. Some plays - such as Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and Arthur Miller’s A Memory of Two Mondays - are one-act plays, where all the drama unfolds in a single act; a playwright may or may not divide them into smaller scenes.
剧作家将他们话剧中的表演分解为更大的部分，称为剧幕；将每个剧幕分解为更小的部分，称为场景。每个场景本质上都是一个小插曲，呈现了情节或角色发展的关键时刻。一些话剧——如塞缪尔·贝克特的《终局》和阿瑟·米勒的《两个星期一的记忆》——是独幕剧，所有的话剧都在一幕中展开；剧作家可能会也可能不会把它们分成更小的场景。
Characters
人物
The characters are the people whom the play is about, with the dramatic action resulting from their choices, behaviors, and relationships. Characters are central to the plot of any play because, without them, the playwright cannot tell the story. Most often, characters are their own unique identities, but, in some cases, they might be allegories or archetypes; examples of the latter include the characters in Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe and in The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder.
人物就是剧中的人物，他们的选择、行为和关系产生了戏剧性的表演。人物是任何话剧情节的核心，因为没有他们，剧作家就无法讲述故事。大多数情况下，人物是他们自己独特的身份，但在某些情况下，他们可能是寓言或原型；后者的例子包括克里斯托弗·马洛的《浮士德医生》和桑顿·怀尔德的《九死一生》中的人物。
Dialogue
对话
Dialogue is just as important as character in any play because it propels the action forward and informs the audience about what’s happening onstage, who the characters are, and their relationships to one another. Dialogue encompasses all the spoken parts of the play. This takes the form of conversations between characters or asides spoken to the audience. Ancient and classical playwrights frequently wrote dialogue in verse, but this is largely outdated, with modern dialogue and language replacing more formal rhythms and structures.
在任何话剧中，对话都和角色一样重要，因为它推动表演向前发展，并告诉观众舞台上发生了什么，角色是谁，以及他们之间的关系。对话包含了剧中所有的口头表演部分，主要以人物之间的对话或对观众说旁白的形式来呈现。古代和古典剧作家经常用诗歌写对话，但这在很大程度上已经过时了，现代对话和语言取代了更正式的韵律和结构。
Some plays consist only of monologues, dialogue spoken by one character at a time, usually directly to the audience. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange and The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler are two popular examples. A one-person show or solo performance is a play-length monologue delivered by one performer; they may play one character or multiple characters. Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 by Anna Deavere Smith and God Said Ha! by Julia Sweeney are both one-person shows.
有些话剧只有独白，一次由一个角色说出对话，通常是直接对观众说的。尼托扎克·尚吉的《考虑过自杀的有色人种女孩/当彩虹升起时》和伊芙·恩斯勒的《阴道独白》是两个流行的例子。单人表演或个人表演是由一名表演者表演的一段话剧长度的独白；他们可以扮演一个角色或多个角色。安娜·迪维雷·史密斯的《暮光之城：洛杉矶，1992》和朱莉娅·斯威尼的《上帝说哈！》这两个表演都是单人秀。
Plot
情节
The plot is the sequence of events linking the story together and presenting it in a cohesive, compelling way. Plot consists of five general elements: an introduction that introduces the characters and setting; rising action; a climactic scene or scenes; falling action; and a resolution. Many plays use this approach to tell a linear story, though some—especially those that are more experimental in nature—may jump around in time and deliberately alter the audience’s sense of reality; Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare is an example of the latter.
情节是一系列事件，将故事联系在一起，并以一种连贯、引人入胜的方式呈现出来。情节由五个基本要素组成：介绍人物和场景的引言；加温情节；高潮；收尾情节；结局。许多话剧都使用这种方法来讲述线性故事，尽管有些话剧——尤其是那些本质上更具实验性的话剧——可能会随着时间的推移而跳跃，故意改变观众的现实感；约翰·瓜尔的《六度分离》就是后者的一个例子。
Setting
场景
The setting is where the action of the play takes place. Setting can refer to both the geographic area (city, state, country) and the exact location of the action in a given scene (a specific room in a house, an office, a public space like a park or a beach, etc.). For many playwrights, setting is so critical that it almost becomes another character in the play; for instance, see the American South of Tennessee Williams, the New England of Eugene O’Neill, and the New York of Neil Simon.
场景是话剧动作发生的地方。场景既可以指地理区域（城市、州、国家），也可以指特定场景中表演的确切位置（房子里的特定房间、办公室、公园或海滩等公共空间）。对许多剧作家来说，场景至关重要，几乎成了剧中的另一个角色；例如，参见田纳西·威廉姆斯的“美国南部”、尤金·奥尼尔的“新英格兰”和尼尔·西蒙的“纽约”。
Stage Directions
舞台指示
Stage directions are the only other text that appears in a play script. They are not spoken; instead, they function as directions to the actors, director, and other creatives producing the play. They stipulate when characters enter and exit a scene; how actors should speak or react to certain lines; what the sets should look like; and any supplemental information that enhances the experience of the play, such as specific musical selections, types of lighting to use, and sound effects to employ. Some playwrights, like William Shakespeare, include minimal stage directions, while others, like Samuel Beckett, are notorious about productions adhering strictly to the meticulous stage directions they’ve defined.
舞台指示是剧本中唯一出现的其他文本。他们不被演员口头说出；相反，他们的作用是指导演员、导演和其他创意人员创作该剧。它们规定了角色何时进出场景；演员应该如何说话或对某些台词做出反应；布景应该是什么样子；以及增强话剧体验的任何补充信息，如特定的音乐选择、要使用的灯光类型和要使用的音效。一些剧作家，如威廉·莎士比亚，采用最少的舞台指示，而另一些剧作家，例如塞缪尔·贝克特，则因要求作品要严格遵守他们定义的详细的舞台指示而名声在外。
【Source】www.supersummary.com
【Translated by】Spark Liao (廖怀宝)
【Illustration】From Bing
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