The Relation of action-plot and its models of application in dramatic design

Drama, the essential element of textual theatre, seems to be related to the fields of both literature and theatre. What distinguishes drama from literature is, however, that it can also exist without words. And theatre is one of its forms of expression, such as opera, ballet, radio and TV plays or cinema. The main elements of drama are plot, characterisation, dialogue and thought. While the first three make the form of drama, the last one stands for content. The basic element of drama in Aristotelian-theatre is plot. The other elements have also been considered so important as plot in the development process of drama. Since the main elements of dramatic design can only take a theatrical form by combining into a character of the play, characterisation can also be regarded as the vital element of drama. So the player is the main element of drama, too. Dialogue, by advancing the action in the play, gains importance through its contribution to the meaning. The thought of the play means theme-position-message. Theme is the main thought that dominates over the subject; targets at proving a judgement of theme and an action developed through the conflicts in dramatic form by taking it to a certain conclusion; and message is a conclusion related to suggestion. Plot is the arrangement of a play so as to communicate the audience a certain thought through an artistic effect. It comprises a continual development. The main elements of plot in the closed form are "introduction- knot-conflict-climax-resolution". Plot is the exterior part in which the story of a play develops. And the structure that determines its style of movement and direction is called "dramatic action", which can be considered as its skeleton. Dramatic action is the deep dynamics of the plot. Revealing the basic meaning of the play, dramatic action moves in a linear way in closed and open plays while in a circular way in some absurd plays. It moves forward in an uninterrupted single line in closed plays; it is shattered at points of knots it rises with tension and then falls. It shows an interrupteddevelopment in open plays and it also spreads. Circular movement is only peculiar to the absurd though absurd may have some other forms of movement. In this study we have taken an antique play, an Elizabethan play, an analytic play, a well-made play, a situational play and a play of atmosphere to show the linear movement in a closed way; and we have taken an absurd play as our model to show the linear movement in an open way and then analysed it.