Originally part of a religious celebration, ancient Greek plays were the foundation                                                 for theater in Western civilization. The famous philosopher Aristotle was a true theater buff. His POETICS gave us the first known observations about the basic requirements that make a play work. Of special importance is his comment that drama  "...is an imitation, not of men, but of an action."

 

So? What exactly is an ACTION? Modern people tend to think action means vigorous activity. Preferably something big like a rocket launch or the Kentucky Derby. Some think action means violence. Fist fights. Bank holdups. Car crashes. But in fact, in drama, action is ALL human behavior. Walking, talking, smiling, crying, riding a bus or  swimming in the sea. Action can be strong and even violent, but it never has to be. A mother who sings a lullaby to her baby is doing action just as much as a character in a barroom brawl.

 

Since action is all human behavior,  words alone are not enough. You present your story by creating behavior for actors to perform before an audience which gathers in a special place to watch the show. With a play, a stage of some kind is the place. With a film or a television program, a screen becomes the stage. 

 

Think about that for a moment. The narrative prose in novels requires only words which anyone can read almost anywhere. No actors. No stage or screen. Never a performance. Indeed narrative prose is storyTELLing. People don't go to the theater or sit in front of a screen to read a story. They go to watch actors in a performance imitiating actions.   So, in reality, plays, are not mere storytelling. Indeed, they are storyDOing. 

 

Most of us have heard, "Actions speak louder than words." Or, "It's not what people say; it's what they do." Even the ancients knew we reveal our personalities with our behavior. Clearly, a young man leaping on a mountain peak has a different personality than a chef de cuisine who raises roses. A doctor behaves differently than a lawyer. A farmhand does things differently than a roustabout. The behavior you choose will reveal your character's nature far better than words.