Where is the social responsibility of the drama? What does the drama do? Through these words then it is said, dramas are written and acted because of the drama’s social responsibilities. Because drama can’t be anti-social. Of course, it may be worthless, very cunning. There can be a question, what is the measure of the worthless or very cunning? And who determines it?
The drama is completely social. It is born in the society and for the society. One aspect of this is entertainment. Another aspect is to teach. How much entertainment and how much education will be in the drama, cook fixes it. Here this cook is the director. He mixes proportionally. Some plays are mere entertainment. Some plays are educational. In the drama 80% entertainment and 20% of education can be entertaining. And in the drama 80% of education and 20% of the entertainment can be educational. Occasionally it can to be equal. The director is responsible for this mixture.
Well, how does director determine the proportional rate of this mixture? When the art, then it surely does not randomly constructed. Normally this question may come that how to determine the proportional rate? In this case, if it is said that for whom to cook? Is it just for himself? For his own sake? Or cook for some? If cook is alone at home, he can cooks for himself. But art is not only for own self. The word ‘expression’ associates with it. It wants to be expressed to among all. So it does not matter for own self here. Now if it is for some, then question will arise, who are being some of them? If the cook cooks for some, then he will cook the favorite thing of some. What loves to eat, cook it aware well. In case of drama, those are audience. For whom the director creates the play. The director is like a qualified cook, knows his audience. He knows the taste of the audience. The director keeps the entertainment for his known audience with proportionally of education. Do not move a bit. On the basis taste of the audience, director creates his plays.
Director -> Drama <- Audience
How many types of audience are there? Audience lives in this society. Human society has some divisions based on property, power and dignity. This is basically institutionalized, an uneven but very strong division. There are three classes in society. Similarly audience is divided into three divisions.
- Lower Class or Working Class:
There is no guarantee of work. Those financial statuses are not good. Those have little money, education and power. Those are forced to engage in physical work. The rush is to run for the abdomen. Which will be acceptable for them? Normally it will be the entertainment. If you say a poor person that let’s teach you, he says, let’s eat before. It is true that for his financial situation, he will be detaching from educational play. Entertainment is before him. Here’s the social director’s strategy, how will he teach them. What will he do? Drama is not entertainment only. It has been said before, two reasons for the drama – one entertainment and two education. The drama is born for these reasons.
The director keeps the education in the wrap of entertainment. We have seen that these people do not get chance to watch the play in the theatre hall. They do not have the capability. Here if the director wants to play for them, he will have to go in the middle of the underprivileged. These plays will have more entertainment. Generally the comedy drama is very popular in this case.
- Upper Class:
They are the richest community in society. They are dominant. They control the political power and ruling power in the country. Their main demand is entertainment. They will come to see the drama. By the way, one thing can come, what did the drama give me? If it can’t set standards of daily life, then it is failure. If it does not have any influence in my daily life, then it will be failure. But here also two things can come. Because drama is basically two kinds: commercial and non-commercial.
The question might arise, why did we divide this? The question arises because the play is based on the taste of the audience. The main goal of the commercial play is to sell. Plays must be sold. It is being treated as a product. Profit will come from the play. The play is 80%/90% entertainments. The drama is worthwhile if the audience can shake. This is its attitude. The more audience, the more sales will grow. This commercial theater’s tradition is same in all countries. Its audiences must be of the high class. They have to desire and ability to buy a ticket to see the drama. Fancy aroma. The director keeps it in his mind.He serves spices and various types of items on beautiful plates like a cook. The audience feels the taste of it with thorn spoons. The social responsibility of these plays is limited. Its interest is to get sweet moods of the audience. This drama wants to be appreciated by the audience. It follows the customary, shining, and traditional trend.
- Middle class:
It seems that both the lower and the upper, entertainment is the main demand for them. But there are some differences between them. A class rush to collect food from morning to night. And one class runs in the morning or evening for food digestion. So entertainment proportions are also different for both. The issue of teaching is also different. Among these two classes there are middle class. We can divide this class again: a lower middle class and a higher middle class or who ones have just become rich. They are the only asset to most of our directors. The director’s responsibilities are to stick the nails of education in their brains. In this case education and entertainment continue to be run. 50%-50% or sometimes 60%-40%. Non-commercial play is being played for them. There are lots of them. There are lots of directors too. Their plays must be educational. They feel intense towards social change. So many theories of social responsibility have been developed for them. Lots of entertainment is not digested. Sometimes it seems eccentric. If there is more education in the play then it seems to give them knowledge. In this case, the cooks here have to be very careful.
The role of the audience in a drama production is undeniable. Generally, we understand about audience that some individual people who come to see drama at the same place at the same time. They help to move forward the drama through their conscious presence. Before and after the performance, the role of the audience can be divided in two parts. Before the play begins, who are audiences, or how many audiences are present, these things can change the acting. During the play and afterwards the audiences have four different roles in one play.
- As a critic (Drama likes or dislikes, helping to increase play quality)
- As a participant (smile, shouting, clapping, screaming)
- As a character (playing the role in the play, Spec-actor)
- As a news conveyor (talking to others about the drama)
Because of that, the presence of a live audience in a live drama is important. A drama is played only when there is a one audience at present. How important is the audience’s connection with the theater, when we say after the performance, today’s audiences are dead spectators. Today there was a very bad audience or good audience. If the audience does not cry in the scene of suffering or if the audience does not laugh in the scene of humor, then it seems to be true today acting was not good or either the audience was not good. Then it accepts that the audience plays a role in the play.