ABSTRACT
Plays and films', as well as intermediate genres such as plays written for television, are frequently categorised together as forms of drama: literary or artistic works that are realised through performance or acting. This distinguishes them from literary genres that are designed for reading. The dramatic can be an element in almost all kinds of literature, including prose fiction and poetry. 'Plays and films' do mark themselves out from other kinds of literature by emphasising the dramatic, and, in most cases, by calling for the dramatic potential in the text to be realised in performance. Writers of plays and films are often conscious of this, and introduce elements of metatheatre into their work. In most plays, much more of the plot has to be conveyed through dialogue. Many play, especially fairly recent ones, exist as written texts that include passages that are not part of the dialogue: stage directions.
