[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-436623-105":59,"doc-detail-436623-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","overtones-a-one-act-play","Overtones - A One Act Play","","Overtones presents a one-act dramatic work by Alice Gerstenberg and is preceded by a preface that explains how effective drama is built from conflicts of will. The preface contrasts tragic and comic struggle, arguing that endings depend on the nature of the forces opposing characters rather than on chance. It also offers practical guidance for understanding and staging plays through informal reading, diagrams, models, and simple scenery, including puppet or marionette 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King","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",18,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What does the preface say is essential for constructing a drama?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It cites the elder Dumas’s view that drama needs “four boards, two actors, and a passion,” and defines passion as a conflict of wills.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the preface distinguish tragic outcomes from comic or absurd endings?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It argues that endings depend on the kinds of forces characters must face: powerful and terrible influences tend to resist “factitious” happy endings, while comedy may resolve through substitution or tolerate inconvenience and absurdity.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What practical methods does the preface recommend for understanding and performing plays?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"It recommends informal class reading with minimal props, reviewing the lines and the play as a whole, and using diagrams or colored sketches, small models, and simple, non-pretentious scenery; it also notes possibilities for puppet and marionette staging.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},436623,1790811652,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":36,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962088006270,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","# OVERTONES\n\nA One Act Play  \nAliceGerstenberg  \nDigitized by the Internet Archivein 2021 with funding fromKahle/Austin Foundation  \n# OvertonesA One Act Play\n\nByAlice Gerstenberg  \n# PREFACE TO THE PLAY\n\nThe elder Dumas,who wrote many successful plays,as wellas the famous romances,said that all he needed forconstructing a drama was \"four boards,two actors,and apassion.\"What he meant by passion has been defined by alater French writer,Ferdinand Brunetiere,as a conflict ofwills.When two strong desires conflict and we wonderwhich is coming out ahead,we say that the situation isdramatic.This clash is clearly defined in any effective play,from the crude melodrama in which the forces are hero andvillain with pistols,to such subtle conflicts,based on a man'smisunderstanding of even his own motives and purposes,asin Mr.Middleton's \"Tides.\"  \nIn comedy,and even in farce,struggle is clearly present.Here our sympathy is with people who engage in a notimpossible combat—against rather obvious villains who canbe unmasked,or against such public opinion or popularconventions as can be overset.The hold of an absurd bit ofgossip upon stupid people is firm enough in \"Spreading theNews\";but fortunately it must yield to facts at last.TheQueen and the Knave of Hearts are sufficiently clever,withthe aid of the superb cookery of the Knave's wife,to do awaywith an ancient and solemnly reverenced law ofPompdebile's court.So,too,the force of ancient loyalty andenthusiasm almost works a miracle in the invalid veteran of\"Gettysburg.\"And we feel sure that the uncanny powers ofthe Beggar will be no less successful in overturning thepower of the King in Mr.Parkhurst's play.  \nAgain,in comedies as in mathematics,the problem is oftensolved by substitution.The soldier in Mr.Galsworthy's \"TheSun\"is able to find a satisfactory and apparently happyending without achieving what he originally set out to gain.  \nAnd the same is true of Jock in Mr.Brighouse's \"Lonesome-Like.\"Or the play which does not end as the chief characterwishes may stillprove not too serious because,as in \"Fameand the Poet,\"the situation is merely inconvenient andabsurd rather than tragic.Now and then it is next toimpossible to tell whether the ending is tragic or not;in the\"Land of Heart's Desire\"we must first decide whether oursympathies are more with Shawn Bruin and with Maire'slove for him,or with her keen desire to go  \nTo where the woods,the stars,and the white streamsare holding a continual festival.  \nIt is natural for us to desire a happy ending in stories,as wedesire satisfying solutions of the problems in our own lives.And whenever the forces at work are such as make it trueand possible,naturally this is the best ending for a story or aplay.But where powerful and terrible influences have to becombated,only a poor dramatist will make use of merechance,or compel his characters to do what such peoplereally would not do,to bring about a factitious \"happyending.\"With the relentless,mighty arms of Englandengaged in hunting the defeated Highlanders after the Battleof Culloden,a play like \"Campbell of Kilmhor,\"in which wesympathize with the ill-fated Stewarts,cannot end happily.If they had yielded under pressure and betrayed theircomrades,we might have pitied them,but we could notadmire their action,and there would have been no strongconclusion.In \"Riders to the Sea,\"where the characters arecompelled by bitter poverty to face the relentless forces ofstorm and sea,and in \"The Biding to Lithend,\"we expect atragic end almost from the first lines of the play.Werecognize this same dramatic tensity of hopeless conflict inmany stories as well as plays;it is most powerful in three orfour novels by George Eliot,George Meredith,and ThomasHardy.  \nOne of the best ways to understand these as real stage playsis through some sort of dramatization.This does not mean,however,that they need be produced with elaborate sceneryand costumes,memorizing,and rehearsal;often the bestunderstanding may be secured by q","cbCaikaFcojzCzDH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikaFcojzCzDH","pdf",2187468,"English","# Preface to the Play\n## Dramatic conflict and desired endings\n## Understanding and dramatizing plays\n## Practical staging and classroom methods","[{\"question\":\"What does the preface say is essential for constructing a drama?\",\"answer\":\"It cites the elder Dumas’s view that drama needs “four boards, two actors, and a passion,” and defines passion as a conflict of wills.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the preface distinguish tragic outcomes from comic or absurd endings?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that endings depend on the kinds of forces characters must face: powerful and terrible influences tend to resist “factitious” happy endings, while comedy may resolve through substitution or tolerate inconvenience and absurdity.\"},{\"question\":\"What practical methods does the preface recommend for understanding and performing plays?\",\"answer\":\"It recommends informal class reading with minimal props, reviewing the lines and the play as a whole, and using diagrams or colored sketches, small models, and simple, non-pretentious scenery; it also notes possibilities for puppet and marionette staging.\"}]","Overtones - A One Act Play | PDF",1790678578,62]