What are stage conventions in drama/plays?

What are stage conventions in drama/plays?

• I have this question as an essay for homework for Literature, and I have no idea on how to start: Based on the play you're currently studying, write an essay offering your opinion on the following view. "The dramatic appeal of a play depends primarily on the playwright's use of the stage conventions; the subject matter hardly matters." What are stage conventions? I'm looking everywhere on the internet and my textbook and I'm just getting confused :(

• Answer:

  "Stage conventions" is a pretty ambiguous term - it can mean different things to different people. But I think that in this case your teacher is referring to commonly-followed practices that recur over a number of works within a specific genre. For example in the late 19th and early 20th centuries most plays began with the curtain rising, and ended with the curtain falling - that was a convention. Playwrights just began their plays with "the curtain rises" and ended them with "the curtain falls" not for any particular reason other than that was just what everyone else seemed to be doing. Melo-dramas are another highly-conventionalized form of theatre - the hero always wears white, the villian always wears black, both have specific music that plays whenever they enter, and the audience always cheers for one and boos the other. In your case you're being asked to comment on the use of convention as it applies to dramatic appeal - were you happy, sad, inspired, amused or otherwise moved by the content of play itself or simply the familiarity with which it was presented to you?