What is the difference between drama and prose?

Prose
refers to written or spoken language that
is not in poetic form, whether in rhythm, rhyme, or
structure. Drama is a
performing art in which actors use dialogue and actions to tell a story or

convey a message to a viewing audience. In most cases, dramatic works are written down
so that
the performers can memorize and rehearse the lines before performing
them live. The written form
of a drama takes the structure of a script. While
prose is written in paragraph form, dramatic
scripts are written as lines of
dialogue, with the speaker's name clearly designated before each
line.
Instructions for the director about the set or for the performers about their actions
are
written in notes, usually set in italics, before or between the lines of
dialogue. These notes
are usually quite sparse, because the director will
determine a significant amount of the
choreography and will teach it to the
actors during rehearsals. Thus, when one reads the script
of a drama instead
of seeing it performed, one misses out on a great deal of description that

would explain the characters' movements and expressions. Prose allows the author,
depending on
the chosen point of view, to describe inner thoughts and
feelings of characters. Drama requires
that characters' thoughts either be
spoken aloud or portrayed via body language and
movement.

Another factor to consider when differentiating between drama and

prose is that dramatic scripts can be written in either prose or verse or in a
combination.
William Shakespeare wrote much of his drama in iambic
pentameter. However, he often alternated
between prose and poetry in his
plays, with the lines of lower-class characters written in prose
and those of
upper-class characters written in poetry. A scene that contained great import
might
use more obvious rhyme and meter, while a less significant scene would
be written in more
prosaic language.

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