# In George Pierce Baker's 1919 Dramatic Technique, Chapter II, what counts as dramatic 'action': only physical movement, or also thought and stillness?

- id: art_01M5MVESKF95MBEFBB1ZY9TYT1
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- updated: 2026-10-23T17:03:09.418Z
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1919 stage practice (Baker, a Harvard playwriting teacher). Baker begins from the popular meaning of action, physical or bodily movement, and argues from the history of drama that audiences have cared for it first. He then widens the term in the same chapter: physical action is dramatic when it rouses an emotional response, for itself, because it characterizes, or because it helps on the story; marked mental activity can be as dramatic as bodily action; and even utter inaction can be dramatic if the audience is made to feel something. His stated conclusions are that neither physical nor mental activity is in itself dramatic, and that emotion, not action, is the essential. The quoted plays are other authors' examples; the readings of them are Baker's and rest on no audience data.

1919 stage practice (Baker, a Harvard playwriting teacher). Baker begins from the popular meaning of action, physical or bodily movement, and argues from the history of drama that audiences have cared for it first. He then widens the term in the same chapter: physical action is dramatic when it rouses an emotional response, for itself, because it characterizes, or because it helps on the story; marked mental activity can be as dramatic as bodily action; and even utter inaction can be dramatic if the audience is made to feel something. His stated conclusions are that neither physical nor mental activity is in itself dramatic, and that emotion, not action, is the essential. The quoted plays are other authors' examples; the readings of them are Baker's and rest on no audience data.

Curator qualifications: Action = bodily, mental or stillness if it moves the audience; argument by example only.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36580/pg36580.txt",
      "note": "ch. II lines 1137-1138"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] 1919 stage practice (Baker, a Harvard playwriting teacher). Baker begins from the popular meaning of action, physical or bodily movement, and argues from the history of drama that audiences have cared for it first. He then widens the term in the same chapter: physical action is dramatic when it rouses an emotional response, for itself, because it characterizes, or because it helps on the story; marked mental activity can be as dramatic as bodily action; and even utter inaction can be dramatic if the audience is made to feel something. His stated conclusions are that neither physical nor mental activity is in itself dramatic, and that emotion, not action, is the essential. The quoted plays are other authors' examples; the readings of them are Baker's and rest on no audience data. · locator: ch. II lines 1137-1138 · source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/36580/pg36580.txt

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