What is the definition and nature of drama?

The definition of drama is
that it is a literary work that is intended to be presented on a stage or--in
contemporary times--in a film by actors to an audience and that has characters who are
in some sort of conflict that involves some sort of action and a crisis with a
resolution all occurring within a specified atmosphere. The conflict may be physical
action, as in Shakespeare's Henry the IV, or mental action, as in
John Osborne's Look Back in Anger, where they essentially debated
philosophical and moral issues. A crisis arises that is in keeping with the kind of
action presented and that must be resolved by the end of the drama. There are
subcategories under the main category of drama: there are comedies, tragedies and
tragicomdies, with further subdivisions such as farce and satire or comedies of manners
and melodrama.

It seems a little more difficult to identify the
"nature of drama" as some would say its nature is identified by its definition. In other
words, some may say the nature of drama is that it is a literary form presented by
actors, as opposed to a form presented between the covers of a book, that presents
action that leads to a crisis that is resolved (or not in absurdism). Perhaps, though a
bit more detail can be identified that might elaborate upon the nature of
drama.

The applicable definition of
nature in this usage is that the
nature of a thing is its essential parts; its peculiar
qualities. By this definition, the most distinguishing essential part is that
already mentioned: actors who stage the story for the audience to see in company with a
larger group of people that replace pages that contain the story for the audience to
privately read. Another essential part to distinguish drama from other literary forms is
that character's personas and dialogue and actions must provide the sole information
about the drama--unless there is scripted a narratorial character who comments upon the
other actors' action and dialogue, as in Thorton Wilder's Our Town
and Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Therefore, the essential nature
of drama is to present the action, conflict, crisis and resolution of a story through
character actors before a group comprising the audience in a public forum where mental
and emotional (sometimes physical) reactions are a collective
experience.