An act is a division or unit of a theatre work, including a play, film, opera, and musical theatre. The number of acts in a theatrical work can range from one to five or more, depending on how the writer structures the story. The duration of an act usually ranges from 30 to 90 minutes, but may be as short as 10 minutes.

The word act can also be used for major sections of other entertainment, such as variety shows, television programs, music hall performances, and cabaret.

Acts and scenes

An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action, climax and resolution. A scene is a part of an act defined with the changing of characters.

To be more specific, the elements that create the plot of a play or any story, and divide a play into acts include the exposition, which give information, setting up the rest of the story. Another is the inciting incident, which starts all of the action that will follow. Going along with the inciting incident, the major dramatic question is formed; this holds the rest of the play. The majority of the play is made up of complications. These are the things that change the action. These complications lead up to the crisis, this is the turning point. Most of the time, at this point, the major dramatic question has been answered. Finally, there is the resolution. This is the end of the play where everything comes together and the situation has been resolved. This leaves the audience satisfied with the play as a whole. These more specific elements of plot in a play are the main things used to divide a play up into acts and sometimes scenes.

"Drama!" is the first single released by Erasure from their fourth studio album Wild!. It was issued by Mute Records in the UK and Sire Records in the U.S.

Written by Vince Clarke and Andy Bell, the synthpop song begins with a low-key keyboard line and a subdued vocal from Bell. As the song progresses, the instrumentation and vocals become more hectic, ultimately ending as a full-blown dancefloor anthem. "Drama!" is known for its mob-shouted "Guilty!" exclamation throughout and Bell's intricate, multi-layered background vocals. Lyrically the song addresses a person who could be considered a drama queen, experiencing "one psychological drama after another" about everyday struggles that are universal and are easily dealt with by most people. Lines such as "your shame is never-ending!" are directed at the subject of the song. The mob's vocals were added to by The Jesus and Mary Chain, who happened to be recording in the studio next door.

Released prior to Wild!, "Drama!" continued Erasure's winning streak on the UK singles chart, peaking at number four. In Germany the single also fared well, hitting number twelve. "Drama!" did not continue Erasure's chart success in the United States, where it failed to enter the Billboard Hot 100. It did, however, climb to number ten on the U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

In the context of film and radio, drama describes a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a fantasy. To distinguish drama as a genre of fiction from the use of the same word to mean the general storytelling mode of live performance, the word drama is often included as part of a phrase to specify its meaning. For instance, in the sense of a television genre, more common specific terms are a drama show, drama series, or television drama in the United States; dramatic programming in the United Kingdom; or teledrama in Sri Lanka. In the sense of a film genre, the common term is a drama film.

Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, child abuse, coming of age, drug addiction, emotion, hope, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, sexuality, poverty, class divisions, violence against women and corruption put characters in conflict with themselves, others, society, or even natural phenomena. Drama is one of the broadest movie genres and includes subgenres such as romantic drama, war films, sport films, period drama, courtroom drama and crime.

Drama, which is the form of literature usually performed as theatre, may refer to:

Drama may also be a name or title:

Music

Act! (Italian: Fare!, F!) is a centre-right political party in Italy, based in Veneto.

The party is led by Flavio Tosi, mayor of Verona and former leader of Liga Veneta–Lega Nord, who was ejected from it in the run-up of the 2015 Venetian regional election, due to his opposition to Matteo Salvini's political line.

Act! was immediately joined by three deputies (Matteo Bragantini, Roberto Caon, Emanuele Prataviera), three senators (Patrizia Bisinella, Raffaela Bellot, Emanuela Munerato) and four regional councilors in Veneto (three elected with the Tosi List for Veneto and one with Il Veneto del Fare). All of them were Tosi loyalists who followed him out of the League.

In July Michele Boldrin, leader of Act to Stop the Decline, sued Act! as the names of the two parties looked too similar.

In September a fourth deputy joined the party: Marco Marcolin, also from Liga Veneta–Lega Nord.

In October Act! became an occasional supporter of the centre-left government led by Matteo Renzi, whom Tosi held in high esteem, fueling rumors that the party might either enter in stable alliance with or join Renzi's Democratic Party.

The Investment Company Act of 1940 is an act of Congress. It was passed as a United States Public Law (Pub.L. 76–768) on August 22, 1940, and is codified at 15 U.S.C. §§ 80a-1–80a-64. Along with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and extensive rules issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, it forms the backbone of United States financial regulation. It has been updated by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. Often known as the Company Act, the 1940 Act or simply the '40 Act, it is the primary source of regulation for mutual funds and closed-end funds, an investment industry now in the many trillions of dollars. In addition, the '40 Act impacts the operations of hedge funds, private equity funds and even holding companies.

Background

Following the founding of the mutual fund in 1924, investors welcomed the innovation with open arms and invested in this new investment vehicle heavily. Five and a half years later, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred in the stock market, followed shortly thereafter by the United States entry into the Great Depression. In response to this crisis, the United States Congress wrote into law the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in order to regulate the securities industry in the interest of the public.

ACT, or Automated Confirmation of Transactions, is a system for reporting and clearing trades in the over-the-counter (OTC) and NASDAQ securities markets. In contrast to Qualified Special Representative (QSR) clearing via the National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC), which requires multiple relationships between brokers, dealers, and clearing firms, ACT facilitates and simplifies the process of clearing by providing a single counterparty to interact with.

ACT offers a risk management system that allows clearing firms to monitor the activity of their clients. This tool is unique within the clearing business.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) also refers to ACT as the Trade Reporting Facility (TRF).

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