Transcript Elements of Theatre and Drama

Elements of Theatre
• MAT IN 609
• Virginia R. Francisco
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Four Arts
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Art
Music
Theatre
Dance
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What is an art work?
• product of a maker and his/her process
• intended for audience
• artist-maker selects, perhaps manipulates,
arranges materials
• materials, process, arrangement
distinctive to art form
• and to maker’s purpose(s)
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What is it for?
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enhance and extend life experience
make meaning of human experience
express thought, feeling
explicate values, problems, concerns
develop vision, creativity, imagination,
flexibility, fluency
• develop skills, artistic, analytical, and other
• explore materials, arts process
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Materials arranged in time and/or
space . . .
• space, line, form, color, value, texture
• body, motion, shape, space, time
• melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color
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How does art make meaning?
• where is the deep hidden meaning?
• materials
selection (and non-selection)
• arrangement
emphasis, balance,
• interpretation (based in the work)
operating forces, outcome
title and other verbal or aural clues
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Artists respond to experience and
environment: the method
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formal (a.k.a. aesthetic)
historical
biographical
cultural and cross cultural
interpretive
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Purpose of theatrical art?
• imitate an action
• dramatic manner
embodiment
• make a point or create a response
• provoke esthetic satisfaction or
admiration
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Esthetic criteria create demands
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magnitude
significance
unity
variety
creation and completion of response
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Desired response influences
fundamental decisions.
• pity, fear
serious action
• laughter, ridicule
seemingly serious action
• fear, hate
temporarily serious action
• response beyond the performance
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Theatre artists select
“theatrical” materials
• plot
an ordered arrangement of incidents (events)
so what’s funny? serious? temporarily serious?
• characters
agents or patients in an action
have distinctive qualities of character and thought
what kinds of qualities exist?
which are appropriate to a desired response?a
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. . . as appropriate to the action
and response desired
• thought
horizontal/vertical plots
how do we know characters most fully?
• diction
ordered language, as appropriate to . . .
• music a pleasurable accessory
rhythm, harmony, song
• spectacle a significant element
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Any of these can be the focus of
interest
• what kind of action makes a good plot?
conflict or problem
• what kind of character makes a good
character-centered drama?
• can we effectively eliminate thought and
just have fun?
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How are plots organized?
Time
Beginning
Middle
Middle
Middle
End
Function
Inciting
Event(s)
Complication
Complication
Crisis,
Reversal
Resolution
Style
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Style
Modern
Act 1
Act 1
Act 1
Ends w/
crisis
Act 2
Act 2
Rising to
Crisis,
Falling
Action
Prior or
Antecedent
Events
Exposition
Attention
Interest
Renaissance
Act I
Energy
At Rest
Rising
Action
Rising
End
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Other sorts of choices are
a matter of style . . .
• particular characteristics which distinguish a work from
all others, however similar
the style of Much Ado About Nothing
• or of the work of an artist, composer, choreographer, or
playwright
the style of Shakespeare, or Mozart, or Agnes de Mille
• or the characteristics of a group of artists or works
which distinguish them from other groups
the style of the Renaissance, or of the Elizabethans,
or of the post-modern era
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