Transcript Document

Introduction to the Theatre
Ten Traits of the Theatre
1. Live Event
2. Actors
3. Audience
4. A particular place
5. A particular time
6. The present tense
Ten Traits of the Theatre
7. A predetermined structure
8. Understood conventions
9. Communication through the 5 Senses
10. Lasting impact
Theatre History
• Aristotle - One of the greatest thinkers of all time. Wrote the
essay, The Poetics, which highlights how to analyze theatre and
the six elements that make-up theatre.
• Purpose of theatre is to provide pleasure to the audience.
• Organized the traits of theatre into 3 unities
o Unity of Action
o Unity of Time
o Unity of Place
Theatre History
• Unity of Action
o simple plot
o chronological order
• Unity of Time
o one passage of consecutive time
• Unity of Place
o one locale
Six elements of the Theatre
Aristotle wrote out the six elements of the theatre, in the 2500 years
since that time no one has been able to add a seventh element.
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Plot
Character
Thought
Diction
Music
Spectacle
Dramatic Genres
Genre - is a category that a work falls into that will evoke different
responses and feelings from the audience.
Six most common dramatic genres:
1. Comedy
2. Farce
3. Drama
4. Tragedy
5. Meodrama
6. Tragicomedy
Dramatic Genres
Comedy
• Play that makes you laugh
• has plots that end happily
• reaffirms the values you hold to be important
High comedy - filled with elegant rich characters who are concerned
with how they behave (The Importance of Being Earnest)
Domestic comedy - usually about middle-class people with much of
the humor resulting from awkward and embarrassing situations. (any
sitcom on TV)
Low comedy - Comedies where we laugh at what characters do rather
than what they say (Dumb and Dumber)
Dramatic Genres
Farce - a play that produces a lot of laughter at crazy and improbable
acts.
Road runner cartoons are a great example of farce. They are fast
moving, lots of action and a level of violence that doesn't cause
hurtful impact but is meant for humor.
Farce may also be described as slapstick.
A great example of farce is the play Noises Off!
Dramatic Genres
Drama - a play that is serious in nature and will often leave the
audience feeling sad because the characters have been defeated in
some way.
A typical drama involves a central character struggling for some goal
we all feel they are worthy to achieve, when they fail, we feel their
pain. Although drama can be depressing, many people love the genre
because they experience the emotion without living it themselves.
The Glass Menagerie is an excellent example of drama.
Dramatic Genre
Tragedy - the most misused word for the description of a
play. Something that is sad, is not a tragedy, it is a drama.
A tragedy is a serious play that tries to teach the audience that they're
worst expectations about life are true and should give them
affirmation and a sense of wisdom or certainty.
In a true tragedy a sense of awe about the main character is reached
because they strive for a goal they know can only be reached at their
own peril. Even though seeking this goal can bring destruction they
do so because it is the only way to be true to themselves.
Oedipus the King and Othello are well known tragedies.
Dramatic Genre
Melodrama - this is the action adventure movie of the theatre. It is the
play that we connect with the most even though it has the least
profound impact on our lives.
A melodrama is a play that is more focused on the plot and good
triumphing over evil than it is on the character development.
Melodramas reflect what we think life ought to be and do so with very
exciting stories and often physical challenges. Star Wars is a
melodrama at the movies.
Inherit the Wind is a melodramatic play.
Dramatic Genres
Tragicomedy - if you leave the theatre feeling frustrated, anxious or
agitated you've likely seen a tragicomedy. The play combines the
serious nature of a tragedy with the playfulness of a comedy.
These plays were developed in the 20th centuries and continue to be
popular today as concerns for physical and economical safety
continue.
Tragicomedies strive to highlight the frailty of the human condition
but provide a modicum of comic relief.
Avant-Garde theatre is typically tragicomedy such as Waiting for
Godot.
Theatrical Styles
Style - how an artist imitates reality
Six theatrical styles that are divided into three pairs
• Objective Reality - tells us how the playwright sees things by how
they look and sound. A scientific view of reality.
• Subjective Reality - shows the audience how the playwright feels
about the world around them. The playwrights feelings influence
how things look or sound.
• Idealized Reality - this is the version of what a perfect reality
would look like to the author.
Theatrical Styles
Objective Reality
Realism - also called determinism. It is a popular style of the last part
of the 1800's. It sees the characters as victims of both natural and
social forces that are beyond their control.
Traits to identify realism:
• Looks like a world we know or believe existed in a previous time
period.
• Characters speak in a language that is believable or could be
believed if set in a different time or locale.
• Is there a logic to why things happened the way they did?
Theatrical Styles
Theatricalism - Shows us the truth of our world by imitating our
objective imitation of it. In other words - "All the world's a stage and
all the men and women merely players" Shakespeare. Theatricalism
takes the notion that all people are self conscious and watch how we
act around others. There is a strong reminder that we are attending a
play.
Traits of Theatricalism:
• The action is set in a theatre
• Characters play roles inside the play (stage manager - Our Town)
• Audience sees how the theatre works with set changes and such
• Demonstrates that it is hard to distinguish between illusion and
reality
Theatrical Styles
Subjective Reality
Expressionism - at its introduction was considered a startling form of
theatre. It is based on the belief that dreams reveal the truths hidden
inside a person. A central character is typically complex and the
world is viewed from his perspective.
Traits of Expressionism:
• The central character is typically tormented by society in some
way.
• The scenery, costumes and make-up are typically extreme, intense
or distorted.
• Dialogue is short and fragmented.
• Character names are descriptive of what people do instead of
names.
Theatrical Styles
Surrealism - developed in France during peace time following WWI
is based on the belief that the images in our subconscious reveal the
the truth and that the truth can be beautiful, lyrical and sometimes
very funny. Unlike expressionism, it is a more fanciful world view of
reality.
Traits of Surrealism:
• Scenery, costumes and make-up are curved and swirling instead of
sharp, angry angles. Typically there are unusual proportions.
• People and objects change their appearance before the audience's
eyes.
• The tone is whimsical with visual jokes.
• There is an altered sense of time, some things happen slowly while
others fast.
• The logic or sequence of events is hard to follow. Logic by
association.
Theatrical Styles
Idealized Reality
Classicism - based on the belief that we can learn the truth if we use
our powers of reason to crate n ideal world. The motto - moderation
in all things applies to classicism. There is no excess, items and
relationships are proportionate.
Traits of Classicism:
• The scenery and costumes are reminiscent of Ancient Greece or
Rome. They are formal and symmetrically balanced.
• Characters speak using formal rhetoric and often engage in
intellectual debates.
• The central character will assert his or her will in an effort to
control basic impulses.
• The tone of the play is intellectual in nature.
Theatrical Styles
Romanticism - based on the belief that the truth is discovered through
feeling the emotions of our idealized image of perfection. It
celebrates the quest for perfection. The image of perfection in
idealized reality is based on emotions and not reason.
Traits of Romanticism:
• The action is set in an exotic and distant historical era or in a
mythical time or magical locale.
• The characters speak in elevated language as opposed to the
vulgar language of realism.
• The central character striving toward an ideal they could
never achieve in real life.
• The audience is swept up in the adventures of the plot and thrill of
the emotions of the story.
Theatrical Styles
To illustrate the six different theatrical styles - take a blank sheet of
paper, draw an image of a house based on the theatrical styles. Label
each one and use details to distinguish between the styles.
Realism
Theatricalism
Expressionism
Surrealism
Classicism
Romanticism
Another Opening, Another Show - A lively introduction to the theatre 2nd edition.
Writing about Theatre
Three types of writers about theatre:
1. Reviewers and Critics
2. Scholars
3. Students
Reviewers/Critics - most people use these terms interchangeably but
they do have some distinctions.
• Reviewer - journalist who writes about the 5 W's
• Critic - someone that analyzes the piece and forms an opinion
about its worth.
Writing about Theatre
A well written review includes:
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brief synopsis of the plot
clear statement of theme
identify any prominent actors, directors or designers
brief description of the director's interpretation
brief description of the actor's work
description of the audience response
A good review also tells the reader if the reviewer liked the play, why
they liked and why the reader should go see it.
A critique is more in-depth and provides a more sociological
perspective on themes and interpretations.
Writing about Theatre
Scholars - perform historical, analytical and theoretical research and
them make contributions to our knowledge of theatre by writing about
it.
Scholastic articles can be found in publications such as the Journal of
Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Additionally, there are a multitude
of textbooks on the subject.
Writing about Theatre
Students - writing by students is typically in essay form and covers
the topics as set forth by the instructor.
• 5 paragraph essays
• critiques
• predictions
• application to relevant themes
Writing about Theatre
Goethe's Three Questions
Created 200 years ago by the German playwright Goethe to organize
your thoughts when writing about theatre:
1. What was the artist trying to do?
2. Did the artist succeed in doing it?
3. Was it worth doing?
The Creative Process
Although actors, directors and designers can have creative genius, it is
largely interpretive work. Without the written work of the
playwright, there is no theatre.
The Playwright Process
1. The story
2. The plot structure
3. Technique
o Dialogue
o Stage directions
o Characters
o Actions
The Creative Process
The story - for many playwrights, the story is the first thing that
happens. An idea for what should happen and to whom it should
happen is imagined and from there, the rest is born.
The plot structure - how the story unfolds
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Linear
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Cinematic
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Contextual
The Creative Process
Linear Structure - Incidents in the plot are arranged in sequential
order.
• Continuous - the action happens from start to finish without any
gaps
• Episodic - the action occurs with gaps in the timeline, the author
chooses to exclude different events
• Simple - most linear structures are considered simple if they tell
one story
• Complex - a linear structure can be complex if more than one story
is told
The Creative Process
Cinematic - a story can be told non-chronologically
• Flashbacks
• Non-reality sequences
• Expressionistic in nature
Contextual - a rare structure that strings together individual scenes
that are complete and self-contained
• Each scene is stand-alone
• No cause-effect logic
• No traditional plot (beginning, middle, end)
• More like a bound collection of short stories or a greatest hits CD
The Creative Process
The Playwright's Tools
• Dialogue
• Stage directions
• Characters
• Actions
Dialogue - the primary tool of the playwright, it describes the
speeches that the characters say. Most of what is written in a play is
dialogue.
Stage directions - the descriptions that the playwright provides to
actors to make the scenes more meaningful. Implicit or explicit.
The Creative Process
Characters - the agent for the action. Actors get information about
their character from what the playwright says about the characters in
stage directions, what the character says about themselves, what
characters say about other characters and what characters do.
Action - anything that is done to change the status quo of a scene.
The Creative Process
Theme of a play - an abstract idea that exists outside of the play as
well as within it.
Meaning of a play - the idea that is expressed through the plot of the
play. To determine the meaning, condense the plot to a simple
sentence starting with the phrase: "This is the story
of...." Generalizations based on this synopsis will often be the
meaning.
The Creative Process
Actors and Characters
In crafting a character, an actor works with or has 3 raw materials:
• text
• self
• context
Four sources of character information
• What the playwright says about the characters in stage directions
• What the characters say about themselves
• What characters say about other characters
• What characters do
The Creative Process
The Stanislavsky System
• Objective: What do I want?
• Obstacle: What's in my way?
• Action: What do I do to get what I want?
The entirity of a role is built on units striving for smaller objectives
that meet an overall superobjective that is the overriding goal of the
character. Units can be broken down into beats or bits of
information.
The Creative Process
In other fine arts, the instrument is separate from the artist, for theatre,
the actor's intrument is themself.
Four aspects of the self:
1. Body
2. Voice
3. Imagination
4. Discipline
The Creative Process
10 Elements to acting/developing characters:
5 W's 1. Who
2. What
3. When
4. Where
5. Why
5 Senses
1. Sight
2. Smell
3. Hear
4. Touch
5. Taste
The Creative Process
Improvisation - a moment-to-moment collaboration between partners.
Six rules of Improv:
1. Don't deny
2. Yes and...(agree and add)
3. Don't put your partner on the spot
4. Don't go for the joke
5. Beware of questions
6. Commit, commit, commit
The Creative Process
From Nothing to Something:
1. With partner, decide who, what, where, beginning, middle and end
of a possible scene. Scenes should maintain unity of time, place
and action. The simpler the better.
2. Improvise the scene from beginning to end.
3. Outline the main storyline as it happened, specifically inluding the
best 3-4 lines.
4. Improvise the exact scene again.
5. Update the outline, listing changes and 3-4 additional best lines.
6. Improvise the scene again.
7. Begin scripting the lines.