Transcript Week Two
Ch1. The Nature of Theatre 1. The Basic Elements of Theatre 2. Theatre as a Form of Art 3. Special Qualities of Theatre 4. Art and Value Early rites was only incidentally theatrical Storytelling and mimicry By theatrical terminology (play, show, acting) that suggests that theatre is the product of grown-ups Considered theatre not only an acceptable form of entertainment but also a truthful reflection of human behavior What is performed (script, scenario, or plan) Such events as street carnivals and parades types of theatre A performs B for C Theatre does not require a script, dialogue, or conflict Improvised scenes, pantomimes, vaudeville sketches, musical plays, and spoken drama are all theatrical entertainments. Furthermore, they may be brief or lengthy Whereas others find the essence of theatre to be its capacity to provoke thought or action about significant issues Theatre’s second ingredient, the performance, is equally complex The performance takes place in space that can vary from a building intended specifically for theatrical performances to a street, park, or nightclub It may permit the audience to surround the performers A musical involves even more: composer, instrumentalists, singers, choreographer, and dancers Popular musicals as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, or The Lion King Peter Brook in his book The Empty Space: “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.” The third ingredient of the theatre is the audience This live three-way interaction is a distinctive characteristic of theatre and a major cause of variations in performances from night to night Off-Broadway and regional theatres, with lower costs and ticket prices, can afford to take greater chances and may seek a more restricted audience than that wooed by Broadway These three elements – script, performance, and audience – although they may by treated separately in discussion, interact and modify each other in practice Responses to theatre are inescapably varied Theatre is a form of art, and art is not always comfortable or comforting. It often insists on its right to look at the world in unpopular ways and to challenge our ways of looking at ourselves and the standards of the culture that has shaped the way we view the world Art always meant the systematic application of known principles to achieve some predetermined result Divide the arts into two groups, “useful” and “fine” Unfortunately in modern times, the word art has come to be used as a value judgment Popular culture and elitist culture Popular culture today would probably encompass such forms of expression as rock music, television sitcoms, advertising art, and musical comedy; elitist forms would encompass those kinds of music usually heard in concert halls, the visual art shown in galleries and museums, and many of the theatrical productions seen in not-for-profit or regional theatres It employs easily recognizable character types, situations, and dramatic conventions, manipulating them with sufficient inventiveness to be entertaining but usually without raising disturbing questions that challenge the audience’s values and assumptions When Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was first performed in the 1950s, many spectators were unable to relate to a play in which there was no discernible storyline beyond two tramps waiting for someone who never arrived. The response of many to this innovative play was summed up in one of the play’s speeches: “Nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s terrible.” Can imagined experience be a way of knowing and understanding? Shakespeare offers one answer in As You Like It (Act II, Scene 7): “All the world’s stage, / And all the men and women merely players.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge called a “willing suspension of disbelief” – although we know the events of a play are not real, we agree for the moment not to disbelieve them Esthetic distance This feeling of involvement is sometimes called empathy Art is valuable for its capacity to improve the quality of life – by bringing us pleasure, by sharpening our perceptions, by increasing our sensitivity to others and our surroundings, by suggesting that moral and societal concerns should take precedence over materialistic goals One purpose of this book is to affirm the value of theatre 1. Chekhov’s The Seagull http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy0TDBv970Q&fe ature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS9KJ_bAJLE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyslDVTk1Hg Make sure the weekly group presentations Preview if you can