Transcript What is the Experience of Theatre?

Explore Theatre:
A Backstage Pass
Michael M. O’Hara
&
Judith A. Sebesta
PowerPoints prepared by the authors
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Chapter 2
What is the
Experience of
Theatre?
Stage versus Page
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Theatre “experienced” on
stage, not on page.
• “Page” has some advantages:
• “Stage” limited
• “Page” (drama) is unlimited
• “Page” audience is bigger
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Theatre on a stage; drama on
the page!
•
Avoid narrative and contextual traps:
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Scripts are not the end result of theatrical
work.
Productions always happen within
temporal and cultural contexts.
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Theatre/Drama = Double
Consciousness
• Perpetual Present Tense
• always “now”
• Cultural and Historical
Repository
• always “yesterday”
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Double Possibilities
• Because theatre is both now and
yesterday:
• Read (historical and ephemeral)
texts simultaneously
• Complexity
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Clicker Question
• Literary v. Popular drama.
• How many of you have read:
• A. a contemporary television script
• B. a contemporary movie script
• C. both of the above
• D. none of the above
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Clicker Question
• How many of you have read:
• A. a contemporary play script
• B. a Shakespearean play script
• C. both of the above
• D. none of the above
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Popular v. Literary
• Why the difference?
• Aristotle, his Poetics - and his "lost"
Book.
• “Name of the Rose”
• High v. Low culture
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Parts of Drama (all)
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Plot - what happens (not Story: what
happened + happens + may happen)
Character - a moral quality
Theme (idea) - the engine that drives theatre
Language - how it is said or sung
Music - even the voice is an instrument
Spectacle - what you see
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Genre = type
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Tragedy - serious consequences depicted seriously
Comedy - non-serious consequences depicted nonseriously
Melodrama - moral universe & motivated music
Tragicomedy - mix
Farce - aim is laughter
To which types are we most exposed?
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Clicker Question
•
How many of you have seen a theatrical:
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A. Tragedy
B. Comedy
C. Melodrama
D. Farce
E. None of the above
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Clicker Question
• How many of you have seen a film:
• A. tragedy (e.g., Braveheart)
• B. comedy (e.g., The Hangover)
• C. melodrama (e.g., Star Wars)
• D. farce (e.g., Dumb and Dumber)
• E. all of the above
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•
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Analysis versus
Viewing
Viewing responds to a text
•
Emotional, Effortless, and Easy (primarily
personal)
Analysis critiques a text
•
Cogent, Coherent, Concise (expands
beyond the personal)
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•
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How is ‘drama’ different from life?
How does life begin, develop, end?
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Temporally
Actions are chaotic
How does (most) drama begin, develop, end?
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Theatrically
Actions are ordered
Do we sometimes conflate dramatic
expectations with life experiences?
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What do the differences
suggest about life?
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What is the experience of “life” when
compared to “drama?”
How do we try to impose order on life?
What does this sense of “order” do to our
perception of life and or drama?
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Summary:
• Literary and theatrical approaches to
plays share the belief that texts are
not complete, that meaning is
created through the process of
completing those texts by placing
text within context: historical,
contemporary, theoretical, and
enactment.
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