Transcript Chapter 4
Chapter 4 Experiencing the Performance • Watching a play and reading a play are two very different ways of experiencing the play. • Differences exist in how to study a play when read and study a play when being seen • We can use Aristotle's six parts of play text to critique the performance • It’s different because we see New Questions to Ask • What are the arts of – the actor – Scenic director – Costume designer – Lighting designer • How do these all come together with the words of the play? • Play analysis-looks only at the art of the playwright • Performance criticism-looks at two things – At the play (play analysis) – At the audience Beginning the Criticism Process • Prelim Work – The art of theatre- we need knowledge of theatre – The nature of the work- learn about the play before going to go see it – The program-gives clues about setting, names of characters and major relationships. • Director might give notes explaining something the audience should focus on – The clues about the physical setting-what do you see and hear before the play begins to set the mood or make you curious Performance Analysis • Multitask – Participate in the performance fully as the audience member and enter into the created world – Watch the performance-step away from the performance how the effects of the play are achieved Values of the Play • Drama=imitation of human action – Helps us generalize from specifics to more general human truths (revelation) • Story (similar to plot) • Suspense: requires preparation and curiosity to find out “what’s going to happen next?” • Surprise: unexpected happening, but logical in retrospect (different from accident) • Characters: interdependent yet independent; complex – I recognize myself or I can identify (mirror) – Appeals to feelings (conscious or subconscious) – I recognize others (trait, history, etc) • Idea: intellectual content of the play – Theater: the home of the Now – might not be recognized as important in the here and now, but are in the time after – Come from plot and dialogue – Succeeds only if other theatrical values of the play succeed Values of a Specific Performance • • • • • • Story, character and idea-in the text Music-heard Spectacle-seen Theatre = “seeing place” Auditorium = “hearing place” Given circumstances-basic traits that determine the world of the stage: age, sex, social class, physical health of characters, time, place, and mood. • Given circumstances must be made clear – Source or purpose – Consistency • Conventions: contract between the theatre artist and audiences – Time can pass between acts – The door on the stage leads into the house – A gesture suggests a feeling • Style-used to describe recurring cluster of traits that set aside one type from another; mode in which art is presented; change over time (Neoclassical, Romantic, etc) • Abstraction-removal from observable reality – Reproduce observable reality – Produce parts of reality in generalized but understandable shapes – Abandon reality all together • Detail – Amount-no detail to overwhelming detail – Kind-natural/artificial, urban/rural, etc. • Material-mediums: (line, color, texture) – Black material-death, abandonment, loneliness – Metal-industry, sterility, coldness – Wood-comfort, tradition, simplistic • Actors – Are the actors real people, aware of themselves as actors and people – What type of details are the actors using (voice, movement) – Materials of voice and body-posture, loudness, softness Responding • What are the major values of the play? • How are these values revealed or transformed through the performance? • Informed • Orderly • Defensible • Rather than explaining the story, discuss how the performance reveals (through actors, director, and designers) the story, characters, ideas and values • Discuss – – – – – Given Circumstances Conventions Style Story and clarity Characters and clarity