chapter 1: what is theatre?. theatre 1: a building where plays are put on (the hardware)....
TRANSCRIPT
Theatre• 1: a building where plays are
put on (the hardware). -architecture, structure, the “place” Also use it to describe where films are scene or to refer to arenas where other actvities occur like war or surgeries.
Theatre• 2: players who perform in a space
and the plays (dran) that company produces; combination of people, ideas and works of art created in collaboration in a particular “space”
• Guthrie Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Second City
Theatre• 3: occupation, professional activity, passionate vocations; directors, designers and technicians, actors, producers, public relations, etc.
Theatre derived from: theatrontheatron—
“seeing place”
A theatre is a place where something is
seenseen
Theatre practitioners of various specialties have
teamed up in long standing companies or troupes. Troupes can have dozens or
even hundreds of people working together.
Theatre is work.The planning phase of a production is often equal or longer than the rehearsal phase
and may involve hundreds of people.
Playwriting: usually executed away from the theatre building (more specific definition to follow in later chapters)
Theatre is also work in the sense that it is
not GAMES. (although we often play
games to build skills)
Commonalities with Sport:
• Greece—Dionysian and Olympic Festivals (focus on competition and excellence)
• Romans—Public circuses with sport (physical prowess) and dramatic entertainment side by side
• Shakespeare—theatres were designed to hold plays and bear baiting on alternate days
• Modern TV—reality competition shows sports and game shows alongside fictional, scripted dramas and comedies
What are the commonalities between theatre and
sports/games?
What are the commonalities between theatre and child’s
play/role-playing?
SPORTS & THEATRE
Shared history (Greek, Roman, Elizabethan, Modern)
Prestigious and well-paid
Sports figures turn to acting!
Attracts amateurs and audiences
Intense physical involvement
Friendly competition
Personal self-expression
Emotional engagement
CHILD’S PLAY & THEATRE
Dressing up and acting out—suspension of disbelief, the ability to “make-believe”
Improvisation & role-playing
Prepares children for adult roles like theatre prepares society for adult issues
“Art is a supreme pursuit of humanity integrating our emotions,
intellects and aesthetics with our revelations. .”
(What does this mean?)
Art is accessible without subscribing to any particular
set of beliefs; an open-ended response to life’s
unending puzzles
Impersonation—actors impersonating characters is the single-most important aspect of
theatre; the very foundation
Enduring Question: How is the audience to
distinguish between the “real person” (the actor)
from the “character” portrayed?
The mask provides both a physical and symbolic separation between the impersonator (the actor) and the impersonated (the character) and helps onlookers to suspend
their awareness of the “real” world and accept the world of the
stage or play.
The “paradox of the actor” according to Denis Diderot—when the actor has perfected his art, it is the simulated character, the mask, that seems to live before our eyes,
while the real person has no apparent life at all.
But the actor does live behind the mask, which is an
even greater paradox:We BELIEVE in the character, but at the end of the play we
APPLAUD the actor!
Masks were also staples of the masquerade dramas of Nigeria, the NO and KYOGEN drama of Japan, and the COMMEDIA DELL’ARTE of Italy.
Masks are still seen today in modern stagings of these historical styles but also in expressionistic and avant-garde productions.
And the idea of masking—of hiding the performer while displaying the character—
remains at the heart of impersonation.
And as the back to back masks of comedy and
tragedy, it has become the most fundamental symbol of
the theatre itself.
In modern theatre we have become accustomed to this
separation of the actor and the character, but people still
sometimes almost childishly believe in the “truth” of the
character.
Soap opera stars who play villains or “bad guys (or women) are often
stalked or harassed by fans who cannot separate the reality of the
actor from the fantasy of the character!
We are all performers the theatre only makes an art out of something
we all do every day. The theatre reflects our everyday performances
and expands those performances into a formal mode
Presentational productions break the
illusion of the “4th wall” and the focus is
on the style rather than the substance of the
play; “theatrical”
Representational Mode:
“more fundamental”The audience watches behavior
that seems to be staged as if no audience were present (the
illusion of the 4th wall) and focuses on the events being
staged rather than the nature of their presentation
Samuel Coleridge calls this double negative
the “willing suspension of disbelief” and attracts audience
participation through empathy.
Extreme examples of “realism” (the late 19th
century representational movement that sought to
have actors behave onstage exactly as real people do in
life.
Bertolt Brecht rebelled against extreme representationalism and
created a presentational style featuring lettered signs, songs, slide
projections, chalk talks, political arguments directly addressed to
the house, and an “alienated” style of acting intended to reduce
empathy .
The fact is that theatrical performance is always
both presentational and representational, though
often in different degrees.
Two other aspects of performance distinguish theatre
from certain other forms of performance: theatre is LIVE
performance and in most cases a SCRIPTED and REHEARSED
event.
Unlike video and cinema, the theatre is a living, real-time event in which performers and audience mutually interact, each fully aware of the other’s immediate presence.
Every actor’s performance is affected by the way the audience yields or withholds its responses—its laughter, sighs, applause, gasps and silences.
This broad communal response is never developed by television
drama which is played primarily to solitary or clustered viewers who
(because of frequent commercials) are only intermittently engaged.
It is also unlikely in movie houses, where audience members
essentially assume a one-on-one relationship with the screen and
rarely break out in a powerful collective response, much less
applause.
The final ovation—unique to live performance—inevitable involves the audience applauding ITSELF as
well as the performers for understanding and appreciating the theatrical excellence they have all
seen together.
Live performance has a quality of
IMMEDIACY. The action of the play is taking place RIGHT
NOW and ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.
Although the play is rehearsed and the changes that occur from one night to
another are subtle, ach night’s performance is unique and there is
always the excitement that mistakes can happen. . .this creates a certain
tension, which some people say is the ultimate thrill of the theatre.
Live performance creates a “presentness” or
“presence” that embodies the
fundamental uncertainty of life itself.
SCRIPTED AND REHEARSED PERFORMANCE—
Most theatre performances are prepared and performed
according to well-rehearsed texts or scripts.
Although improvisation may play a role in the preparation process and even in certain performances, most
of the action is permanently set during rehearsals and the
performances appear nearly the same night after night.
But the text of a play is not the play itself. The
play fully exists only in its performance—in its
“playing.” The script is merely the record the play
leaves behind.
These scripts also leave out important
facets of the live production like non-
verbals (tone of voice, pacing, facial
expressions, etc).
Ancient scripts rarely included anything but the
most basic stage directions and modern plays with
extensive stage directions are often simply the
recorded stage business of the first production.
But a play (script) does put us in touch with
theatre history in the making and can service as a blueprint for vital
theatre today.
This then, is the theatre:
• a place—the building or space where theatrical activity takes place
• a company—a group of artists collaborating to create a work of art
• an activity—all of the diverse actions undertaken to create a work of art (playwriting, designing, directing, stage managing, acting, etc)