Canon: core classic books/important texts- Film vs. Theatreo Advertisingo Visual /special effectso Cost – cheaper to go to a movieo Perfectionismo Accessibility- Why don’t we go to theatre often?o Expensiveo Not convenient- plan in advance, theater isn’t close byo Requires more concentration than movieso Movies turn over more quickly than playso Actor recognition- knowing a movie star vs. a theater staro We talk about film more than we do theatero “Graying of the American audience”- theater audiences are getting older and aren’t being replaced by younger audiences. *older people are more likely to be viewers- Why do we study theater?o Historically relevant- it is one of the oldest forms of arto It’s an art form, part of cultural literacyo It’s universal- all cultures have theatero Theatrical impulse- innate mimetic desire (desire to imitate) in humanso The language of theatre helps us understand how we organize life- Theater must have/be… (definition of theatre)o A performer/ actoro An audienceo A text (not always written) following an actiono “Liveness”o Ephemeral: theatre is fleeting and impermanent, so you can never recapture a show from the past (shortlived, you can never experience the same thing twice, which makes theatre a very difficult study)o Aesthetic, not efficacious- Communication interaction modelo Sender message receivero Receiver feedback sender- Theatre…o requires actiono requires a spaceo uses actors – people who impersonateo relies on “liveness”o is a hybrid form it requires spoke word, art, and architecture because there are so many different components; it is a collaborative art- Theatrical conventions: rules or shorthand that the audience agrees to accept. Ex: men playing parts of women or when the curtain goes down and then up to show darkness which would mean night time- Willing suspension of disbelief: although we know the events of the play are not real, we agree for the time that we’re in the theater not to disbelieve them.- Aesthetic distance: we remember that events on stage are not real so we don’t
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