THEATRE HISTORY NOTES Introduction to Theatre and Theatre History Theatre leaves out costumes sets lights etc Activites left out of the theatre category improve stand up comedy etc Spectatorship varies within different cultures and places Ex we consider it rude to talk during a performance or eat but in a different culture it may be acceptable and change over time Elements of Theatre o Script o Direction Director has the final say and is making sure the overall vision is being portrayed the way it should o Acting Approach the character by reading the script and try to find an understanding of the character and then apply gestures volumes and emphasis that the script may not necessarily call for that allows the point to come across easier for the audience o Design Props set the tone and setting of the piece and often get over looked Ex sword tea set fancy vs basic chipped books etc Sound micro phoned picking music before during the show sound effects Costume make up what they are wearing tells you a lot about the character Ex A mother would not be wearing a flapper outfit and their relationship with the other characters Ex Romeo and Juliet costumes to clash Set colors used for the set can help determine the overall mood of the play lighthearted dark angles used straight vs crooked can also add to the overall mood Lights bright vs dark can add to the mood want to make sure the actors can be seen warm vs cool colors separated light can represent isolation Types of stages o Venue the place in which the play is being performed Area neighborhood building how and when it was built Older theatres had the cheapest seats in the back because the wealthy wanted to be separate from the poor and they had to go in through a different door than the front door Victorian Theatres o Proscenium Audience one on side and stage in front o Thrust Audience sitting on three sides and stage is much closer to o Theatre in the round Audience on all four sides actors need to be sure their back is to the fewest people the audience o Found space o Site specific French Neoclassical Tragedy and Romanticism Neoclassical means new classical period They are trying to recreate the classical period on stage Guiding forces o 1 Want to have characters that show appropriate behavior often times have one flaw that will pull them away from appropriate behavior and will always be punished for that like being put to death o 2 Believable nothing that wouldn t actually happen was portrayed Unities Based on Aristotle s Poetics o 1 Time Takes place within a day or sunrise to sunset to be sure not to confuse the audience o 2 Place Everything should happen in one place no scene stages chorus would come in from another city instead of switching scenes to a different city etc o 3 Action There should only be one story Two genres o Tragedy shouldn t have funny things here o Comedy shouldn t have tragic things here Script Characteristics o Plots from legends myths history o Aristocratic characters noble in their morals held on their good o Importance of social rules Will be punished if the rules are not behavior followed o French scenes scenes runt together a new scene every time a new character enters or exits Major Playwrights o Pierre Corneille 1606 1664 Le Cid 1637 o Jean Racine 1639 1699 Phedre 1677 Romanticism o Artistic movement from 18th early 19th century o Revolt against Neoclassical period They don t want to follow the rules o Values Individual not society Emotion not reason Nature not industry History not future like the past better than the future Organic not structured allowed to develop from within instead of structure laid down by the rules o Sublime something beautiful and powerful which could eventually be dangerous o Grotesque the ugly and pitiful Ex Hunchback of Notre Dame Neoclassics only wanted the good things on stage but the romantics though you needed to have both to realize just how beautiful the beautiful really is o Admiration of Shakespeare not concerned with the rules of the Neoclassical Era o Mood character emotion more important than plot Romantic Theatre Schiller Mary Stuart o German play about English Renaissance politics o Mary Stuart heroine challenges Queen Elizabeth I villain for the thrown loses and is beheaded Early Realism Romanticism was all about rejecting the neoclassicism which were holding up an ideal truth while the romantics were less concerned about that and more concerned with inner emotion They think that just presenting things isn t enough More about dark and murky areas Bring real life to stage that shows both the good and bad perspectives showing a slice of life Fourth Wall is the division between the audience and the actors The actors are acting like there is a wall in between them so they act as though they are real people in a real room and the audience is looking in Authenticity in o Script People talking over each other people getting in arguments acting as though it were real life o Design Costumes and sets to look like what they really wore looked like o Performance How the actor prepares and should look as identical to real life as possible Realism Non artistic Influences o Charles Darwin emphasis on heredity environment o Karl Marx Theatrical focus on economic and other oppressions Associated with communism Money and power were the main things taken from Karl Marx That money could be used to take over people o Sigmund Freud Ideas of subconscious repression Thinker about psychology Repression always has its own costs o Anton Chekho Russia playwright tragicomedy o Konstantin Stanislavski actor and director founder if Moscow Art Theatre Very heavily involved with design Realism in Russia Realism in Scandinavia o Henrik Ibsen fundamental lack of communication between characters and not being able to tell what the problems are Ex Characters are not cruel just to be cruel they have been through something or something is going on in their life Women has been mistreated by society he is on their side o August Strindberg Husbands and wives mistreat each other a lot in his plays hates women Hedda Gabler Play of the week o Was Hedda pregnant Aunt Jullie wants her to be She says that she is to distract Tesman from where she burned the manuscript o She wants very strong reactions from people Modernism Before and After World War I Futurism and Dada Communism the belief that wealth should be shared among all people and people with a lot of money should have a lot of power Fascism did