Acting and Directing Directing Worshipful vs Heretical Directing Vocabulary Stage locations Julie Taymor directed Lion King on broadway first woman to win a Tony Award for Directing Richard Wagner Gesamtkunstwerk complete Total Art Work master artist composed all pieces of work choregraphed directed innovations fan shaped auditorium darkened auditorium Georg II Duke of Saxe Meiningen 1st director 1879 huge crowd scenes made each person do something specific like real life innovations created 3D sets forced perspective made it possible for the actors to interact with the set changed acting so where they actually talked to each other instead of out Primary goals of Directing unification and interpretation Worshipful follows script and main ideas exactly Heretical does not follow exact ideas of main playwright adds modern interpretations Director has to coordinate the production team to make sure the unified concept is executed perfectly designers dramaturg stage manager casting Blocking actor coaching pacing Tech week Sucks set changes costume changes etc 10 of 12 Placed by Actors Equity Association Every 12 hours of tech rehearsal actors can only be there for 10 Acting Outside In Presentational Inside Out Representational Acting Actors are multitalented Acting requires discipline concentration trained instrument imagination Vocabulary playfulness etc Given circumstances background events jobs etc that the playwright gives to you to build your character Imagined circumstances everything that surrounds the events how did you get your job how did you fall in love etc everything the actors build or add in to be able to connect with a character better Objective what the actor is going to be fighting for and trying to make happen throughout the play Obstacle what is preventing them from getting their obstacle Tactic what they will do to get to the objective Inside Out or Representational Acting emotion first can be inconsistent ex Someone really feels angry the physical actions will emerge from the emotions felt o Konstantine Stanislavski pioneered science of Inside Out acting redefined acting at Moscow Art Theatre o Acting system Objective relaxation private moment emotional recall magic if o Method acting can become something very psychologically dangerous Ex Dustin Hoffman Marilyn Monroe Outside In or Presentational Acting physical first technical approach requires extensive training can appear mechanical adopt an accent a limp a new haircut does physical things on the outside to make them seem like the emotions are coming out o Modern physical theatre conveys messages physically Ex Blue man group stomp mime clowning Bill Irwin The Clown Prince Cirque du Soleil Theater and Social Change Theatre and Social Change Dada Absurdism Epic Theatre Melodrama and more in the U S Social drama puts the individual against society has to address a social ill in society will include a question of morality o Ex Gem of the Ocean Waiting for Lefty Uncle Tom s Cabin etc Realism occurred during the industrial revolution urbanization truth a representation of reality that leads to the creation of the fourth wall Not reality truth via the author s vision ex House M D focuses on middle class social issues and questions Nature vs nurture o Iconoclasts started to question the way people thought about the world Ex Marx proletariat is right Freud Oedipus complex Darwin natural selection Auguste Comte began to study sociology Henrik Ibsen Father of realism author of A Doll House the door slam heard around the world Responses to realism begin with social and economic disaster o WWI the war to end all wars o Economic depression in the US and Europe o WWII worse than WWI Dada Switzerland mockery of High Art chance and silliness meaningless words and actions rejection of WWI pacifism anti art Absurdism Paris response to WWII characteristics repetition meaninglessness cause does not equal effect violence and pain o Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett The Lesson Eugene Ionesco cyclic plot structure Bertolt Brecht and the Berliner Ensemble pioneer of Epic theater wanted to distance the audience caused the alienation effect eliminate illusion that what was happening on stage wasn t real pulled out back curtains showed actors on the side removed scenery showed lights o Mother Courage and her Children The Three Penny Opera Melodrama action movies of the theater clear cut morality poetic justice action and spectacle ex The Octoroon Federal Theatre Project only national theater project ever AgitProp Agitational Propaganda emerged in Russia focused on a single group of people and the social ill affecting them designed to excite the audience into action ex Living newspapers The Cradle Will Rock Luis Valdez father of Chicano Theatre El Teatro Campescino Los Vendidos The Sellouts Actos uses non actors and their own cultures Anna Deavere Smith On the Road A search for American Character does interviews of people and uses these interviews in her plays acts as every character transforms herself very well and uses media to cover up costume changes and make everything more fluid includes actual footage of riots and media events that her plays are on Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Company The Laramie Project Mathew Shepard s murder American Theatre and Performance Art Ford s Theatre Abraham Lincoln s assassination by John Wilkes Booth Pre Revolutionary War National Identity Crisis Pre America o Stage Yankee good loyal hard working not the brightest ex Forrest Gump Joey from Friends The Astor Place Riot class division in the US American vs English Actors two actors representing different classes played the same role on the same night at theaters within 10 minutes of each other o Edwin Forrest American Actor very strong empowered actor physical actor identified with the working class o William Charles Macready English Actor intellectual emotional based actor identified with the upper class Class divides the theatre o Upper class entertainment opera ballet European touring companies o Middle class entertainment melodrama Uncle Tom s Cabin Dime museums largest rubber band ball Vaudeville clean family entertainment o Working class entertainment Minstrelsy Burlesque Big four in the Golden Age of American Theatre 20th Century o Thornton Wilder Our Town very minimalist production so little scenery super talented actors necessary material goods are less important than other things hopeful o Eugene O