INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE NOTES What is theatre Aristotle the Poetics 353 BC He s the original western theatre scholar Key concepts mimesis imitation humans have an innate mimetic desire as a result theatre is Minimum conditions performers audience shared space text liveness universal Doesn t test for dates and people Drama Text centers on the reading experience Personal and individual Fixed Metaphor the skeleton Theatre The entire production centers on the sensory experience Communal Interpretive Metaphor muscle skin Theatrical conventions an audience accepts the conventions a mutual agreement about what the words gestures images and actions mean o These conventions set up the internal logic of the play The willing suspension of disbelief o The audience agrees not to disbelieve what they see on stage while they are in the theatre o Works hand in hand with theatrical conventions ex James Bond movie Aesthetic distance o Allows the audience to separate themselves from the events on stage and to recognize that these things are not a part of their objective reality o Children often lack this ability Performance studies talks about different types of theatre o How do we consider the two to be the same o Ex Play vs Football audience costume choreography text stage Playwriting and Dramatic Structure o Form the way the scenes and disbursement work How is the story being told What is the story being told o Content Relationship between form and content Sources of inspiration Autobiography Social or political situation Adaptations of known sources continuations of current plays stories Overheard convos Images and dreams Original imagination Tools of the playwright 1 Character 1 2 Conflict 3 Structure plot 4 Language 5 Theme Character o Revealed through an action o What they say do and what others in the play say about them o Diff types psychologically realistic and archetypes Types of conflict o Person vs person Ex Antigone o Person vs Self Ex The Glass Menagerie o Person vs Nature The Tempest and Sharknado o Person vs Society Oedipus Rex Structure Plot o Aristotle o Episodic o Cyclic Daisy Chains Absurdist plays Arther Schnitzler s La Ronde Language o Implicit Language o Explicit Language Explained feelings and words Theme Narrative can jump across place and time Flashbacks and future How scholars compare Aristotelian male orgasm and Episodic female orgasm Influences and related to film structures Imply what characters say or how they feel 2 o Many playwrights continually recycle a theme o Ex Edward Albee asking questions to audience o Plays are for entertainment or intellectual Creating a play The Bakeoff o Created b Paula Vogeli Mac Wellman and Constance Congdon o 48 hours to write first draft o Ingredients back porch kitchen sink secret Representational Acting outside in Privileges Physicality Emotion isn t organic it emerges from the physicalization Requires extensive physical training One problem can appear mechanical o Ex Charlie Chaplin Representational Acting Inside Out Privileges emotion Physicality isn t organic it emerges from the emotions Requires actors to explore their emotions deeply One problem it can be inconsistent o Ex Friends show Method Acting Using an experience to be in character The method starts with Stanislavsky o Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavsky 1865 1938 o Founded Moscow Art Theatre o Created a system for acting o Wrote obsessive notes on staging characters and relationships o Performed in many of his own pieces Terms in Stanislavsky s system Objective What does the character most essentially want in the scene Moment before What happened to the character just before they appeared Emotion recall As an actor what in my own life can I remember that might be like what this character feels Magic what if Legacy of the method o Acting teachers who adapted Stanislavsky s techniques in the U S o Saford Meisner Lee Strasberg Stella Adler Their techniques vary wildly Big conflicts between Emotional Recall and magic if Terms from their work o Given Circumstances What do we know about the world of the play The relationships The characters o Obstacles o Subtext What stands between the character and their objective Remember the 4 types of conflict 3 o What is happening underneath the words of the characters Ex Three Sisters o Tactics How do the actors try to get their objectives o Often expressed as a short verb phrase Theatrical Design Costumes Sets Architecture Lighting Types of Design Set design Costume design Lighting design Props design Sound design Makeup design Projection design Proscenium stage Thrust stage Arena stage Black box Proscenium Stage shapes Pros great for spectacles musical sets Sets can be stored offstage and masked Huge groups of people can be on stage without obstructing sight lines Cons lack of intimacy with the audience Thrust Ex Shakespeare s globe Pros better connection between audience and actor Easy for actor to talk to audience Cons audience sees backs of actors 4 Arena Pros Closest most intimate between audience and actors Actions happen in audience Cons large set pieces are impossible Designers have to be creative Black Box Flexible Theatre Effective Design Set the tone mood for production o Sound light and costume o An audience encounters them before dialogue Be practical o Can the actors move in the costumes o Navigable set Support production concept Meet budget Directing Early directors Richard Wagner 1813 83 Concept of Gestamkynstwerk Wagner as total artist Controlled set costumes lighting 5 Designed a totally innovate theatre George II Duke of Save Meinengen Fan shaped auditorium and no boxes Dimmed the house lights First orchestra pit Started directing in 1879 The entire dukedom contributed to his productions Famous for his enormous crowd scenes Toured his productions throughout Europe Deeply influential on subsequent directors Stanislavsky 3 D sets Unified acting styles Innovations Goals of the director Unification story Interpretation Are the production elements designers performers etc working together to tell one unified What is the production s stance on the play What is it saying about the play Why is this production happening in this place theater and time Johannes De Witt Sketch Two major director s approaches 1 Worshipful Zepherelly 2 Heretical Baz Luhran a Privileges script is very important the script drama a Privileges production is very important the production theatre One distinction Adaptation vs heretical directing Ex