FOUNDATIONS OF THEATRE

FOUNDATIONS OF THEATRE WHAT IS THEATRE?

What is Theatre? • Theatre is a complex art at least 2500 years old. • Our experience of theatregoing varies depending on the time • Greeks would have assembled at dawn in an outdoor theatre seating some 17,000 people to watch a series of plays that lasted all day • Medieval English audiences would have gathered at various places along a route to watch a series of short biblical plays performed on wagons • The theatrical experience ahs been as varied as the cultures in which it has appeared. • The diversity of experience invites questions about what theatre’s varied manifestations have in common and the significance of their difference

Diversity in Theatre Creates Questions • Why do people create theatre? • What attracts audiences to it (theatre)? • What makes one production seem better to us than another? Questions about what Theatre’s varied manifestation have in common and the significance of their differences. It also invites questions about the appeal of theatre…

Basic Issues in Theatre to Develop a Foundation • The nature and function of theatre • The relationship of theatre to other forms of art • Criteria for judging theatrical performances • How scripts, the usual starting point of theatre productions, are structured

Earliest Theatre: Performance v. Ritual Ritual Performance • Various kinds of rituals were vital to the well-being of the earliest humans. • Used elements of theatre • Were theatrical • Addressed supernatural forces • Intended to reflect the present , in order to affect the future • Performance becomes highly developed and highly prized • Grecian culture introduces it to the masses • Intended to reflect the past, in order to change or affect the present thinking

Basic Elements of Theatre • What is performed • Script • Scenario • plan • The performance • All of the processes involved in the creation and presentation of the production • The audience (the perceivers, or for whom theatre is performed)

#1 – What is Performed? • Theatre can be extremely varied • From a comic routine by a single entertainer to a Shakespearean tragedy • Because of the great range, theatre has not been easy to define • With so much diversity, it is easy to understand that most people think of theatre primarily as entertainment • Whereas others find the essence of the theatre to be its capacity to provoke though or action about significant issues • If we are to understand theatre, we must acknowledge is great range and recognize that its potential, like that of most human creation, can be developed in many ways • Some of which we may like and some of which we may consider even dangerous

#2 – The Performance • Complex • Translates the potential of a script, scenario, or plan into actuality • What the audience sees when it goes to the theatre is the fleshing out of a script or plan through the application theatrical processes • Can take place in varied spaces • Most performances require the creative efforts and cooperation of many people • Playwright • Director • Actors • Designers • Technicians • Musicals involve even more people • Director • Composer • Instrumentalists • Singers • choreographer • dancers

#3 – The Audience • Until material is performed and seen by a public, we do not call it theatre • The audience affects the theatre in many ways, most clearly by the immediate feedback it provides the performers • Continuous interaction occurs not only between stage and auditorium, but also spectators involved in a communal experience • Audiences affect the theatre through their expectations and motives for attending • Some come to the theatre only wanting to be entertained • Others prefer productions that challenge accepted values, raise issues, advocate action, or use innovative theatrical means

Theatre as a Form of Art • Theatre should entertain, that is not a question. But not everyone finds the same things entertaining • Pop culture v. Elitist culture • “Low brow” v. “High brow” • Art and value = personal opinion • All art is “made” • Meaning artworks are not produced by nature the way human beings and animals are • Aesthetics: • Area of philosophy that defines what we value • What we fine “good” or “of beauty” • Most usually classify theatre as “fine art” or “high brow” • Therefore, those who view the theatre as an art form are often contemptuous of those who think of it as “show business”

Special Qualities of Theatre • Lifelikeness • Resembles what is audience knows to be real • Ephemeral • Theatre lives in your memory; once it is over, it is in the past • Objective • Is the most objective of the arts; it presents the outer and inner experience of humans through speech and action; however, it demands a subjective response • Complex/Complexity of Means • Like a scene of life it is made up of intermingled sound, movement, place, dress, lighting, etc. • Psychologically Immediate • You experience it immediately as it happens, as opposed to recorded media or art

Theatrical Opinions ½ Objective ½ Subjective • There are criteria that states whether or not something is good • Follow theatrical specificities, i.e. blocking, lighting, good acting • Person opinion • Does it suit your taste? • Although you may recognize it as good art, you just don’t like it.

Performance, Audience, and Critic When Watching Critical Perspective • How to watch • Who is the audience • Understand Critical Perspective • Basic Critical Concerns: • Understanding • Effectiveness • Ultimate Worth

ARISTOTELIAN ELEMENTS OF DRAMA • Plot • Character and Characterization • Thought • Diction • Music • Spectacle

DRAMA = THEATRE 2 Forms of Drama Important Definitions • Comedy • Tragedy • These are NOT genres • Style or Genre are distinct expressions that come from some philosophy or school of though • Comedy • Imitation of character of lower type • Tragedy • Imitation of an action that is serous, complete, and of magnitude • Plot • Beginning, middle, end • Simple plot • No recognition or reversal • Complex plot • Recognition and reversal

FOUNDATIONS OF THEATRE