What is Theatre?: Aristotle’s Poetics (5th C. BCE) & the Aristotelian Tradition

1. What is Theatre?: Aristotle’s Poetics (5th C. BCE) & the Aristotelian Tradition • Aristotle’s view of theatre = rooted in Greek terms “drama” & “theatre: • drama < Grk. dromenon, “thing done” • drama = “an imitation of an action,” says Aristotle • theatre < theatron, “seeing place” • performance of the imitation for spectators

2. Aristotle’s 6 Elements of Tragedy (Drama) • Plot: • the “structure of events” through which action is imitated/represented • Character: • personof the drama or “moral bent” of the person • Thought: • “proof and refutation of moral choice” • Verbal Expression: • “conveyance of thought through language” • Music & Spectacle • sensuous, less artistic elements

3. Key Dramaturgical Concepts: • dramatic situation or “given circumstances” • including setting • character objectives & superobjective • obstacles • dramatic tension or conflict • crisis • climax • reversal • recognition

4. The Aristotelian Tradition = founded in Theory of RitualOrigin • drama/theatre evolve from dithyramb, (ritual choruses performed in praise of Dionysos prior to 6th C. BCE ) • theatre began when some participants stepped out of chorus and became spectators of the ritual • the first actor, Thespis, stepped out from chorus to perform individual role in dialogue with it • ritual action gradually evolved into theatricalimitation of action • purpose = more aesthetic than religious

5. Modern Dev. of Theory of Ritual Origin: • The Cambridge School of Anthropology (late 19th C.) • The Cambridge Thesis • primal ritual -> various religious rites -> dramatic genres • certain Greek tragedies follow form of the primal ritual • rise of Aesthetics as independent branch of philosophy (began Germany, late 18th C.) • What makes a work of art a work of art and not something else?

6. Aesthetic(ist) Views of Theatre: • What makes a work of theatre essentiallytheatrical? • imitation of human action + live performance (social or communal, ephemeral) • CP. other literary forms, the visual arts, music • CP. other dramatic media (film, television etc.) • theatre has the unique capacity to combine all of the arts in a single work • Richard Wagner: the Gesamtkunstwerk

7. Performance Studies • Theoretical Foundations: • dramatism or dramaturgism • Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives • analysis of human motives and actions in dramatic terms • role theory • Erving Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life • theatrical analysis of social interaction re: roles performed • structuralist anthropology -> Richard Schechner, Performance Theory (1976) • refutes Cambridge Thesis • replaces vertical view of ritual <-> theatre across time with horizontal view across society/societies

8. Schechner’s Dev. of Performance Studies • recurrent performance genres: • Ritual, Play, Games, Sports, Dance, Music, Theatre • Characteristics: • rules/conventions: “scripts” • special ordering of time and space • objects have special value beyond an economic one • form of event remains constant although rules may change • dynamic of ‘efficacy’ <-> ‘entertainment’

9. Performance Studies - The Philosophical Problem • To what activities may the basic principles of the performance genres not be applied? • Is life inherently theatrical or performative, OR are performances specialized activites det apart from life? • “All the world is not a stage, but the ways in which it isn’t are not always easy to specify.” (Goffman)