| A | B |
|---|
| Name 5 ways theater tells stories | theater grows from our desire to tell stories; root of modern storytelling;film and tv built from it; stage is a metaphor for life; focuses on human stories |
| How does theater ask questions | engages ideas publically and collectively; theater can think, question and change |
| theater is entertainment because.. | a place to laugh and be awed and storytelling |
| How does theater serve as a community | face to face interaction 2. a place to debate and enjoy ourselves 3. similarities and religion 4. experiencing something as a group helps change your reaction |
| how is theater a simple relationship:? | actor + audience = theater (they react in the moment) and audience completes it |
| Conventions of theater | "rules of the game" 2. contract between players and audience 3. agree what is real 4. conventions change |
| presentational theater | non realistic |
| representational theater | realistic (fourth wall) - actors ignore audience |
| SPACES effect performance | xxxx |
| proscenium theater | A proscenium theatre is what we usually think of as a "theatre". It's primary feature, is the Proscenium, a "picture frame" placed around the front of the playing area of an end stage. Theframe is the Proscenium; the wings are spaces on either side, extending off-stage. Scenery surrounds the acting area on all sides except side towards audience, who watch the play through frame opening |
| thrust theater | A Stage surrounded by audience on three sides. The Fourth side serves as the background. |
| arena theater | A central stage surrounded by audience on all sides. The stage area is often raised to improve sightlines. |
| alley | Alley theatre is a form of theatrical staging in which the stage is surrounded predominantly on two sides by audience. I |
| found | A stage can also be improvised where ever a suitable space can be found. Examples may include staging a performance in a non traditional space such as a basement of a building, a side of a hill or, in the case of a busking troupe, the street. |
| elements of play scripts (5) | 1. cast of characters 2. notes from playwright 3. act and scene structures 4. dialogue 5. stage directions |
| acts | sometimes refer to the two halves of a performance |
| characteristics of an audience (4) | live community; participants;can make demands; prepared and willing |
| live community | key component in theater; communal response |
| participants | active participants; not passive observers (fill in the blanks) |
| demands | audience demands drive what is being performed; they vote with attention and MONEY |
| prepared and willing | they read reviews, program notes and usually know some background of the play |
| responses of audiences (3) | empathy; separation or alienation; aesthetic distance |
| audience empathy | they feel for the characters |
| audience separation | members of audiences think; epic theater |
| pro and con of audience separation | pro - critical or electoral con- not passionate |
| audience aesthetic distance | need to appreciate art; suspends disbelief |
| audiences analyze what they see 3 ways | what the productions is trying to do/did they succeed/was the project worth attempting |
| How many plays did Sophocles write? | 120 |
| Sophocles is known for adding the 3rd actor | xx |
| He wrote the Theban trilogy of.... | Oedipus the King; Oedipus at Collonus; Antigone |
| Greek Theater context | civic/ritual purpose; celebrate history/religion folklore/only citizens attend |
| Greek Theater staging | thrust stages; outdoors; very little scenery; orchestra and backdrops |
| Greek Theater actors | 1-3 male actors; CHORUS, masks |
| thespis | first actor |
| tragedy in Greek theater - background | earliest form of theater; Songs to Dionysus; TURNED SONGS INTO PLAYS |
| purpose of tragedy theater | celebrate humans capacity to accomplish and endure |
| catharsis | to purge pity and fear |
| elements of tragedy | hubris, hamartia |
| hubris | excessive pride |
| hamartia | error in judgment |
| Antigone | excessive pride and made error in judgment |
| Creon | made error in not changing edict; let pride of position/power |
| Main character in a tragedy: tragic hero | known as tragic hero, has strong will, causes suffering, takes responsibility and gains insight (ANTIGONE) |
| How do we respond to conflict | no reponse; indirect response; direct response |
| Who is involved in conflict? | protagonist (drives action of the play) antagonist (tries to stop the action from happening) |
| 3 types of conflict | metaphysical; psychological; physical |
| physical | human vs. human |
| psychological | human vs. himself |
| metaphysical | human vs. fate |
| Why is conflict an element of plays? | makes storytelling interesting and asks playwright what is difficult about this day |
| plot | the selection and arrangement of incidents on the stage |
| story vs. plot | content vs. structure |
| KNOW THE WITCHE'S HAT FOR CLIMATIC STRUCTURE | exposition, rising action;climax; falling action; devotion, return to balance |
| What kind of plot structure did Sophocles use? | climatic structure (short period of time, single storyline) |
| episodic structure | multiple storylines, subplots and climaxes - larger cast - longer time span |
| What kind of plot did Shakespeare use? | episodic structure |
| Three elements of a play | conflict; plot, drama/storytelling |
| What is the appeal of drama and storytelling? | need for tension/conflict and Schandenfreude |
| playwright (dramatist) | author of the play |
| SPELLED WRIGHT not write | xxx |
| functions of a playwright | create a dramatic idea (story); develop (plot) and can be executed in a theater (stage) |
| Three questions a playwright asks himself | who is my audience? what is my space of stage? Whoare the performers or actors? |
| constructing the play | show not tell; dramatize not narrate; define characters through actions |
| what do playwrights receive for writing their plays? | commissions or residences |
| playwrights work with directors in new play productions | xxxx |
| how are new plays often staged? | they have staged readings in small performances with a director or actress not memorized or blocked and just read to the audience |
| publication | happens after professional performances |
| playwrights are often members of? | professional groups like dramatists guild, dramtic play service |
| William Shakespeare wrote how many plays? | 38 |
| Shakespeare is an ACTOR and PLAYWRIGHT | xxxx |
| he wrote 3 forms of plays | tragedy; comedy and history |
| he wrote his play in what format (verse) | iambic pentameter |
| iam | 2 syllables |
| penta | 5 syllables |
| how many syllables were per line | 10 |
| The name of the theater where most of his plays were performed is called.... | The Globe |
| Elizabeth Theater | Renaissance England, focus in London, rowdy mix of audiences, entertainment and money |
| What kind of Staging for Elizabethan Theater | outdoor; thrust; little scenery; lavish costumes and presentational |
| Elizabethan Theater actors | males--they played female parts; performed with acting companies and actors learned many roles |
| Comedy - name characteristics | survival of the underdog; renewal (balance forth in the future), often shows young vs old and individual vs. society |
| Comedy is a serious business...why? | characters take themselves too seriously; people acting out of place; good vs. bad behavior; comedy is "social corrective" |
| The basic tools of comedy are.... | repetition ROLE OF 3's; mistaken identity; exaggeration; violence; scatology |
| Comedy uses character types | buffoon, clown, dope, rascal, scoundrel |
| buffoon | dumb/loveable Homer Simpson |
| clown | makes fun of himself; actually the smartest one |
| dope | picked on and tricked by others; scoundrel |
| rascal | not viscious; mischievious |
| scoundrel | vicious and threatening |
| Different kinds of comedy | farce, satire, tragic comedy |
| farce | extreme physical humor, action over thought, slapstick, chases and slams doors |
| satire | extreme intellectual humor, worldwide parody, "society's saftey valve" |
| tragic comedy | funny and sad at the same time, a serious play with happy ending also called "dark comedy" |
| realism | the stage is made to resemble observable every day life |
| PIANO LESSON | example of realism written by August Wilson |
| What type of stage used in realism? | usually proscenium where audience views from one side this shows the ordinary life rather than extraordinary |
| in realsim plays the protagonist is usually.... | a common citizen |
| Henrik Ibsen | he was the father of realsim and he used realistic dialog and characters from the middle class |
| Constatine Stanislavsky & Moscow Theater | a director that shaped early acting and it was "ensembled" based" |
| naturalism | this is extreme realism and was influenced by Darwinism and tried to create perfect illusion of reality |
| Emile Zola | scientific approach to the world |
| Andre Antoine and Theatre Libe | created the 4th wall and used naturalistic use of space and representational acting style |
| Kitchen Smile Realism | British style of realism - depicts working class struggles and is set in industrial cities |
| Realism in America | shows family struggles and characters struggling with identity and tragedy. Also explores roles of men and women and wrestles with the American Dream |
| Magic realism | has fantasy in it like ghosts, supernatural and myths |
| August Wilson - what kind of realism? | he used magic realism in his writing (in the Piano Lesson there were ghosts) |
| August Wilson - biography | he wrote 10 plays about African Americans; he focused on his hometown of Pittsburgh (Piano LEsson set in Pittsburgh) and used heavy music in his plays |
| August Wilson - his 10 plays | each one was set in a different decade |
| what does a director do? | he provides a unified vision and communicates a vision |
| Director does research about what? | history, biographical, critical and literacy (needs to know what the playwright is trying to say) |
| Director's Concept aka production concept | a central idea that unifies all eleemnts of the production to make it unique |
| What does a director do in rehearsal? | coaches, experiments and creates an environment |
| picturization | creates "still pictures" like composition in photography |
| stage movement | movement and action telling story |
| stage business | use of props, small gestures, and reveals characters |
| line reading | emphasis, tone, delivery and meaning |
| emotional key | is it intense or suppressed |
| tempo and rhythm | rate: speech and movement pause; speech and action |
