OVERVIEW ASSIGNMENT
mariammoshi93
5979_1706539_BG5_THEATER-Pt21.ppt*
Formal Components of a Play
Vital to drama:
1. Pretense
2. Conflict: outer, inner
Aristotle’s Poetics:
1. plot
2. character
3. thought
4. diction
5. spectacle
6. song
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Poetics: the literary or philosophical study of the basic principles, form and techniques of poetry or of other imaginative writing in general.
Aristotle teaching, from document in the British Library.
From: Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1976). Islamic Science:An Illustrated Study, World of Islam Festival Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 090503502X
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CONVENTIONS
of the Theater.
Conventions: Implicit rules governing a production or style of theater.
5 periods of Drama in the West, each with their own conventions.
1. Classical
2. Elizabethan
3. Neoclassical
4. Victorian
5. Modern: Early + Contemporary
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- Outdoor performances
- No scenery
- Has chorus
- All-male actors
- Have masks
- Aristotle’s unities
- Verse dialogue
- Greek: no violence on stage; offstage violence reported by Messenger
- Roman: on-stage violence
1. Classical Conventions
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Verse: metrical or rhymed composition
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- Courtyard theater, open in the center
- Daylight performances
- All-male actors--no masks
- Minimal use of chorus
- No scenery; verse created the settings
- Verbal dynamics, strong imagery
- Verse dialogue for upper-class characters;
prose for servants
- Soliloquy
- Aside
- On-stage violence
- Multi-layered entertainment
2. Elizabethan Conventions
Globe Theater
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“recognition scene”
photo: Paul Robeson as
Othello
Clip: Laurence
Fishbourne as Othello
Shakespeare
wanted a
“people’s theater.”
Live theater.
“Soliloquy”
“To be, or not to be” speech with
Mel Gibson as Hamlet
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Othello, Act V, scene ii
I pray you, in your letters,
When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,
Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice: then, must you speak
Of one that lov'd not wisely but too well;
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought,
Perplex'd in the extreme; of one whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe; of one whose subdu'd eyes
Albeit unused to the melting mood,
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees
Their med'cinable gum. Set you down this;
And say besides, that in Aleppo once,
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
I took by the throat the circumcised dog,
And smote him thus.
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Othello. V, ii.
Othello to the dead Desdemona:
I kissed thee ere I killed thee, no way but this,
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss.
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- Indoor performances
- Women now allowed to perform
- One stylized set
- Dialogue: Poetry in couplets
- Unities
- No on-stage violence;
use of Messenger
3. Neoclassical Conventions
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Farmelli in Female Role. Alberti Music of the World, p. 131.
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- Verisimilitude: sets, costumes, dialogue begin to imitate real life
- Proscenium opening as fourth wall/window
- Program introduction
- Sound effects
- Naturalism: introduced by K. Stanislavsky--
closer approximation of real life
Two kinds:
- well-made play structure: perfected by Ibsen
- plot less, flow-of-life structure: Chekhov
4. Victorian Conventions
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Melodrama and Tragedy: a contrast
Like this painting:
Much action, little character development (flat)
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~?The Outcast. Melodrama. Much action, little character development (flat)
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HENRIK IBSEN (1828-1906) "My main goal has been to depict people, human moods and human fates, on the basis of certain predominant social conditions and perceptions."
Box set stage
Henrik Ibsen, playwright. A Doll’s House (1879)
(Victorian, early modern, theater of ideas)
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Grand Rapids Community College, Michigan.
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On Stage: Icons and Symbols
Blanche du Bois, character in Street Car Named Desire
(drama queen, victim, tragic heroine . . .).
“I’ve grown accustomed
to the kindness of strangers.”
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Characters: Icons and Symbols
in Theater
- Blanche du Bois (T. Williams, Streetcar Named Desire)
- Godot (S. Beckett, Waiting for Godot)
- Medea (lover and wife of Jason)
- Nurse Ratchett (Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
- Oedipus (Sophocles, Oedipus)
- Rogue hero (Shakespeare’s Falstaff, Ferris Bueller)
- Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)
- Willy Loman (Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman)
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Theater Glossary, plus these terms
*Deus ex machina: Actor impersonating a god; or any contrived ending used to resolve plot complications and create a happy ending.
*soliloquy: one actor, alone on stage voices private thoughts
*aside: remark made to audience that other actors do not hear
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Who Makes the Play?
Playwright
Actors
Director
Producer
Designers (scenery, sound, etc.)
Stage manager
Backstage crew
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- chooses the cast
- works on setting, lighting, sounds, and costumes
- achieves illusions so the audience believes
- knows, chooses, or creates different interpretations
- recognizes the importance of blocking, done in conjunction with the cast
- decides if s/he will modernize a play
BEHIND THE SCENES
Theater involves a number of crafts: acting, designing, building, running the play, producing, directing, writing.
THE DIRECTOR
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5. MODERN CONVENTIONS
A. REALISM/NATURALISM:
A reflection of life the way it really was, without the artificiality of the stage dialogue of the past or well-constructed, tight plots. Authentic.
Chekhov’s Three Sisters
Williams’s The Glass Menagerie
O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Modern Tragedy: A. Miller’s Death of a Salesman; A View from the Bridge
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- Increasing departures from 4-wall verisimilitude
- Feverish experimentations: non-realistic sets to no sets
- Increasingly sophisticated lighting techniques
- More and more experimentation
- Breaking of fourth wall
- Rebellion against well-made play structure
- Flashback
- Actors playing multiple parts as production costs mount
- Anything-goes dialogue
B. LESS NATURALISM
C. CONTEMPORARY CONVENTIONS
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An abstract Modernist set:
Scenic Design for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt
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Scenic Design for Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen. U. Arizona Theatre.
Zig-zag diagonals vs. verticals Line and form-> mood, grand, austere.
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Plays that focus on ideas and issues rather than characters.
They challenge conventional notions of marriage, business, government, the clergy, education, and so on.
“THEATER OF IDEAS”
- Ibsen’s A Doll’s House
- George B. Shaw’s Pygmalion
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Theater of Ideas include:
Theater of Alienation (Berthold Brecht)
For productive participation, the spectator must be alienated from the play’s events.
- Caucasian Chalk Circle (1944)
2. Theater of Cruelty: Shocks audience into thinking, social awareness
- Ken Kesey’s book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, dramatized;
- later a film with Jack Nicholson.
Character: Nurse Ratchett,
the pathological nurse.
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Becket’s Waiting for Godot.
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Theater of Ideas and DYNAMIC CHANGE
- RACIAL THEMES
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Wilson’s Fences, The Piano Lesson
- GAY RIGHTS
Hellman’s The Children’s Hour
Kushner’s Angels in America
Kaufman’s Laramie Project
- EASTERN INFLUENCES
Hwang’s M. Butterfly
Noh theater of Japan
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Playing Vladimir is Barry McGovern and playing Estragon is Johnny Murphy. This play belongs to the Absurd theater that is why the dialogue is weird and it doesn't make sense, although it does! The films were produced by Colgan and Alan Moloney for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, the British broadcaster Channel 4 and the Irish Film Board.
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Theater of Ideas, cont.
3. Racial Themes: A Raisin the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Title from a Poem: A Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
--Langston Hughes
excerpt from movie
version of play
Set in the early 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun describes the struggle of the Youngers, a poor black family seeking to better itself despite the challenges of poverty and racism. When
they put a down payment on a home in an all-white suburb, racism comes calling in an unusual form. An award winning American classic.
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Set in the early 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun describes the struggle of the Youngers, a poor black family seeking to better itself despite the challenges of poverty and racism. When they put a down payment on a home in an all-white suburb, racism comes calling in an unusual form. The play is an award winning American classic.
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4. Gay Rights and issues:
Angels in America
Tony Kushner’s live play kept the
“theatrical illusion”
(HBO’s version
didn’t)
- In this Play’s Ending:
The Conflict is
not resolved.
Live play version of : “Deus ex machina”: character/god who resolves the plot problem
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Historical Types and Traditions: such as Noh Theater, Japan
Noh is a classical Japanese performance form which combines elements of dance, drama, music and poetry into one highly aesthetic stage art.
Largely based in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto.
Noh is performed throughout the country by professional artists, mainly men, who have passed down the art among family members for numerous generations.
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Beginner’s Guide:
Playing Along
- Look at the set
- Follow the plot
- Respond to the characters (empathy)
- Observe the staging
- Judge the acting, writing, and directing
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So, what insights can we gain from watching people pretend to be someone else?
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Poetics: the literary or philosophical study of the basic principles, form and techniques of poetry or of other imaginative writing in general.
Aristotle teaching, from document in the British Library.
From: Seyyed Hossein Nasr (1976). Islamic Science:An Illustrated Study, World of Islam Festival Publishing Ltd.. ISBN 090503502X
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Verse: metrical or rhymed composition
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Farmelli in Female Role. Alberti Music of the World, p. 131.
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~?The Outcast. Melodrama. Much action, little character development (flat)
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Grand Rapids Community College, Michigan.
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Scenic Design for Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen. U. Arizona Theatre.
Zig-zag diagonals vs. verticals Line and form-> mood, grand, austere.
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Becket’s Waiting for Godot.
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Playing Vladimir is Barry McGovern and playing Estragon is Johnny Murphy. This play belongs to the Absurd theater that is why the dialogue is weird and it doesn't make sense, although it does! The films were produced by Colgan and Alan Moloney for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, the British broadcaster Channel 4 and the Irish Film Board.
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Set in the early 1950s, A Raisin in the Sun describes the struggle of the Youngers, a poor black family seeking to better itself despite the challenges of poverty and racism. When they put a down payment on a home in an all-white suburb, racism comes calling in an unusual form. The play is an award winning American classic.
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