Download What is Theatre?

Explore Theatre:
A Backstage Pass
Michael M. O’Hara
&
Judith A. Sebesta
PowerPoints prepared by the authors
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Copyright © 2012 Ball State University, All Rights Reserved
Chapter 1
What is Theatre?
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How do these lessons
work?
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Pedagogical design for the class.
The syllabus?
Required Texts?
Required Shows?
Web access issues?
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Today’s Mechanics in Theatre
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Today’s theatre is a collaborative team of 10 to
200+ individuals. They include:
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Author(s): text/script
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director/choreographer/conductor
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designers (scenery, lights, costumes, sound)
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actors
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technicians
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audiences
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Performance Mechanics
are Typically “Invisible”
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Why?
What is the essence of being
“entertained?”
Enthralled, enraptured,
overwhelmed, swept away,
transported, transformed, etc.
What’s common to such
experiences?
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“Theatre” Experiences
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Different for different contexts
How do you prepare for different
contexts?
Movie with friends?
Movie with date?
Television by yourself?
Television with friends?
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More Formal Theatrical
Contexts
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How would you change your
preparation for:
NYC, Broadway?
Regional theatre?
University?
Community?
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Definitions of
Theatre?
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Living actors enacting a text before a
live audience.
"An actor, two planks, and a passion."
"Actor, audience, action."
"Perpetual present tense.”
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Why ...
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… does Theatre continue in face of other
performative media?
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imaginative engagement
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fluid/adaptive v. static/recorded media
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communal impulse
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enact mysterious/meta issues
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liveness
Copyright © 2012 Ball State University, All Rights Reserved
Summary
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Theatre is a complex art that is
collaborative, imaginative, ephemeral,
and communal.
Copyright © 2012 Ball State University, All Rights Reserved