Download Introduction to Theatre

INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2: The Audience
Chapter 3: Background and Expectations of theAudience
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
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Theatre is everywhere and All around us.
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Concerts
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TV/Movies
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Ceremonies
The Actor and Audience Encounter:
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Theater is live and happens before our eyes.
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Live theatre – defined as the enactment of a
drama onstage before an audience.
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
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Theatre is transitory and immediate – What
does that mean?
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Changes each time.
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Spontaneous and in the moment
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Human Beings – the Focus of Theatre
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Theatre is Universal
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All over the world.
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Every culture has developed some sort of
theatre.
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
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Began as religious ritual or ceremonies
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Most basic definition is that theatre is a
presentation in front of an audience.
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Add costumes; Pope various robes for specific
rituals. Medicine men who used to wear mask.
3.
Storytelling: teach lessons, myths, origin of man
Ceremony: Formal religious or social occasion
usually led by a authority figure. Example?
Ritual: Acting out of an established, prescribed
procedure. Example?
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
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In the “West” we refer to Greece as the
birthplace of Theatre. In the 5th century BC
Began in parts of Asia between 350 and 1350
AD.
Modern theater can pull from both
traditions.
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE
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Theatre of Diversity
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For everyone, there is theatre for that
audience.
Theatre of Infinite Variety
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Performance spaces
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For profit/non profit
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Experimental
THE AUDIENCE
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Not all events which an audience attends
are a theatrical performance, but a
theatrical performance is not complete
without an performance in front of an
audience.
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Film – always in the presence of the image not
the actor. (Film is dead)
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The heart of a theatre experience if the
performer- audience relationship.
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No two theatrical performances are the same
even if all the elements are the same.
THE AUDIENCE
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The Group experience.
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People must gather at one place and one time.
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Mob mentality: people behave differently in
large groups than they might as individuals.
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Our relationship to other audience members,
family, friends, alone, Influence our
experience.
Aesthetic distance – perspective or the
separation between the audience and the
work of art.
THE AUDIENCE
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Observed vs. Participatory theatre
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Observed: no audience participation except to
watch and react
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Vicarious and empathetic
Participatory: audience brought in.
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Magicians, Renaissance festival, comedy sportz
Book definition: Not attempt to follow a script
Emphasis is on education, personal
development, or therapy – fields in which
theatre techniques are used. Sociodrama,
psychodrama, drama therapy.
Aim is not public performance.
THE AUDIENCE
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The audience imagination allows for the following:
• Illusion : an erroneous mental representation
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something many people believe that is false; "they have the
illusion that I am very wealthy"
• Flashbacks: abrupt movements from present to the past
to the present again.
• Anachronism: Placing some character or event outside its
proper time sequence
• Symbol: A sign, token, or emblem that signifies something
else. Religious symbols, letters numbers, marketing
Flags
• Metaphor: One thing is another.
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Dreams are imagination. Many plays feel like a
dream. (surrealism is based on dreams state)
THE AUDIENCE
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Realism vs. Non realism
• Realism is based in a specific movement in theatre but
for the audience it tends to be how much like life it is.
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Working kitchen. Performances seem more real. Film/TV
tends to be more realistic.
• Nonrealistic is not like life. Language can be different
– poetic. Setting, costumes, characters.
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Example: Avatar, star wars, 300, Shakespeare Tempest, Julie
Tamor Titus.
Some theatrical devices:
• Soliloquy; Actor speaks to the audience not interacting
with cast
• Pantomime: Act like driving a car opening a door.
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Most productions have both aspects:
• The Glass Menagerie – Tom’s memory play
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Background of Individual spectators.
Background of the Period – The period the
play was written informs the subject and
style of the writing. The period of the show
informs mores, style, of the performance
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“Art grows in the soil of a specific society.”
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Greek theatre and culture:
Aristotle poetics: informed and shaped
theatre even today.
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Limited number of scenes
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One day
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Violence happens offstage
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Hubris often subject in tragedies.
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Reflected the Greek’s sense of Balance and
Order
Observe when read Oedipus
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Elizabethan Theatre 1500 - 1700
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Shakespeare
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Many locations and may be over a long period of
time
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Many characters played by same actors, boys
played women
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Liked to show blood – Titus Andronicus ends and
begins with dead corpses
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The expansiveness and sense of adventured
mirrored the temper of the age.
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Modern theatre and culture
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3 developments
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Bringing together of cultures due to populations
shifts and communication
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Challenge of long held beliefs
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World wars
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This has caused a variety of theatre styles,
subjects, diversity.
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Background of the play or playwright
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Shakespeare – like reading a foreign language.
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Dictionaries can show the origin of words.
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Language was as important as plot
Brecht – theatre of cruelty and alienation
affect. Wants audience to think about the
subject matter. Deeply tied to ritual. (Wrote
during the 1940’s)
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Wanted to force the audience to think about what
they were seeing.
Post World War II
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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Expectations:
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Why go to the theatre?
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Entertainment
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Stimulated or challenged
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Both
OF THE
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Broadway – refers to a specific group of theatre
in new York. Used to be much larger number.
• Tours – Wicked
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Resident Professional Theatre
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Equity – theatre unions
Repertory companies – Alley
Regional Theatre
Theatre festivals
Alternative theatre
• Off Broadway – professional companies with
permanent spaces but small houses.
• Off-Off Broadway – Professional theatres with found
spaces. May or may not have a permanent space.
Often experimental in nature
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Children’s theatre
• Can be for youth. Often more participatory in nature.
• Can be performed by children.
• Subject can be teaching, recreate books or literary
classics, often more fantastical
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College and University theatre
• Quality varies.
• Often have professional staff to support the productions.
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Community and Amateur Theatre.
• Many in Houston area. If you want to be involved in
theatre but not work (for fun) many are available.
Country playhouse (some professionals involved)
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
OF THE
• African American theatre
• Ensemble theatre
• Tyler Perry came out of this tradition
• Asian American theatre
• M. Butterfly and Miss Saigon
• Hispanic theatre
• Native American Theatre
• Global theatre
• Exchange of ideas from various areas of the world
• Political theatre
• Politics is often subject matter
• Helps inform the audience on a political subject in a personal way
• Feminist theatre
• Not just plays but companies dedicated to women’s issues
BACKGROUND AND EXPECTATIONS
AUDIENCE:
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OF THE
Gay and Lesbian theatre
• Deals with issues and subject.
• Avenue to entertain and discuss.
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Performance Art
• Single artist often autobiographical and unusual and
creative environment.
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Avant Garde and experimental theatre
• Surrealism, absurdism, theatre of cruelty
• Can be political, feminist, etc.
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Crossover theatre
• Theatre that comes from one of the theatres of
diversity but crosses into mainstream audience. M.
Butterfly is an example.
SUMMARY
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Theatre is immediate and transitory
The Audience is a integral part of the
production
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Theatre began as ritual
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Western Theatre began in Greece
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Can be realistic or Non-realistic
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Modern theatre comes out of our diverse
culture.
Variety of theatres available to the modern
audience.