Download Chapter 1: The Nature of Theatre

Chapter 1: The Nature of Theatre
• Origins in ritual practices
• Theatre as a form is at least 2500 years old
• The role/function of Theatre in society has
fluctuated over time
Examples:
• Theatre as religious activity
• Theatre as traveling performance
• Theatre as entertainment
• The value and respectability of Theatre has
been a matter of debate
Examples:
• Theatre forbidden/banned as a form of lying
• Theatre as a truthful reflection of human behavior
What do YOU think?
1. What is the role/function of Theatre in your
society today?
2. How does live Theatre performance differ
from mediated performance forms such as
film and television?
3. Do you consider Theatre to be a form of lying
or a reflection of truth? Why?
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The Basic Elements of Theatre
3 Basic Elements of Theatre:
(1) What is Performed
(2) The Performance
(3) The Audience
The most basic definition of theatre is: someone
performing something for someone else.
A performs B for C
(Eric Bentley)
What is Performed
•
Many types of activities may be considered Theatre
•
What is the essence of theatrical performance?
Possibilities:
• The staged performance of a text
• Storytelling
• Entertainment such as juggling or improvisation
•
Since Theatre has a broad range of possibilities, the
essence of What is Performed is difficult to define
•
Therefore Theatre, as a performing art, is difficult to
define
The Performance
The Performance translates the potential of a script, scenario, or plan
into actuality.
Key Components of the Performance include:
• Performance Space
where the performance takes place and what the relationship is
between the performers and the audience
• Artistic Collaboration
how the playwright, director, designers and others work together
to create the Performance
• Theatrical Elements
Scenery, Costumes, Music, Lighting and other effects that
contribute to the Performance
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The Audience
“The only thing that all forms of theatre have in common is the need
for an audience.” Peter Brook
The Audience:
• Completes the cycle of Creation/Communication
• Provides Immediate Feedback to the Performers
3-Way Interaction:
Performers
Audience
Audience
Performers
Audience
Audience
Interaction Between the 3 Basic Elements of
Theatre
Script
Audience
Performance
Theatre as a Form of Art
What is Art? How is Art defined?
Pre-18th century:
Art = the systematic application of known principles
to achieve some predetermined result
18th century:
Distinction made between Useful and Fine Arts
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Useful Arts =
Arts that can be taught and mastered through specific
techniques
Fine Arts =
Products of genius that cannot be reduced to rules or
principles
Examples:
• Literature (including Drama)
• Painting
• Music
• Dance
Popular Culture vs. Elitist Culture
Popular Culture
Reflects tastes of the general public
Theatre that appeals to Popular Culture = entertainment,
storytelling, familiar character types and situations
Elitist Culture
Reflects tastes of a smaller group with particular
standards
Theatre that appeals to Elitist Culture = seeks new types of
artistic expression, challenges views and assumptions, raises
questions
What do YOU think?
The text compares Theatre with Games, stating that both
rely upon conventions.
1. What is a convention? How do you define that term?
2. Name some conventions of a particular Game.
3. Name some conventions of Theatre.
4. How are these conventions similar or different?
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Purposes of Art
•
Art as a means to understand one’s world
•
Like other disciplines, such as history, Art seeks to
discover and record patterns in human experience.
•
While historians, scientists and other scholars appeal
to the mind/intellect, Artists appeal to the senses.
Elements of Theatre Spectatorship
“Willing Suspension of Disbelief”
•
Term from Samuel Taylor Coleridge
•
We know that the events of the play are not real.
•
However, we agree, during the experience of the
performance, not to disbelieve the events of the play.
Example:
•
When a character kills another character onstage, we do
not rush to the stage to help the victim, yet we may still
weep or feel an emotional response to the action.
Elements of Theatre Spectatorship
“Willing Suspension of Disbelief” enables:
Esthetic Distance
Empathy
We are detached enough
from the performance to
view it with some
objectivity
Feeling of
involvement with
the performance
Esthetic Distance and Empathy seem to be contradictory concepts,
but they balance each other in Performance through the Audience’s
“Willing Suspension of Disbelief.”
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Special Qualities of Theatre
Lifelikeness
Theatre recreates everyday experiences.
Ephemerality
Theatre is live performance, and becomes a part of the past
immediately after it occurs.
Objectivity
Theatre “presents both outer and inner experience through speech
and action.”
Special Qualities of Theatre
Complexity
Theatre combines varied elements such as movement, lighting
and sound while also drawing from all of the other Arts.
Immediacy
Theatre is psychologically immediate, because it transpires in the
simultaneous presence of live actors and spectators in the same
room.
What do YOU think?
How do these Special Qualities define the strengths and
weaknesses of Theatre?
•
Lifelikeness
•
Ephemerality
•
Objectivity
•
Complexity
•
Immediacy
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Art and Value
Theatre as a Humanizing Force
Understanding through role-playing and observation
Theatre as Cultural Expression
Understanding various cultures through their Theatre
Multiple Types of Intelligence
1.
Linguistic/Verbal
2.
Logical/Mathematical
3.
Musical
4.
Spatial
5.
Bodily/Kinesthetic
6.
Interpersonal (understanding others and relationships)
7.
Intrapersonal (using one’s emotions to understand self/others)
8.
Naturalistic
Something to Think About: How does Theatre
incorporate Multiple Intelligences?
Making Connections:
Chapter 1 makes several references to famous plays by William
Shakespeare, including Hamlet and As You Like It. Shakespeare is
also discussed in a later Chapter.
What do you already know about Shakespeare’s work?
Activity:
(1) Make a list of the titles for as many of Shakespeare’s
plays as possible.
(2) Compare your list to a master list of Shakespeare’s
works.
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