Download Theatre as a Form of Art

Theatre Performing Arts
Week Two
Ch1. The Nature of Theatre
1. The Basic Elements of Theatre
2. Theatre as a Form of Art
3. Special Qualities of Theatre
4. Art and Value
Ch1. The Nature of Theatre
Early rites was only incidentally theatrical
Storytelling and mimicry
By theatrical terminology (play, show, acting)
that suggests that theatre is the product of
grown-ups
Considered theatre not only an acceptable
form of entertainment but also a truthful
reflection of human behavior
The Basic Elements of Theatre (1/3)
What is performed (script, scenario, or plan)
Such events as street carnivals and parades types of theatre
A performs B for C
Theatre does not require a script, dialogue, or conflict
Improvised scenes, pantomimes, vaudeville sketches, musical
plays, and spoken drama are all theatrical entertainments.
Furthermore, they may be brief or lengthy
Whereas others find the essence of theatre to be its capacity to
provoke thought or action about significant issues
The Basic Elements of Theatre (2/3)
Theatre’s second ingredient, the performance, is equally
complex
The performance takes place in space that can vary from a
building intended specifically for theatrical performances to a
street, park, or nightclub
It may permit the audience to surround the performers
A musical involves even more: composer, instrumentalists,
singers, choreographer, and dancers
Popular musicals as Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, or
The Lion King
Peter Brook in his book The Empty Space: “I can take any
empty space and call it a bare stage.”
The Basic Elements of Theatre (3/3)
The third ingredient of the theatre is the audience
This live three-way interaction is a distinctive characteristic of
theatre and a major cause of variations in performances from
night to night
Off-Broadway and regional theatres, with lower costs and ticket
prices, can afford to take greater chances and may seek a more
restricted audience than that wooed by Broadway
These three elements – script, performance, and audience –
although they may by treated separately in discussion, interact
and modify each other in practice
Responses to theatre are inescapably varied
Theatre as a Form of Art (1/4)
Theatre is a form of art, and art is not always
comfortable or comforting. It often insists on its right to
look at the world in unpopular ways and to challenge
our ways of looking at ourselves and the standards of
the culture that has shaped the way we view the world
Art always meant the systematic application of known
principles to achieve some predetermined result
Divide the arts into two groups, “useful” and “fine”
Theatre as a Form of Art (2/4)
Unfortunately in modern times, the word art has come
to be used as a value judgment
Popular culture and elitist culture
Popular culture today would probably encompass such
forms of expression as rock music, television sitcoms,
advertising art, and musical comedy; elitist forms would
encompass those kinds of music usually heard in
concert halls, the visual art shown in galleries and
museums, and many of the theatrical productions seen
in not-for-profit or regional theatres
Theatre as a Form of Art (3/4)
It employs easily recognizable character types, situations,
and dramatic conventions, manipulating them with sufficient
inventiveness to be entertaining but usually without raising
disturbing questions that challenge the audience’s values and
assumptions
When Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot was first
performed in the 1950s, many spectators were unable to
relate to a play in which there was no discernible storyline
beyond two tramps waiting for someone who never arrived.
The response of many to this innovative play was summed
up in one of the play’s speeches: “Nobody comes, nobody
goes. It’s terrible.”
Theatre as a Form of Art (4/4)
Can imagined experience be a way of knowing and
understanding? Shakespeare offers one answer in As You
Like It (Act II, Scene 7): “All the world’s stage, / And all the
men and women merely players.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge called a “willing suspension of
disbelief” – although we know the events of a play are not
real, we agree for the moment not to disbelieve them
Esthetic distance
This feeling of involvement is sometimes called empathy
Art and Value
Art is valuable for its capacity to improve the quality of
life – by bringing us pleasure, by sharpening our perceptions,
by increasing our sensitivity to others and our surroundings,
by suggesting that moral and societal concerns should take
precedence over materialistic goals
One purpose of this book is to affirm the value of theatre
Theater Films
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1. Chekhov’s The Seagull
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2. Phantom of the Opera
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3. Greek Tragedy Oedipus the King
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4. The Best of Riverdance, Feet of Flames
專家演講
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共邀請兩位演講者，來交大課堂演講
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演講者︰當代傳奇劇場 吳興國藝術總監，
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和石光生教授 (題目為：台灣皮影戲藝術的
演變)
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藝術總監吳興國 10/18
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台藝大戲劇系教授石光生 12/9
Watch one of the performances
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校外教學：
(1)台北國家劇院 日本鈴木忠志跨文化劇場《大鼻子情聖》
(10/9-10/11)
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•
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或是(2) 台北國家劇院 當代傳奇劇場—《梨園傳奇》 10/2210/25
或是(3) 台北小巨蛋 麥可‧佛萊利 (Michael Flatley) 的《火焰之
舞》 (Feet of Flames) 12/19-12/20星期六日
或是(4) 學期中陸續知道的值得推薦的好表演
規劃：學生可自選老師所推薦的幾齣表演中，各自有興趣的
一齣表演，每位學生選各自有空的時間，自行買票。這門課
提供保險費與交通補助。
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看完推薦的其中一齣表演後，學生繳交心得報告。
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保險費 ($50) 交通費($250) (以車票票根實報實消)
Assignments
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Make sure the weekly group presentations
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Preview if you can