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Theatrical Production
1
The planning, rehearsal, and presentation of a work. Such a work is presented to an audience at a particular
time and place by live performers, who use either themselves or inanimate figures, such as puppets, as the
medium of presentation. A theatrical production can be either dramatic or non-dramatic, depending upon the
activity presented.
While dramatic productions frequently conform to a written text, it is not the use of such a text but rather the
fictional mimetic (from Greek mimesis, "imitation," "representation") nature of the performer's behavior that
makes a work dramatic. For example, a person walking a tightrope is performing an acrobatic act, whereas a
person who pretends to be an acrobat walking a tightrope is performing a dramatic act. Both performers are
engaged in theatrical presentation, but only the latter is involved in the creation of dramatic illusion. Though
a dramatic performance may include dancing, singing, juggling, acrobatics, or other non-dramatic elements,
it is concerned mainly with the representation of actual or imagined life.
In non-dramatic theatrical productions there is no imitation of "another existence" but simply the
entertainment or excitation of the audience by the performer. Whether acrobatic or musical, gestural or vocal,
such activity is theatrical because it is presented by a live performer to an audience, but it remains nondramatic so long as it has a purely presentational quality rather than a representational one.
In any single theatrical production, one or another type of activity may so prevail that there is little difficulty
in determining the aesthetic nature of the final work. A play by the 19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik
Ibsen, with its depiction of middle-class behavior, minimizes non-dramatic activity; the recital of a song by
the 19th-century Romantic composer Franz Schubert, by contrast, with its emphasis upon musical values,
may ignore dramatic elements and, to a considerable extent, even the act of presentation itself. Between these
two extremes, however, there are many types of theatrical production in which the aesthetic nature of the
form is less simple. Opera, for example, employs both drama and music in shifting patterns of emphasis.
In Europe and the United States several forms arose in the 20th century that combine dramatic and nondramatic material. Vaudeville, or music hall, for instance, employs a succession of various acts, such as
fictional sketches, musical and dance numbers, and feats of dexterity, of which some are representational and
others are not. In the musical theatre, song and dance serve both to further the narrative and to provide a
break from purely dramatic presentation. This variety also characterizes much of Oriental theatre, in which
dramatic moments are elaborated in dance-like exhibitions. In light of these examples, the definition of what
constitutes theatrical production must remain elastic.
For a general discussion of theatre as an art form, as well as a specific treatment of the crafts of acting and
directing, see the articles theatre, directing, and acting. Drama as a literary genre is treated in the article
dramatic literature, while the history of dramatic literature is covered in theatre, history of. Drama or
dramatic literature is also treated in numerous other articles, including those on the literature or art of a
specific country or region, of which the following are examples: African arts; American literature; Central
Asian arts; East Asian arts; English literature; French literature; German literature; Greek literature; Oceanic
arts; South Asian arts; and Southeast Asian arts. Other articles that pertain to theatrical production include
circus; folk arts: Folk dance; and puppetry.
Elements Of Theatrical Production
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Copyright © 1994-2001 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
According to the British director Peter Brook, theatre occurs whenever someone crosses neutral space and is
watched by another person. This definition of theatre raises some problems, such as the difficulty of
determining neutral space, but it is useful in its firm commitment to demystifying theatrical production. In
former times the idea of the actor as motivated by a desire to create astonishment and wonder was sometimes
seen as the basis of all theatre. Certainly there are types of theatrical performance that entail ritual and magic,
but theatre is far more frequently rooted in attempts to structure emotion and experience.
Generally speaking, all theatrical productions have certain elements in common: the performer or performers,
their acting in space (usually some sort of stage) and time (some limited duration of performance), and a
producing process and organization. These elements are treated in separate sections below.
The Performer
Skills And Attributes
The work of the actor falls into five main areas: (1) the exhibition of particular physical, including vocal,
skills; (2) the exhibition of mimetic skills, in which physical states and activities are simulated; (3) the
imaginative exploration of fictitious situations; (4) the exhibition of patterns of human behavior that are not
natural to the actor; and (5) interaction, while engaging in these activities, with other actor-characters and
with members of the audience.
At certain times in the history of Western theatre, the highest degree of physical skill has been associated
with non-dramatic performance. In Oriental theatre, however, such distinctions do not apply. Chinese opera
and Japanese drama require the actor to play one type of role for his entire professional life. The actor must
play this role in a manner strictly determined by tradition, reproducing specific patterns of movement and
speech that can be mastered only by first gaining control of complex physical skills. Later, if especially
gifted, an actor may bring to a role certain refinements of the tradition, which may be handed down to a
succeeding generation.
Western drama, however, does not usually provide the actor with quite so defined a repertoire of movements
and utterances. It is true that actors in the Italian commedia dell'arte of the 16th to the 18th century
specialized in one role and transmitted to their successors a body of situations, speeches, and lazzi (stage
sketches, or routines). Nevertheless, they seem to have had more leeway than their Oriental counterparts in
exercising invention and personal expression. Great rhetorical skill has been demanded of the Western actor,
for the intricate metrical patterns of Greek, Latin, French, English, and Spanish drama have been part of the
glory of their respective theatres.
Naturalistic theatre, which flowered in the late 19th century, made rhetoric obsolete, requiring the actor to
hide virtuoso performing skills by creating the illusion of everyday behavior. This meant that more weight
was given to the actor's personal attributes. The magnetism of a performance derived no longer from stylized
behavior but from intense personal revelation. This requires a marked ability to focus energies, to concentrate
intently either upon the audience directly or upon a fellow actor and, thereby, indirectly upon the audience.
All good actors can project a concentrated force, or "presence," which has become increasingly important to
the actor as set patterns of playing have disappeared. Presence is not a fixed, definable quality but rather a
process of continuous growth and change that takes place before the eyes of the audience.
Relation To The Audience
In non-dramatic theatre the performer generally acknowledges the presence of the audience and may even
play directly to it. In dramatic theatre the actor may or may not do so. In Greek Old Comedy, for example, an
actor speaking for the author might cajole, advise, or challenge the spectators. By contrast, the naturalistic
actor plays as though a "fourth wall" closes off the room of the stage. Between these two extremes fall a
variety of relationships. In some instances, although direct contact is made, the audience is itself assumed to
be playing a role, as in trial plays in which the audience is treated as a jury or as spectators in the court of
justice. In other instances, the actor may address the audience one moment and play as though there were a
fourth wall the next.
The quality of the contact between performer and audience is subtly modified by the nature of the performer's
place and role in society. In the broadest terms, the performer may be seen as a celebrant, servant, or critic of
society. As a celebrant, the actor performs an almost priestly function, and in certain types of production the
actor may in fact be a priest. In such instances, the actor mediates between the audience and the divine or
spiritual dimension. In Greek tragedy, Japanese No theatre, and medieval mystery plays, the actions of the
performers have both a religious and dramatic significance, but this is by no means always the case.
More often the actor has been a servant, akin to the household retainer or court jester. In classical Rome, for
example, actors were slaves or lowly freedmen. In Elizabethan England the actor was nominally the protégé
of a powerful courtly patron, but, if he lacked patronage, he was usually considered a rogue and vagabond.
Such performers, as servants or inferiors, necessarily approached their audiences in supplicatory terms.
However, with the growth of the commedia dell'arte companies, which were established on a commercial
basis, the relationship between the performer and the audience changed into one of producer and consumer.
In the 19th century, with the flourishing of the Romantic movement and the rise of nationalist consciousness
throughout Europe, the actor as rebel began to appear. The role of the theatre was then a powerful one; actors
learned to utilize the material of the play, even of classic works, to make political statements. Later, in the
20th century, the traditional boundaries between actors and spectators were broken down, and the performer
became in some cases a virtual assailant of the audience. The Living Theatre, formed in 1947 in New York
City by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, engaged the audience in direct personal and physical contact. In the
1970s, Augusto Boal of Brazil developed the theatre of the oppressed, in which performance was intended to
serve the triple function of entertainment, education, and consciousness-raising. Similar techniques found
wide use in the 1970s and '80s in such special-interest movements as feminist theatre, homosexual theatre,
black theatre, prison theatre, theatre of the deaf, theatre of the handicapped, and theatre of the aged.
The Actor As Character
Another aspect of the dramatic performer's work has to do with the portrayal of characters, both as
individuals and as types. In portraying an individual character, the performer adopts a fictional framework
and acts according to the text's demands. When playing Macbeth, for instance, he behaves "as if" he sees the
phantom dagger referred to in the text. In many roles, however, the actor must work within established
categories of stock types. Roman comedy, for instance, utilized a limited number of stock characters, such as
the cunning slave, the passionate young lover, and the suspicious old father. The king, the wise counselor, the
raging tyrant are examples derived from historical and biblical sources; the leading man, the juvenile, the
ingénue, and the villain are examples from theatrical tradition itself.
While stock types stress those features of personality common to all human beings, naturalistic, or "slice-oflife," drama seeks to individualize each role. This requires that the actor as well as the author draw from
personal observation and experience. With the rise of dramatic Naturalism in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, there arose corresponding theories of acting, notably those of Konstantin Stanislavsky, director of
the Moscow Art Theatre. While an actor of this period might start with a generalized "type" (a country
doctor, for example), efforts during rehearsal were bent on differentiating this doctor from any other. This
style of acting demanded extensive preparation, with rehearsal periods of up to a year.
Naturalistic acting raises questions about the relation between the actor and the role performed: Does the
actor merely simulate behavior, or does he in some sense actually experience the passions and thoughts of the
character? Central to the actor's art though this question is, it has never been satisfactorily answered.
Space And Time
The distinction between actor as performer and actor as character is matched by a distinction between the
presentational and representational nature of space and time in theatrical production.
The Playhouse Area
Performer and audience exist together in a common area, within which there is a clearly delineated
performing space (ring, stage platform, pit) and an audience space, the two structurally related. Some of the
more common patterns of relationship are (1) an amphitheatre, with a bank of spectators half surrounding a
playing area; (2) a circle of spectators standing or sitting around a ring in which the performance takes place;
and (3) rows of seated spectators facing a raised platform. Theatre space is often associated with a special
building, but this has not always been the case, nor is it always the case in modern times. Often theatre space
has embraced a town square or even an entire town so that performers and audience are able to mingle.
Modern attempts to create a space within which the distinction between performer and audience is blurred
(called environmental theatre) echo earlier examples from the popular theatre.
Isolation Of The Performer
Almost all productions (the so-called happenings of the 1960s are notable exceptions) endeavor to achieve
two basic aims. First, every production seeks to impart a special quality to the theatrical area. Use of a
theatrical building may in itself provide a heightened sense of locale. Otherwise, special decoration of
familiar locales (town, market square) may transform them into ceremonial or festive spaces. Next, every
production tries to make the performer visible and audible to the audience. On flat ground the circle or ring
has often proved best. In hilly country the amphitheatre is the readiest solution. When a playing area is to be
permanent, some means of raising the performer above the level of the crowd is often introduced, such as
boards laid over trestles. The degree to which the performer is to be isolated depends partly on how complete
and detailed a view of the presentation the audience expects.
The isolation of the performer has, however, another property. Marking out a playing area was in early
antiquity an activity connected with religion. In classical Greece, for instance, the altar of the god Dionysus
was surrounded by a circle for dancing. This was the origin of the performance space. Even when the direct
religious tie was broken, stepping into the ring or onto the stage was still regarded as a passage into another
world. This is equally true of the sawdust ring of the circus and the bare boards of the trestle stage. Some
traditional theatres, especially those of the Orient, still regard the act of preparing to go on stage (putting on
makeup, for instance) as sacred. Because of this, the isolation of the actor is spiritual almost as much as
physical.
Illusion Of Place
In dramatic production the magical property with which a performing area is invested is augmented by the
fictional action of the drama. The stage becomes another locale by an act of imagination undertaken by both
actors and audience. The illusion of place may be created simply by speech: at the opening of a scene in
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, for instance, one of the characters asks, "What country, friends, is this?" and is
told, "This is Illyria, lady." It may be created visually, by the designer's ingenuity; the audience sees a room
or a garden, and its attention is fixed on this imaginary setting, while its consciousness of the stage as a
performing space becomes secondary.
In some productions, especially those inspired by the antinaturalistic theories of the Russian director
Vsevolod Meyerhold, the audience is constantly reminded that it is in a theatre. Naturalistic productions, in
contrast, following the principles of Stanislavsky, encourage a clear distinction between performing area and
viewing area. On the other hand, the theatre has often reconciled the contradictory elements of dramatic
space. The ancient Greek theatre combined the actor's platform with a more public dancing circle, to which
there was ready access from the seats. The 18th-century English stage moved out from a recessed picture of a
representational locale to a projecting apron that merged with the auditorium. In both examples, the theatre
found a physical convention for mediating between actor and audience.
Real Versus Illusory Time
Time likewise has a dual character in drama. The performer and audience exist together in chronological
time. But the actor as character exists in dramatic time. Neoclassical drama of the 17th century, especially in
France, endeavored to make the duration of the performance coincide with that of the play's action. But, as a
rule, drama has achieved its effects by accentuating the discrepancy between "real" and "illusory" time.
On one hand, the performer projects a sequence of activity upon which the audience concentrates intensely.
Because it is difficult to maintain full attention over very long periods, it must be modulated; that is,
stimulated, relaxed, and stimulated again. These contrasts and suspense make the real time spent at a
performance absorbing and deeply felt. This experience is heightened by the illusion that another time
scheme is also operating, that of the fictional event. Some drama gains its effects by suggesting that
chronological and dramatic time differ between, but not within, scenes; that is, months may pass between Act
I and Act II of Three Sisters by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, but within any act the dramatic time
scale is the same as the chronological one. Shakespeare, however, presents a scene in Othello (Act II, scene
2) that takes about 25 minutes to play, yet during this scene an entire night supposedly passes. One of the
most extensive temporal schemes in drama is to be found in the medieval cycles of miracle plays, which
unfolded over a period of two to four days and which covered the history of the universe from a time before
Genesis to the Day of Judgment yet to come.
In contrast to this ambitious inclusion of all time is the handling of time in Japanese No theatre, in which real
time, with its inevitable passage, is retarded to create a sensation of timelessness. The deliberate pace of the
performer, the reiteration of the drum, and the unchanging facade of the stage add to this impression. The
American Robert Wilson has devised performances that may last through the night. In these circumstances,
the tension that results from expectation and that directs the mind to anticipate events and outcomes is
dissipated, the spectator tires, and the mind fluctuates between waking and half-sleeping states in which the
events on the stage mingle with mental fantasies to produce a new mode of consciousness.
The Piece And Its Performance
Preparation Of Content
Traditionally the dramatic piece has been planned in advance and rehearsed, although there are degrees of
advance planning and rehearsal. Even the supposedly impromptu performances of the commedia dell'arte
players could not take place without detailed preparation beforehand. In much dramatic theatre advance
planning involves the preparation of a written script, sometimes prepared by a dramatist and sometimes
created by the actors themselves in collaboration with each other or with a writer. The script thus may be
either a tentative scenario or a finished blueprint of the final presentation (a playtext).
Whether scenario or playtext, a piece consists of segments of activity arranged in a meaningful sequence.
More often than not this is a narrative sequence, and thus each segment of activity presents a step in the
unfolding of a story. But the sequence may also be based on a common motif or recurrent characters. The
segments of activity, usually termed episodes or scenes, can include many kinds of behavior--e.g., persuasion
of one person by another, delivery of a speech, singing of a song, hand-to-hand combat.
Theatrical tradition and social practice largely determine the scope of the material to be presented. In ancient
Greece, for example, myths often provided the material for tragedy, with debate, lamentation, prophecy, and
choral comment constituting the main activities. In other traditions, storytelling, singing, acrobatics, and
speeches are the ingredients. The dramatist, manager, and actor all operate within the context of performing
routines and production conditions. Material drawn from other arts and from personal experiences may also
be used.
Performing The Piece
The occasion affects the manner in which the actor addresses the audience or represents a character; it also
influences his physical appearance. In Japanese No theatre and ancient Greek drama, the actor is often
transformed by costume into a superhuman figure. Raised headdresses, painted or masked faces, enveloping
robes all contribute to the creation of a figure endowed with symbolic significance. In some societies, the
actor is viewed not as a hero or demigod but as the epitome of contemporary society.
Although the actor is the focus of attention while performing, the preparatory and rehearsal phases tend to be
organized by others. While in the Renaissance the actors themselves were in control of all phases of
production, at other times they have been under the control of theatre managers and stage directors. A
significant part of the alternative theatre movement in the mid-20th century was an attempt on the part of
actors to establish a collective organization and to reclaim a share of power in the process of making theatre.
The importance of stage scenery is determined by the degree to which either the auditorium or playing area
needs to be transformed for a performance. Four possibilities exist: little or no change is introduced into
either area (as in the Elizabethan public theatre); the playing area remains unaltered while the audience area
is changed (as in erecting banks of seating in a town square); the playing area is changed while the audience
area remains fixed (as in proscenium theatre, in which a frame or arch separates the stage from the
auditorium); or both areas are transformed (as in Renaissance court theatre or some contemporary theatrical
productions).
The fixed playing space often has emblematic significance. In Japan, the No stage has three pine trees
symbolizing heaven, Earth, and man, and on the Kabuki stage the right-hand side is more eminent than the
left. The Elizabethan playhouse used trap doors to signify transit from Earth to heaven or hell. The practice
of changing the visual and physical arrangement of the playing area became widespread in Europe during the
Renaissance. At first, designers devised generalized scenery to be used for tragic, comic, and pastoral
dramas. Later they created a setting unique to a particular play. With the emergence of designed space and
changeable scenery, there arose an entire profession of scenic architects and mechanics whose work at times
overshadowed that of the actors in importance. By the 20th century the designer's task had become so
complex that it was usually divided among scenic, costume, and lighting personnel and involved technicians,
electricians, stagehands, prop masters, wardrobe mistresses, and many others working together.
No single pattern for production exists, since there are too many social and personal variables at work.
Certain broad observations can be made, however. First, any production is normally part of a more
continuous enterprise. The continuity may be provided by the civic or religious life of the community, the
stable associations of an acting troupe, or the permanence of a producer's office.
Next, the production process tends to be either cooperative or hierarchical. The company for which
Shakespeare wrote and to which he belonged seems to have been a collective. It remained for more than 25
years a community of professional associates and friends. More usual is the hierarchical organization, in
which a single individual controls a production. In most instances, the professional specialty of that leader is
dictated by the conditions of the particular theatre in which he works. In 17th-century France, for instance,
the leader virtually had to be an actor (Molière was an actor turned actor-manager-dramatist). In the
commercial theatre of the 20th-century United States he virtually has to be an impresario.
Finally, the mode of planning and rehearsing a production may be influenced by the artistic concept of an
individual or a group. As long as theatre was part of a continuing tradition, its mode of production varied
little, being conditioned partly by the social role of theatre and partly by the type of material the actor
performed. Thus, the actor who played one type of role for an entire professional life concentrated on
perfecting recurrent stage routines, while the actor who handled many different roles within a brief season
had to be more adaptable.
During the 19th century there evolved new theories of production that affected both styles of performance
and methods of rehearsal. Gradually, the idea of ensemble arose, stressing harmony of ideal and craft among
what was usually a small group of actors in order to achieve a unity of effect. These ideas necessitated the
careful orchestration of all elements of production. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the dominant element
was the star actor; it then became the star ensemble (the Moscow Art Theatre, for instance) and, through the
ensemble, the director.
Aspects Of Theatrical Production
The development of international communications has had its effect on the theatre. The advent of railway and
steamship travel in the 19th century led to an increase in international touring by theatre companies, and
performers such as the French actress Sarah Bernhardt and the Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso became
as well known in North and South America as in Europe. In the 20th century the cinema, radio, and
television and video recording extended even further the range of potential audiences for theatrical
performances. In the 1960s The Living Theatre inspired a whole generation of performers throughout the
world, and Jerzy Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre influenced performers who had never been to
Europe or seen him work firsthand. International theatre festivals that bring together performers from many
varied traditions have become regular occurrences.
Types Of Production
Numerous forms of spectacle, such as dramatic and non-dramatic pageants, the circus, son et lumière, and
gymnastic presentations, are closely allied with theatre and indeed are considered by some classifications to
be theatrical.
Pageantry
Non-dramatic pageantry includes civic processions, such as parades, as well as static displays, such as
gymnastic demonstrations. The appeal of non-dramatic pageantry lies in overwhelming visual spectacle. The
performer is presented as a member of the collective, and, even where one individual may stand out, such as
the parade "royalty," he is essentially passive and wins attention merely as the focal point of a number of
performers. In certain religious pageants the focal figure is not a living person at all but the icon or statue of a
god or saint.
Dramatic pageantry has much in common with the non-dramatic: both have communal involvement, stress
on visual display, processional or static masses, and a fictional character. Segments of the pageant may
illustrate a historical or legendary incident, or the pageant as a whole may have a historical, mythical, or
allegorical theme. Performers in the United States reenacting the dumping of tea into Boston Harbor
exemplify historical pageantry; in England the assault on the Castle of Beauty by Knights of the Mount of
Love, a pageant celebrating the marriage of Prince Arthur to Catherine of Aragon in 1501, exemplifies the
allegorical type common at Renaissance courts. Pageantry of both the dramatic and non-dramatic sort
continues to play a significant role in the legitimization of political actions and the assertion of social
prestige.
Non-Dramatic Theatre
Non-dramatic productions include diverse oral and musical presentations, circus and vaudeville acts,
gymnastic displays, and ceremonial occasions such as the coronation of a monarch. There is no narrative line
in such productions, but the technical virtuosity of the performers or the ritual significance of the event
becomes the focus of audience attention. As a form of presentation, the circus encompasses a wide range of
different types of performance, including feats of daring, illusion, and skill. The type of circus performance
that comes closest to dramatic theatre is that of clowns. The clown engages in simplified and circumscribed
dramatic activity, sometimes a ludicrous parody of other forms of performance, but one that follows
established conventions of dress, gesture, and behavior.
In the latter part of the 20th century, boundaries between types of theatrical production have been
increasingly eroded. As circuses have declined in popularity, circus techniques have been incorporated into
other forms of theatre. So-called third theatre companies often use circus training techniques, and actors
employ juggling and acrobatic skills in their dramatic performances. The British Footsbarn company, which
travels the world in a manner reminiscent of the medieval and Renaissance players, uses circus imagery and
techniques in its productions of Shakespeare. Samuel Beckett used the image of the clown in Waiting for
Godot to create a parable on the absurdity of the human predicament.
Cabaret and vaudeville shows also bring together different types of performance, such as music and dancing,
dramatic sketches, feats of daring, and illusion. These productions can take place in any kind of theatre or in
nightclubs and restaurants, since staging requirements are usually minimal. It is possible to see this kind of
performance as deriving directly from the street entertainers of folk culture and from the entertainments that
took place between courses during medieval court banquets.
Dramatic Theatre
The most common form of dramatic theatre is the presentation of a scripted play in which the actions of the
performers depict a narrative. Typically, performers of such works consist of actors portraying characters,
although Sicilian Paladin puppets, Javanese wayang shadow puppets, and Japanese bunraku puppets are
examples of nonliving representations of characters, manipulated by living performers.
In some forms of dramatic production, music and dance may provide or supplement the narrative content.
Opera inhabits a special region between drama and music and has prompted much discussion as to the
relative importance of literary and musical elements in advancing opera's dramatic aspects. The musical
development of opera predominated in the 17th and 18th centuries, whereas new works and productions
since Richard Wagner in the late 19th century have increasingly emphasized dramatic features. Operetta and
musical comedy are often seen as more closely allied to the theatre than to opera.
The musical, which has developed out of the operetta and musical comedy as an indigenous American
theatrical genre, has become a powerful art form in its own right. Beginning with Oscar Hammerstein and
Jerome Kern's Show Boat in 1927 and proceeding by way of the Rogers and Hammerstein musicals to the
work of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, the musical has exhibited a growing sophistication and
maturity in both themes and techniques. The modern musical integrates singing, dancing, and acting to a
degree that no other Western theatre form attempts.
Dance Theatre
While dance usually is recognized as an art in its own right, it sometimes shares so many features with the
theatre that it is difficult to distinguish the two. Dance figured strongly in the early development of drama in
the West and remains an essential feature of Asian drama.
Dance theatre, combining elements of dramatic presentation and dance, may be considered a separate art
form. Originally this type of performance was predominantly American, though the term Dance Theatre was
adopted by an independent theatre founded in Wuppertal, W.Ger., in the mid-1970s by Pina Bausch. Bausch,
who sought to break down the traditional boundaries between theatrical forms, was one of the most
innovative performers in European theatre in the 1980s.
Mime
Mime remains closely connected to drama, being merely a highly specialized form of enactment. Relying on
movement without words, it enjoyed an immense vogue in imperial Rome, contributed to the style of
commedia dell'arte, and underwent a revival in the latter half of the 20th century at the hands of such French
performers as Jean-Louis Barrault and Marcel Marceau.
Systems Of Production
Since planning, rehearsal, and performance are common to all theatrical productions, the various systems of
organizing and conducting these activities provide a useful set of production classifications.
The Single Performance
Single or limited performance of a presentation, as part of institutional or communal life, has been fairly
common throughout the history of the theatre. The Greek city-state (polis), the medieval town, the Japanese
temple, and the American high school are but a few of the bodies that have typically sponsored such dramatic
performances. The Greek city-state and the medieval town organized their productions in a strikingly similar
way, with the municipality exercising control. Until at least the 4th century BC, however, the Athenians
presented new plays every year, whereas the medieval townspeople annually reenacted the same plays or
variations of them. Yet in both systems many aspects of production were the same from year to year so that,
single performance notwithstanding, each individual offering relied upon an established tradition.
This was less true of the Renaissance court masque (an allegorical dramatic performance featuring music and
especially dancing), which was also presented only once. Although each production belonged to a tradition of
courtly entertainment, masques of the 16th and 17th centuries became increasingly lavish and novel. A court
official was responsible for the overall piece, much in the manner of the later theatre manager or
entrepreneur. It was he who recommended a dramatic poet to provide the text, hired the actors, made
arrangements for stage scenery, and approved the results before offering them to the sovereign. The most
fundamental distinction between this kind of production and earlier institutional types is that the masque was
devised to the taste and at the will of one person, the monarch.
The Permanent Company
The development of a production system depending on a permanent company introduced a new element into
theatre--professional virtuosity. The emergence of professional theatre companies was a feature of
Renaissance urbanization. Various courts had maintained performers throughout the medieval period, but
these were usually musicians or single performers. With the emergence of the town, the theatre company
began to appear throughout Italy, France, Germany, England, and Spain, usually consisting of between five
and 16 actors who devoted their lives to their craft.
The Repertory Troupe
Initially, the company was obliged to tour, since neither court nor city could employ full-time professionals.
As a result, the actors became accustomed to performing in all kinds of places: halls, outdoor platforms,
chapels, and village greens. To compensate for the lack of scenery, the actors used a rich array of costumes-some traditional for recurrent characters or situations, some opulent for their own sake. At all times the actors
kept a number of plays in their repertoire so that they could either mount a new play at each performance
during an extended stay in one place or repeat plays on request. When a troupe finally settled in one city, it
continued this mode of presentation, and thus the modern repertory system was born.
Some permanent troupes performed pieces in which each actor portrayed a stock figure. Italian commedia
dell'arte and Japanese Kabuki theatre both utilized such types. Molière, though as a dramatist far less rigid in
portraying stock types, led a company each of whose members specialized. English and Spanish troupes,
however, because of the demands of the plays, used actors who were much more flexible. The English and
Spanish playwrights used a much wider range of characters in their episodic plays, and actors were required
to play more than one role in productions. Otherwise, the companies had a great deal in common. Actors
bought plays from writers, hired any supporting personnel they needed, and took the profits. Usually, the
performers worked on a share system, dividing the proceeds among themselves.
Commercial Management
The repertory troupe eventually came to be managed by an individual; the actor-manager was in his heyday
from the late 18th to the early 20th century. As an employer, he was concerned less with the welfare of the
actor and more with the profit he could extract from the public. Gradually, out of this change emerged the
stock company and the single-show association. The stock company was an acting troupe usually managed
and organized for a limited season to give a number of plays. Sometimes the manager would take the leading
roles and engage others in support; otherwise, he would hire all the performers. The major shift in mode of
production came when the stock companies stopped presenting plays in repertory and extended the run of a
single play. This happened when city populations grew large enough to keep one play running for an
indefinite time. At the end of the 17th century, a London play that ran for eight performances was deemed a
success. In 1728, however, a production of John Gay's Beggar's Opera made theatrical history by running for
62 performances. By the mid-20th century, successful productions might run for several years. In London
The Mousetrap, a dramatization of a thriller by Agatha Christie, has run for more than 30 years.
With the extended run there was little need to maintain a company of actors, even for a season. Instead,
single-show contracts were negotiated for actors, stage managers, scenic artists, a host of associates, and a
theatre. Since a play was to be repeated indefinitely, it was feasible to invest more money in the
accoutrements. Out of this system developed the need for an overall supervisor. At first, the manager or
actor-manager undertook this task. Later, individuals specializing in this work appeared. As the play acquired
commercial importance, the role of the dramatist changed so that by the 20th century the name of the
dramatist had become a significant factor in selling a production.
The Modern Repertory Company
During the rise of the stock company and single-show system, there continued to exist highly refined
examples of the repertory ensemble. The Comédie Française, originally an amalgamation of two Parisian
troupes, has existed since 1680. In opera the repertory system remains fundamentally unchanged. Toward the
end of the 19th century, however, a widespread transformation of the acting ensemble and the repertory
system it supported occurred throughout Europe. New theatres, devoted to naturalistic staging, were
successfully established, and these, in time, became national theatres supported by the state.
Particularly famous among repertory companies are the Moscow Art Theatre and the Berliner Ensemble;
others include the Abbey Theatre of Ireland, the Royal Shakespeare Company of the United Kingdom, and
the Théâtre National Populaire of France. In Japan, the traditional Kabuki and No theatres have been
declared national treasures. All of these theatres, because of government subsidy, maintain large staffs of
actors, directors, designers, and other artists and craftsmen. Production is continuous. New plays or, more
often, revivals of old plays enter the repertoire, while former productions are dropped. The works of major
national authors receive regular performance, thus establishing the main lines of tradition for the company.
Sometimes these repertory troupes conduct schools for training young people who might then enter the
company.
Other Systems
Besides these systems of production there are several forms known collectively as alternative theatre and
later as third theatre. The impulses for the alternative theatre arose in the mid-1960s from a sense of
dissatisfaction with traditional theatre, in terms of both its repertoire and its production methods and
hierarchical structures. Known variously as underground, experimental, guerrilla, Off-Broadway, or fringe
theatre, these nontraditional forms became widespread in the general climate of youthful political
involvement throughout the Western world. In the United States, the Civil Rights Movement of the early
1960s and the peace campaigns of the Vietnam War era resulted in the formation of a large number of
innovative companies. Notable among these groups were the San Francisco Mime Troupe, Bread and Puppet
Theatre, and El Teatro Campesino. The San Francisco Mime Troupe revived commedia dell'arte techniques
in their politically motivated street performances. El Teatro Campesino invented the acto in an attempt to
create a specifically Chicano (Mexican-American) theatre. Many of their early performances took place on
the picket lines during the California agricultural workers' strikes in the 1960s. Later, El Teatro Campesino
explored Chicano mythology and history, inventing the mito, a form of ritualized exchange between
performers. The debt of the alternative theatre groups to the earlier agitprop groups is immense.
As political ferment diminished in the early 1970s, many of the groups began to explore new directions.
Members of The Living Theatre in the United States and the Polish Laboratory Theatre, as well as the
Nordisk Theaterlaboratorium in Holstebro, Den., and other groups in North America and Europe, live
cooperatively, share a common view of life, and seek to reflect that view in their productions. This shared life
is superficially reminiscent of the touring troupe, but the endeavor to achieve a company ethos is closer to the
religious motive of an earlier day.
Means Of Artistic Control
While communal theatres exercise collective control of production, artistic control has traditionally rested
with a single member of the production company.
Actor Domination
Perhaps the supreme example of the actor-dominated production can be found in the commedia dell'arte
tradition. Not only did the actor have financial and administrative control over production, but the very
quality of performance was woven almost wholly out of the actor's art. At first, in the 16th century, the
commedia troupe consisted of traveling actors; by the 17th century many of them had found permanent
residence at the courts of Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Each actor had a special role (Arlecchino, Pantalone,
Brighella, and the inamorato, or lover, among others) with its attendant set speeches and traditional business.
The young would learn the tradition appropriate to a role and, if talented, embroider upon that tradition. Thus
prepared, the actors would improvise a presentation on the thread of a story selected by the troupe leader.
Scenarios of commedia dell'arte plays did exist, but they were only pale shadows of the production itself,
which came to life only in performance.
Other actor-dominated theatres include the Elizabethan theatre, Chinese opera, and Kabuki. In these
instances, however, the blending of administrative control and artistic preeminence did not go so far as in the
commedia dell'arte. The Elizabethan professional company, for example, had a production system that was
based upon actor control of the repertory, but the artistic character of the work was determined by the plays
that were presented. However fine the actor's art, the dramatist's contribution was paramount.
Dramatist And Director Domination
During certain periods the work of the dramatist, regardless of his subsequent involvement, determined the
creative process in production. In ancient Greece the selection of a play was the first step in production. In
the 19th and 20th centuries the acquisition of a script was also the preliminary step in establishing the singleshow association. Only occasionally, as in the court theatre at Weimar, of which Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe took charge during the late 18th century, did the dramatist take responsibility for establishing and
conducting the theatrical enterprise. Rarely has the dramatist dominated a production system, unless, as
occurred with Molière, he was also an actor. A notable exception was the German playwright Bertolt Brecht.
In imperial Rome, the dominus gregis (manager of the festivals at which theatrical performances were given)
controlled the lives and probably the art of the Roman comedians. During the 18th century the theatrical
actor-manager came into prominence. But it was in the 19th century, with the rise of the stage director, that
artistic and, in large measure, administrative control passed into the hands of a non-performer.
The stage director was responsible for modulating the acting, correlating the animate and inanimate aspects
of production, and creating a single effect that inevitably became the expression of his own genius. At the
beginning of the 20th century, the British actor and director Edward Gordon Craig carried the ideal of unity
even further by recommending the merger of director and scenic designer and advocating the reduction of
actors to automatons completely responsive to the director-designer's vision.
The designer's rise to special importance had begun during the Renaissance. In the first half of the 17th
century, the architect and designer Inigo Jones was the driving force behind the elaborate productions of the
English court masque, while the stage machinery of Nicola Sabbatini and the designs of Giacomo Torelli
exerted considerable influence in Italy and France.
A special theatrical form in which one person typically functions as manager, designer, and director is the
puppet show. A puppet is any inanimate figure manipulated by a human being. The figure may be a threedimensional hand-operated or body-operated puppet, either miniature or approaching life size; a twodimensional shadow puppet manipulated by means of sticks; or a string-operated three-dimensional puppet,
called a marionette. All types share a common aesthetic principle whereby their movement in a highly
restricted space creates the illusion of lifelikeness. In some cultures, such as the Javanese and the Turkish, the
puppet show has been a major theatrical form. In Japan the Bunraku doll theatre commands a respect and a
following comparable to those accorded the traditional live-actor theatres. In fact, many plays of the
prominent writer Chikamatsu Monzaemon were written originally for the puppet theatre.
Aims And Functions
Religious
Most historians agree that drama emerged from religious ritual. At what precise point ritual became drama is
uncertain, but formal drama is first known from ancient Greece.
Certainly, religious festivals gave rise to dramatic expression by reenacting the passion and trials of the god
or man-god on whom the religion centered. In Christian Europe, biblical plays became attached to particular
festivities, notably the Feast of Corpus Christi. Similarly, the story of the assassination of the 7th-century
Shi'ite hero al-Husayn ibn 'Ali, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was enacted at the Muslim festival of
ta'ziyah. As in ancient Greece, these festivals extended over many days and involved the whole community.
In the 20th century, as popes and other religious leaders have traveled around the world to address the
faithful, huge outdoor ceremonies have been conducted, often with the use of staging and lighting effects
borrowed from the commercial theatre.
Educational And Developmental
Initially, any educational aims of theatre were subsumed under its religious aims. But with the growth of
educational institutions came student performances. A play might be enacted to cultivate appreciation of its
literary qualities, to celebrate a graduation, or to commemorate a national holiday. At first these productions
were communal in character and occasional in presentation. Then, for brief periods in Elizabethan and
Jacobean England, school and choral masters endeavored to turn this communal activity into a commercial
operation by utilizing boys as professional actors.
Early in the 20th century, the educational philosophy of the dancer Isadora Duncan inspired a new emphasis
on education in the theatre. Duncan, drawing inspiration from ancient Greece, sought to free dance from the
strictures of classical ballet. Her work in teaching, along with that of Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, the Swiss
founder of eurhythmics, provided the cornerstone for educational dance. Children were given dance classes
to develop both physical ability and self-expression.
The practice of producing school plays goes back at least to the Elizabethan period in England, when it was
used to train pupils in rhetorical skills. In the 20th century a range of alternative activities have been explored
under the heading of "drama in education." These classes have no direct performance aim and do not make a
distinction between performer and audience. Classes can pursue a variety of aims: physical development,
self-dramatization and self-expression, the dynamics of group relationships, role-playing, decision making,
and fantasy exploration to develop the imagination. Some work has been done to bring drama into the center
of the school curriculum and to use its flexible methods as a medium for teaching other subjects, such as
language skills.
Drama has also been used to enable psychiatric patients to reveal and objectify their mental traumas. Drama
therapy, or psychodrama, employs theatre to promote healing rather than to analyze.
Since 1950 many dramatic techniques have been utilized in an entirely new area called theatre for
development. Theatre has been used, primarily in what is called the Third World, to foster literacy programs,
population planning campaigns, and agricultural development programs. In Indonesia, for example, wayang
shadow puppets have been used, with the content of traditional plays altered to include family planning
messages. In some projects, theatre programs are prepared using villagers as consultants regarding content
effectiveness.
Commercial
Theatre as a purely economic enterprise can be traced to the Renaissance, when there developed a
professional theatre of the marketplace. Productions were offered in large population centers or were taken to
villages and towns where a potential audience already existed. With a shift from theatre devised for an
independently existing occasion to speculative theatre, seeking to create its own occasion, there is a shift
from a communal to a cosmopolitan audience. Instead of presenting plays at times that inherently hold sacred
or civic meaning and, therefore, draw together the entire populace, commercial companies present plays with
some frequency in order to attract a public large enough to support them. Instead of fulfilling a preordained
social purpose, the commercial theatre has to justify itself and persuade people to attend by providing novelty
and entertainment.