Download Introduction to Play Analysis

Introduction to Play Analysis
Elements of Theatre
Why analyze?
While there is no specific formula for
analysis, through practice, certain
methods have proved effective.
Regardless of method, the purpose
remains the same: to consider how the
play should be performed. Different
interpretations will therefore lead to
different performances.
Using Analysis to Generate Ideas
What the play is is different than what the play
could be
 Analysis will lead you to discoveries about the
plot, conflicts, characters, themes and overall
mood.
 While an analysis can help you begin your
production concept, aspects of the play and
performance may need to be altered to
ultimately complete your final production
concept.
 In other words, just because the servant refers
to tables and chairs, does not mean you HAVE
to include these. Explore your options…

Play Analysis for Theatre
First Reading – First Impressions
 Second Reading – Gathering Information
 Third Reading – Interpretation
 Fourth Reading - Synthesis
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The First Reading
First Impressions
• Read the play in one sitting
• Note Unfamiliar Words and Phrases
• Visualize the Stage Directions *
• Gather Information from Dialogue
• Identify overall mood and tone
Stage Directions
Some schools of thought find the stage
directions too constricting and opt to
ignore them.
 The Creative Directors often black out
stage directions, using only the dialogue
to give visualization of the setting,
characters and action.
 It is often the playwright and copyright
that influences such an approach.

Dialogue
Setting
 Characters’ Personalities
 Characters’ Actions
 Relationships between characters

Remembering Aristotle
Plot
 Character
 Language
 Idea
 Music
 Spectacle

Using Aristotle
PLOT
• Divide the play into incidents (events)
• Identify the function of each incident
(purpose)
• Identify the effect of the incident on the
audience
Using Aristotle
CHARACTER
• Given information
• Four Clues to Character
• Conclusions and Interpretations
Using Aristotle
THOUGHT
• Ideas repeated in the play
• Images repeated in the play
• Conclusions and Interpretation
Using Aristotle
DICTION
• Words repeated in the play
• Use of words/phrases/language in the play
Using Aristotle
MUSIC
• Sound Effects
• Additional Music to Enhance Mood
• Pre-Show, Post-Show, Curtain Call,
Intermission music and
justification thereof
Using Aristotle
SPECTACLE
• List references to scenery and props
• List references to costumes
• List references to lighting
• Consider implications of analysis thus far
• “Art Gallery”
Questions for a First Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
What was your gut response to the play? Which characters seemed more
interesting? Which least? What parts of the play really grabbed you? Which bored
you?
What is the play’s story? Review the basic plot.
What unfamiliar words and references did you encounter? Make a list for future
research.
Make a diagram of the floor plan.
Where and when is the play set? Where did you get the information? From stage
directions? Dialogue?
Who are the characters and what is their relationship to each other? How did you
learn about them? From stage directions? From other characters’ descriptions of
them? From the characters’ descriptions of themselves? From dialogue? From their
treatment of others?
What was the overall mood of the play? Serious? Comic? Tragic?
Did you find yourself identifying with a particular character of characters? Lacking
sympathy for others?
Final Synthesis
So, what is this play about?
 What purpose does this production have?
 What do you want to audience to leave
the theatre with?
 How will you accomplish this?
 What are the potential obstacles that
could prevent you from reaching your
goals?

Staging
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Arena
Thrust
Proscenium
Alley Stage
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Flexible Stage
Black Box theatre
A Stage from History
Costume Design
Color
• Style
• Make-up
• Accessories
• Clothing
• Masks
•
Set Design
Box Sets
 Curtains
 Props
 Lights
 Levels
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Realism and nonrealism
Painted drops and flats
Stage Architecture
Set pieces
Cutouts
Light Design
•
•
•
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Color
Intensity
Focus
Shape
Performance
Action (Blocking)
• Movement
• Actions
• Gestures
• Proximity
• Levels
• Facial expression
• Choreography
• Eye contact
Dialogue (Delivery)
• Inflection (tone)
• Rhythm
• Pace
• Pauses
• Cues (when to talk)
The Second Reading
Gathering Information
• Given Circumstances – Stated and Implied
- The Backstory
- Setting
- Social Systems
- Cultural Norms
The Backstory
Events and relationships that precede the
play
 Alluded to within the play’s stage
directions or dialogue

Setting
The play’s when and where
 A play’s historical period may provide
backstory or increased understanding
 Stated and implied information
 Influences costume, light and set design
 Influences understanding of character
 Influences understanding of conflict

Social Systems
Affect the characters
 Political system
 Economical system
 Religious system
 Class structures

Cultural Norms
Attitudes regarding Ethnicity
 Attitudes toward Marriage, Family and
Gender
 Language Use

To Consider…
Plays in Fantastical Settings
 Plays emphasize different given
circumstances
 Shakespeare’s given circumstances are
often altered to explore other settings,
social systems and cultural norms that are
still appropriate to the play’s timeless
characters and plot

Questions for Second Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What are the events and relationships that precede the play? How
do you learn about them?
What are the play’s when and where: its period in history, its
specific time and place?
What social systems most affect the characters?
What are the play’s most important attitudes regarding race, class
and gender?
What are the cultural conditions and assumptions that shape the
characters’ attitudes regarding family, love and marriage,
education and language?
Which given circumstances seem to have the greatest effect on
the play as a whole?
Which given circumstances seem to have the greatest effect on
the major characters?
Theatrical Contract
An informal understanding or agreement
between a theatrical production and its audience
that asks the audience to accept the style of
performance, however realistic or nonrealistic it
may be.
 Each production of a play creates its own unique
contract that is shaped by the artistic choices by
each member of the production team.
 While a play may be quite theatrical, the
audience should generally accept the world of
the play that is presented.

The Characters and The Audience
Presentational
• Soliloquies
• Asides
• Direct Addresses
Representational
• The play and
characters as their
own world
• Fourth wall removed
Production Elements
Realistic
• Detailed appearance
of reality in language,
scenery, lighting,
costumes, sound,
properties,
movement, plot,
characterization, and
all other elements
Nonrealistic
• Abstracted
• Intensified
• Distorted
• Plausibility (it is
believable in an
unbelievable world)
Nonrealism
x
•Mary on Cross
•Huge Cross, Bible
•Stained Glass window as drop with 100
crosses hanging
• Niteclub as Church
Theatrical Contract Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Do any characters in the play overtly address
the audience?
When do they address the audience and in
what way? With soliloquies, asides, songs?
How might the audience be affected by the
use of direct address?
Are any of the production elements abstracted,
that is, heightened or distorted in any way?
What is the apparent effect of the abstraction?
To Consider…
As we move into the realm of interpretation, you
may encounter two possibilities:
- what the play is
- what the play could be
In other words, a play offers many possibilities.
While realistic and representational at first
glance, the theatrical contract could easily be
adjusted as long as the resulting production
elements make sense within the play’s world
that you create. As such, a realistic conversation
could be made presentational and vice versa.
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The Third Reading
Interpretation
• Character
• Conflict
• Supplemental Research
Character
Existing Relationships
 Responses to Given Circumstances
 Simple v. Complex Behavior
 Tactics Characters Use
 Points of View

Exploring Character
Stage Directions
 Language
 Dialogue
 Characters evoke Conflict, and Conflict
reveals Character
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- Questions for Third Reading Character
1.
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Who are the major characters?
What are the existing relationships among the characters: Are there social
relationships? Work relationships? Religious relationships? Family relationships?
Create a character map.
What are the qualities of these relationships at the start of the play?
What given circumstances affect each character most?
Which characters are simple? Which are complex?
How do characters behave differently with different people?
What does each character say about himself or herself? What does he or she say
about others?
What do other characters say about each character?
What do you learn about the characters from stage directions?
What does the way each character uses language tell you about his or her
personality? Level of education?
What can you learn about each character from studying his or her language in
different relationships and situations?
How does each character’s use of language reflect his ir her thought process?
What goals or tactics do opposing character pursue?
What do you learn about the charaters from their moments of greatest conflict?
Conflict
Terms to Know:
• Protagonist
• Opposing Characters
or Forces
• Objectives
• Motivation
• Internal Obstacles
Dramatic Conflict:
• Introductory Incident
• Moment of
Engagement
• Climax
• Denouement
Analyzing Conflict
1.
2.
3.
Determine the climax – when the conflict is
resolved, the conflict’s last moment
Ask: Who is the person that drove the conflict
to its resolution? The protagonist.
The play’s major dramatic question is the
conflict – the answer to the question: What
question (that has been pursued throughout
the play) is answered in the moment of
climax?
Three Additional Questions
1.
2.
3.
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At what moment is the subject of the conflict
introduced?
At what moment does the protagonist commit
wholly to achieving her motives, to fulfilling
her goals, to overcoming the forces that
oppose her?
Who are the characters who oppose the
protagonist?
The answers to these questions identify the
play’s most important moments, moments that
should probably be emphasized in some way in
the performance.
-Questions for Third Reading –
Conflict
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Who is the protagonist?
Which characters are the protagonist’s
opposing forces?
What is the climax?
What is the major dramatic question?
What is the introductory incident?
What is the moment of engagement?
Do the proposed introductory incident,
moment of engagement, and climax support
the major dramatic question?
Analyzing Conflict in Scenes
Basic Understanding:
• Plays are composed of scenes.
• Scenes are units of conflict with a beginning, middle and
end.
• Actions are the character’s main intent in a scene – often
referred to as an objective.
• Beats are smaller units of action, or what a character
does to help achieve his main objective.
• We can also consider what motivates each character to
act, although this is used more by actors seeking to
understanding his or her character and how to present
an accurate portrayal.
-Questions for Third Reading –
Conflict in a Scene
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What is the moment where the scene’s major conflict
is resolved (climax)?
What question is resolved in the moment of climax
(major dramatic question)?
Who is the person who drives the scene through its
conflict-resolution process (the protagonist)?
Who are the opposing forces against whom the
protagonist struggles?
What is the introductory incident?
What is the moment of engagement?
What part of the scene functions as denouement?
- Questions for Third Reading –
Conflict in a Scene
Studying Character Through Lines of Action
 What is the protagonist’s major need, her
action?
 And how does an opposing character’s action
(need) create the scene’s conflict?
The Smaller Units of Conflict
 What are the beats (actions) the protagonist
pursues?
 What beats (actions) does the opposing
character pursue that create and sustain
conflict?
Supplemental Research
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Biographical and Autobiographical Materials
Interviews
Past Productions
Literary Criticism
Theatrical Conditions
As with Stage Directions, some directors purposely avoid any
commentary on how the play SHOULD be performed, opting to use
a blank slate approach to production. At times, building your own
analysis then looking at others’ can enrich your production without
sacrificing original thought.
The Fourth Reading
Synthesis – Bringing It All Together
• Conflict versus Theme
• Relating Other Elements to Conflict
Conflict and Theme
Using conflict analysis places emphasis on
multiple themes.
 Themes can emerge throughout the
conflict, and present a complex
combination of ideas.
 Emphasizing various themes through
conflict can create a richer, deeper
performance.
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Questions for Fourth Reading
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How does each element of your analysis
contribute to a unified view of the play that is
driven by the play’s conflict?
What themes are presented in each area of
the conflict?
How have you integrated the play’s themes in
your analysis?
In what ways has the conflict related to other
elements in your analysis?
How have you integrated supplemental
research in your analysis?
Final Synthesis
So, what is this play about?
 What purpose does this production have?
 What do you want to audience to leave
the theatre with?
 How will you accomplish this?
 What are the potential obstacles that
could prevent you from reaching your
goals?

Developing a Production Concept
Based on your analysis, you can now make
decisions regarding:
• Staging
• Characters and Actors
• Set design
• Costume design
• Lighting design
• Presentational or Representational Style
• Music and Sound
• Other Elements
Production Concept
- Staging -
Production Concept
- Characters -
Production Concept
- Set Design -
Production Concept
- Costume Design -
Production Concept
- Light Design -
Production Concept
- Style -
Production Elements
- Music and Sound -
Production Concept
- Other Elements -