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Drama/Theatre
Drama is both a literary art, like
fiction and a performance art, like
music and dance.
The Immediate Art
Peter Brook, a famous director writes:
 “A man walks across the empty space
whilst someone else is watching him,
and this is all that is needed for an act
of theatre to be engaged.”
 We’re there, in the moment, with the
actors (real people) playing fictional
characters.

The Doubleness of Theatre
Plays enacted create a special kind of
mirror.
 The actor is actor, another real person,
and, fictional character.
 The performing space is both stage and
at the same time imaginary world
created by playwright, designers,
directors actors.

Shakespeare has Hamlet describe the
purpose of acting or playing like this:
“. . . The purpose of playing was, and
is, to hold . . . the mirror up to nature,
to show virtue her own feature, scorn
her own image, and the very age and
body of the time his form and
pressure.”
 Theatre is both stage and an illusion of
the real world.

The Theatre as Space
Theatre comes from the Greek word
“Theatron” meaning “seeing place.”
 Drama comes from the Greek “Dran”
meaning “to act.”
 Theatres have been made of all kinds of
spaces, churches, garages, lawns,
streets, amphitheatres. What makes
the space work is the interaction
between audience and actor

Theatre’s Grand Illusion
Actors create the illusion that everyone
(actors and audience) are sharing
something for the first time.
 We agree to the play’s “living reality.”
 “Willing suspension of disbelief.”
Coleridge’s way of describing what
happens in theatre.

A Living Experience
How is theatre different from film?
 In the physical presence of the actors
and the stage.
 Theatre is alive.
 Theatrical experiences can’t be “saved”
to watch again. It only lasts for as long
as you’re there together with the
actors.

Theatre as Entertainment
How is it different from a ball game?
 Both in special places, both with live
actors and audience, both featuring
“star performers.”
 But the performances in the ballgame
are random, unpredictable.
 Everybody knows what will happen in
the play. It’s always the same every
time you go see it.

Theatre -- a Collaborative Art
It’s not just a playwright turning out
plays. It’s directors, designers, actors
combining talents, ideas and
imaginations to create the space and
time of the play.
 All of them are interpretive and creative
artists making the play come alive.

Theatre as Discovery
The lights go down, the curtain - if
there is one - goes up and you discover
a hidden world.
 Hamlet - Waiting for Godot -
It’s all about questions
One of the earliest pieces of theatre
emerging from the Dark Ages was
“Quem Quareritis” or “Whom seek ye?”
 The first words of Hamlet are “Who’s
there?
 The last lines of Godot are “Well, shall
we go?

And more questions?
Who are we?
 Where have we been?
 Where are we going in this life?


It asks questions about what it means
to be human under certain conditions
and in certain situations.
Audience Expectations

We expect plays to be related to life
experiences.
– To be authentic in feelings and
experiences.
– To confirm what we know about human
behavior
– We expect an authentic representation of
some aspect of life we know or can
imagine.
Escape/Catharsis
We go to escape our everyday lives -to become enmeshed in the reality of
someone else’s life.
 We go to release emotions. To cry, to
laugh, to be angry.

Expecting the Familiar

Most of us go expecting the familiar.
– We enjoy familiar plots, characters and
situations.
– We have already seen plays we like. We
want to see similar plays when we attend.

We also appreciate the novel, the
experimental. Sometimes this novelty
leads us to examine our lives from a
different point of view, it helps us to let
go of the familiar.
The Collective Response

We attend theatre as a group -- a
collective thinking and feeling presence.

Psychologists say that being in an
audience satisfies a deeply felt human
need. We need to laugh and cry
together.
Alice Childress
Response Papers.
 Other Questions?
 Describe the scene. Can you visualize
it?
 Is is real, a mirror to nature? In what
way so and in what way not?
 What is it about? What’s it’s theme?
