Theater

• concerned with "things done"
• empahsis on the concrete
• deal with social relationships

confines itself to showing and saying things about social needs

reinforces or brings about change

• most celebrated of 5th century athens
• built in honor of the fertility god
• open air structure located on slope of hill below Acropolis

dancing circle

scene builiding

passageways used by acotrs, the chorus and the audience

Prometheus Bound, Agamennon, The Eumenidies

• Sophocles
• euripides
• aristiohanes
• aeschylus

began in churches performed by priests to teach christian doctrine and and encourage good moral behavior

permanent structures

portable staging

• built by James Burbage
• was known as London's first theater
• open air structure

• built by Richard Burbage
• showcase for Shakespeares talents as actor and playwright
• most famous of all Elizabethan theaters

• Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello
• Elizabethan Theater

• framing
• arch
• masking the inner workings

• classic theater
• the new drama "kunqu"
• the opera or Jingxi

• zaju
• stories from history, legends, epics and contemporary events

Kunqu

• Jingxi
• rigidly controlled conventions of acting, dancing, singing

the heart of the beijing opera is the actor

• Noh Theater
• Kabuki
• Bunraku Puppet theater

highly stylized, restrained, and austere form of artisitc expression that depends on music and mime

Skill

• situated int eh corner of a builiding
• divided into two areas:
• butai- stage proper
• hashigakari- the bridge

• controlled by tradition
• shite (doer role)- principal actor
• waki (secondary character)- sideman

described as rock entertainment

• covers entire front of the theater
• hanamichi- ramp known as "flower way"
• combination of old and new procenium thrust stages

• trained from childhood in singing, dancing, acting
• roles are divided into brave and loyal men, villians, comics, children, and women

males who play women roles

• doll puppet theater
• performed on a small procenium stage that is divided into three levels

• Omo zukai- cheif puppeteer
• hidari zukai- second puppeteer
• ashi zukai- the third puppeteer

• jerzy grotowski
• rejects conventional seating and includes audiences as part of the performance

• founder and director of the Polish Laboratory Theater
• essentials: the actor and the audience
• "Akropolis", "Hamlet", "The Constant Prince"
• plays based on world myth and biblical myths

by Stanislaw Wyspianski

encouraged a nonviolent revolution to overhaul society and created a performance style to confront society

• the living theater
• wanted to increase conscious awareness and to stress the sacredness of life
• political theater
• "The Connection"
• "The Brig"

caused controversy and debate over the nature of theater and the role of art in society

• founded in paris by Ariane Mnouchkine
• modeled itself on an egalitarian commune

• Her
• Founded theater of the sun
• -numerous traditions
• -"les atrites"
• performed a midsummer nights dream and the kitchen

• founded the bread and Pupper theater in New York City
• believed that the theater should be as basic as bread
• puppets and bread

• grew out of civil rights movement to address issues of freedom, justice, equality and voting rights
• John O'Neal, Gilbert Moses, and Doris Derby

play builder

a purging of strong emotions

• wanted to "distance" Audiences so they would make judgements about social and economic issues of the play
• Alienation effect
• The Caucasion Chalk circle

wrote "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe"

Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Maria Irene Fornes, or David Mamet

true west and buried child

clashing of personal, moral, and social forces

key to success of the playwroght's story and dialogue

the "soul of the drama"

playwrights means of conveying the confusion and mystery of life language is third essential tool

Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna

• The Glass Menagerie
• Cat on a Hot tin Roof

• Playwright
• fences
• Joe Turner's Come and Gone

• the Crucible
• A view from the bridge
• all my sons

A raisin in the sun

• a moevment in the reaction against the "modern"
• often called for doubling

the placing of contradictory experiences within the same frame of reference

the photograph

of human experiences celebrates the fragmentation of experience

• German Playwright
• Hamletmachine

texts are often called assemblages or collages

• Satrter of Post-Modernism
• saw Byrd Hoffman as a child for his stutter
• wanted to make non verbal plays
• The Life and time of Joseph Stalin
• Einstein on the Beach
• The life and time of sigmund freud
• A letter for queen victoria

visual book opposed to audio book

to convey experience and activity to audiences

are included in the beginning of each act to provide information about the playwrights images

A street car named desire

• what is going on, what has happened in the past and who is to be seen
• ex. Euripides "The Trojan Woman"
• classical exposition--greek plays

for instance begins with the phone ringing and gives the plays background information by talking to an unseen party about the family, its plans and its conflicts

information exchanges of dialouge to establish who, what, when and where

• the moment early in the play when the story is taken up
• the inciting incident

• complications- middle of the play where new information or unexpected events occur
• crisis- develops from complications, makes the resolution of the conflict inevitable
• climax- the conflict is resolved

restores balance and satisfies the audience's expectations

• relate past and present events and behavior
• used by elizabethans to represent life's variety and complexity
• two stories are told concurrently

amount of time it takes for us to see the play

• phenomenon of the playwrights text
• can be accelerated and interrupted

• compares two things using like or as
• literal comparison

make connections between unlike things

• used by bertlolt brecht, luigi pirandello, peter weiss, tom stoppard, and michael frayn
• Hamelt--> "The Mouse Trap"
• influenced luigi pirandellos "theater triology"

• took up writing to support his family
• nobel prize for literature
• life itself is a "sad piece of buffoonery"
• "six Characters in Search of an Author"

"Drama is language under such high pressure of feelings the words carry a necessary and immediate connotation of gesture

characters thoughts, attitudes, and intentions but also the active prescence of human beings in a living world

selected and controlled

a sign has a direct relationship to the thing it represents

differ from signs in that they have an arbitrary connection to their referents

characters extended, uniterrupted speech to others on stage

a breif remark by a character spoken directly to the audience

• a long speech delivered by a character presented directly to the audience
• way to take the audience directly into the characters mind to over hear unspoken thoughts

• Moscow Art Theater
• "The Cherry Orchard"

what people do more frequently is more important than what they say

a matter of actor's overall attitude toward what is going on around them and what they are asked to do within the circumstances of the text

• Bertlolt Brecht
• uses music and song as well as dialogue to communicate his characters thoughts and feelings

• French platwright
• theater theorist
• opposed traditional dialogue that furthers plot, reveals character and explores psychological and social problems
• enjoyed shocking the audience
• "Theater of Cruelty"

• David Mamet
• invent lies, sell reassurances, tell stories, and command experience through word alone

• Sam Shepard
• take audiences into the inner workings of the modern American family

built theoretical foundations of modern experience of modern expressionistic theatrical practice

• John studied with Ming Cho
• design scenery and point of view

all garments and accessories

the nature, the mood and the style of the play

• enhances the actor and completes the costume
• is classified as straight and character
• straight- highlights actors features
• character- transforms actors features

What greeks called their theaters

a powerful theatrical tool to focus an audiences attention, enhance understanding and give aesthetic pleasure

lighting designer

visibility and ambience must be inherent to the total theatrical design, including scenery and costumes

• Jules Fisher
• Peggy Eisenhauer
• Tharon Musser

a slide inserted into the gate of a spotlight

take place over a few year

• take place over a few days
• cause and effect arrangement

• medieval and modern plays
• trace characters through a journey

• situation is more important than plot
• "waiting for godot"

play where there is only one person speaking

First actor

followers of dionysus

• msytery and morality
• msytery--> based on Jesus Christ
• morality--> based on being a good human being
• - typically has an angel and devil character

a proscenium stage that is built into the audience

• Of the Forest
• slyvia is holy fair and wise and everyone falls in love with her

Someone who is love sick

• "The Living Theater"
• tried to recapture realness