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Chapter 1 The Nature of Theatre Introduction 

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Elements needed for theater:  Performance space  Performers  Masks or makeup  Costumes  Music  Dance  Audience In ancient Greece, theatre was valued highly  Performed for entire community at religious festivals  Financed by states and wealthy citizens England 1642-1660: Theatre was forbidden  Puritans in power considered it morally unacceptable  Considered it an activity that took people away from honest work Plays tend to emphasize human crisis  Ex: Deception, violence, socially reprehensible behavior, etc.

The Basic Elements of Theatre 

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3 Basic Elements:  What is performed (play, scenario, or plan)  The performance (including all processes involved in the creation and presentation of a production)  The Audience (the perceivers) All essential; affect each other and totality of what is expressed and how it may be perceived

What is Performed 

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Can be varied  A comic routine performed by a single entertainer  Shakespearean tragedy performed by a large company of actors Theatre is not easy to define Critic Eric Bently argued that theatre can be reduced to: A performs B for C  Basically, theatre is someone performing something for someone else Theatre is staged performance of a written text  Does not always require written text, dialogue, or conflict Some people think theatre primarily as entertainment Director Peter Brook sees theatre as important social and political role

The Performance     

Translates potential of a play, scenario, or plan into actuality Takes place in a space that can vary theatrical performances  Ex: Street, park, nightclub etc. Require creative efforts & cooperation of playwright, director, actors, designers, etc. Musical involves more people:  Ex: Composer, dancers, instrumentalists, etc. Performance may seem to one part of audience as entertaining; other audience might find it strange

The Audience 

Theatre performance is communicative expression that is incomplete until an audience receives or experiences it

Chapter 1 The Nature of Theatre  

Audience gives feedback Audience affects theatre through their expectations and motives for attending

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The three elements may be treated separately in discussion They interact and modify each other in practice Playwrights may have specific intentions when the write  Seldom control how their play will be interpreted Different productions of same play can vary drastically

Theatre as a Form of Art      

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Theatre should entertain Theatre is a form of art Until 18th century: Art - systematic application of known principles to achieve some predetermined result Some critics implied those w/ superior sensitivity can fully appreciate art  Average person often mistakes inferior product as authentic artistic expression All art is “made”  Not produced by nature Theatre associated w/ popular culture:  Primarily to provide entertainment for general audience by telling a story in a way that engages and builds interest  Employs easily recognizable character types, situations, & dramatic conventions Dramatic performances share characteristics w/ sports & games  All of these forms pit one side against another, build suspense, and reach an outcome Theatre depends on conventions  The stage as a place where fictional events occur  Use of scenery to suggest locales  Etc. Art is one way humans seek to understand their world S

Special Qualities of Theatre 

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Theatre has set qualities that help distinguish from other forms  Lifelikeness  Ephemerality  Objectivity  Complexity of means  Immediacy Theatre combines and manifests qualities in special ways Uses actors as primary means of communicating with audience Resembles life in being ephemeral  Each episode is experienced then becomes part of past Resembles life in presenting both and inner experience through speech and action Theatre has important attributes that film, and television cannot duplicate  Ex: Three dimensionality of theatrical experience & interactive relationship between performers and audience Director in theatre can use various means to catch audience attention

Art and Value  

Art is valuable for its capacity to improve quality of life Also valued as form of cultural expression

Chapter 1 The Nature of Theatre  

Every culture has some type of theatrical expression  Can tell a lot about a culture Ancient Rome’s theatrical activities were more extensive and varied than Greece’s

Multiple Intelligences Theory and the Arts 

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6 Types of intelligence:  Musical – sensitivity to melody, rhythm, pitch, and tone  Spatial – the ability to envision and manipulate spatial relationships  Bodily – the ability to use the body and handle objects  Interpersonal – the ability to understand others and human  Intrapersonal – the ability to use one’s own emotions as a key to understanding oneself and human relationships  Naturalists – sensitivity to the natural world and ability to interface with it Linguistic/Verbal & logical/mathematical intelligences are more sought after to cultivate  Main ones in standardized tests Howard Gardner, Harvard University professor, came up with the 6 types of intelligence Education has failed to cultivate major aspects of human intelligence and potential...