Introduction to Theatre

Mapping Reality: An Introduction to Theatre

• A stage is a world of imagination, limitless possibilities, and passionate labor
• Every performance is unique with a singular, organic nature
• An audience assembles full of anticipation to witness a performance, which could be their first time
• Theatre offers insight into the people and processes that create it
• Understanding the complexities of theatre helps you appreciate it more deeply without stripping away the magic
• Theatre reveals truths about the human condition, explores issues of ethics, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and spirituality, and exists as a representation of culture
• Studying theatre touches and influences disciplines such as languages, literature, psychology, music, science, law, journalism, and business
• Theatre enables crossing cultural boundaries and bridges gaps in understanding
• Anthropologists may examine contemporary theatre as a cultural artifact to understand who humans were, their self-perception, and aspirations
• Studying theatre enhances cultural literacy and helps understand references to plays, playwrights, theatrical movements, and production practice
• Examples of theatre permeating our language include phrases like "backdrop," "acting out," and "center stage"
• Theatrical practice enhances cognitive ability, interpersonal and collaborative skills, and creative mind development
• Theatre is a training ground for successful thinkers and doers.

Basic Elements of Theatre

• The core elements of theatre are simple
• Peter Brook states all that is needed is a bare stage, a man walking across it, and someone watching
• This space can be any location
• All that is needed are boundaries, agreed upon by performer and audience
• The essential requirements are an actor, an audience, a space, and the intent to create a fictional world
• A script is not mandatory, which is shown by improvisational theatre's popularity
• A director is not an absolute necessity
• The position of director has only been around for a hundred years
• Before the creation of a director, staging was shared by actors, producers, and playwrights
• Rehearsals were done with very little rehearsal by today's standards
• There is not a required minimum number of audience members for something to be called theatre
• King Ludwig II (1845-1886) took having minimal audience members to the extreme by arranging private viewings of Richard Wagner operas
• Theatre for One, in Times Square since 2009, involves a four-foot-by-eight-foot portable theatre booth where one person at a time views a five-to-ten-minute show by a single performer

Fine Art and the Qualities of Theatre

• Theatre, with music and dance, is labeled a fine and performing art, found in performing arts centers and taught in fine art departments
• Educational programs in the twentieth century were classified by economic class
• In the ancient world, work was done by slaves, which made physical labor associated with a lack of nobility
• Romans called activities where money changed hands "vulgar arts" or "dirty arts"
• The Middle Ages used the term "mechanical arts" for skilled manual labor
• The seventeenth century introduced "useful arts", which was replaced by "industrial arts" in the nineteenth century
• Having leisure time for self-improvement or serving the public good was proof of high status
• Philosophy, history, languages, math, and science were called liberal arts ("arts befitting a freeman")
• The term now simply means subjects separate from science and technology, implying a non-specialized education
• The "liberal" aspect is not a political term, and it's not meant to contrast any "conservative" ideas
• The term "fine arts", coined in the 18th century, includes sculpture, painting, music, and poetry
• The performing arts were later added, along with printmaking, photography, and collage
• "Fine" classifies endeavors that are beautiful for their own sake, not compromised by practical function
• A craftsman's beautiful cabinet ceases to be art once it stores clothes
• An architect's beautiful building is considered useful since it provides shelter
• The exchange of money and association with leisure time is no longer a dividing line between fine and useful art
• The concept of beauty leaves conflicts, questions, and ambiguities
• Some works communicate images or use material that one may not see as beautiful
• Theatre deals in conflict and sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable
• Art can be useful as a means of interpreting the world
• Questions to ask when discussing art:
  • When does an object or performance stop being artistic and start being art?
  • Are there rules that must be satisfied or is it simply in the eye of the beholder?
  • Does the quality of something determine if it qualifies as art?
• Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with beauty and taste
• Philosophers have sought a definition of art that is elastic enough to bridge different mediums of expression for centuries.
  • Plato called art an imitation of nature but condemned it
  • William Wordsworth defined poetry for art in general as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" from "emotion recollected in tranquility"
  • Leo Tolstoy wrote that experiencing art was "receiving an expression of feeling" from the artist
  • Susanne Langer called art "the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling"
  • Ellen Dissanayake claimed that art is "a specialness" that "is tacitly or overtly acknowledged"

Uniqueness of Theatre

• Theatre deals in the imitation of human action
• The origins of theatrical practice trace back to Athens in the fifth century BCE
• Theatre started with dithyrambs, a chorus of fifty men with a leader telling stories about Dionysus through song and dance
• Eventually, there were innovations such as performers imitating individual characters
• The chorus was reduced and changed to represent the men or women of a city where a play took place
• Festivals presented plays, which is how Greek tragedy was formed
• Aristotle began as the first drama critic
• Aristotle's collected notes form the basis for a treatise called Poetics (dated between 335 and 322 BCE), which described what he thought were the components of a good tragedy
• Aristotle defined his subject and called it "the imitation of an action that is good and also complete in itself and of some magnitude"
• An Indian critic named Bharata came to a similar conclusion in a text called the Natyashastra written sometime between 300 BCE and 300 CE in Sanskrit
• Bharata defined drama as "an imitation of people’s demeanor, attitudes, conditions, and joys and sorrows"
• It is humanity's nature to imitate the actions of others
• Psychological studies confirm that imitation is a major part of social development
• Mimicry strengthens the bond between parent and child
• Newborns copy facial movements, while toddlers learn to speak by imitating sounds they hear
• When you witness an action, the neurons in your brain respond as if one were performing the same action
• The capacity for empathy is based on hardwired ability
• Mirroring, where Actors are paired, facing each other, and one performs all of the physical movements of the other until they are told to switch leaders, is One of the most common exercises to get scene partners to connect emotionally
• Duplicating actions is the fastest way to get two people to reach synchronicity
• Actors, and theatre in general, have often been greeted with suspicion throughout history
• Children as young as twelve months can recognize pretense
• There has always been a belief that viewing or participating in fictional worlds can warp moral core
• This belief came up in 1999, when teenagers entered Columbine High School, killed twelve students and a teacher
• People tried to tie their violent behavior to the playing of video games,
• In 2011, when California tried to ban selling violent video games to children, the Supreme Court overturned the law because it violated free speech.
• “A impersonates B while C looks on.” by Eric Bentley
• A sporting event or fashion show has performers and an audience, but these "actors" are not pretending to be someone else
• Theatre needs the pretense of self
• Theatre is often highly collaborative
• Theatre studies teach teamwork in the service of excellence.
• Theatre is no longer a mass medium
• Film and television can reach greater audiences because the product can be broadcast and played simultaneously on millions of screens
• Live performance is immediate because it puts your focus from place to place.
• Plays are ephemeral and cannot have true reproduction.
• The transitory quality of theatre is due to the dynamic between actors and the audience.
• An audience seems to take an emotional journey with the actors, inspiring them to make bolder choices.
• The audience has been a much more influential “actor" in the performance.

How to See a Play

• Have theatrical etiquette to follow so everyone can have an enjoyable experience.
• Arrive on time as finding your seat in a dark theatre is disruptive
• Do not talk during the show
• Do not use your phone
• Vibriating phones can be just as attention-getting as a ring tone
• Do not eat or drink during the show
• Do not open candies with loud wrappers.
• Applaud actors for their efforts instead of darting after the door.
• Backstage superstations:
  • Do not say “Good luck.”
  • “Break a leg” to actors
  • It is bad luck to whistle.
  • Saying “Macbeth”
  • Calling it “the Scottish play”
• Theatres will have a kindly ghost in residence and have a “ghost light.”

How Theatre "Means"

• A bare stage can become any location by using language or gesture and we fill in the blanks ourselves
• Actions on stage forge what we call a convention
• An unspoken agreement between members
• Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer is a play to show these concepts.
• “the willing suspension of disbelief  ” coined by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
• The symbolism generated is entirely based on context.
• Fences by August Wilson is a play example of symbolism
• Theatre helps transcend our own preconceptions by intimately exposing us to new ideas and cultures.

The Uses of Theatre

• The series of practices is called drama therapy
• Drama Therapy helps with troubled children and adolescents, the elderly, substance abusers, people with developmental disabilities, and those who have experienced traumatic events such as wars or natural disasters
• One example is called playback theatre
• Role play can be valuable for the clinicians