Understanding Theater Arts & Dramatic Form

• Theater arts encompass a broad range of human activity and experience.
• It "infects" the audience and magnifies sensations, acting as a medium for creation and transportation.
• Theater arts is the sustained illusion of truth, a parody or reflection of human emotions and activity through story interpretation.
• Theater arts has conventions like the physical "fourth wall," time, and point of view. One must understand the artist's description and mechanics to appreciate the work.

The Dramatic Form

• Drama functions as both literature and performing art.

• As literature, it focuses on plot and character portrayal.

• As a performing art, it is meant to be performed, not just read.

• Drama is an effective tool for education and entertainment.

• Drama requires a conflict that the protagonist must solve.

• Freytag’s triangle explains a stories flow, from exposition with setting and characters, conflict and rising plot until climax, before concluding with the denouement where characters realize.

• Realization may vary.

• Conflicts can be:

  • Man vs. Man (Physical): Protagonist vs. another protagonist.
  • Man vs. Society: Protagonist challenged by societal events.
  • Man vs. Himself (Psychological): Protagonist struggles with their views or way of life.

Aristotle's Theory of Tragedy

• Tragedy imitates a serious, complete action with artistic language, presented as action, and evokes pity and fear to achieve catharsis.
• Every tragedy consists of Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, and Melody.
  • Thought/Theme/Ideas: The play's meaning, stated through dialogue, the title, or emerging through study.
  • Action/Plot: A unified plot where each action leads to the next, involving characters in conflict with rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
  • Characters: People in the play should each have distinct personalities, age groups, physical appearance, beliefs, socio economic background, and language.
  • Language: The playwright's word choices and actors' enunciation move the plot, provide exposition, and define characters.
  • Music: Includes the rhythm of dialogue and speeches, and musical compositions.
  • Spectacle: Encompasses scenery, costumes, and special effects, creating the play's world and atmosphere.

Kinds of Drama

• Tragedy: Downfall of the protagonist, often involving death and crying.
• Comedy: Celebration of life with humor, intended to evoke laughter. Derived from greek work for wanderer "komazein"
• Melodrama: Protagonist faces challenges but is guided by romance.
• Absurd: Non-sequential, dream-like plot presentation.
• Farce: Light work with improbable situations, exaggerated characters, and slapstick humor.
• Satire: Humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to criticize stupidity or vice.
• Musical: Intended to be sung.

Elements of Theater

• Directing: Stylistic interpretation of the drama, guiding performers in a traditional, stylized, or self-expressive approach.
• Acting: Brings characters to life believably. Actors must study human behavior to accurately present characters.
• Production Design: Visual highlights including set design, lighting, costumes, makeup, and props.
• Plot: The story interpreted onstage, faithful to the original or stylized by the director.
• Music: Highlights scenes, including light changes.
• Spectacle: Overall look of the production with visual and sound effects.

Kinds of Theater Venues

• Proscenium Theater: Has a "picture frame" (proscenium arch) around the front of the stage.
  • Wings are spaces to the sides, and backstage is out of audience view.
• Thrust Theatre: Stage surrounded by audience on three sides, with the fourth side as background.
• Arena Theatre: Central stage with audience on all sides.
• Flexible Theatre: "Black Box" theatre with adaptable stage and seating arrangements.

Theatrical Styles

• Realistic: Follows realism, with ordinary characters and reasons for actions.
• Camp: Loves the unnatural, artificial, and exaggerated. A sensibility, its essence is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration, and it is esoteric.
• Symbolism: Poetic, celebrates beauty, literary, and often hard to understand.
• Expressionism: Focuses on subjective reality, often distorted and grotesque.
• Theatre of Cruelty: Ritual-like, shocks the spectator to contact their own psyche.
• Absurdism: Illustrates futility and meaninglessness of human activity, challenging explanations for phenomena.

The Method of Acting

• The Method uses multiple techniques of acting such as Lee Strasberg Acting, Stella Adler Method, Chubbuck Method and Meissner Acting.
• Highly influential system of dramatic training developed by Konstantin Stanislavsky.
• Aims for realistic acting appropriate for 20th-century drama.
  • Relaxation: Eliminating unwanted tension to achieve physical and vocal relaxation.
  • Concentration and observation: Actors develop concentration by observing real life in depth.
  • Importance of specifics: Avoiding vague portrayals by finding tangible actions in the script.
  • Inner Truth: Achieved through the "magic if," transforming thoughts - inner truth is matching character emotion.
  • Emotional Recall: Remembering past experiences similar to the play's emotions.
  • Objectives: Determining actions by asking What? Why? How?
  • Through line of a role: Dividing scenes into units with individual objectives leading to the overall goal.

Rehearsal Process

• Reading
• Blocking
• Polishing
• Technical
• Dress
• Show

Philippine Theater

• Before Hispanic colonization, theater and performing arts were rooted in ritual and folk customs.
• As Spaniards spread Catholicism, performing arts became religious.
• Town fiestas and celebrations highlighted religious piety.
  • Pasyon and Senakulo during Lenten Season
  • Pangangaluluwa during all souls day
  • Pastores and Panunuluyan as examples of Christmas vignettes
  • Santacruzan during Flores de Mayo celebration
• Other forms included Arakyo and Tibag and Moro-moro
• Komedya: Metrical tale with costumes about royalty in Europe.
• Americans brought Bodabil/Vaudeville.
• Sarswela: Musical play (e.g., Walang Sugat), discussing love stories between classes.
• Seditious plays by Aurelio Tolentino and Juan Abad emerged.
• After the post-war period questions of legitimacy were raised between professionals and local artists.
• PETA produced plays reflecting societal problems, leading to street performances.
• Tanghalang Pilipino presents western plays in Filipino. Gantimpala Theater Foundation caters four classics to high school students.
• Repertory Philippines presents western plays in English.
• Dulaan U.P hones student talent in all aspects of production.
• Modern plays discuss current issues, like gender equality and democracy.