Glosario Teatro II PDF

GLOSSARIO TEATRO II I. INTRODUCTION TO A PLAY ANALYSIS Script: Scripts are literary and paraliterary, underlies an actual performance. Speech and stage directions. Depicts a story (fictional or not) It has at least one character and can be written in verse or prose. Performance: It’s non-literary...

GLOSSARIO TEATRO II I. INTRODUCTION TO A PLAY ANALYSIS Script: Scripts are literary and paraliterary, underlies an actual performance. Speech and stage directions. Depicts a story (fictional or not) It has at least one character and can be written in verse or prose. Performance: It’s non-literary and involves semiotic codes. Semiotic codes: Meaning in theatrical text that are not written. (Make-up, costume, hairstyle, facial expressions (body language), movement, dance, sound effects, lighting, stage set and props.) Dramatic text: The text we read on the page. Speech: Every single words dialogue a character pronounces. - Dialogue: Conversation between two characters. - Monologue: long speech said by a character on stage, heard by other character - Soliloquy: long speech by a character that is alone at the stage. - Aside: Way of breaking the 4th wall, character is aware of the presence of the audience and talks to it. Stage directions: Little sentences between brackets that indicate what the actors are doing. Both actors and directors need them because sometimes the playwright is not present in the production, or is dead. Scenic arrangements: - Lay-out of stage: They make reference to the stage itself (walls, entrance, exits, doors, windows…) include lighting and sound. - Furnishing: Any directions making reference to any furniture (table, TV, set, shelves…) - Props: Apocope for “property”. Any reference to objects on stage different from furnishers; actors have physical contact with them. It also includes particular references to costume elements (a hat, a pair of socks…) Actor(s)/Characters: - Delivery of dialogue: Any stage direction that makes reference to the way a character must say their speech. Usually written by an adverb or adjective (angrily, bitterly…) - Bodily state: The state of the body. Any direction referring to the position in which he/she is at the moment of speech. Never with movement. (Move hand, head…)  - Emotion: The direction which refers to the emotional state of the actor at the moment of speech. (Basic 5 human emotions) - Proxemics: Position of an actor in relation to another actor on stage (touching, kissing, fighting…) they have to have contact. - Kinesics: make reference to the movement of the body as a whole (walk, dance, run, jump) II. DRAMATIC CHARACTERS Character conception Stock characters (Simple characters): - Type: Pedrolino, colombina, pantalone, Il’dottore, Il’capitano and arlechinno. - Stereotype: Character that does not develop at all. (Hero, Villain, Damsel in distress) - Archetype: Characters that develop from universal archaic models. Plot function: One aspect of even complex characters is their function in the plot which represents the second aspect, mostly shown by the vast majority of stage persons. (The way characters serve the plot) - Protagonist: Agent of action makes events happen and use particular tactics to achieve their goal, passion in her/his goals + powerful tactics (Yank) - Antagonist: He will prevent the protagonist to get what he wants by using tactics, stands in the way of the protagonist. Passive stumbling block. - Confidante: Whom another character delivers information, servant, messenger, another character’s friend; good listener and loyal. (Long) - Foil: Against main character. (not enemy). Compares and contrasts with another character (Paddy) - Raisonneur: French “raison”, author’s spokesperson, expresses the central idea of the play, or sums up. - Utilitarian: Helps move the plot forward when there is no other or better way, small role: maids and butlers C19th melodramas. - Comic relief: Found normally in Shakespeareans tragedies. To halt the forward action of the plot after a tense situation, lighten up the mood and provide a contrast to a serious, dark situation. Formal functions: - Chorus: The comment on the action to the audience, to reveal the character’s inner thoughts and feelings, to deliver moral messages to the audience, give the actor’s time. (Warn hero about something tragic about to happen) - Narrator: Same role as in a novel, summarize what has happened, advances what the audience is about to watch. III. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE Dramatic Structure: Dramatic structure refers to the stages in which the plot unfolds, or the different “sections” that make up a play. (Dramatic/theatrical text) Plot: The way a playwright arranges the elements in a play (setting, characters, acts, scenes, actions…). The order in which a playwrite organizes the main events that make up the story’s plot. - Difference between story and plot: A plot is a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king dies and then the queen died” is a story. “The king dies, and then the queen dies of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it. Types of dramatic structure: - Aristotle: Basic structure: set up (beginning), confrontation (middle) and resolution (or end) this is also called the three-act structure. o Set up: introduce protagonist and conflict. The objective is to grab audience attention. o Confrontation: Includes obstacles the protagonist must overcome and subplots interconnected before the resolution. o Resolution: The conflict is solved. - Shakespearean: Also called climatic. Include five acts which correspond to introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement. - Freytag: A five-act structure with five different plot points that every story must go through. This structure is known as Freytag’s Pyramid Parts of a play: - Act: Unit of outer division of a play in equal parts, based on time and action development. - Scene: Is the smaller unit in an act or play usually taking place in one location and involving a limited number of characters. - Action: Is the period in which a situation in a scene takes place, when the situation changes then it starts another action, the scene does not need to be divided always into actions. Conflict: Dramatic conflict: Struggle between two or more forces that creates a tension that must be resolved. A state of oppositions between ideas, interest… Disagreement controversy or clash, as between two appointments made for the same time. Without conflict there is no drama. Types of characters: - Leading character: The one who takes the conflict up to its resolution. (usually the main character) - Opposing character: The one who opposes the leading character. IV. CONFLICT & THEATRICAL CONTRACTS Action: Event that change the situation. S1 (Action)  S2 Event: Anything that happens. Dramatic plot: Is the arrangement of a story for presentation on stage. Story: Comes before any plot; it underlines the plot. They really exist as things told. Scene: Dramatic unit. Scene division are also an important part of the play. A scene ends when the situation (action) or set situation changes. Structure of dramatic conflict: - Introductory incident: The moment of the play in which the subject of the conflict is introduced. - Moment of engagement: When the leading character commits to achieving his/her goals. - Climax: The moment when the conflict is resolved or when the leading character achieves or fails his goal. - Denouement: The moment after the climax where misunderstandings are clarified, lovers reunite, corpses are dragged offstage… Theatrical contracts: An informal understanding, or tacit agreement between a theatrical production and its audience. Types of theatrical contracts: - Presentational / Representational: The ways in which the characters relate to the audience. o Presentational: Characters address directly to the audience. The fourth wall is broken. o Representational: Characters refrain from acknowledging the audience’s presence. Draw the audience to identify with the characters. - Realistic / Non-realistic: The ways and the degrees to which production elements are on stage. o Realistic: It attempts to make what we see and hear on stage resemble what we see and hear in real life. o Non-realistic: The elements are abstracted from reality, hightening or distorting elements.