Chapter 1: The Nature of Theatre

Age of Theatre

At least 2500 years old, originating in ritual practices.

Three Basic Elements of Theatre

(1) What is performed, (2) The Performance, (3) The Audience.

Eric Bentley's Definition of Theatre

A performs B for C (someone performing something for someone else).

Key Components of "The Performance"

Performance Space, Artistic Collaboration, and Theatrical Elements.

Peter Brook's view on the Audience

The only thing all forms of theatre have in common is needing an audience.

Three-Way Interaction in Theatre

Performers to Audience, Audience to Performers, and Audience to Audience.

Pre-18th Century Definition of Art

The systematic application of known principles to achieve a predetermined result.

Useful Arts

Arts that can be taught and mastered through specific techniques.

Fine Arts

Products of genius that cannot be reduced to rules (e.g., literature, music).

Popular Culture Theatre

Appeals to the general public using entertainment, storytelling, and familiar characters.

Elitist Culture Theatre

Appeals to a smaller group, seeking new expressions and challenging assumptions.

Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Knowing events aren't real but agreeing not to disbelieve them during performance.

Coined "Willing Suspension of Disbelief"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Aesthetic Distance

Being detached enough from a performance to view it with some objectivity.

Empathy in Theatre

The audience's feeling of involvement with the performance.

Special Quality: Lifelikeness (Verisimilitude)

Theatre's ability to recreate everyday human experiences.

Special Quality: Ephemerality

Theatre is live and becomes part of the past immediately after occurring.

Special Quality: Objectivity

Theatre presents both outer and inner experience through speech and action.

Special Quality: Complexity of Means

Combining varied elements like movement, lighting, and sound from other arts.

Special Quality: Immediacy

The simultaneous presence of live actors and spectators in the same room.