Theater Appreciation Midterm

How early should you arrive to the theater?

15-30 minutes

what is the unwritten agreement between actors and audience?

you can respond or react however you want

What preliminary work should you do before seeing a play?

familiarize yourself with the play, don’t assume you know it based off of the title

What preliminary information can you find in the playbill?

Director’s Notes, look for indications of time and place, characters’ names and relationships with each other, is there an intermission

Physical surrounding that have an impact on setting and mood include?

the set, lighting, music, actor actions before the show

Questions to ask when taking it in:

language of play, do you identify with any of the characters, is the plot plausible, what are the reactions of the audience?

when analyzing story and character, ask….

how are they intertwined?

When analyzing the idea of the performance…

focus on the specific choices made (appearance, a specific set piece)

What circumstances define the special world of the play?

previous action, polar attitudes, conventions vs common sense

What is previous action?

(serves as exposition) action mentioned in play’s dialogue that reveals previous action

What is polar attitudes?

beliefs held by the character that are in direct opposition to the world they live in, causing conflict. 

What are conventions and common sense?

a silent agreement between artist and audience for the good of all.

(ex: a door leads to another room and not back stage, time passes between scenes, actors sing their emotions)

What are the 6 environmental facts that previous action can explain?

geographical location, time, economical environment, social environment, political environment, religious environment

proscenium arch, action of the play fits within the frame, has a rigging system, wings

Components of a Proscenium stage

Audience on 3 sides of stage, no arch (unless proscenium), actors enter from aisles or voms

Components of a Thrust Stage

stage is surrounded by audience, “theater in Round” , entrances are through audience and actors bring props, scene changes done in blackout or full view, possible trap door

Components of an Arena Stage

versatile, audience can be placed anywhere, painted all black so focus is on the performance, most studios and college departments

Components of a Black Box Theater

theater done in an outdoor space, no traditional stage or arch, audience can be anywhere and sometimes physically move, (ex: sleep no more took up a whole building)

Components of an Environmental Stage

Audience on opposite sides of stage (rarely done)

Components of an Alley Stage

temporary stages, erected curtain, perform in front of curtain, popular with educational tours

Components of a Booth Stage

What is the highest level of American Theater?

Broadway

What awards are Broadway and off-Broadway eligible for?

Tony Awards

500+ seats

Broadway theater

How many Broadway theaters are there?

about 40 (ALL in NYC)

Who are Broadway contracts managed by?

The Broadway league

What is TKTS

Where you can purchase half price broadway tickets on the day of the show, some producers use this to fill seats

Average Broadway Ticket Price

$189

Named based off of location (one level below broadway)

Off-Broadway

Number of seats in off-broadway

100-499

Examples of shows that went from off-broadway to broadway

rent, avenue Q, Hamilton

Average price for off-broadway tickets

$80

how was Off-off-broadway started?

started in late 1950’s as experimental anti-commercial theater

How many seats are in off-off-broadway?

99 seats or less

Average ticket price of off-off-broadway ticket

$30

usually not for profit, adventurous with play selection/style/decisions

Regional Theater

Benefits of Regional theater

a place where classic and new plays can coexist, developing audiences for live theater, training ground for actors, stretches an actors craft, provides more jobs

Contracts regional theater falls under

LORT, SPT, LOA

LORT (League of Resident Theaters)

5 categories based on weekly box office gross that determine pay and ratio of equity to non equity actors

70+ non profit theaters

SPT (Small Professional Theater)

commercial or non-profit theaters smaller than 350 seats outside of NY and Chicago

LOA  (Letter of Agreement)

individually negotiated and often includes other contracts like LORT D

Amateur Theater

educational theater (after WWII), community theater, children’s theater

Playwright

writes the play

Producer

willing to produce the play

Director

hired by the producer to direct the play

designers

chosen by director approved by producer, make sets and costumes

actors

cast by director

preparation for a show timeline

rehearsals, tech rehearsals, preview performances, opening night, closing night, strike the set

What do playwrights do?

create copies of human life by creating a language for characters

wright means

maker

Book-writers

write dialogue for musicals

lyricists

write songs for musicals

Librettists

write dialogue and lyrics for music

Newcomers gift of ignorance

playwrights that don’t come from the theater world might not follow traditional form, style, length, or subject matter

social insiders write about familiar topics like

their own experiences (feminists writes a play about feminism)

3 maxims to follow as a playwright

write what you know, write action not speeches, write for actors not readers

film scripts are called

screenplays

copywriters

create an advertising copy and marketing materials for companies

editors

edit things like books, poetry, other scripts, or articles

content writers

blogs, social media, articles

The first read through

helps to make changes to scripts

Broadway standard payment

6% of the theaters weekly gross go to playwrights

Who distributes pay for amateur theaters and collects royalties for the life of the copyright?

Dramatist Play Service and Concord Theatricals

Royalties

Payments to playwrights for the rights to produce their play

Copyright law of 1977?

authors life plus 50 yrs royalties must be collected

Shakespeare Birth and Death

April 23rd 1564 (potentially/prof bday) April 23rd 1616

What acting company did Shakespeare own?

Lord Chamberlain’s Men

What did Shakespeare write?

38 plays, 154 sonnets, 2 narrative poems

4 Major categories of Shakespeare’s plays

comedies, tragedies, histories, romances

Sound made when hand hits imaginary wall

click or tok

Pedrolino

pierrot was the face of france miming (white face inspiration)

marcel marceau

his character was relatable to the people

The paradox of acting

to be convincing the actor must lie

An Inspirational Actor

use mental and emotional techniques like thinking about past experiences to reach their center

A Technical Actor

careful conscious use of the body and voice, practice motions and tone (full of tricks with no life or imagination)

Actor training systems include these 3

analyzing the script, training the actor’s instrument, training the actor’s imagination

2 goals when analyzing the script

understand the entire play, understand the character’s place in the play

The goals of the actors body

resistance to fatigue, quick responsiveness, adaptive ability

Neutral Mask Work

a neutral mask is worn so that all emotions are expressed through an actor’s body language

The group theater was founded by and created the

strasburg, clurman, crawford…american acting tecnique

who was the american acting tecnique first founded by

konstantin stainislavki

The american acting technique/classic training

analyze character by circumstances and motivation

super objective

all the objectives for the character in the entire play

Meisner technique

actors live truthfully under imaginary circumstances, get out of their heads and focus on surroundings

Theater is

actor + audience + space