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What is theater?
Actor(s) + Audience + Space
(w/o audience, you would be in rehearsal)
(w/o space it would be a radio performance)
(w/o actors it would be a group of people in a room)
Performance
An activity where some people do something while other people watch.
(happens in everyday life)
What are the traits of art?
Artificial - an artist makes art, it doesn't just happen
Stands Alone- does not need a practical purpose in life
Self-Aware- artists know in a general way they're to do something
Produces A Kind of Response- an aesthetic response, an appreciation of beauty that goes beyond merely intellectual or entertainment.
What are the different modes of presentation for different kinds of arts?
Printed or Drawn (poetry, paintings, and sketches)
Live Audience (opera, music, dance and theater)
Played (music)
Qualities of Theater as a Performing Art
Has actors
Is performed in front of a live audience
Immediate and ephemeral (will never be repeated exactly the same way)
What are the 3 Given Circumstances
1. Previous Action (aka Exposition)- Any action mentioned in the play's dialogue that reveals any incident or action that took place before the current action of the play.
2. Environmental Facts (6 types)
~Geographical Location- where the play takes place.
~Time-Date, year, season, time of day.
~Economical Environment- The character's relationship to wealth or poverty and their class in the play's society.
~Social Environment- The character's moral values and social beliefs
~Political Environment- The character's relationship with the government they live under.
~Religious Environment- Religious beliefs, if any.
3. Polar Attitudes- Beliefs held by a character that are in direct opposition to the world in which they live.
Conventions
an agreement between artist and audience to do things a certain way for the good of all. (ex: time can pass between acts of a play)
Proscenium Stage Layout
-has a Proscenium "arch"
-actions of the play fits within a frame
-Rigging system behind arch and possibly trap flooring
-Wings
-Most have an area that extends a few feet in front of arch
-Audience Areas: Orchestra Seats & Balconies
- Sight-lines can sometimes be bad
(generic HS auditorium stage)
Thrust Stage Layout
-Audience on 3 sides of stage
-No arch
-Actors can enter form aisles
-Actors can enter from vomitories (voms) that come from beneath the audience
Proscenium Thrust Stage
Defined arch but with a larger amount of stage space extending into the audience.
Arena Stage Layout
-Stage is surrounded on all sides by the audience
- aka "Theater in the Round"
- actors bring on props and set pieces
-Scene changes are done either in blackout or in full view of the audience
-Can sometimes have trap flooring
Black Box Theater Layout
-Audience can be pace wherever you want in any configuration
-The stage can be wherever you want in any configuration
-Often painted black to give the theater a neutral space to start with where designers can add color through light and costumes
-Levin Theater @ Rutgers is this theater type.
Environmental Stage Layout
-Theater done in or at specific (usually outdoor) spaces
-No traditional stage
-no arch
-The audience can be anywhere and can sometimes physically move with the actors from scene to scene
-A production can take over an entire building
-A play can take place in a car
Alley vs Booth Stage Layouts
a: Audience on opposite sides of the stage & actors perform between them
b: Temporary stage, Erected curtain, Perform in front of curtain & Popular with educational tours
Broadway Theater Venue
-Highest Level of American Theater
-Falls under a production contract negotiated by the broadway league.
-has 500+ seats
-There are about 40 broadway theaters
-Only theaters eligible for Tony Awards (except for the Regional Theater award)
-Distinguished stars, Elaborate sets and costumes, Sophisticated musicals and plays
-Expensive: costs a lot to produce (salaries and material costs)
Off Broadway Venue
Originally named bc of the actual theater's location since the street was just off Broadway
-Falls under an Off Broadway contract negotiated by the off broadway league
-100-499 seats
-Shows have the potential to "transfer" to Broadway (ex: Hamilton)
Off Off Broadway Venue
-Started in late 1950's as a place for experimental, anti-commercail theater.
-99 or less seats
-Performed in coffee houses, cellars, churches, etc.
- Known play from here: NATASHA, PIERRE AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812
Regional Theaters
-Usually not-for-profit
-Can be more adventurous with play selection, production style, personel decisions.
5 benefits of this type of theater:
Provide a place where new and
~classic plays can coexist
~Developing new audiences for live theater
~Training ground for theater artists
~Help to stretch an actor's craft
~ Provide more jobs
Can hav 3 different kinds of contracts:
1)LORT: League of Resident Theaters (70+ non-profit regional theaters. 5 categories: A+,A,B,C,D based on weekly box office gross which dictate salaries and ratio of equity and Non-Equity actors)
2)SPT: Small Professional Theatre (commercial or non-profit theaters smaller than 350 seats outside of NY or Chicago. 10 salary categories, or tiers, mostly determined by number of performances)
3)LOA: Letter of Agreement( Individually negotiated. Often reference other contracts such as LORT D)
Amateur Theater Venue
Educational: First Theater degree in 114 at Carnegie Institute of Technology. More than 2,000 programs in the U.S. Whole range of plays offered. (ex: Rutgers Mason Gross Theater Dept)
Community: Found throughout the country. In towns where there's no professional or educational theater, they introduce new audiences to live theater. Very little pay, if at all. Rely on volunteers. A mix of amateur and professional actors and designers.
Children's: Created to produce plays geared toward young audiences to install a love of theater. Can vary in content; Creative retellings of fairy tales, myths, and legends;Plays that discuss issues like drugs, divorce, sexual abuse.
Chronological play from start to finish
1. Playwrights: writes the play
2. Producer: willing to produce the play
3. Director: hired by producer to direct the play
4. Designers: chosen by director, approved by producer
5. Actors: auditions are held and play is cast by director
6. Designers: begin building sets and costumes
7. Rehearsals begin
8. Tech rehearsals begin
9. Preview performances begin
10. Opening night
11. Closing night and strike
Playwrites
-Creates copies of human life by creating a "language" for characters.
-Create dialogue for characters to say to one another that: forwards the plot, reveals character, express ideas.
-Must write words that are: more active, more intense, & more selective than everyday speech or a novelist's words
-Get their ideas from overheard conversation, current events, news headlines, and injustice.
How long does it take to write a play?
any time from 7 days to 7 years, it depends on the playwright.
Book-Writers
Playwrights that write for musicals.
Librettists
Playwrights that write the words for music
Where do playwrights come from?
Most work within the "theatrical world" perhaps they are actors now or were previously"insiders" social insiders who write about specific topic(ex: feminist playwrights that write about women's rights). perhaps they write for his/ her own theater troupe, some come from outside the theater world "newcomers."
Newcomers have the gift of ignorance and might not follow the traditional style, form, length, or subject matter.
Playwright Training
Unlike actors, directors, and designers, playwrights do not generally go through formal training.
-There are university programs that do offer training
-No real rules for playwrights, but there are maxims to follow:
-write what you know
-wright for your own time
-write action, not speeches
-write for actors, not readers
-be truthful
Playwrights as Screenwriters
-often write for TV shows and films
-Film scripts are often called "screenplays"
-similar style of storytelling between playwriting and screenwriting. (length & dialogue)
Broadway Standard
a percentage of the theater's weekly gross from the production
-A Broadway hit= $1,000's per week
-A modest success= $1,000 or less per week
-A flop= $0
Amateur/ Stock Productions
-2 organizations handle rights to plays. (Dramatist Play Service & Samuel French, Inc.)
-They collect royalties for the life of the play's copyright. (Royalties are payments to playwrights for permission to produce their play, Copyright Law of 1977: Author's life plus 50 years. Royalties can e small for a single performance, but quite large as a collection of 1,000's of theaters & universities who put on the play)
Qualities of a good playwrite
- makes good theater
-subject to debate
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe( 1749-1832): a theorist and playwright that offered 3 questions that help to determine what god playwriting is: 1. What did the author set out to do? 2. Did he/ she do it 3. Was it worth doing?
-A playwright might have great technical skill, but write a bad dialogue or characters and vice versa
-must do more than just entertain, although they must do that at a minimum.
William Shakespeare
Born: April 23rd, 1564
Died: April 23rd, 1616
Born in: Stratford-upon-Avon
Married: Anne Hathaway
3 Children: Susanna, and twins: Hamnet and Judith
Began a career as an actor around 1585-1890
Part owner of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (an acting company)
Wrote 38 plays: (ex: Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello etc)
Wrote 154 sonnets and 2 narrative poems.
His plays have been translated into every major living language on earth.
His plays are performed more often than any other playwright.
Even after 400 years!
He invented over 1700 words including Eyeball, Bedroom, Puking.
His Plays are broken up into 3 major categories:
1. Tragedies: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth
2. Comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Merchant of Venice.
3. Histories: Henry IV, Part 1 & 2, Henry V, Richard III
What is the etiquette of the acting profession?
Prompt: be on time to rehearsal and ready to work
Prepares: they've done their own prep work before coming to rehearsal
Constructive, not destructive: they do not comment on another actors work or acting process
Respectful: they talk to the director of stage manager about problems, not actors, designers or playwright. Aware: they know their their theater history.
what are the 2 approaches to acting?
Inspiration: Use mental and emotional techniques to reach their "center." Often use past personal experiences to inform characters. Which then turns into onstage movement & vocalization. The theory is that it's more "natural."
Technique: Builds a character out of careful and conscious use of body and voice. Rehearses inflections or carefully chooses specific poses and hand gestures. Can sometimes be thought of as "full of tricks" with no life or imagination in their work.
(most actors are a combination of both approaches)
the "standard" way to train:
- Moving up the ranks by starting as apprentices
-Playing small roles in small theaters
-Then they would play larger roles in more important theaters, gaining experience along the way.
-They learned by observing, taking hints and tips from seasoned actors.
-Formal training tat colleges or private studios have taken the place of the "standard" way.
-Most colleges, university and private studios use various actor-training systems. No one system is best for everybody, however almost all systems involve at least the following3 characteristics.
what are the 3 main goals of script analysis?
1. Understand the entire play
2. Understand the place of the character in the whole play.
3. Understand the details that comprise the character.
(trains the actor to understand what's on the page, not what they wish was on the page)
(should help the actor to avoid moral value judgements)
Characteristics and training of an actors body.
-Does not need to be heavily muscled
-should be flexible, strong, and responsive
-typically do not train as actors do unless a role requires it
-should be able to resist fatigue and respond quickly.
-should be adaptive: imitate posture, adapt movement to aged posture, posture of a person light or heavier than the actor
Different movement on stages:
Crosses: movements from 1 point of the stage to another point
Thrust & Arena Stages: adapting posture, positioning and movement so the entire audience can see as much as possible.
How actors train their voice
Breath control exercises
Vocal relaxation
Articulation exercises
Dialect Work
What are different kinds of creativity exercises?
Image Exercises: teaches the actor to grasp the mental picture the brain offers.
Visualization Exercises: group exercises that build a scene. helps actors foster a sense of creativity, sharpened concentration, and a sense of detail.
Improvisation Exercise: the creation of characters, scenes or plays without the givens of traditional drama by
Who are the founders of The Group Theatre
Lee Strasberg
Harold Clurman
Cheryl Crawford
What is Group Theater?
-A collection of theater artist formed in 1931 to create a natural and disciplined form of theater.
-What they began became an "American Acting Technique" based on the teachings of Konstantin Stanislavski (A russian actor)
The American Stanislavski System
The actor is trained to analyze character to discover:
-Age
-Sex
-State of health
-Social Status
-Education Level
-Most likely found in script or they must be deduced or
-Motivation (all human actions are motivated or caused. to play a character, an actor must look for motivation behind each action)
-Objective (Whats the goal of the character? Whats the goal of the scene)
-Superobjective (what are all the objectives of the character? The "life-goal")
Method Acting
-Created by lee Strasberg, founding member of the Group Theatre
-The process of connecting to a character by using personal emotions and memories, or "affective memory," to portray the role.
-Actors imagine themselves with thoughts and emotions of the character to give a life like performance.
-Actors that use this technique: Jared Leto, Jake Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie
The Chekhov Acting Technique
-Created by Michael Chekhov, a student of Stanislavski
-Focuses on the internal problem of the character which then expresses the issue through movements.
-The actor physicalizes a character's need in the form of an external gesture
-This gesture is then suppressed and incorporated internally
The physical memory informs the performance
-Actors who used this: (Clint Eastwood and Marilyn Monroe)
Meisner Technique
-Created by Sanford Meisner, a member of the Group Theatre
-Taught here @ Rutgers
-Does away with "affective memory" and puts the emphasis on "the reality of doing"
-The actors "live truthfully under the given imaginary circumstances"
-Actors who use this: (James Franco, Alec Baldwin, Naomi Watts)
Practical Aesthetics Technique
-Created by David Mamet and William H. Macy.
- Based on Stanislavski and Meisner techniques
-Breaks down a scene in a 4 step process:
Literal: most basic description of what's happening
Want: what does one character want the other character to say or do
Essential Action: What the actor wants in the scene
As If: relates to the "essential action" of the actors own life
- actors who use: (William H Macy & Jessica Alba)
Statistics of Actors
There are 51,000 union theater actors across the country
Approx. 30,000 of those actors are on the east coast
Approx. 26,000 of those actors are in NYC
What are the 2 unions an actor can join
AEA- Actor's Equity Association (theater union)
SAG/ AFTRA- Screen Actor Guild/ American Federation of Television and Radio Artists- Film/ TV/ Radio Union
What are the locations of the major and minor markets for actors?
NYC (Major)
Los Angeles (Major)
Chicago, IL (inbetween Major and Minor tbh)
Portland, OR (Minor)
Atlanta, Ga (Minor)
Charlotte, NC (Minor)
Austin, TX (Minor)
Vancouver & Toronto, Canada - "Hollywood North" (Minor)
Acting Market 20 years ago
vs
Acting Market Now
Back Then:
Los Angeles (for film/ tv career)
NYC (for theater and broadway)
Now:
LA is still primarily film but they have a thriving theater community there as well
NYC is still primarily theater but with alot more film/ tv opportunities BUT the cost of living is VERY expensive.
Chicago is thriving w both theater and film plus its more reasonable to live there than NYC
Once you pick where you want to pursue an acting career: What do you do?
1. get a survival job (any job that pays the bills but gives you the flexibility to go to auditions)
2. Het headshots: used to self promote, costs from $100-$700. You pick 2-3 out of the thousand taken.
3. Fix up your resume: shows director what experience you have and are capable of doing. Includes height, weight, contact info, acting experience, education, & special skills.
4. Non-Equity audition: the goal of non-equity actors is to become equity actors. This is possible by getting hired by a theater that will"turn" you or you an gain 50 equity membership candidate points (1 point= 1 week of rehersals) to become an equity actor.
4. Equity Actor Auditons: actors auditioning w/o an agent. Hope you get a callback. (In the room is: director, casting director, artistic director, associate casting director, director's assistant, reader(s), (if musical: musical director, ghoreographer, accompanist), Random people, Pets
What is the job/ purpose of an agent?
-Actors compete to get one
-get you "big" auditions"
-Agent showcases are at colleges, online, and acting classes / studios
- negotiates the contract (if negotiable) if you get a part
-submits your headshot if you fit the type of actor the casting director is looking for
Rehersals Process
1st Rehearsal:
-begins w meet and greet
-director speaks
-design presentations
-first read through of play with full cast
-break for lunch
-come back & do table work: breaking down the script for meaning and understanding by analyzing every moment of the play, can last a few days.
-begin "blocking" the play : the stage movements created by a collaboration between the actor an the director, can change throughout rehearsals
-when show is "blocked" you will do a run through from beginning to end
-Technical Rehearsals: all tech. and artistic elements of a production come together. All actors are on stage. Stage manager sets light cues, sound cues, set piece move cues. (lasts 2 days 10/12 hours)
-Preview: first time performing in front of an audience, getting technical "kinks" out, held for 5 hours during the day
-Opening Night: first time critics are in the audience
-Closing Night: bittersweet, set is "struck" or taken down
Who wrote, directed and produced The Play That Goes Wrong
Writer: Jonathan Sayer
Writer: Henry Shields
Writer: Henry Lewis
Director: Mark Bell
Producer: J.J. Abrams
What type of play was used in The Play That Goes Wrong?
Proscenium Theater
Things to know from guest speaker
Recitatives: some dialogue in a musical
Paul Robeson: famous Rutgers alum, film actor
Conditional Love Sing: talks about future love
The first play ever performed?
The Black Crook
An audition that doesn't require an appt.
open call
A place (in times square) where you can buy cheap tix as directors try to increase sales
TKTS
A play that takes place at Rutgers
High Button Shoes
How many salary categories are there for a small profession theater
10
