What is Theatre?

The Six Essential Elements of Theatre

1. Performers

2. Audience

3. Script or story

4. Place

5. Support staff

6. Accessories

The Important Difference

• A theatrical - similar even is real and really happening with real-life consequences

• A theatrical performance is NOT real (ILLUSION) and involves the participants pretending to be someone they are not and pretending to be doing things that they really are not (ACTING).

The Willing Suspension of Disbelief

• First coined in 1817 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• The idea or concept that the audience knows that what they are seeing is not real, but they choose to PRETEND that what they are seeing is real, in order to enhance the aesthetic enjoyment of the experience.

• Not that they BELIEVE that what they see is real, but that they PRETEND it is real!

...so, Theatre is an Experience...

• A story told by live performers in front of a live audience using dialogue and action (sometimes music) with the help and support of other people, sets, props, and costumes creating an illusion for the audience’s enjoyment.

• It is experienced much like we experience other theatrical events, but it is transitory and in the moment - an art form that exists in the moment of time in which it is co-created by the performers and the audience and then is no more…

Types of Theatres

• Broadway Theatre - aka Broadway, theatrical performances presented in one of the 41 large professional theatres with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District in Manhattan, NYC. Usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.

• Off-Broadway - located outside the Broadway district; seats fewer than 500 people; principally in Greenwich Village around the upper East and West sides.

• Off-off Broadway - a term designating certain theatre activity in NYC that is usually non-professional, experimental and avant-garde in nature

• Regional - professional theatre companies that produce their own seasons

Professional Touring Theatre

• Touring Theatre - after (or during) successful runs in Broadway theatres, producers often remount their productions with a new cast and crew, which travels to theatres in major cities across the country

• Alabama Shakespeare Festival - Montgomery Alabama’s only professional theatre, one of the 77 LORT theatres and the 7th largest Shakespeare festival in the world

• League of Resident Theaters (LORT) - non-profit organizations that agree to adhere to a collective bargaining agreement with Actor’s Equity Association.

• Actor’s Equity Association (AEA) - commonly referred to as Actor’s Equity or simply Equity; an American labor union embracing the world of live theatrical performance, as opposed to film and television performance

• Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) - an American labor union representing over 120,000 film and TV principal performers and background performers worldwide.

Theatre is the Art of the Moment

• “The collaborative product of actors, playwrights, designers, directors, and spectators… theatre constructs imaginative worlds that we can marvel at, be moved by, and learn from. … It takes the experience of everyday life and transforms them through the magic of performance into something more powerful, deeply felt, and artful than the daily exchanges we witness and participate in.”

• “Theater is the art of the movement, and its ability to captivate us with its illusion is linked to its magical but always precarious slight of hand.”

  • Norton Anthology of Drama, 3rd shorter edition, pg. 1

Theatre is Storytelling

• Remember, a part of the HUMAN experience in all cultures is the telling of stories (Narratives)

• Stories can be factual accounts of past events

  • We call this HISTORY (Why not HERSTORY…?)

  • Autobiography, Biography, Documentary

• Stories can be fictional accounts of past events or future events

  • We can call this FICTION (or sometimes LIES…)

  • Aka as LITERATURE (Poetry, Prose, Drama)

“The Telling of Stories”

• Oral Traditions - passed down from person to person by telling stories

  • African

  • Native American

  • Arabic

  • Asian

• Written Traditions - written in some form that can survive the hazards of time to be read at a later date

Types of Storytelling

• Oral storytelling

• Written storytelling

Video Games as Literature?

• Interactive Literature - stories that can be lived out vicariously through an avatar in electronic media - “video game”

• Producer/team collaboratively writes the game which has a storyline that the consumer/player has to solve puzzles and perform combat in order to work through the plot to the end of the game…

Theatre is Drama, Drama is Theatre

• 3 Traditional Forms of Written Literature:

  • Poetry

  • Prose

  • DRAMA - The form of literature that reaches its full potential by being enacted before an audience.

Dramas are Called Plays

• Play - a live theatrical performance or a dramatic script intended for live theatrical performance

• Script - the text of a play, sometimes called the book or the acting edition

• Playwright - a person who writes a theatrical script or text intended for live performance

What’s in a Play/Drama?

• DRAMA

  • 3 parts to drama: action, dialogue & subtext

    • Spoken text (lines) = Dialogue

    • Action Text (Stage Directions) = Action

    • Unspoken text = Subtext

Drama consists of…

• Dialogue - what the characters say during a play

• Action - what the characters physically do during a play

• Subtext - the unspoken thoughts, feelings, and intentions of the characters that underlie and prompt the action and spoken texts.

Stage Directions

Telling the Story

• Story - what happens to a character in his/her lifetime - historical events in a character’s life often condensed into a plot for dramatic purposes

• Plot - the part of the story told in the play

• Exposition - the information given to the audience by characters in a play so that the story can be understood

• Inciting Incident - an episode, plot point, or event that hooks the audience into a story. This is when a character is thrust into the main action of the plot.

• Late Point of Attack - one in where the story begins in the midst of conflict and we find out important details about the past on the way to a much bigger conflict.

Exposition in Trifles

• Mr. Hale tells the other characters what happened yesterday when he came to the Wright house.

• The scene tells the audience who these characters are, what their relationships are, and why they are there…

Theatre is CONDENSED

• What we see in a play or movie or TV show are just the “Good Parts” or the exciting bits of a character’s story.

• Through arrangement of scenes, editing, and jumps in time, the story is told by showing the actions and dialogue that are most interesting to the audience…

Plays have Character(s)

• Characters - people that actors portray in a play

• Actors - people that portray characters in a play.

  • Characters can be major characters, minor characters, non-human characters, puppets, voices, props

  • Whomever or whatever the story is about is a character…

Plays have Conflict

• CONFLICT - an opposition of forces between characters in a play.

• We need to have conflict in plays to make them interesting to watch!

The Greek Word for Conflict

• AGON

Protagonists and Antagonists

• Agon - the Greek word for conflict between an antagonist and a protagonist.

• Protagonist(s) - the principal character(s) in a play. Literally the “pro-agon” person

• Antagonist(s) - the principal opposition to the protagonist(s) in a play. “Anti-agon” person

  • I.e., the protagonist would be the “hero”, the antagonist would be the “villain”...

The Types of Conflict

• 7 Types of Conflict

  • Person vs. Fate/God

  • Person vs. Self

  • Person vs. Person

  • Person vs. Society

  • Person vs. Nature

  • Person vs. Supernatural

  • Person vs. Technology

We Follow the Protagonist

• The plot of a play, movie, or TV show centers on, or follows a particular character or set of characters.

• We, the audience (consumers), are asked to commit emotionally to these characters and see them as our “Heroes” or “Heroines”

• These characters are considered to be the Protagonist(s) in the plot of a play

What we need here is some MOTIVATION!!!

• Motivation - what a character wants that drives the action and dialogue.

• CONFLICT is born out of MOTIVATION and CONFLICT is what makes DRAMA exciting!

Motivation and Goals

• Motivation can also be defined as GOALS

• GOAL - something a character strives for in a play.

• We as humans are MOTIVATED to do things and say things because there is something we want or need that we don’t have

• CHARACTERS behave in the same way…

Trifles

• Written by Susan Glaspell

  • First performance at the Wharf Theatre

• Story - Plot

• Protagonists

• Antagonists

• Conflict?

• Dialogue - Action - Subtext - Motivation

Motivation, Obstacles, & Complications

• Motivation - what a character wants that derives the action and dialogue. A character is motivated by something they need or want that they don’t have.

• Obstacle - a person, situation or physical barrier that keeps a character from achieving their goals.

• Complication - an unexpected problem that occurs while a character is attempting to overcome an obstacle.

Motivation in Trifles

• Men - find evidence that Mrs. Wright had motive - if found, she will hang!

• Women - gather things for Mrs. Wright, stumble on evidence for motive - hide evidence to save her life.

How Do We Know What We Know About Things?

• Experience

  • We learn from what we do

• Education

  • We learn from what others tell us

    • Lecture - teacher

    • Reading - self

How Do We Know About the Origins of Theatre?

• Archeological Evidence

  • Artwork - mosaics, sculpture, pottery

  • Ruins of theatres

• Historical Records

  • Existing Plays

  • Lists of Plays/Authors

  • What others have written about plays/drama

Was There Egyptian Theatre?

• Some speculate that the Egyptians had an ancient “Passion Play” based on the story of Osiris and Isis that was performed at Abydos

• Ikhernefret stone

The Greeks and Storytelling

• Plato - first theorist of theatre who emphasized the similarities between the public recitations of poetry and simple dramatic performances

• Rhapsoidoi - storytellers who recited stories of gods and mythical humans to large audiences in public.

The Poetics

• Aristotle - (384 - 322BCE) student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great, founder of the LYCEUM wrote The Poetics (335-323BCE) Much of what we know about Greek artistic thought comes from that document.

And Now Something Completely Different…

• B.C. = Before Christ

• B.C.E. = Before Common Era

• A.D. = Anno Domini “In the Year of Our Lord” or “After Christ”

• C.E. = Common Era

  • Julian (45 B.C./B.C.E.) Calendar

  • Gregorian (1582 A.D./C.E.) Calendar

Aristotle says…

• Thepsis was the first person called ‘actor’ in the 6th century BCE and is credited with winning the first City Dionysia competition.

• Our word thespian comes from him…

Say What?!?!?!?

• 6th century BCE would be 500’s BCE

  • 5th Century BCE - 400s

  • 4th Century BCE - 300s

  • 3rd Century BCE - 200s

  • 2nd Century BCE - 100s

  • 1st Century BCE - 99 - 1 BCE (No year 0)

• We are in the 21st century CE “2000s”

  • 1900s was 20th Century CE

  • 1800s was 19th Century CE

  • 1700s was 18th Century CE, etc.

Why 534 BCE (BC)?

• We have records that state that the first City Dionysia drama competition was held in the year that would correspond to the year 534 BCE (6th Century BCE).

• City Dionysia - festival in Ancient Athens honoring the Greek God Dionysus

  • Competition for Dithyrambs started around 600 B.C.E.

  • Competition for Tragedy started in 534 B.C.E.

  • Competition for Comedy started in 486 B.C.E.

• City Lenaia - a festival honoring the followers of Dionysus which first had a competition for comedies in 442 BCE (5th Century BCE)

• Four Ancient Greek festivals were important venues for theatre

The dithyramb (dithyrambos)

• ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE:

• Greek theatre evolved from the dithyramb, a choral song sung in honor of the Greek God Dionysus at the City Dionysia.

• Competition between choral groups led to eventual dramatic competition.

• Tragoidoi - what the chorus singing a dithyramb was called

Tragedy & Comedy

• Two forms emerged from developments in theatre:

• TRAGEDY - “tragoidia”, play or other serious work with an unhappy ending

• COMEDY - “komoidia”, play or other lighthearted work with a happy ending, usually pokes fun at some aspect of human existence

• Tragoidia roughly translates into English as “Goat Song”

• Komoidia roughly translates as “Song of the Revels”

Types of Tragedy

• Heroic tragedy

• Romantic tragedy

• Horror tragedy

• Disaster tragedy

• Epic tragedy

• Historical tragedy

• War tragedy

• Science Fiction tragedy

• ANY serious story/plot is a tragedy

Types of Comedy

• Romantic comedy

• Screwball comedy

• Situation comedy

• High comedy

• Low comedy

• Sex comedy

• Absurdist comedy

• Farce

• Parody

• Satire

• Burlesque

• ANY non-serious story/plot is a comedy

What is Genre?

• Genre (Fr.)

  • 1: a category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style form, or content

  • Western, Procedural, Heist, Buddy, Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Future, Fantasy, Vampire, Zombie, Ghost, etc…

Hypokrites: Ancient Greek Word for Actor

• Literally “a person with two faces”

According to Aristotle…

• Greek Actors ALWAYS wore masks

More on Thespis

• According to Aristotle, Thespis first stepped out of the chorus to impersonate a character

• The Beginning of Drama!!!

• Audience must have liked it, because others copied it and it eventually became popular - added to festival

More Stuff to Know…

• Theatre in Ancient Greece was a state sponsored function not a commercial enterprise.

• Only MEN were allowed to perform!

• CHORAGOS (koryphaios) - wealthy citizen appointed by the Archon Eponymous to fund the plays, hire the chorus, pay for costumes, sets, etc. (also the leader of the chorus).

About the Plays…

• At the City Dionysia competition:

  • First prizes were for tragedy - playwrights wrote three tragedies then one satyr play

  • Satyr Play - a play poking fun at one or more of the tragedies - the origin of our word satire

The Greek Playwrights

• Didaskalos - Greek word meaning “teacher.” The term was used for the playwright in Greek theatre who also supervised every aspect of the production. This would make him roughly equivalent to our modern concept of a “director.”

  • In ancient Greece, the birthplace of European drama, the writer bore principal responsibility for the staging of his plays. Actors would generally be semi-professionals, and the player director oversaw the mounting of plays from the writing process all the way through to their performances, often - as was the case for Aechylus for instance - also acting in them. He would also train the chorus, sometimes compose the music and supervise every aspect of production. The term applied to him, didoskalos, the Greek word for “teacher”, was indicative of how these early directors had to combine instruction of their performers with staging their work.

• Aeschylus (524-456 B.C.E)

  • First won City Dionysia competition 484 B.C.E.

  • The Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliants, Prometheus Bound, The Orestia: (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides)

    • Added additional character - two characters having dialogue - won City Dionysia 13 times during his life - after death, his plays were allowed to be revived and performed again and again - competed posthumously - credited with writing 90 plays, we have recovered titles of 79 in Athenian records - only seven survive

• Sophocles (496-406 B.C.E)

  • First won City Dionysia competition 468 B.C.E.

  • Ajax, Antigone, Trachiniae, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus

    • Oedipus Rex written by Sophocles is considered one of the most influential plays of all time. Aristotle called it the best example of tragedy he had ever seen.

    • Added third character - two characters talking, one observing - credited with 120+ plays - won City Dionysia 24 times - only seven plays survive

• Euripides (484-406 B.C.E.)

  • First won City Dionysia competition 440 B.C.E.

    • Rhesus, Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Children of Heracles, Andromache, Hecuba, The Suppliant Women, The Trojan Women, Electra, Helen, The Mad Heracles, Iphigenia among the Taurians, Ion, The Phoenician Women, Orestes, Iphigenia at Aulis, The Bacchae

    • Reportedly lived and wrote for some period of time alone in a cave - lived during the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens - that experience heavily influenced his plays - he wrote about the horrors of love and the horrors of war - won the City Dionysia only 4 times - wrote 90 plays - only 18 survived

• Aristophanes (450-385 B.C.E.)

  • First won City Dionysia competition 425 B.C.E.

    • The Archanians, The Knights, The Clouds, The Wasps, Peace, The Birds, Lysistrata, Women at the Thesmophoria, The Frogs, Women in the Assembly, Wealth

    • Only examples of Old Comedy (5th century) existing come from him - comedy accepted at City Dionysia in 487 BCE - wrote about 40 plays - 11 survived - 404 BCE end of Peloponnesian War marks end of first great classic period -

      • Old Comedy - 500?BCE - 404BCE (5th century BCE)

      • Middle Comedy - 404 - 336BCE (Alexander the Great)

      • New Comedy 336-31 BCE (4th to 1st Centuries BCE)

• Menander (342-290 B.C.E.)

  • One of the most popular playwrights of antiquity - won the Lenaia festival for comedy eight times.

    • One play extant: Dyskolos - The Grouch, or The Bad-Tempered Man (The Grumbler),

    • Parts of six others; The Arbitrants, The Girl from Samos, Hero, The Shield, Sikyonian, Perikeiromone

    • Fragments of over 80 more plays

The Rise & Decline of Greek Theatre

• Two periods important to understanding the society in which Greek theatre was born:

  • Persian Ward (499-449 B.C.E.)

    • Greek historian Herodotus described the events of this conflict

    • Battle of Marathon 490 B.C.E., Thermopylae 480 B.C.E.,

    • Battle of Salamis 480 B.C.E. - Dominance of Athens

  • Peloponnesian War (ca. 445 - ca. 400 B.C.E.)

    • Conflict between Athens and Sparta - Athens loses

    • Decline in democracy and the arts - end of Golden Age of Greek Theatre

One More Thing…

• HAMARTIA

  • Often said to be a “fatal flaw”, better to call it a character trait that gets our protagonist into trouble - With Oedipus it is his pride, his anger, and his belief that he can beat the gods

• According to Aristotle:

  • In Greek tragedy, we see the person at their height - a king, a nobleman, a queen - before we see their tragic fall

  • Peripeteiai - reversal of fortune - anagnorisis - the moment of recognition by the character

Oedipus the King by Sophocles

• Considered one of the most influential plays of all time!

• Characters:

  • Oedipus

  • Jocasta

  • Kreon

  • Tiresias

  • Messenger from Corinth

  • Old Shepherd

  • Palace messenger

  • Priest/Choragos

  • The Chorus (15-20)

• What we see in the plot of Oedipus the King is a very small part of the story.

• We get people filling in the story gaps - “the backstory” - late point of attack.

• Why did Greeks like tragedy so much?

• Something called CATHARSIS (katharsis)...

  • A purging of strong emotions by the audience to make them feel better - kinda like a primitive group therapy…

• More stuff to know about Greek drama:

  • Prologos - the prologue or “setting up” of the story

  • Parados - the entrance of the chorus

  • Episodes - the parts of the plot

  • Exodus - the exit or leaving of the chorus

    • Chorus was intermediaries between the audience and the characters onstage

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

• Some other stuff to know about Greek drama:

  • Episodic - plot told in episodes or pieces - gaps between parts

  • Climactic - plot builds seamlessly from beginning to end with no gaps

    • All Greek drama is considered climactic, even though the choral odes interrupt the action, story still flows seamlessly if you take out the odes

• THEATRON: the fan-shaped seating area for the audience in Ancient Greek theatre usually built into a hillside; our word theatre comes from this

• AMPHITHEATRON: the name for the entire structure - could hold between 14,000 and 17,000 people

• Orchestra: the round space between the theatron and the skene where the chorus in Greek theatre sang and danced.

• Skene - the “scene house” in Ancient Greek theatre behind which actors would change costumes and don masks; usually had 3 openings for entrances and exits

What is the Function of Theatre?

• A question asked many, many times over the years:

  • Is theatre’s purpose to teach the audience?

  • Is theatre’s purpose to please the audience?

  • OR…

    • Is it both...? To teach AND to please…?