Existentialism proposes that man is full of anxiety and
despair with no meaning in his life, just simply existing, until he
made decisive choice about his own future.
(1) A production dramaturg:
In production, the dramaturg works primarily with the director but may also be a resource for actors, designers and technicians by sharing information and research on aspects of the script (e.g. historical, cultural, political content)
Prepares scripts for performance; this work may include analyzing and revising/editing scripts, adapting non-theatrical text into a script, translating scripts from other languages
May act as advisor to playwright writing or workshopping a new script; also may act as a liaison between playwright and director
(2) A resident dramaturg (i.e. resident to a theatre company or group):
Reads and assesses new plays
Consults with the artistic director on the development of artistic policy and repertoire
Supervises the public pronouncements of the theatre insofar as they reflect its repertoire and aesthetics (publicity, press release, etc.)
Questions
A-Effect: The Verfremdungseffekt, alienation or "distanciation" effect, is the primary innovation of Brecht's epic theater. By alienating the spectator from the spectacle, its devices would reveal the social gestus underlying every incident on-stage and open a space for critical reflection. Often alienation also means making the workings of the spectacle possible, and decomposing the unity of the theatrical illusion. Brecht called for the spectator's alienation to oppose the mystifying tendencies of the conventional stage, tendencies that reduced its audience to passive, trance-like states. The possible techniques of alienation are endless. Slight chances in pace, alternative arrangements of the players on-stage, experiments in lighting, gesture, and tone. The success of each scene in Mother Courage hinges upon these devices. For example, Courage's "Song of the Great Capitulation," when played without alienation, risks seducing the spectator with the pleasures of surrender rather than exposing the depravity in the submission to an unjust authority.
Inciting Incident: The disturbance that launches the conflict/resolution process of the play. It begins the root action of the play. It is not necessarily the first event of the play or need it be the first event of the broad conflict that may have existed before the action of the play. It is the event of the play that starts the forces of conflict moving.
* Drama is a prose or verse composition telling a story which shows life or character through conflict and emotions. It is usually performed by actors and actresses in a theatrical setting, but can also refer to pre-recorded television programs or opera.
EXPRESSIONISM -- term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The expressionist transforms nature rather than imitates it. [ In the drama, Strindberg is considered the forefather of the expressionists, though the term is specifically applied to a group of early 20th-century German dramatists, including Kaiser, Toller, and Wedekind. ]
DRAMA: A composition, in prose or poetry, accommodated to action, and intended to exhibit a picture of human life, or to depict a series of grave or humorous actions of more than ordinary interest, tending toward some striking result. It is commonly designed to be spoken and represented by actors on the stage. [ Webster's 1913 Dictionary ]
Well-Made Play: French pièce bien faite
Play constructed according to strict technical principles that produce neatness of plot and theatrical effectiveness.
The form was developed c. 1825 by Eugène Scribe and became dominant on 19th-century European and U.S. stages. It called for complex, artificial plotting, a buildup of suspense, a climactic scene in which all problems are resolved, and a happy ending. Scribe's hundreds of successful plays were imitated all over Europe; other practitioners of the form included playwrights Victorien Sardou, Georges Feydeau, and Arthur Wing Pinero, who brought the form to the level of art with The Second Mrs. Tanqueray (1893). [ Britannica ]
New terms are introduced on "subject pages" in themes directory (new)
Besides the Six by Aristotle: Structure & Texture (a must)*
Some (new):
Dramatic Arc of the play
>Line-by-line Analysis : Close readings find the beats of the play, as well as line beats.
Character development including:
motivation
objective
action
obstacle
super objectives
Play language, is it specialized, or heightened? Evidence of poetic language?
Is it written in meter? Do you see internal or external rhyme?
Logic of the world of the play
What are repeating themes or structures that are particular to the language of the play?
An exercise to look at the logic of the play’s language is to experiment and find connections in the lexicon (word connotation) that connects specialized language of the play.
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
...
"Dramatic Question": A device to help clarify analysis. It is the question the play exists to answer. Often phrasing the dramatic question will illuminate the play so the root conflict and root action emerge clearly.
"Cycle of Action": A series of minor conflicts that contribute to the root action and lead to the resolution of the root conflict. Each action cycle is structurally much like the complete play in having an inciting incident, climax, etc.
"Dramatic irony": the words or acts of a character may carry a meaning unperceived by the character but understood by the audience. The irony resides in the contrast between the meaning intended by the speaker and the different significance seen by others.
THR215 DramLit: An introduction to the analysis, preparation and dramatic reading of literature ( new glossary @ dramlit.vtheatre.net *
WORK SHEET FOR SCRIPT ANALYSIS
I. Given Circumstances
A. Environment
1. Geographical location, climate, etc.
2. Date
3. Economic factors
4. Political factors
5. Social/religious factors
B. Previous action
C. Polar attitudes of characters
D. Dialog
1. Choice of words
2. Choice of sentence structures
3. Choice of images
4. Characteristics, i.e, dialect, etc.
5. Prose/poetry
II. Dramatic Action
A. Root conflict
B. Root action
C. Dramatic question
D. Cycles of action
E. Tempo
F. Mood
G. Climax
III. Characters
A. Given circumstances (may relate to above)
B. History prior to entrance on stage
C. Attitudes (will relate to I.c above
School/Movement - Expressionism
Dates - Term coined in 1901
Big in Germany in the teens, extended into 20’s in the U.S.
Description/Philosophy
Inside - Out
Finding a visual vocabulary to make internal seen to the audience
Takes symbolist motive and manifests its darker side or sociopolitical side
Dark reality - mechinization of society reflected on people
Interaction of environment and humans, social critique
Exploration of experience - show dark side psychologically
Society has a point of reference to the outside world, society IS the outside world
Characters- types rather than individuals, distorted visuals in productions, usually everything on
stage seen from protagonist view/psyche, pessimistic, society is the problem, individual has little
hope
Founder/Key Influences
Strindberg - who can be seen as the “father of all isms” by some
Plays & Playwrights
Rice -Adding Machine - - the plot is shown in scenes (stations) rather than linear plot
development, characters are types
Toller - Man and the Masses - - society is the problem and people have little hope
Kaiser - From Man to Midnight - - messianic central figure
Other Important Names
Vincent van Gogh, Willem de Kooning, Edward Munch, Kokoschka
For Future Reference
Shock of the New - for expressionist art
School/Movement - Surrealism
Dates - Early 1900’s through 1930’s
(plays written up until 1930’s)
Description/Philosophy
Higher truth coming from within - that is the starting point
Interested in internal values/truths
The psychological logic of a dream expressed on stage
Interested in audience experiencing - engaged in pure thought
Founder/Key Influences
Apollinaire - 1917 - coined term ‘Surrealism’
Manifesto 1924 - Andre Breton
Breton tried to define surrealism - express actual function of thought
1929 - second manifesto
Journal - Surrealist Revolution
Plays and Playwrights
Roger Vitrac, Phillipe Soupault, Charles Baron
Apollinaire - Breasts of Tiresias Jaques Cocteau - Soluable Fish, If You Please, You Will
Forget Me, Wedding on Eiffel Tower
Other Important Names
Breton - interested in tapping subconscious - automatic writing - wanted to see if possible to
write without conscious brain interfering
Dali, Magritte Surrealists embraced Picasso even though he was not a member of their circle
For Future Reference
The Theatre in Dada and Surrealism - J.H. Matthews
Dada and Surrealist Performance - Annabelle Melzer
School/Movement -
Marxist Theory
Dates - 1840’s to the present
Description/Philosophy
“The liberation of the working class by the elimination of all classes and therefore the
unaviodable class struggle of modern capitalism.”
“From each according to their ability to each according to their need.”
Founder
Karl Marx - Philosopher 1818-1883 *(blamed for having invented communism) He is the
father of Dialectical Materialism.
Influences
Hegel - phil., contributed greatly to rebirth of dialectic method. Into dialectical idealism.
Dialectic but materialist
Feuerbach - phil., Hegel diciple. Into metaphysical materialism
Frederick Engels - co-author of the Communist Manifesto
Manifesto
Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts - Karl Marx 1844
Communist Manifesto - Marx and Engels 1848
Das Capital: Volumes I, II, III - Marx 1867-94
Plays and Playwrights
Revolt of the Beavers - Federal Theatre Project 1940’s
Measures Taken - Brecht
Emile Zola Maurice Myerhold G.B. Shaw
Had effect on Boal - takes structure of drama and turns it upside down in order to liberate
the audience, creating spect-actors.
Other Important Names -- (Inspired by Marx)
Chaplin, Orwell, Stravinski, Hemingway, Gandhi, Darwin, Mao, Einstein, Pavlov, Picasso,
Faulkner, Lenin, Freud, Tolstoi
For Future Reference
see glossary of the masses
important - idea of surplus value
School/Movement -
Constructivism
Dates - Started in 1913-14
Description/Philosophy
One views how everything is made/constructed, the bare bones, nothing decorated on stage
Actor = worker, like a gym- everything serves the ‘acrobatics’ of the actors
Simplicity, function, no mysteries, art in space, lots of architechtural influences, used poster art
with slogans
Art for the masses, Art is conscious
Founder/Key Influences
Vladimir Tatlin (architect)
Began in Russia
Architectural influences
Plays and Playwrights
Ostrovsky - The Storm
Other Important Names
Picasso, rival: Kazimir Malevich, who did the “black canvas”
Myerhold - director, de-constructed the classics
Witkiewictz - Theatre of Pure Form
For Future Reference
Look at Russian Theatre
School/Movement -
Futurism (Italian)
Dates - Approximately 1909-1922
Description/Philosophy
To create a theatre that is fundamentally nonrepresentational and alogical
Experiences for own sake rather than for references, implications
Does not tell a story- stays away from character, abolish conventions
Anti-realism, speed, power, movement, force, pure abstraction, simultaneous presentation,
originality-surprise, mechinization, improv
Audience involvement- (selling 2 or 3 tix for same seat in order to create conflict)
Assualt conservative older passeists
Glorification of war, speed, machine age
Founder/Key Influences
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti 1876-1944
Reaction against symbolism, realistic theatre, or any theatre of convention
Manifesto 13 published - 1st in 1909
Important one - “The Variety Theatre” by Marinetti, 1913
“The Futurist Synthetic Theatre” - 1915
“Theatre of Surprise” - 1921 by Marinetti and Canguillo
Plays and Playwrights
Poetry readings- evenings of dynamic, synoptic declamation, pro-war connection
Short plays - 10 seconds to 40 minutes called Sintesi
Marinetti - Le Roi Bombance, Simultaneita, Pouppees Electriques
Umberto Boccioni - Bachelor Apartment
Emilio Settimelli Bruno Corra
Other Important Names
Music- Luigi Russlo- created instruments, metalic rubbing sounds, harsh and unnatural
Prampolini - designer
Piscator - puppets, many innovations in puppetry due to futurists
For Future Reference
Futurist Performance - Michael Kirby and Victoria NesKirby
Pink Floyd - The wall (animation)
*Note- Futurists:
novelty theatre - to do with movement, power,
more of a nonsensical playfulness compared to dadaists confrontational in your face tactics
THE MAN - Antonin Artaud
Dates 1896-1948
Movements
Bureau for Surrealist Research - joined 1925, expelled 1926
Theatre Alfred Jarry in 1926-1929
Theatre of Cruelty - 1932
Description/Philosophy
Elimination of spoken words, use of pure sound, gesture, and movement
Artaud referred to as ‘father of ritual theatre’- used masks, incantations, rhythmic movement
Concentrated on theatre’s ability to promote catharsis and disrupting the audiences rational,
western consciousness
Insisted theatre be used as language- concerned with developing and utilizing a calculated theatre
semiotics
*Theories/projects remained largely unrealized during his lifetime
Key Influences
Andre Breton and ‘The Surrealist Revolution’
Jacque Riviere editor of Nouvelle Revue Francaise, Aurelian-Marie Lugne-Poe director of the
symbolist Theatre de l’Oeuvre, and Charles Dullin founder of Theatre de l’Atelier
Manifesto/Credo - “to divest the theatre of all logic and verisimilitude; touch and bruise the
spectator, thereby forcing involvement”
1st manifesto (of sorts)- Theatre of Cruelty- 1932 - “to make space speak”
2nd manifesto(ditto)- Theatre of Cruelty - 1933
Plays
Jet of Blood, Conquest of Mexico, The Cenci
Other Important Names - (influenced by Artaud)
playwrights - Ionesco, Pinter, Genet
directors - Peter Brook, Jertzy Grotowski
The Living Theatre - Judith Malina, Julian Beck in New York, (1951- late 60’s) were interested
in using physicality, tribal images, and challenging the audience
For Future Reference
The Theatre and its Double - Artaud
Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty - Albert Bermel
Artaud and After - Ronald Hayman
Antonin Artaud: Man of Vision - Bettina L. Knapp
Antonin Artaud: Selected Writings - Susan Sontag
NB
Use other theatre dictionaries for now (other directories).
Specific theatrical elements like light, sound, movement, props and set.
theatre theory
Your outline should follow this pattern:
Thesis Statement
Introduction
Grabber
Background
Thesis Statement
One character (list all the information you have about one character)
The other character (compare to the previous character)
Conclusion
Restate the main idea
Concluding thought
Oscar Lee Brownstein and Darlene M. Daubert's * Analytical Sourcebook of Concepts in Dramatic Theory * collects quotes from a number of authors and organizes them according to theme, e.g., "Catharsis," "Affect," "Three Unities." It's easy to criticize a book like this for not including X, Y, or Z, but it's pretty useful. It includes writers from antiquity to modernity. For Aristotle, they cite passages from De Anima, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics, The Parts of Animals, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics.
They don't, however, include anything by Plato.
amazon.com + groups.yahoo.com/group/dramlit must subscribe, if in class! *
theatre theory
