I still have to find the way to connect script.vtheatre.net pages with shows.vtheatre.net, the plays I direct. Script Analysis classes are for directors and actors -- they have to understand, why they do: they DIRECT thoughts and feelings... That is why I have a new directory Film600. In film this phenomena is obvious!
Notes
THR215 Dramatic Literature -- intro to THR413 Playscript Analysis. Plays, some history, basic theory (Aristotle) and themes-ideas. Next -- evolution of topics. Drama must be seen as "philosophy" (study of humanity in art forms). That's why Ineed postmodern methods -- freedom of associations...
"Theatre is not a mirror but a magnifying glass." Mayakovsky
Shakespeare and Iconicity Shakespearean Themes and Motifs in Anton Chekhov's Works :
On the threshold of the 20th century Anton Chekhov recounted to Pyotr Gnedich his conversation with Lev Tolstoy: «Once he told me, "You know, I can not stand Shakespeare, but your plays are even worse. Shakespeare, at least, grabs the reader for the collar and leads him to a certain destination without letting him turn aside. But where do your heroes leads to? From the couch, where they lie, to the cellar and back?"»
"The word which is most often used to classify types of dramatic material is genre. It comes to us from Middle French and originally meant a kind or type of thing and is related to such words as gender and genus. The first person to formally consider the classification and analysis of drama was Aristotle. He described two genres of dramatic art: tragedy and comedy. He believed that they came from very different sources, and went on to analyze tragedy in detail in his Poetics. Even today their iconic representations--the tragic and comic masks--have come to symbolize the theatre. We shall consider these genres first in each Genres lecture since they are the progenitors of the many others that have evolved since Aristotle's time. We shall also look at them first because although there is substantial agreement on what constitutes tragedy and comedy, there are widely differing views on what the other genres are, and how to define them." Robert C. Huber
Use pages -- Notes, Appendix, List; places where the updates are!
This time around the focus is on THEMES!
Playscript Analysis of Humanity
In THR413 I start from the year 2000, the postmodernity, our issues. The End of the Family, Gender Construction and etc. -- our problems. We can find them in drama and we can find good questions there.
For example, I direct "The Importance of Being Earnest" and you can see the
directory WWWilde with the play online. We can study the text (well-made play)
and we can try to understand the Thought. Look at the topic of marriage. Fully
socialized, but in tradition of Foucault (Discipline and Punish), when the
culture is implanted inside an individual.
This is the stronger control that by the laws and government. Fashions are
the better rulers.
What are the relations between man and woman, according to Oscar Wilde?
What does constitute "man" (gentleman)?
How the identity is formed (name)?
Now, go back to our realities.
Homosexuality is the obvious situation of "sexual orientation" -- does the
gender exist? Or is it nothing more than a social product?
2005: For the first time I teach THR215 Dramatic Analysis and THR413 Playscript Analysis together (Fall) -- and it forces me to made the difference between the two stronger. Or -- the difference between Art and Craft. Vertical and Horizontal Structure.
Aristotle writes about "Dramatic Poetry" = the art of playwrighting. NTL, you won't find in his 6 Elements the genres he established (tragedy and comedy), you won't find "conflict" or "themes"...
Is possible that some plot could be strong -- and its story weak?
Why "well-made play" not always "great play"?
What is difference between "good" writing for stage and "great" writing?
Aristotle didn't have that long of drama history we have. In fact, the body of dramatic texts at his time was very small. No Shakespeare, no Chekhov, no Beckett. Great playwrights survived because of the vertical structure of themes, images, symbols, philosophy...
You can learn the craft, the art you have to discover.
THEMES pages are for the use of THR413 Playscript Analysis (mainly)
Theme-thought, according to different playwrights (Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and so on) and directors (Fillini, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, Bergman pages).
Connections with other themes (list): family, gender and sex...
Finally, my own practical investigations: shows.vtheatre.net (only recently I began to make themes pages, Don Juan 2003, for example).
And the nonfiction (writing), of course: HIM, Father-Russia, PostAmeriKa, Self, POV, Tech (gatepages are in WRITE directory).
Yeah, yeah, there is more -- "philo" pages, metaphysics: in theatre directory, for instance (topics-bar: space, time and etc.)
THR215: Hamlet
Nothing wrong with the chronological narrative: from the Greeks to us, but thematic approach gives another perspective to this anatlysis. It's there anyway.
theatre theory * 
