"Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love." -- George Bernard Shaw
Do you see the guys below: the philosophers -- now we are getting seruious, kids!
"What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you." --Jean Cocteau "Thank you, The Academy..." [The Platonic Girls are in Theatre Theory Directory]: Aristotle: Objective Idealism Platonism: Subjective Idealism Hegel: Objective Idealism Existentialism Marxism Objectivism SummaryThemes, Motifs, and Symbols 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. The Glass Menagerie (sample, SparkNotes) QuestionsI 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!NotesTHR215 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?"» Metaphor and Theme Analysis Theatre Books Master-Page * HOW to use "Themes" Analysis in THR215 Dramlit:
* Themes Page Theatre Theory *
System of linking to SHOWS:
tragedy
comedy
drama
use in acting/directing/film classes:
Stage Directing 2007
Acting2
Film Analysis (Fall 2007)
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Use pages -- Notes, Appendix, List; places where the updates are!OVERVIEW: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?
What is family? (Lady Bracknell's code).
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)
Next time offered: 2006-2007
Let me repeat myself (from Film600):
Where teaching and studying (research) meet --
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.
Several pages to use: thistory, drama, tragedy, comedy pages.
* THR413 Playscript Analysis Fall 2006