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Almost all modern actor-training methods trace their heritage to this Russian Actor. emotional memory and method acting

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Stanislavsky/The Stanislavsky system

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the ability to understand and identify with another's situation, feelings, and motives so completely that you feel you are experiencing that situation and those emotions.

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Empathy

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"What would I do if I were this character in these circumstances?" (The Magic "if")

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Stanislavsky technique is based on one question

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What are the circumstances of characters' lives? i.e., their situations, their problems and the limits life has placed on them

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Given Circumstances

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What does a character want? i.e., his/her unfulfilled needs and desires

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Objectives

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What does a character want most? This "most important want" or superobjective becomes the driving force that governs the character's actions throughout the entire play.

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Superobjective

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what other people see vs. how we see ourselves

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Public and Personal Images

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unfinished business that is so compelling that it handicaps the character until it is confronted.

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Inner Conflicts

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an inner flaw that hampers a character's good judgment and leads the character to make unfortunate choices.

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Character Flaws (a.k.a. fatal flaw or tragic flaw)

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the reason a character takes a particular action

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Basic Elements in Understanding a Character: Motivation

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the character's POV (point of view) A well-drawn character is always attempting to change negatives into positives—from his or her perspective

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what is key to understanding a character?

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The union that represents stage actors; often shortened to "Actors' Equity" or "Equity."

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Actors' Equity Association

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The union that represents film and television actors

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Screen Actors Guild (SAG)

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The trade union, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, that represents talk-show hosts as well as announcers, singers, disc jockeys, newscasters, sportscasters, and even stunt people.

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American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)

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The first step in the rehearsal process; the actors read through the play while seated around a table. Afterward, the director and actors discuss the characters, motivations, and meaning, and the designers may present their ideas to the cast.

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Table Work

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A series of rehearsal in which the director and actors work out the blocking, or the movement of the actors on stage during the play.

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Blocking rehearsals

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Rehearsals during which the director and actors work on individual scenes and concentrate on understanding the characters' motivation, emotions, and personality.

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General working rehearsals

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A rehearsal for a special element, such as fight scenes, musical numbers, dance numbers, or dialects.

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Special rehearsals

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The rehearsal when the actors must have their lines memorized because they no long have the script ("book") with them on stage.

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Off-book rehearsal

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Rehearsals to go through an act or the entire play from beginning to end with as few interruptions as possible.

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Run-throughs

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Rehearsals that include the lights, sound, costumes, more complex props, and final set pieces.

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Tech rehearsals

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The final rehearsals, when costumes and makeup are added

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Dress rehearsals

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Ideally, the play is run as if it were a real performance.

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Final dress rehearsal

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the one night of the week when a play is not performed and the theatre is closed; typically Monday night.

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Dark nights

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a list directors keep of actors they want to call back for another audition to narrow the field of candidates

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callback list

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an audition to which anyone may come and be given a minute or so to perform for the director aka open call

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cattle call

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audition in which actors read from a script without any preparation

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cold read

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an exception to the actors' equality association wage standards that allows members to work for free in small productions

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equity waiver

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a system for transcribing the sounds of speech that is independent of any particular language but applicable to all languages

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international phonetic alphabet (IPA)

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when actors replace the character's emotions with unrelated but personal emotions of their own.

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substitution

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digital actor created by computer animators

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synthespian

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acting from the outside in concentrating on physical details

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technical approach

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the person in charge of the overall creative vision or goal of the ensemble; often chooses which plays to produce, who will direct and who will design ; is also an ambassador to the community, a fundraiser, and the theatre's chief promoter.

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artistic director

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a person who helps the stage manager run the show during performances and assist the director with the rehearsal process

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assistant stage manager

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the time the actors arrive at the theatre

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call

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ther person who creates the dance numbers for a play or musical or who teaches the dance numbers to the actors

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choreographer

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An artistic gathering to interpret the playwright's script; the director and designers brainstorm, research, and experiment with different set, costume, and light possibilities.

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concept meeting

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The sewing machines, fabric-cutting tables, fitting rooms, and laundry facilities needed to create and maintain the costumes for a theatrical production.

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costume shop

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Usually the start of a show, but can also be the end of a show or an act, signaled by the raising or lowering of the curtain.

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curtain

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A large, stretched curtain suspended from a U-shaped pipe to make a background that can completely enclose the stage setting. Lights are often projected on the cyc to indicate a location or a mood.

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cyclorama (aka cyc)

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a literary advisor and expert in theatre history who helps directors, designer's drawings and actors better understand the specifics and sensibilities of a play and who can also help playwrights find their voice

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dramaturg

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studies the costume designers drawings and renderings and then finds a way to cut the fabric into patterns that realize the design

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draper

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person offstage who helps actors make quick costume changes

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dresser

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the crew of technicians, the assistants and the artists including actors, directors, speech coaches, playwrights, and designers who use a wide variety of art forms including painting drawing, writing, and acting as well as set, lighting, and costume design to create a theatre production.

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ensemble

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a specialist who choreographs stage combat from fistfights to swordplay

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fight director

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originally the wood and muslin units that made up 3 walls of a room on stage' now plain wall units as well as doors windows and fireplaces

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flat

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a single bare light bulb mounted on a portable pole left to burn all night in the middle of the stage as a safety precaution.

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ghost light

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A small room for actors waiting for their cues, located just off the stage and out of the audience's earshot.

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greenroom

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a theatre's seating area

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house

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in charge of all the ushers; deals with any seating problems and makes sure the audience finds their seats and that the play begins on time

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house manager

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the curtains at the sides of the stage in a proscenium arch theatre

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legs

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a liaison between playwrights,agents, and the theatre who reads and evaluates new scripts. Also this person often writes grant applications to help support new play development and stage readings of new plays.

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literary manager

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a theatre's purpose and key objectives,which can include quality diversity and accessibility, as well as the type of theatre to be produced.

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mission statement

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a specialist who instructs actors in various styles of movement

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movement coach

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a specialist who works with the musicians and teaches the actors the songs for a musical

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musical director

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Detailed notes to the actors and crew informing them of any problems that occurred and what needs to be fixed before the next performance.

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performance report

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In the United States, the person or institution responsible for the business aspects of a production. Producers can be individuals who finance the production with their own money or who control investors money or they can be institutions that control the business side of the production

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producer or producing director

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one of a series of meetings between a director and designers to discuss how to realize the production concept as well as the play's philosophy, interpretation, theme, physical demands, history, and style

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production meeting

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a copy of the play on which the production's sound and light cues, blocking notes, and other information needed for rehearsal and performance are recorded.

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prompt book

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short for properties includes set props such as sofas and beds and hand props or small objects actors handle on stage (i.e. guns, pens, cigars, money, umbrellas, and eyeglasses)

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prop

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The prop master ensures props are placed where they need to be and that they are in working order.

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prop check

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A person who finds and buys props for productions, or designs and builds them; also in charge of rehearsal props.

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prop master

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table in convenient offstage area on which all props are left prior to performance and should be returned after used

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prop table

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People who promote a theatre and its upcoming productions.

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publicity department

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A temporary costume used during rehearsal so that the actors get a feel for the actual costume before it is ready.

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rehearsal costume

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A temporary prop used during rehearsal to represent the real property that the actors will not be able to use until a few days before the play opens.

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rehearsal prop

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The stage manager's written report for the entire ensemble on how rehearsal went and about any concerns or ideas that affect the set, lights, props, or costume.

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rehearsal report

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a group of plays preformed by a theatre company during the course of a season

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repertory

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a person who mounts an operates curtains, sets, and anything else that must move via the fly system above the stage`

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rigger (aka flyman)

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everyone who helps out back stage during a play.

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running crew

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a curtain of open-mesh gauze that can be opaque or translucent depending on whether the light comes from in front or behind it

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scrims

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The person who interprets a playwright's and director's words into visual imagery for a production; usually has a strong background in interior design, architecture, and art history, as well as theatrical conventions of various periods.

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set designer

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A person who runs the sound board during various sound cues throughout a production; also ensures that all the speakers, mixer, amplifiers, backstage monitor, and intercom are working prior to curtain.

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sound board operator

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A person who synthesizes and records the sounds for a production and designs systems to amplify an actor or singer's voice; has a detailed knowledge of acoustics, electronics, digital music editing programs, audio mixing boards and signal processing equipment, microphones, effects processors, and amplifiers; and sometimes writes and plays transition music or underscore scenes with mood music.

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sound designer

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the back door that actors use to enter and leave the theatre

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stage door

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the most important assistant to a director; the person who is responsible for running the show during the performance and helping the director during auditions and the rehearsal process by taking notes, recording blocking, and scheduling rehearsals

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stage manager

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A person who helps shift scenery and generally sets up the play for the next scene.

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stagehand

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The person who sews fabric patterns together creating the full costumes, and also builds or finds the rehearsal costumes.

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stitcher

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the curtain that frames the top of the stage

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teasers

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the person who coordinates, schedules, and engineers all the technical elements of a production

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technical director

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helps the actors with speech, clarity, volume, and preservation of their voices for the long run of a show.

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vocal coach

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director turns the printed script into a production. To do this, the director must have the artistic vision and the intent to coordinate dozens of theatre artists, technicians, and other personnel to work toward that vision with a singleness of purpose. must synthesize the work of the playwright, the designers, and the performers into a unique theatrical event.

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director

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in ancient Greece, a playwright-directors who staged the plays he wrote, instructing the performers and advising the designers and technicians

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didaskalos

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often credited as the first modern director. He organized his actors into an ensemble where there were no stars. He insisted on long rehearsal periods and ordered his actors to explore every psychological aspect of their characters. He also made many advances in staging, fully integrating authentic costumes, scenery and props

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George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen

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the metaphor, thematic idea, symbol or allegory that will be central to the whole production.

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production concept

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specialize in finding the right actor to fit the part; common in film

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casting directors

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an actor who physically matches the role

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cast to type

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deliberately cast actors who the exact opposite, or very different

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cast against type

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casting without regard to the character's gender

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gender-neutral

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intentionally casting men to play women's roles or women to play men's in order to study societal perceptions of gender identity

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cross-gender casting

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without regard for race or ethnic background; controversial

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color-blind casting

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the movement of the actors onstage; how the director achieves focus and picturization

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blocking

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attempt to translate the play from the page to the stage as accurately and faithfully as possible.

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Interpretive directors

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often add concepts, designs, or interpretations atop the playwright's words that were never intended by the playwright. Their works are sometimes called concept productions because the director's artistic vision, or concept, dominates.

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Creative directors

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a person who helps stage scenes and manage the production crew

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assistant director

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a section of dialogue about a particular subject or idea; the smallest structural element of a script

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beat

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the actor, action,or spot on the stage to which the director draws the audience's attention

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focus

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a structural element of a play that begins with any entrance or exit and continues until the next entrance or exit

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french scene

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a director whose goal is to translate a script from a page to stage as faithfully as possible

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interpretive director

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a theatre company founded in the late 19th century by a group of Russian producers, actors, directors, and dramatists. Made famous by the plays of Anton Chekhov and the acting techniques of Stanislavsky

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moscow art theatre

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Composing pictures with the actors to reinforce an idea in the story; a technique used by directors

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picturization

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the thematic idea, symbol, or allegory that conveys the tone, mood, and theme of a play

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production concept

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an actors position at a right angle to the audience; halfway between open and closed

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profile

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a position for two or more actors, each with a shoulder thrown back (also called one quarter) so that the audience can see them equally

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sharing focus

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one of the nine sections of the stage labeled according to the actors' point of view, such as downstage right, center stage, or upstage left

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stage area

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taking focus out of turn; also known as upstaging

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stealing focus

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a technique for drawing focus when three actors or groups of actors are on stage; the person or group at the upstage or downstage apex of the triangle takes the focus

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triangulation

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taking focus out of turn; also known as stealing focus

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upstaging

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by our eyes, ears, mind, and whole being

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Theatre is intended to be experienced

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True, Every plot, conflict, and character would change if they were moved to new surroundings

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True or False? Environment is integral to any story

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True, but they all must take into account the demands of the play and the limitations of the theatre.

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True or False? No two designers work the same way

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Budget, Deadlines, Physical Limitations of the Stage, Mechanical Requirements

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what are limitations of the theatre

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Line, Dimension, Balance, Movement, Harmony, Color, and Texture

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What are the basic elements of design

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True: Every color, fold, and cut is a reflection of character - for a specific character in a specific scene in a specific play.

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True or false? There is no such thing as a "generic" costume

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Imagination and Budget

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What are the only limitations for today's designers?

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the acting area of the stage that extends beyond the proscenium arch to the audiences side of the picture frame also called lip

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apron

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a type of theatre with the stage in the center, like an island, surrounded on all sides by audience; also called theatre-in-the-round

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arena theatre

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a small theatre that generally holds fewer than a hundred people and has moveable seats so that audience groupings can be changed for every production

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black box theatre

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makeup that completely transforms the way actors look, such as shadows, wrinkles, and gray hair to turn young actors into elderly characters

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character makeup

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programs used by set designers to create blueprints of set designs

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computer aided design (CAD)

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drawings that indicate how a costume is shaped, where seams and folds are, how the costume flows, and what fabrics are to be used

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costume plate

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a computerized light board

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dimmer

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a tryout of the completed costumes by the actors for the costume designer and director so that necessary changes can be made before opening night

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dress parade

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the views of a set design from front and back

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elevations

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started in Germany around 1910 as a reaction to a new kind of painting called Impressionism. A style that shows the audience the action of the play through the mind of one character. Instead of seeing photographic reality, the audience sees the character's own emotions and point of view. often uses deliberate distortion

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expressionism

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the blueprint of a set design that shows the view from above

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floor plan

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the elaborate network of pulleys, riggings, and counterweights that allows scenic pieces to be "flown" up and out of the audience's sight in a traditional proscenium arch theatre

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fly system

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spaces where theatre can be performed, such as parks, churches, town squares, basements, warehouses, gymnasiums, jails, subway stations, and street corners

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found or created space

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sheets of colored plastic attached to the front of lighting instraments

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gel (JELLS)

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metal cutouts placed on the front of lighting instruments to project patterns (such as sunlight coming through the leaves of a tree) on stage

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gobos

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a detailed drawing that shows the location of each lighting instrument on the hanging grid, where its light will be focused, and its type, wattage, and the circuity needed, and its color

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lighting plot

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in the mid 1800s a gas powered spotlight in which a jet of oxygen and hydrogen was ignited with small bits of lime; now, the word means "the center of attention"

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limelight

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the acting area of the stage that extends beyond the proscenium arch to the audiences side of the picture frame also called apron

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lip

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stage lighting that comes from an identifiable source, such as a candle, lamp, or the sun

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motivated light

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stage lighting that reinforces the mood of a scene but doesn't necessarily come from an identifiable or onstage source

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nonmotivated light

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a formal arch that separates the audience from the actors, or a theatre with such an arch; also called "picture frame theatre"

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proscenium arch

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the cultural movement behind theatrical realism, it began around 1850 and popularized the idea that plays could be a force for social and political change

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realism

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a design style that mixes authentic looking elements with stylized ones

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selective realism

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a prop that is part of the set and is not touched by actors

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set decoration

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audience members' view of areas of the stage

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sight lines

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a design style that suggests rater than exactly duplicates the look of a period

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simplified or suggested realism

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makeup that does not change actors' looks but makes their face look more 3D and therefore more visible to the audience

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straight makeup

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represented an attempt to reach back to a pre-conscious dream-like state, thus providing a pathway between the inner and outer worlds of human consciousness, believing significant truths are those deeply buried in the psyche, suppressed by the conscious mind.

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surrealism

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argued that truth is independent of time and place and can only be suggested through universal symbols that evoke feelings and states of mind corresponding imprecisely to our intuitions.

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symbolism

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A theater stage that extends out into the audience's part of a theater and has seats on three sides

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thrust stage

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tunnels, like those in sports stadiums, that run into and under the tiers of audience seats to allow actors quick access to the stage

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vomitories (voms)

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areas out of the audience's sight from which actors make their entrances and in which sets are stored

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wings

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in contrast to a musical, the category of plays without music

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straight plays

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a type of theatre that features song and dance interspersed with spoken text

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musical

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a drama that is set entirely to music; all the lines are sung, usually to grand, classical music.

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Musical Styles: Opera

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differs from "grand opera" because it has a frivolous, comic theme, some spoken dialogue, a melodramatic story, and usually a little dancing.

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Musical Styles: Operetta ("light opera")

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characterized by a light-hearted, fast-moving comic story, whose dialogue is interspersed with popular music.

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Musical Styles: Musical Comedy

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has a more serious plot and theme.

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Musical Styles: Straight Musical

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uses rock music from the rock and roll of the 50s to contemporary pop.

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Musical Styles: Rock Musical

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a program of satirical sketches, singing, and dancing on a particular theme. descend from vaudeville

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Musical Styles: Revue

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a program of unrelated singing, dancing, and comedy numbers descend from vaudeville

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Musical Styles: Variety Show

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a popular form of stage entertainment from the 1880s to the 1940s. descends from Burlesque

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Musical Styles: Vaudeville

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a form of musical entertainment featuring bawdy songs, dancing women, and sometimes striptease; began in the 1840s as a parody of the pretentiousness of opera.

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Musical Styles: Burlesque

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in a musical script, the orchestrated melodies, which are written by the composer

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Music

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for a musical, a person who writes music

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Composer

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for a musical, the sung words' the writer is called the lyricist

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Lyrics

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for a musical, the person who writes the lyrics

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lyricist

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for a musical, the spoken lines of dialogue and the plot written by the librettist

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book

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for a musical, the person who writes the book or spoken lines of dialogue and plot

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librettist

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musicals with a particularly well-developed story and characters

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Book Musicals

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musicals that feature the work of a director-choreographer

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Dance Musicals

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musicals that are mostly singing and have less spoken dialogue

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Operatic Musicals

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a medley of the show's songs played as a preview, how a traditional musical begins

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Overture

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a love song

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Ballad

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provides comic relief

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Comedy Number

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a big production number. Songs are placed strategically within the story, usually at points where dialogue is not sufficient, so the characters must break into song to fully express what they are feeling and cause the audience to experience an emotional response.

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Showstopper

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some songs are followed later by repetition, sometimes with new lyrics, sometimes with the same lyrics but with new meaning or subtext in order to make a dramatic point.

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Reprise

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Though Americans were not the first to add song and dance to the theatre, they did make a unique form of musical theatre by borrowing from and combining other forms.

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Was the musical an American invention?

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Developed during the Italian Renaissance in the late 1500s. Creators were attempting to imitate ancient Greek tragedies Hit its peak in the nineteenth century Composers: Richard Wagner (1813-1883), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Wolfgang Mozart (1756-1791), Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)

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Opera History

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including operetta, developed out of intermezzi, or comic interludes performed during the intermissions of operas. Composers: Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911), Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900)

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Comic Opera History

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the earliest American musicals, brought from England and popular during the colonial period. Mixed popular songs of the day with spoken dialogue.

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Ballad Opera History

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around 1840 in America burlesque was "all the rage;" featured songs, skits and plenty of racy dancing girls in a "leg-show." Note: The original purpose of burlesque was to lampoon high society's operatic tradition by turning it into a kind of sexy caricature.

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Burlesque History

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by 1890 vaudeville had replaced burlesque as the dominant form of American musical entertainment; designed to be more respectable, wholesome, and family-oriented. Most vaudeville companies were small and traveled the rails from town to town putting on one-night shows in local theatres. Big-time vaudeville featured a series of lavish musical reviews on Broadway, featuring popular stars, epitomized by the Ziegfeld Follies (1907-1931). TV Examples: Variety shows between the 1950s and 1970s were all descendents of vaudeville. Reality-TV Format: America's Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol

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Vaudeville History

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unique to the United States, these musical shows came to prominence in the 1830s and lasted well into the twentieth centuryIncluded comic scenes, dance interludes, and sentimental ballads, all based on white stereotypes of black life in the South. Flourished because black music was very popular, but it was considered improper for whites to go to a theatre to hear black musicians play, so white performers put on blackface - and minstrel shows provided Northern white audiences with an idea of what the lives of the slaves were like. Disclaimer re: Minstrel Shows: The early minstrel shows were nothing but entertainment and they never challenged white audiences to think about the atrocities of slavery. In fact, the skits in the minstrel shows often contained illiterate and foolish exchanges that made fun of blacks. However, during the Civil War years (1860s) some black performers also painted their faces black and formed their own minstrel troupes. The most famous minstrel performers in the late 1800s and early 1900s were black. When Hollywood got into the act, the faces under the black makeup were once again white. The first "talkie" movie, The Jazz Singer (1927) featured white actor Al Jolson in blackface performing in a minstrel show. Not until the 1950s and 1960s brought the civil rights movement did minstrel shows fall into total disrepute.

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Minstrel Show history

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- a melodrama about a crook-backed practitioner of black magic in a production described as an "extravaganza" that included demons and sprites and "bare-armed" women. A massive success, it turned over $1 million in profits on a $25,000 investment.

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The Black Crook (1866)

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A Trip to Coontown (1898) - a spoof of A Trip to Chinatown, a popular musical comedy The Origin of the Cakewalk (1898) - the first all-black show to play at a top Broadway theatre. Not until 1959 did a straight play by a black playwright make it to Broadway: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

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AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSICALS

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~30 years(1900) after the railroad was finished(1869) there were nearly 300 youring companies, mostof the plays were melodramas, but there were also plenty of musicals, which were fast becoming America's favorite form of entertainment.

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How did the railroad effect theatre

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Big-ticket musical comedies were dominating Broadway; patriotic and sentimental their cardboard characters and flimsy stories never stood in the way of giving audiences an evening of entertainment and plenty of catchy tunes. Composers: George M. Cohan (1878-1942), Irving Berlin (1888-1989)

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World War I Effect of Theatre

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Jazz began influencing the American musical with pit orchestras led by soon-to-be-famous big band leaders Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman. Composers: George and Ira Gershwin (1898-1937 and 1896-1983)

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Post WWI and Theatre

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by lyricist-librettist Oscar Hammerstein (1895-1960) and composer Jerome Kern (1885-1945) revolutionized musical theatre by combining musical comedy and serious drama to create what we recognize today as the quintessential American musical. 1st production to combine dancing, choruses, toe-tapping melodies, and huge spectacle with a strong plot and plausible characters.

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1927 - Showboat

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had more than seventy theatre with a total of 264 productions, including 46 musicals—a record that has never been broken

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1927-1928 Broadway

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As film increasingly met its needs, the mass audience drifted away from theatre. The shift was accelerated especially by the almost simultaneous advent of sound films ("talkies") and a major economic depression, because not only was film's entertainment potential greatly increased by sound but also its ticket prices were a fraction of those for live theatre. Between 1929 and 1939 approximately two-thirds of all live-entertainment theaters in the United States closed!

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theatre in 1929

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After the United States entered WWII at the end of 1941, musicals returned for a while to flimsy plots with a patriotic flair.

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World War II and theatre

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by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein Like Showboat, it had well-developed characters, song-and-dance numbers integrated into the story, and some serious plot elements, including a murder. It even incorporated classical ballet.

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1943 - Oklahoma!

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Composer, Leonard Bernstein with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim with a book by librettist Arthur Laurents based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

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1957 - West Side Story

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broke even more expectations and took on more risks

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Musicals in 1960s and 1970s

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showed Germany's political freedom and cultural experimentation pre-Nazi

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1966 - Cabaret

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introduced rock music, hippies, and nudity to the musical

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1967 - Hair

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retold the story of the Wizard of Oz from an all-black perspective

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1975 - The Wiz

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dealt with homosexuality in a matter-of-fact way

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1975 - A Chorus Line

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musicals are king here, 3.5 million people a year see a Bollywood move

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Bollywood

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An avant-garde "ism" that was the result of the two world wars. It has three types: fatalist, existentialist, and hilarious.

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absurdism

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The result of techniques to keep the audience aware that what they are witnessing is only a play; used by Bertolt Brecht. Alienation techniques include having the actors address the audience out of character, exposing the lights, removing the proscenium arch and curtains, and having the actors perform on bare platforms or simple sets that are sometimes punctuated with political slogans.

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alienation effect

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Element of a Greek tragedy; the tragic hero's self-examination leading to realization of true identity; follows peripeteia (radical reversal of fortune).

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anagnorisis

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Any work of art that is experimental, innovative, or unconventional.

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avant-garde

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Poetic lines that do not rhyme.

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blank verse

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Japanese puppet theatre with large wooden puppets with many movable parts, onstage puppeteers dressed in black, and a narrator who chants the script.

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Bunraku

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An intense, two-fold feeling of pity and fear that is the goal of Greek tragedy.

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catharsis

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An inner flaw that hampers a character's good judgment and leads the character to make unfortunate choices; sometimes called fatal flaw or tragic flaw.

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character flaw

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In ancient Greek plays, an all-male group of singers and dancers who commented on and participated in the action.

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chorus

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A form of high comedy comprising cerebral, socially relevant plays that force audiences to reassess their culture, community, and values. SATIRE

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comedy of ideas

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A form of Restoration comedy that features wit and wordplay and often includes themes of sexual gratification, bedroom escapades, and humankind's primitive nature when it comes to sex. See also Restoration.

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comedy of manners

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Comedy that is gloomy, even sinister, allowing the audience to laugh at the bleaker and more absurd aspects of life.

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dark comedy

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A type of play characterized by stories about common everyday people, rather than ones of noble birth, whose problems and complications are lighthearted and entertaining.

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domestic comedy

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attempted to make audiences actively contemplate and evaluate socioeconomic themes and the political implications of what they saw in the theatre by alienating them from the unities of time and space.

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epic theatre

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One scene in an ancient Greek play; alternates with stasimons.

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episode

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In ancient Greek theatre, the summation by the chorus on the theme and wisdom of the play.

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exodos

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A popular form of low comedy where the characters are trapped in a fast-paced situation with wild complications, mistaken identities, and incredible coincidences; also called "door-slamming farce": the pace of can be so fast because the characters are constantly running in and out of doors.

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farce

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An imaginary wall separating the actors from audience; an innovation of Realism in the theatre in the mid-1800s.

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fourth wall

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In ancient Greek tragedies, a personal weakness (also called a tragic flaw or fatal flaw) that leads to a tragic hero's downfall. A common hamartia is hubris.

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hamartia

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Unstructured theatrical events on street corners, at bus stops, in lobbies, and virtually anywhere else people gather.

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happenings

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A style that depends on sophisticated humor, wit, political satire, or social commentary. Compare low comedy.

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high comedy

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Productions influenced by hip-hop music, art, and culture.

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hip hop theatre

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In classical Greek drama, a tragic hero's overbearing pride or arrogance. A type of hamartia.

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hubris

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A popular, robust, and spectacular version of the Japanese Noh theatre. The name comes from the characters for "song" (ka), "dance," (bu), and "skill" (ki). See also Noh.

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Kabuki

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Marked by surreal distortion and senseless danger; a term that comes from the way that Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) depicted the world.

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Kafkaesque

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A style that depends on gags, clowning, puns, and slapstick. Compare high comedy.

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low comedy

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Most popular in the late nineteenth century, a type of play that usually features working-class heroes who set out on a great adventure; story lines that praise marriage, God, and country; and florid background music. The word is a blend of "melody" and "drama." Strict poetic justice was meted out, evil punished good rewarded

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melodrama

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a late nineteenth-century form of extreme realism; "slices of life" that demonstrated the effects of heredity and environment; first artistic movement to treat working-class characters with the same seriousness accorded to the upper classes by earlier movements

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Naturalism

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A form of traditional Japanese drama combining poetry, acting, singing, and dancing that was developed during the 1300s. Compare Kabuki.

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Noh

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The entrance of the chorus into the playing area in ancient Greek theatre.

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parodos

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A synthesis of music, dance, acting, and acrobatics first performed in the 1700s in China by strolling players in markets, temples, courtyards, and the streets. Known in China as the opera of the capital," or ching-hsi, it was founded by Qing dynasty Emperor Ch'ien-lung (1736-1795).

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Peking opera

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An art form from the mid-twentieth century in which one or more performers use some combination of visual arts (including video), theatre, dance, music, and poetry, often to dramatize political ideas. The purpose is less to tell a story than to convey a state of being.

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performance art

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In ancient Greek tragedies, a radical reversal of fortune experienced by the hero. See also hamartia and anagnorisis.

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peripeteia

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A style of realism that is expressed through lyrical language.

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poetic realism

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Indigenous African theatre that grew out of ritual and predates contact with Europeans. A combination of ritual, ceremony, and drama, it incorporates acting, music, storytelling, poetry, and dance; the costumed actors often wear masks. Audience participation is common.

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precolonial African theatre

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A play that expresses a social problem so that it can be remedied.

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problem play

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In ancient Greek theatre, a short introductory speech or scene.

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prologue

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the attempt to present on stage people and events corresponding to those observable in everyday life; emerged in the 1850s; grounded in the scientific outlook and the belief that human behavior can best be explained in terms of heredity and environmental influences.

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Realism

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A style of theatre that examines the funny side of falling in love—often with sympathetic young lovers kept apart by complicated circumstances, who in the end surmount any obstacles and live happily ever after.

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Romantic Comedy

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Enlightenment-era poets, novelists, and playwrights who questioned the Scientific Revolution's obsession with logic; they felt that science was not adequate to describe the full range of human experience, and stressed instinct, intuition, and feeling in their writings.

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Romantics

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One of the earliest forms of theatre in India, performed in Sanskrit by professional touring companies on special occasions in temples, palaces, or temporary theatres.

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Sanskrit drama

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A type of comedy that features middle-class characters finding happiness and true love.

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sentimental comedy

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A form of theatre created by lighting two dimensional figures and casting their shadows on a screen. Probably originated in China around 100 BCE and later became popular in Islamic lands, where people were prohibited from playing characters.

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shadow theatre

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In ancient Greek plays, a choral interlude between episodes.

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stasimon

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Modern versions of tragedies that, just as in ancient Greek tragedies, leave the audience with a feeling of catharsis but, unlike the ancient Greeks, base heroes on common people.

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tragedies of the common man

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In ancient Greek tragedies, an extraordinary but empathetic person of noble birth or a person who has risen to prominence and makes a choice (due to bad judgment or to a character flaw) that leads to trouble, but who ultimately takes responsibility for the choice.

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tragic hero

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Theatre performance that blends comedy and tragedy.

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tragicomedy

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A technique used by English and Spanish playwrights to set the mood or place of a scene. Because the words paint pictures, the audience "dresses" the stage in their imagination

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verbal scene painting

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n Kabuki theatre, wooden clappers whose beats accompany a mie pose at a particularly intense or profound moment.

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Ki

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In Kabuki theatre, a sudden, striking pose (with eyes crossed, chin sharply turned, and the big toe pointed toward the sky) at a particularly intense or profound moment; accompanied by several beats of wooden clappers, the Ki

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mie pose

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traditionally, most playwrights believed that thoughts and emotions can be expressed tragically only in poetry

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verse/language of tragedy

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a play that takes a serious look at the meaning of life and human suffering, based on the idea that virtue can grow out of hardship and wisdom from suffering.

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tragedy

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relies on knockabout, physical humor as well as gross exaggeration and often vulgarity. Historically, a ludicrous imitation of other forms of drama or of an individual play (Mel Brooks' films: Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, The Producers)

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BURLESQUE non musical

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a complex set of theories and beliefs that marked a shift from absolute to relative values and proved to be a major influence on most subsequent artistic expression of the twentieth century.

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Modernism

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The Industrial Revolution, increased scientific experimentation, and inventions such as the electric light and photography.

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Modernism major influences

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Thomas Edison (1847-1931)-lightbulb, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Karl Marx (1818-1883) His focus on human oppression

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Modernism major thinkers

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feels that cold realistic logic is not adequate to describe the full range of human experience, and plays stress instinct, intuition, and emotions. They want to go beyond reason to a transcendent realm of sensation where experience cannot be rationally explained. Romantic plays often have headstrong, sensitive protagonists isolated from society, inspiring emotions (particularly love), and knowing in their unique hearts that they are right to rebel. Many American musicals are written in the Romantic style.

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romanticism

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Romanticism was a reaction to this.A period of great philosophical, scientific, technological, political, and religious revolutions that changed human thought forever. Intellectuals and philosophers began to believe that reason and science might conquer fear, superstition, and prejudice. BUT cold reason seldom makes for great theatre!

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enlightenment (1650-1800)

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Fritz Lang, the film contains thematic links to German Expressionism; i.e., the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The most expensive film of its time, it cost approx seven million Reishsmark. "The mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!"

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Metropolis 1927

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thought veneration of the past stood in the way of progress and so sought to replace old art forms with a number of new ones, among them collage, kinetic sculpture, and "noise music." Futurists even advocated the destruction of libraries and art museums.

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Futurism

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sought to replace logic, reason, and unity with chance and illogic. Like the futurists, Dadaists used simultaneity and multiple focuses.

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Dadaism

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a story, play, or poem that covers a long period, and includes a large number of sometimes-unrelated incidents, allowing for wider, sweeping plots, with frequent shifts in location and large casts

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epic

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French journalist, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and playwright, described the human condition as "absurd."

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Albert Camus - (1913-1960)

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German philosopher, proclaimed "God is dead."

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Friedrich Nietzsche - (1844-1900)

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suggests we are trapped in an irrational universe where even basic communication is impossible

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Fatalist absurdism

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the most famous of the absurdist playwrights, wrote Waiting for Godot (1953) about two clown-like tramps who meet each day on a barren plain, a dreamlike vacuum some critics say is the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, and wait for Godot. The play is about our inability to take control of our existence and the absurdity of wasting our lives hoping to know the unknowable. Fatalist absurdism

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Samuel Beckett - (1906-1989)

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highlights the insanity of life in a comical way

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Hilarious absurdism

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one of the best known hilarious absurdist playwrights, wrote The Bald Soprano (1949), a parody of the middle class, and Rhinoceros (1959) in which the characters are slowly transformed into horned, thick-skinned mammals. Hilarious absurdism

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Eugene Ionesco - (1912-1994)

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winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature, writes "comedies of menace," which both frighten and entertain. Pinter is famous for his dialogue, which captures the incoherence, broken language and pause of modern speech, but also has a Kafkaesque quality, meaning that it is marked by surreal distortion and impending danger. Hilarious absurdism

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Harold Pinter - (1930-2009)

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holds that human beings are naturally alone, without purpose or mission, in a universe that has no God

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Existentialist absurdism

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French philosopher and notable existentialist playwright, wrote No Exit (1944), the story of a man and two women who find themselves in Hell. Sartre said, "Man is nothing else but what he proposes, he exists only in so far as he realizes himself, he is therefore nothing else but the sum of his actions, nothing else but what his life is." Existentialist absurdism

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Jean-Paul Sartre

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combines realism and expressionism. The realistic parts of the play cover the last twenty-four hours of Willy's life and his blind desire to attain the American dream. The expressionistic parts of the play show several sequences solely from Willy's point of view; these express his rosy visions of the past, including the great hope he has for his two sons.

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Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949)

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mixes realistic acting with dialogue that has a poetic quality or poetic realism. The play tells the story of Tom, his disabled sister Laura, and their controlling mother Amanda, who is desperate to make a match between Laura and a gentleman caller. The play also changes the rules (i.e., conventions) depending on where Tom is. When he is in the living room of the house the play is realistic (representational), but when he steps on to the fire escape he breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience (presentational).

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Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie (1945)

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another term for "mixing isms" refers to the contemporary trend toward collapsing clear-cut differentiation of modernist categories. Where we are now.

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Postmodernism

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"There is no such thing as art. There are only artists."

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The Story of Art, E.H. Gombrich

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Poetic lines of a play that describe the accent and length of each line; there are ten syllables per line (pentameter) and the stress goes on the second syllable (iambic).

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iambic pentameter

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