Final Flashcards
Quote Garson Kanin
Remember, the world is a playwright, W.R.I.G.H.T like wheelwright. A play is not so much written as it is wrought, its designed, built, shaped and carved out.
4 stages of writing a play
inner readiness - preparation of the playwright, to write the play his or her preparation is curiosity leading to life experiences.
Germinal Idea - the seeds of the play, its seminal impulses it is the “spark” of creativity.
Structure - climatic, episodic, ritual or cyclical
Creating characters
- observe the people around you even eavesdrop
- make them frail or herotic
- write them outside the superficial standards of their time
- describe your character beautifully
- share common ground between the writer and the character
The spark of creativity
- is a way of dealing with life experiences, of processing of asking difficult questions.
- brings satisfaction/delight to the writer
- can have an effect upon others
Where to playwrights get their ideas?
new, world events, history, mythology, personal experience, imagination (if you are open and attentive)
Climatic structure
- plot starts late story
- covers a short period of time
- set in a restricted locale
- only a handful of characters
- linear or singular plots, few if any subplots.
- all action is cause and effect
Episodic Structure
- plot starts early in the story and moves through a series of episodes.
- plot may cover days, month, years.
- has a profusion of characters
- several threads of action/subplots
- scenes are juxtaposed to one another
Ritual/ Cyclical
- repetition of action that repeated so meaning is acquired
- structure that reoccurs to allow the audience to draw meaning rather than focus on what happens next.
Ritual - an attempt to control the unknowable forces of the universe through repetition.
three things needs for theatre to exist
Actor, Audience, Something to communicate
Wearing “masks” in daily life and acting:
- acting is observed whereas in real life “acting” may or may not be observed but is not critical, whereas it is in the theatre performances.
- Actors play a role that they do not play in real life whereas the roles we play in real life are genuine.
- acting is a conscious event whereas most people go through life unconscious about who they are. Acting is a rehearsed and planned event it is a skill to be learned.
- Dramtic characters are not real people. Characters are symbols of real people, that signify or are “signs” that reflect the choices we make in any given situation.
Sir LAwrence Oliver
“acting is the art of persuading”
Define actor
a person who interprets and plays a character in a play.
Willing suspension of disbelief
The audience desire to believe in the reality of what is happening onstage.
Three ingredients in the actors craft
- native ability - charisma
- training - representational, not imitating them but actor represent the characters body and soul.
- practice
Constantin Stansiavski
- He believed you could train an actor to be better.
- Created a system for acting.
Lee Strasberg
- the method
1. actors voice and body should be thoroughly trained to meet the demands placed on it
2. be a skilled observer of reality
3. seek an inner justification for everything done on the stage
4. analyze the script
5. be a student of life
Text/Subtext layout
TEXT what the characters says/speaks/diction \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ SUBTEXT what the character thinks but does not say.
Acting is all about doing the action not the emotion
