TheaApp2 Flashcards
What is the role of a director?
Is responsible for scheduling the work process and supervising the acting, designing, staging, and technical operation of the play.
When did an independent ‘director’ come to prominence?
In the nineteenth century.
Why did the ‘teacher-director’ reach a pinnacle of influence during the late Enlightenment and Victorian eras?
Because of an increased emphasis on rationality and research both in culture and the theatre; of an increased emphasis on productions of classical plays.
Who is known as the first modern director?
Duke of Saxe-Meiningen.
In addition to coordinating the various aspects of the production, what else is a director responsible for?
Dealing with the artistic aspects of the production.
What is the goal of an ‘antirealist’ director?
To create sheer theatrical brilliance, beauty, and excitement.
What is true of the history of the role of the ‘director’?
The emergence of the director resulted from the stylistic growth of the theatre itself.
The Japanese noh master Zeami was most similar to whom in Western theatre?
Director.
Who helped to stage performances before the nineteenth century?
Playwrights and leading actors, referred to as teacher-directors.
How would you describe the directing process?
Long and involved.
André Antoine and Konstantin Stanislavsky are both typically associated with which style?
Realism.
What is the difference between a director and a producer?
Unlike a director, a producer is tasked with turning the play into a performance by helping acquire the finances, a theatre space, some designers, actors, crews, and, if needed, the legal rights to perform the particular script.
What was Konstantin Stanislavsky known for as a director?
Realistic acting.
What steps may today’s directors take when adapting classic plays?
- Radically transforming aspects of the original dramaturgy; - Modernizing archaic words to improve audience comprehension; - Cutting lines to reduce performance time.
What are directors of antirealism more focused on?
Abstract goals of originality.
What type of directorial concept is required of every production?
Core concept.
The idea of the director as an artistic guide is associated with which region?
The West.
In developing a core concept for a production, what might a director do?
- Try to prioritize one image or idea from the original script; - Try to imagine how the play might be publicized, either as a poster or a tagline.
What are the two periods of the directing process?
The preparation period and the implementation period.
What type of tagline does ‘a play about needing to be heard’ exemplify?
Psychological.
In addition to managing finances, what else may a producer be in charge of?
- Handling the advertising; - Acquiring a theatre space.
What are some virtues of a ‘high-concept’ production?
- Introducing highly unexpected insights into character, story, or style; - Deconstructing a work by highlighting its artifice.
When are today’s directors likely to adapt a script?
When it is not protected by copyright laws.
How may a dramaturg contribute to a production?
- Serving as a bridge between the director and the text; - Assisting the playwright in preparing the manuscript for production.
What are the two types of directorial concepts?
Core concept and high concept.
What are some tasks of the director during the implementation period?
- Maintain the schedule; - Facilitate communication; - Inspire the team.
What is a director’s core concept?
The image, idea, style, or emotion that focuses the production by bringing out some aspect of the original play.
What is true of personal conferences between director and designers in production design?
- Often the first design conference is a collective meeting.; - In America’s regional professional theatres, many of these conferences take place online via live video conferences.
What is an example of a philosophical tagline in a play?
‘A play about expressing yourself.’
What is a director’s role in the design process?
Sharing the responsibility with the designers in a developing enterprise.
What is a high concept production?
A production that radically changes the terms of the original script.
What does the saying ‘casting is 90 percent of directing’ imply?
Casting has an outsize influence on the success or failure of a production.
Who may help the director research the play?
A dramaturg.
What are true statements about the casting process?
- Actors read a previously prepared monologue during auditions.; - The director coaches the actors in a callback audition.; - Actors read material from the play being produced during auditions.
What must a director do during the implementation period?
Assemble the artistic team.
What are the elements of a rehearsal period?
- The foundation of the play is discovered.; - Acting choices are established, detailed, and drilled into the actors’ muscle memories.; - It takes place in a series of personal conferences between director and designers.
What is true of production design?
- Often the first step involves the director discussing their concept in detail and suggesting some possibilities for its visual realization.; - Provoking suspenseful involvement in the play’s events; - Unifying the play’s appearance.
What are a director’s main tasks in determining the staging of a play?
- Handling the advertising; - Acquiring a theatre space.
What is the director’s role in production design?
To meet with the designers, sometimes one-on-one; to discuss their concepts with the designers; to focus the audience’s attention on significant aspects.
What is the main goal of blocking?
To determine the overall effect of the individual paces the director has determined.
What is the ideal pace for a play?
There is no ideal pace: directors must take into account a range of factors.
What is the basic structure of staging called?
Blocking.
What does a director do in the final stages of rehearsal?
Reexamine the original concept in light of the actual production that has emerged.
What does a play’s ‘timing’ refer to?
The overall effect of the individual paces the director has determined.
What are examples of theatrical business?
- Answering the phone; - Mixing a cocktail; - Adjusting a tie.
What is added to the technical rehearsals?
They act as guides and coaches.
What is the director’s relationship to their actors?
A director provides an atmosphere in which actors can feel free to liberate their powers of sensitivity and creativity.
What are traits of a well-trained director?
- A strong literary imagination; - A knowledge of the potential of various theatre technologies; - A thorough working knowledge of the history of the theatre.
Who is likely criticized for the pace of a production?
The director.
What does the term unity refer to in the theatrical process?
The visionary wholeness.
During which stage of the theatrical process do actors use their costumes for the first time?
Dress rehearsal.
Which role demands a comprehensive understanding of the theatre in all its aspects?
Director.
What are the main components of actor training (excluding one)?
Body and voice, realistic acting techniques (e.g., Stanislavsky’s method), discipline, and understanding of acting techniques. Excluding: Learning stage combat.
What is true about acting in theatre?
Actors’ bodies are always mediated (influenced by costumes, lighting, special effects, etc.).
What are precisely scripted physical behaviors in blocking called?
Business
Stanislavsky insisted that actors needed to discover what?
Their characters’ goals.
What is the actor’s instrument?
Body and voice
What is ‘the Method’?
A realistic acting style derived from Stanislavsky’s system, popularized by Lee Strasberg.
Who invented the concept of ‘emotional recall’?
Konstantin Stanislavsky
What is a paradox of acting?
Actors must act as if they are the character while remaining aware of their technique.
What type of performing asks the actor to experience the life of the character?
Internal (emotional) performing
What faculty keeps the actor within established bounds, while also allowing for artistic agility?
Discipline
What term describes techniques where actors use imagination to mimic how their characters should behave?
External techniques
What term did Stanislavsky coin as a key component to an actor’s behavior?
‘Given circumstances’
What do most auditions consist of?
Performing one- or two-minute monologues from plays.
Who maintained that the actor should be an ‘unmoved and disinterested onlooker’ who imitates emotion rather than feels it?
Denis Diderot
What are the two fundamental approaches to acting?
Internal and external
What does the director typically not look for in an audition?
Personal history exactly matching the character’s.
Which term refers to a selection of the script used in auditions to familiarize actors with the play?
A side
