Theater Final Flashcards
Transitory
Here one second, gone the next. What separates theater from the movies.
“Art creates significant forms symbolic of human feeling.”
-Suzanne Langer
“Theater consists in this: in making live reps of reported happenings between human being, and doing so with a view to entertainment.”
-Bertolt Brecht
“Willing suspension of disbelief”
We must pretend that we are in a forest, or in a castle instead of being in a theater.
2 Types of theaters
- Commercial theater (profit) New York City.
2. Non-profit theater.
Number of seats for a Broadway Play.
500+ seats.
Number of seats for an off Broadway Play.
200-499 seats.
Number of seats for an off-off Broadway Play.
less than 199 seats.
Soliloquy.
Monologue speech, alone on the stage.
Symbols.
Something that represents or stands for something else.
Professional non-profit Theater.
Theater with no opportunity for investors to profit.
LORT
League of Resident Theater is also known as:
South Pacific Crew
Written in 1940's. Richard Rodgers- Composer Oscar Hammerstein 2- Lyrics, book. Joshua Logan- Helped with military details in book. Bartlett Sher- Directed 2007 play.
Conventions.
Unspoken rules of theater.
Arena
Type of theater with the audience all around the stage creating a very intimate but restricted performance.
Thrust
Very intimate stage that has the audience on three sides.
Proscenium
Default stage with audience only able to view from one direction.
Fly system
Overhead system for the movement of scenery.
Flexible
Stage that can be created any way the crew would like it to be.
Blackbox
A big room used for creatively setting up a stage and audience seats.
South Pacific Story
Nellie and Emile fall in love while dealing with the war and their difference. Lt. Cable and Liat fall in love but Lt. Cable dies.
“A play in a book is only the shadow of the play and not even a clear shadow of it… The printed script of a play is hardly more than an architects blueprints of a building.”
Tennessee Williams quote.
Major Dramatic Action
x struggles for y against z.
Major Dramatic Question
will x succeed for y?
Aristotle’s Six Elements
Plot, Character, Thought, Diction, Music, Spectacle.
Story
Narrative account of happenings.
Plot
Arrangement of the order of the scenes.
Hamlet
Written in 1600’s
Shakespeare- Writer
Setting- 1300’s Denmark
Hamlet Character
Prince of Denmark in Hamlet
Claudius
King of Denmark in Hamlet
Gertrude
Queen of Denmark in Hamlet
Laertes
Hamlet must defeat at the end of Hamlet
Fortinbras
Prince of Norway that takes control of Denmark in Hamlet
A Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen- Writer
Written in 1879
Setting- The home of the Torvald family in a Norwegian town in 1879
A Doll’s House story
The feminist awakening of a good middle class wife and mother named Nora against her husbands fake love for her before and after he small mistake.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Written in the 1940’s
Tennessee Williams- Writer
A Streetcar Named Desire Story
Stella and Stanley are married and Blanche is Stella’s sister. Blanche comes to visit them but Stanley doesn’t like her so he attempts to get her out. Blanche goes cray cray and a doctor takes her away to an insane asylum.
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller- Writer
Written in the 1940’s
Death of a Salesman Story
Willy is a salesman with two sons, Biff and Happy. After some family drama, Willy kills himself in a car crash so insurance money will help Biff to start his own business. Instead of doing that, he follows Willy’s footsteps as a salesman.
All My Sons
Arthur Miller- Writer
Written in the 1940’s
All My Sons Story
Keller family is made up of Joe the father, Kate the mother, Larry the missing son, and Chris the son who took Larry’s girlfriend after he left. Steve Deever is in jail for selling the airforce cracked cylinders and Joe told him to do it. Larry sends a letter saying he will kill himself for his father’s guilt but Joe kills himself too.
Avante-Gard
Experimental theater.
Ubu Roi was the first of this type.
Existentialism
The usefulness of the universe.
Waiting for Gadot touched on it.
Open Call
Tryouts with prepared monologues.
Callbacks
After open calls with readings out of the script.
Actor’s Equity Association
Union formed in NYC in 1913 to fight the exploitation of actors.
Denis Diderot
18th century French philosopher that believed in order to move the audience most effectively, the actor himself should remain unmoved. Was against “feeling the part”
Constantin Stanislavsky
Believed the actor must find the “inner truth” of the character. The actors must not make contact with the audience.
Director
May or may not choose the play but must have a strong feel for it, must consider the style of the play and the way in which it is done.
Proscenium Stage Layout
upstage up right up center up left right center center left center down right down center down left curtain line apron
Wagon
Any scenic unit on wheels.
Unit Set
One set for the entire play.
Flat frames
filled with images to create any type of scenery.
Scrim
Can be seen through with certain lighting conditions.
Cyclorama
Big screen in the back.
Technical Director
Responsible for building and installing the set as well as the installation of lighting.
Clothing
Indicate position, status, sex, occupation, and the attitude.
Motivated Sounds
Sounds in the script.
Environmental Sounds
Create the illusion of location.
Mellodrama
Good vs. evil with music played throughout the play like a movie.
Faithful
Very traditional.
Translator
Still honoring the dialogue, but not as traditional.
Auter
Taking a play’s idea as your own.
