Unit 2 Flashcards
What are the 4 multiple realities (tenets) of theatre?
Real Life
Design team and director
“Theatre is life without the boring parts”
Plays need an audience to work
Presentational
non-realistic experience where the audience is reminded that they are in a play
Representational (Naturalism)
audiences are immersed in the world of the play and forget they are watching a play in a theatre
What concept was incorporated into early origins of western theatre?
Plays were connected to religious festivals
Where were plays performed in early origins of western theatre?
Performed in amphitheaters without scenery
What role did plays have in early origins of western theatre?
Used as a cathartic device (emotional release) for their society
What is catharsis?
Greek word for purification, cleansing, clarification and means to purge emotions
When were women permitted to perform in England?
Banned until 1642 (Restoration Era) when King Charles the II permitted it
Where was one of the first interactive performances with the audience?
Mid 1500s in London by travelling actors meeting in pubs and coffee houses.
What arch frames the stage?
Proscenium Arch (Burruss)
What are the 4 types of stages?
Thrust Stage
Theatre in Round
Black Box Theatres
Immersive Theatre
Thrust Stage
- stage extends into the audience
- Studio Theatre in Squires
Theatre in Round
intimate productions
Black box theatres
- room is black
- appearance of anyplace
-make audience feel that they are in the location of the performance
Immersive Theatre
-no stage
- completely breaks 4th wall
-staged in houses, apartments, or public spaces
-Sleep no more
William Shakespeare (1564)
- Plays set in history or far away countries to disguise his political commentary
- ex. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (from 1953)
Vaclav Havel (1936-2011)
-Became Czech president in 1989
-great example of using theatre and art as a political force
What is the Savoy in London, 1881 an example of?
Realism coincided with the use of electric lighting onstage
How were theaters lit before electric light?
Calcium oxide (quicklime)
Naturalism
Movement in European drama and theatre that developed in late 19th and 20th centuries
Henrik Ibsen(1828-1906)
- Norwegian playwright who wrote naturalistic plays about isolation in human relationships
- Freud learned Norwegian to read Ibsen in the original
Anton Chekov (1860-1904)
- Russian playwright who blended naturalism with symbolism
- His plot are not the focal point, but what is revealed about the characters through internal drama
Konstantin Stanislavsky (1863-1938)
Developed The Method
- Actors that used the Method were called Method Actors
Who created the Group Theater in NYC in 1931?
- Lee Strasberg
- Harold Clurman
- Cheryl Crawford
After seeing the Moscow Art Theatre
Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940)
-Russian and Soviet theater director, actor, and producer
- combined extreme physical movement w symbolism
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)
-German playwright
- Associated with alienation effect
- reintroduced breaking the 4th wall and directly address audience (like Greek chorus in western theatre)
Alienation effect
Reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance
- to distance audience from emotional involvement in play
Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
- Wrote the crucible
- influenced by William Shakespeare
Commedia dell’arte (kuh-may-de-uh de-lar-te)
A style of highly physical theatre
- performers wore leather masks and performed outdoors
- early development was in 1555-1610 in Renaissance Italy
- associated with comedic improvisation and highly physical techniques
Commedia dell’Arte
featured stock characters, who word distinctive masks
Who are the 6 stock characters of Commedia dell’arte
- Capitano- The Captain
- Dottore- The doctor
- Zanni- The trickster
- Arlecchino- The Harlequin
- Pantalone- The Miser
- The young lovers
Theater of Absurd
Label created in 1960s to explain French-language experimental theatre
The Myth of Sisyphus
-Written by Albert Camus
- Rolling up the boulder hill only to have it roll down multiple times
- absurdism and existentialism
Existentialism
Humans are self-determining and engaged in a struggle to find/make meaning in an inherently meaningless and random world
“Existence precedes essence”
Origins of Absurdism
Technology: invention of new weapons and more advanced photography allowed the public to see the illumining horrors of war
Loneliness
Inadequacy of Language
- inability to rely on language
- often characters’ actions disagree with their lines
Tragicomedy
Heightened physicality and broad comedy, often similar to vaudeville
Inability to take action
-Dialogue that contradicts action take
- characters trapped
- ritual that is meaningless
Most absurdist playwrights
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Eugene Ionesco (1909-1994)
Lower pitch
Longer, thicker string
Which holes expelled the most air?
F shaped holes
What does the string vibrate onto?
The bridge
- which transmits this vibration down to the instrument’s top
How fast does sound travel?
1,000 ft/sec
Who is Michael Ermann?
He is a guest lecturer who is a registered architect and full professor at Virginia Tech.
What bass sounds go through walls and car doors?
Low (long wave) bass sounds go through walls and car doors more than high pitches
Reverb
The acoustic environment that surrounds a sound
What affects sound of a reverberant space?
- space (length, width, and height)
- construction of the space (walls hard or soft, carpet on floors)
- diffusion (what the sound bounces off)
Echo
A sound or series of sounds caused by a reflection of sound waves from a surface back to the listener
What causes sound?
Vibration
Frequency
number of vibrations/sec (hertz)
Pitch
Determined by frequency
- directly proportional to frequency
Anechoic chamber
room designed to completely absorb reflections of sound/ electromagnetic waves
Tools used to build medieval churches
- Pickaxe
- Hammer
-Chisel - saw plane
- brace and bit
- sledge hammer
- auger
-mathematical dividers - squares and templates
Dendrochronology
technique used to date and locate the origin of wood
-wood of violins etc…
