Why Theater?

Question 1

Why do you think people go see theater?

Answer 1

• Immediacy, relevance, and engagement.
• Social Aspect
• Visual Spectacle: Scenery, Costumes, Lighting
• Sensation of sound: Language, Music, Special Effects
• Engages the imagination with its stories and characters
• Offers experience we don’t often have: Exotic yet familiar, Good vs. Evil, - Funny and sad
• Theater appeals intellectually by engaging the audience with relevant issues.

Question 2

TheatER or TheatRE?

Answer 2

No real difference!
They can be interchangeable
Theater around the world use both versions in their names.

Question 3

What is Theater?

Answer 3

The venue (actual space)

Question 4

What is Theatre?

Answer 4

The performance-driven art form (the craft)

Question 5

What is the bare minimum that you need to create theater?
Theater = ___+___+___

Answer 5

Theater = Actor(s) + Audience + Space

Question 6

Without ACTORS,…

Answer 6

It would be a group of people in a place, wondering why they are there.

Question 7

Without an AUDIENCE,…

Answer 7

You would have no one to perform for.

Question 8

Without a SPACE,…

Answer 8

You wouldn’t have a place to perform or a place for an audience to see your performance.

Question 9

Theater as Performance

Answer 9

Performance - an activity where some people do something while other people watch
This happens in everyday life
Theater is no confined to just the arts

Question 10

What is a performance?

Answer 10

An activity where some people do something while other people watch.

Question 11

Theater is not confined to just the arts as it is also present in…

Answer 11

Job Interview
Students and Teachers
Religion
Sports
Politics

Question 12

Shared traits of performance

Answer 12

People that do something (performers, actors)
Something done (a speech, ritual or play)
Watchers (spectators, audiences)
Performance space (stadium, church, theater)
Time (Beginning and ending)

Question 13

Differences among performances

Answer 13

• Purpose:
  Religious services so that people can worship
  Sports so that someone can win
  Politics to inform or rally a group of people
• Relationship between Audience and Performers:
  Sports fans or spectators interact with each
  They are also indirectly interact with players by screaming and cheering
  These could also happen in a campaign rally, but probably not in a play or some church services

Question 14

What does theater being immediate and ephemeral mean?

Answer 14

Theater is live, now
Theater is also fleeting
You will never see the same performance twice

Question 15

Theater as Art

Answer 15

Many different kinds of art:
Poetry
Painting
Sculpture
Music
Dance
Theater

Question 16

Shared traits of arts

Answer 16

Art is artificial - an artist makes art
Art stands alone - does not need a practical purpose in life
Art is self-aware - artists know in a general way they’re trying to do something
Art produces a kind of response - an aesthetic response, an appreciation of beauty that goes beyond merely intellectual or entertainment.

Question 17

What does it mean that art is artificial?

Answer 17

An artists makes art.

Question 18

What does it mean that art stands alone?

Answer 18

Does not need a practical purpose in life

Question 19

What does it mean that art is self-aware?

Answer 19

Artists know in a general way they’re trying to do something

Question 20

What does it mean that art produced a kind of response?

Answer 20

An aesthetic response, an appreciation of beauty that goes beyond merely intellectual or entertainment

Question 21

Difference between arts

Answer 21

• Relationship with time and space: Sculptures, Paintings, Architecture
  Exists in space
  You walk around it, look at it from different sides and angles
  Music, Theater, Books
  Takes time to move from start to finish
• Audience size: Solitary – sculpture, paintings, books; Groups – operas, dance, theater

Question 22

Theater as a performing art

Answer 22

Has actors
Is immediate and ephemeral, performed live
Uses performance spaces
Moves at its own pace through time
Is lifelike but is not life, it’s artificial