Why Theater? Flashcards
Why do you think people go see theater?
- 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.
TheatER or TheatRE?
No real difference!
They can be interchangeable
Theater around the world use both versions in their names.
What is Theater?
The venue (actual space)
What is Theatre?
The performance-driven art form (the craft)
What is the bare minimum that you need to create theater?
Theater = ___+___+___
Theater = Actor(s) + Audience + Space
Without ACTORS,…
It would be a group of people in a place, wondering why they are there.
Without an AUDIENCE,…
You would have no one to perform for.
Without a SPACE,…
You wouldn’t have a place to perform or a place for an audience to see your performance.
Theater as Performance
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
What is a performance?
An activity where some people do something while other people watch.
Theater is not confined to just the arts as it is also present in…
Job Interview
Students and Teachers
Religion
Sports
Politics
Shared traits of performance
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)
Differences among performances
- 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
What does theater being immediate and ephemeral mean?
Theater is live, now
Theater is also fleeting
You will never see the same performance twice
Theater as Art
Many different kinds of art:
Poetry
Painting
Sculpture
Music
Dance
Theater
Shared traits of arts
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.
What does it mean that art is artificial?
An artists makes art.
What does it mean that art stands alone?
Does not need a practical purpose in life
What does it mean that art is self-aware?
Artists know in a general way they’re trying to do something
What does it mean that art produced a kind of response?
An aesthetic response, an appreciation of beauty that goes beyond merely intellectual or entertainment
Difference between arts
- 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
Theater as a performing art
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
