Nature of Drama

Collected lecture/discussion notes. Some parts are very fragmented, but offered here as a study aid, not a primary learning source. Citations are lost. None of the thoughts are original.

Theatre-like events:

Live:

• Play productions - scripted events
• Improvisations
• Sport
• Play, games
• Circus, parades, theme parks
• Ritual (Mass for instance)
• Staged confrontations, street theatre
• Commercial/Industrial presentations

Non-Live:

• Film
• Video

Live Peripherals:

• Dance
• Puppetry
• Mime

Demands of Theatre

Theatre is interactive between the audience and the human performer. Audience is conscious of performance, recognition of symbolic behavior.

Traditional theatre implies: defined space, planned actions

"Theatre exists in any consciously artistic attempt to delineate human existence for an audience in a performance presented by living actors to a living audience."

What are the elements of theatre?

• Stage
• Scenery
• Lighting
• *Actors
• Costumes
• Sound
• *Audience
• Makeup
• Publicity
• Play
• Theatre
• House management

Plays must have universality, provoking empathy.

Intention:

• Entertain
• Stimulate:
  • New insights & perceptions
  • Advocate action
  • Increase awareness of others and surroundings

Corrigan's Big Three

Distinguishes theatre from other theatre-like events:

1. Living presence of the actor: Audience experiences the actor in both the empirical and the symbolic sense; a real person playing an imaginary being; both have lives.
2. Perpetual present tense: Everything is happening now, containing its own past. Every performance changes because the circumstances of performance and the life of the actor changes.
3. Mode of destiny: The event is moving toward a preordained, purposeful conclusion. Everything has consequence; nothing exists in a play at random; everything is purposeful.

Relationship of Art, Especially Theatre, to Life

Art, including theatre is like life, but it is not life. It is a metaphor for life:

• Metaphor compares two things which may be dissimilar, using the known and familiar aspects or behavior of one to explain the unknown and unfamiliar aspects of the other.
• "Life is like a football game; you don't get to play that second quarter over." - is a metaphor, with many other possible parallels.
• Art and plays are metaphors for reality and are used to explain reality - to make observations, comments, or connections not already evident.
• A symbol is a metaphor for a larger reality: kiss for affection, cross for Christianity.

Symbolic vs. empirical reality:

• Empirical: That which can be measured
• Symbolic: That which has meaning by representing.

Awareness of either aspect occurs on a continuum between symbolic and empirical; at any moment the observer is aware of either, and usually both to some degree.

• Awareness of empirical nature: Aware of dangers (fire, etc.) or personal significance (friends).
• Awareness of symbolic nature: Aware of the fiction or symbolic aspect.

Theatre and Ritual

Much research has explored similarities with ritual.

Myth: Collective explanation of phenomena, mysteries of life. Even historical and heroic myth, such as The Iliad and the Song of Roland explain historical distinctions and "why things are the way they are."

Ritual: Celebration or enactment to perpetuate myth. Enactment generally involves transformation, at least in the mind of the believer. Therefore, it is not an imitation but an event in itself. Intended to affect reality somehow - either to change or to affirm the course of events. All are celebrants - the audience is transformed.

Departure of theatre from ritual began when the celebration was done for its own sake, no longer requiring belief in transformation, nor belief in consequence.

Distinctions between theatre and ritual:

1. Well-defined distinction between spectator and perform is evident in theatre, not in ritual.
2. Ritual explains mysteries completely; theatre often raises more questions.
3. Theatre is not concerned with cosmic mysteries, but human mysteries, relationships, behaviors.

Ritual as symbolic behavior

• Ceremony: weddings, funerals
• Handshakes, passwords

Audience vs. participant separating theatre from ritual

• Pretend: Analogous behavior without consequences
• Imitate: Perform actions enacted by others
• Role Play: Take on function, perform actions as others would enact them. Pretend and imitate.

Composition of a play:

Characters and situations: Any situation is potentially dramatic

Setting: Every play is set in an envitornment that expresses the play's meaning.

Language: Language expresses character.

Sequence: Much of the play's meaning is revealed by its structure.

Choices of above determine nature, meaning, and shape of play.

Every play has an ending which makes all within it meaningful. Gives order and selection to all, which is unlike life.

Questions:

• What is the relationship of art, especially theatre, to reality? [metaphorical]
• How can art be said to be a way of looking at things? [symbolic vs empirical reality]
• What are the essential elements of theatre? [actor and audience]
• What are Corrigan's three major distinctions of the theatre? [living actor, present tense, destiny]