Ch. 4, 5, 6 Exam -- Theatre Appreciation -- Murphy

What three playwrights started to depict their characters and situations realistically causing acting to become more realistic?

1.) Henrik Ibsen 2.) August Strindberg 3.) Anton Chekhov

List the three challenges of acting ...

1.) Inner Truth -- to make characters believable. 2.) Physical Acting -- The use of the voice and body. 3.) Synthesis and Integration -- Combining inner and outer skills.

What are the structural conventions or "ground rules" of dramatic structure?

1.) Limited Space 2.) Limited Time 3.) Strongly Opposed Forces 4.) A Balance of Forces 5.) Incentive and Motivation

According to chapter 5, what are some of the responsibilities of a producer?

1.) Raising money to finance the production. 2.) Securing rights to the script. 3.) Dealing with the agents for the playwrights, director, and performers. 4.) Hiring the director, performers, designers, and stage crews. 5.) Dealing with theatrical unions. 6.) Renting the theatre space. 7.) Supervising the work of those running the theatre: in the box office, auditorium, and business office. 8.) Supervising the advertising. 9.) Overseeing the budget and the week-to-week financial management of the production.

According to chapter 5, what are some of the responsibilities of a managing director?

1.)Maintenance of the theatre building, including the dressing room, the scene and costume shops, the public facilities, and the lobby. 2.) Budget, making certain that the production stays within established limit -- which includes the salaries for the director, designers, performers, and stage crews, as well as expenditures for scenery, costumes, and music. 3.) Some artistic decisions 4.) Must find additional sources of money or must determine that a change is important enough artistically to justify taking funds away from another item in the budget. 5.) Publicity 6.) Order tickets, box office must be maintained, and plans must be made ahead of time for how tickets are to be sold. 7.) Securing ushers, printing programs, and maintaining the auditorium.

Crisis

A point in a play when events and opposing forces are at a crucial moment, and when the course of further action will be determined. There may be a series of crises leading to the definitive climax.

Super Objective

A super-objective, in contrast, focuses on the entire play as a whole. A super-objective can direct and connect an actor's choice of objectives from scene to scene. The super-objective serves as the final goal that a character wishes to achieve within the script.

Ensemble Playing

Acting that stresses the total artistic unity of a group performance rather than individual performers -- Stanislavski noticed that actors seem to lose concentration when not the main focus of the scene, thus weakening the ensemble.

Action Onstage -- What? Why? How?

All action onstage must have a purpose -- An action is performed such as opening a letter (the what). The letter is opened because someone has said that it contains extremely damaging information about the character (the why). The letter is opened anxiously, fearfully (the how), because of the calamitous effect it might have on the character. action leads to emotion.

What does a "slice of life" mean as applied to theatre?

Also known as Naturalism, suggesting that a section has been taken from life and transferred to the stage.

What is the central, or controlling image or metaphor?

Another way to implement a directorial concept is to find a central, or controlling, image or metaphor for a theatrical production -- Ex: A vest net or spiderweb in which Hamlet is caught. The motif of a net could be carried out on several levels: in the design of the stage set, in the ways the performers relate to one another, and in a host of details relating to the central image. There might be a huge rope net hanging over the entire stage, for instance, and certain characters could play string games with their fingers. In short, the metaphor of Hamlet's being caught in a net would be emphasized and reinforced on every level.

What are some things that modern stage actors do to train their body and voice?

Body: 1.) Lie on your back; beginning with the feet, tense and relax each part of the body -- knees, thighs, abdomen, chest, neck -- moving up to the face. 2.) Stand with feet parallel, approximately as far apart as the width of the shoulders. Lift one foot off the ground. Put the feet down and move to the hip, spine, arms, neck, etc. loosening all the joints. 3.) Stand with feet parallel. Allow all tension to drain out of the body through the feet. In the process, bend the knees; straighten the pelvis, and release the lower back. 4.) Begin walking in a circle, walk on the outside of the feet, then on the inside, then on the toes, and then on the heels. 5.) Imagine the body filled with either helium or lead. Notice the effect of each of these sensations, both while standing in place and while walking. Vocal: 1.) Standing, begin a lazy, unhurried stretch. Reach with your arms to the ceiling , meanwhile lengthening and widening the whole of your back. Yawn as you take in a deep breath and hum on an exhalation. 2.) Put your hands on your ribs, take a deep breath, and hum a short tune. 3.) Take a deep breath and with the palm of your hand push gently down on your stomach as you exhale. 4.) Standing, yawn with your throat and mouth open and be aware of vibrations in the front of your mouth, just behind your front teeth, as you vocalize on the vowels ee, ei, and o. 5.) Using a light, quick tempo, shift to a tongue twister.

What is casting?

Casting means fitting performers into roles; the term casting is derived from the phrase "casting a mold." The process of choosing and hiring actors for both leading and supporting roles

According to chapter 5, what are some of the responsibilities of a director?

Choosing a script, Finding the "Spine" of the play, finding the style in which the play will be presented, develop a directorial concept.

How do directors determine the style of the production?

Deciding on a directorial style for a production involves giving a signature and an imprint to the entire production: the look of the scenery and lights, and the way performers speak and handle their consumers and props. It also involves the rhythm and pace at which the play moves, a subject that is taken up below. When a director arrives at a style for a production, two thing are essential: style should be appropriate for play and it should be consistent throughout every aspect of the production.

When a director is looking at "stage pictures," what is he/she looking at?

Director underscores the meaning of specific senses through visual composition and stage pictures, that is, through the physical arrangement of performers onstage. The spatial relationships of performers convey information about characters. For example, important characters are frequently placed on a level above other characters -- on a platform or a flight of stairs.

What is casting against type? Example?

Director will deliberately put someone in a role who does not appear to be right for the part. Frequently done for comic or satiric purposes. Ex: A sinister-looking actor might be called on to play an angelic part.

Who was Lee Strasberg?

Emphasized the technique, emotional recall -- Many think that he over emphasized inner or emotional sides of Stanislavski's Techniques.

The importance of specifics:

Every line spoken, every movement and action onstage must have a clear thought or feeling motivating it -- emphasis on concrete details. Performers must find similar concrete activities.

How do directors choose a script?

Generally it is a play to which the director is attracted or for which he or she feels a special affinity (similarity).

What is expressionism?

Gives outward expression to inner feelings -- The attempt in drama to depict the subjective state of a character or group of characters through shush nonrealistic techniques as distortion, striking images, an poetic language. Ex: Mr. Zero is fired from his job, his feelings are conveyed by having the room spin around in a circle amid a cacophony full of shrill sounds, such as loud sirens and whistles.

Define: Incentive and Motivation

Good drama never lacks incentive or motivation for its characters -- A prize is offered to guarantee that the participants will give their best in an intense contest.

Describe what rhythm, pace, and movement are in a play.

If a play moves too quickly, if we miss words and do not understand what is going on, that is usually the director's fault. The director must determine whether there is too little or too much time between speeches and whether a performer moves across the stage too slowly or too quickly. The director must also attempt to control the pace and rhythm within a scene and the rhythm between scenes.

How does a director work with a dramaturg, or literary manager?

Importance to directors is the work of dramaturges in conducting research on previous productions of classic plays, as well as researching past criticism and interpretations of these plays. It is easy to see how the work of the dramaturg can be invaluable in assisting the director to arrive at decisions regarding style, approach, and concept.

What is a managing director or executive director?

In nonprofit theatre organizations, the individual who controls resources and expenditures. Same responsibilities as the producer.

Define: A Balance of Forces

In theatre, a hard-fought and relatively equal contest is implicit in what has been said about opposing teams. Ex: Owners of the orchard are set against the men who will acquire it and another Ex: the sisters are opposed in the possession of their home by their acquisitive sister-in-law -- To ensure that the contest will be as equal as possible without coming to a draw.

Inner Truth

Internal thoughts and emotions of the character that are not seen (but must be understood or "seen" by the audience) -- Deals with the internal or subjective world of characters, that is, their thoughts and emotions.

What is naturalism?

It is a kind of superrealism. Attempts to put on stage exact copies of everyday life; down to the smallest detail, sometimes also called "slice of life." Ex: An actor can actually cook on the stove, make toast in a toaster, faucet produces water, and light in fridge turns on when opens. Supposed to resemble a documentary film.

What is an Auteur Director?

Meaning "Author." Directors who make more drastic alterations or transformations in the material, taking responsibility for shaping every element in the production, including the script.

Psychophysical Actions or Gestures

Means that the performer's attention must always be focused on a series of physical actions (also called psychophysical actions), linked together by the circumstances of the play.

How do directors determine the "spine" of the play?

Much will depend on the period in which the play is produced and on the point of view of the individual director. Varied interpretations are to be expected and are acceptable as long as the spine chosen remains true to the spirit and action of the play.

Define: Strongly Opposed Forces

One character directly opposes another -- Ex: Shakespeare frequently set members of one family against one another -- the action is important to the characters.

What is a directorial concept?

One way for the director to embody the spine in a production and to implement style is to develop a directorial concept -- such a concept derives from a controlling idea, vision, or point of view that the director feels is appropriate to the play.

What is blocking?

Pattern and arrangement of performers' movements onstage with respect to each other and to the stage space, usually set by the director -- deciding when and where performers move and position themselves on the stage. Some directors let the actors find their own way on stage.

Given Circumstances

Performer must also conceive of the situation in which a character exists --Clues given in a script concerning details of a character's lives -- plot, period, time, place, conditions, environment, interpretation

What does the playwrights' point of view have to do with the finished play and how it is viewed or perceived?

Point of view is incorporated by the playwright into the script itself, with characters being given words to speak and actions to perform that convey a certain attitude.

What is the front of the house?

Portion of a theatre reserved for the audience; sometimes called simply the house.

What is an Allegory?

Representation of an abstract theme or subject through symbolic characters, actions, or other elements of a production, such as scenery. Good examples are the medieval morality plays, in which characters personify ideas in order to teach an intellectual or moral lesson.

What is selective realism?

Sometimes referred to as Heightened Realism, a type of realism that heightens certain details of action, scenery, and dialogue while omitting others

What is heightened realism?

Sometimes referred to as selective realism. Here the characters and their activities are intended to resemble life, but a certain license is allowed. Scenery, for example, might be skeletal -- meaning it is incomplete and in outline -- although the words and actions of the characters are realistic.

Concentration and Observation

Stanislavski discovered that gifted performers always appeared fully concentrated on some object, person, or event while onstage -- referred as the circle of attention.

The Magic "If"

Stanislavski's acting exercise, which requires the performer to ask, "How would I react if I were in this character's position?"

What is the method of emotional recall?

Stanislavski's exercise, which helps the performer to present realistic emotions. The performer feels a character's emotion by thinking of the conditions surrounding an event in his or her own life that led to a similar emotion.

What is the difference between plot and story?

Story - Narrative account of what happened. Plot - Selection and arrangement of parts of the story.

Who was Stella Adler?

Studied with Stanislavski -- Balanced the emphasis on inner resources with the inclusion of given circumstances and purposeful action.

What is a board of directors for non-profit theatres?

The board is responsible for selecting both the artistic and the managing director. The board is also responsible for overseeing the financial affairs of the theatre, for fundraising, for long-range planning, and the like. To carry out some tasks, the board frequently delegates authority to an executive committee.

What are rehearsals?

The director listens to and watches the performance as they go through their lines and begin to move about the stage.

Climax

The high point in the development of a dramatic plot. The scene toward the end of a drama in which all forces reach their highest pitch and the fate of all the characters is determined.

What is technical rehearsal?

The performers are onstage in their costumes with the scenery and lighting for the first time, and there is a run through of the show from the beginning to the end, with all the props and scene changes. The stagehands move scenery, the crew handles props, and the lighting technicians control the dimming and raising of lights. The backstage crew must coordinate its work with that of the performers.

What is a producer?

The person responsible for the business side of the production, including raising the necessary money, securing rights to the play, dealing with agents for playwright, director and performers, hiring director, performers, designers, and stage crew, dealing with theatrical union, renting theater space, supervising the work of those running the theatre (box office, auditorium, and business office), advertising, overseeing the budget and pay of workers.

Director (as applied to theatre)

The person responsible for the overall unity of a production and for coordinating the work of contributing artists -- Person who works most closely with performers in the theatre, guiding them in shaping their performances -- Director gives shape to the arc of the play or musical, and determines its style, its pace ,and the way the actors create their characters and interact with one another.

What is dress rehearsal?

The purpose of the dress rehearsal is to pull all the elements together: the full involvement of the performers as well as the technical components. The dress rehearsal is performed as if an audience were present, with no stops or interruptions and with full lights, scenery, costumes, and sounds.

Spine

The spine is a key idea or purpose of the play expressed as an action (usually a verb) which links all elements of the script (style, character, dialogue, action) and gives a coherence to the piece. The through-line enables both actor and director to narrow down the possibilities of action into core playable coherent concepts, providing clear motivation and direction to the actors in the way they perform an action or speak a line.

What is the subject of drama? (or theatre?)

The subject of the theatre is always people -- their hopes, their joys, their foibles, their fears. In other words, if were to construct a "grammar of theatre," the subject would be people, that is dramatic characters.

What is the verb of drama (or theatre?)

The terms "to act" and "to perform" are used in theatre to denote the impersonation of a character by an actor or an actress, but these words also mean "to do something" or "to be active".

Through Line

The through-line of action (also called the spine) is one method used by actors and directors to give a performance direction. It is linked to the theme or central idea of the play. This idea of a textual spine is a useful editing tool for the writer, too. It helps the author create a vehicle for actors by enabling the writer to decide what is theatrically important and what is textually superfluous in the script. In establishing a spine, the writer therefore makes every aspect of the play purposeful in terms of performance.

Define: Limited Time

The time limit in theatre can be looked at in two ways: first, as the length of time it takes a performance to be completed; second, as the time limit placed on the characters within the framework of the play itself. More important than the actual playing time of a performance is the time limit or deadline within the play -- meaning the time that is supposed to elapse during the events of the play, the time covered by those events -- a few hours, a few days, or longer.

Define: Limited Space

Theatre is usually limited to a stage; but there is also a limit within the play itself. The action of a play is generally confined to a "world" of its own -- that is, to a fictional universe that contains all the characters and events of the play -- and none of the characters or actions moves outside the orbit of that world. Sometimes the world of a play is restricted to a single room.

Obstacles

Things that delay and prevent a character from getting what he or she wants. Obstacles create conflicts — Impediments put in a character's way.

Beats

To help develop the through line, Stanislavski urged performers to divide scenes into units (sometimes called beats). In each unit, there is an objective, and the intermediate objectives running through a play lead ultimately to the overall objective.

What are previews or tryouts?

Tryout performances of a production before an audience, preceding the official "opening" performance -- when the directors and performers discover which parts of the play are successful and which are not.

Relaxation

Unwanted tension has to be eliminated and that the performer must at all times attain a state of physical and vocal relaxation.

What is typecasting? Example?

When a performer closely resembles in real life the character to be enacted -- performer is best suited to personality and physical characteristics for role. Ex: A young actress will play Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, a Middle aged or elderly actor with a deep voice will play King Lear.

What is "off book?"

When the actors are expected to have memorized their lines.

What is a "run through?"

When the play is performed straight through without stopping.

Define Stanislavski's Technique:

a technique in acting by which an actor strives to empathize with the character being portrayed so as to effect a realistic interpretation.

Complications

introduction, in a play, of a new force, which creates a new balance of power and entails a delay in reaching the climax.

Circle of Attention

part of Stanislavski's system that requires an actor to limit his or her focus to his or herself, the other characters in the play, and the environment created by the stage set.