THEA 101
Presentational acting
"Breaks" the Fourth Wall, as actors turn and acknowledge the presence of the audience, addressing the audience directly. Often seen in musicals
Globe Theatre
Shakespeare's main theatre built along the south bank of the Thames in London. It is an octagonal building with a central courtyard open to the sky.
Anne Bogart
20th century American director known for collaborative works, which use highly vocal and physical techniques. artistic directors of the regional Trinity Repertory Company as well as co-founder with Tadashi Suzuki of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute, in an effort to revitalize contemporary American theatre through international collaboration. She is also well-known for her viewpoints, her theoretical approach to acting. Viewpoints was inspired by avant grade choreographer Merce Cunningham and the experiments of Jerzy Growtowski and they combine elements of dance and stage movement with concepts of time and space. It mixes many different acting techniques and refuses to suggest one is more powerful than another.
Noh
A Japanese tradition of musical drama, often based on Zen Buddhist philosophy, which includes singing, highly stylized and symbolic movement, and instrumental accompaniment by percussion and flute.
Constantin Stanislavski
A Russian actor and theatre director. He organized his realistic techniques into a usable system. His system received an unprecedented ability to cross cultural boundaries and developed an international reach, showing much influence in acting in America.
Harlequin
A comic character in Commedia dell'arte; usually masked, dressed in multicolored, diamond-patterned tights, and carrying a wooden sword or magic wand. Also known as *Arlecchino*.
Kathakali
A dance drama in which highly trained dancers interpret stories about heroes, gods, demons from Hindu mythology. Facial muscles are used greatly, because some messages can only be conveyed to the spirits through facial expressions.
Kutiyattam
A distinctive style of staging of Sanskrit dramas.
Bhavas
A form of acting in India; says that only 8 different expressions can be played; love, amusement, wonder, sorrow, anger, dynamic energy, fear, disgust.
Kabuki
A form of traditional Japanese drama with highly stylized song, mime, and dance, *now* performed only by male actors.
Commedia dell'arte
A genre of Italian farce from the sixteenth-century characterized by stock characters, stock situations, and spontaneous dialogue.
Angelo Beolco
A gifted amateur who acted in Venice, Ferrara, and Padua during the carnival season from 1520 onwards.
Black Box Theatre
A performance space, usually painted black, that permits the rearrangement of seating and playing areas for every production in a variety of traditional and nontraditional arrangements.
Theatre
A place for viewing.
Ritual
A religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.
Alienation Effect
A separation of the audience emotionally from dramatic action. Also know as *distancing*.
Capitano
A stock character in the Commedia dell'arte; meaning the Braggart Warrior or Cowardly Soldier.
Pantalone
A stock character of Commedia dell' arte; a stingy, retired Venetian merchant who often makes a fool of himself by courting young women.
Method acting
A style of performance derived from the Russian stage director Stanislavski, which has been the dominant acting style in America since the 1950's; actors emphasize psychological intensity, extensive rehearsals to explore a character, emotional believably rather than technical mastery, and "living" a role internally rather than merely imitating the external behavior of a character.
Carnival
A theatrical form born in pagan Europe, traveled through colonization of Caribbean and Latin America, where African slaves transformed it into an expression of freedom.
Busu
A well-known play, featured in textbooks, (附子?, "Wolfsbane", "The Delicious Poison").
Universals of Acting
Energy, Control, Purpose, Focus, Enlargement, Dynamics, and Transformation.
Puppetry
Almost anything brought to life by human hands to create a performance. Types of puppets include rod, hand, and marionette.
Sanskrit theatre
An ancient Indian theatre form, in the language of Sanskrit, which avoided realistic practices and involved codified performance, including elaborate costumes, makeup, and a complex set of movements and gestures known as mudras.
Natyasastra
An encyclopedia of classical Indian dramatic theory and practice, written ca. 200 BCE-200 CE. Teaches actors dancing and stage gestures; also covers costume design, plot construction, music, and poetry.
Pole-and-Chariot System
An innovative scene-changing system. By connecting a series of ropes and pulleys, the entire set could be replaced by turning a single wench.
Active Audience
Audience is goal-directed, purposive, and motivated
Passive Audience
Audience is more subdued & agrees to create an invisible fourth wall
Elinor Fuchs
Author of Visit to a Small Planet.
Hashigakari
Bridge in Noh theatre on which the performers make their entrance from the dressing area to the platform stage.
Mudras
Choreographed hand movements used in the rituals of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Tanikō
Colored and patterned rectilinear designs on clothing worn by men; the weaving was made by women and they used different materials to dye the cloth; eventually, macro-may twine replaced the flax twine.
Kyogen
Comedic interludes between long Noh plays.
Street Theatre
Compelling theatre that uses music, spectacle, masks, costumes, dancing, drumming, or direct audience confrontation to engage with the public in co-opted public spaces.
François Delsarte
Developed acting style that attempted to connect the inner emotional experience of actor with gestures and movements based on observations of humans.
Plastiques
Developed by Growtoski. Need of spontaneity within a structure. Precise detail of movement. Moving outward from the spine.
Units and beats
Divisions of the script, with each unit or beat representing a single objective or task.
Emotional or affective memory
Drawing on the actor's personal experiences to evoke emotion (later abandoned)
Agitprop
From agitation and propaganda, a form of political theatre first used by Marxists during the 1920s in Russia that conveys information in a simple and entertaining way to persuade an audience to its point of view.
Bertolt Brecht
German playwright, director, theoretician, and poet, one of the most influential theatre practitioners of the twentieth century.
Angelo Beolco
His stage name: II Ruzzante, "the gossip," a shrewd peasant who indulges in long and amusing soliloquies.
Dithyrambs
Hymns sung and dance in praise of Dionysus.
Site-Specific Staging
Hyper reality taking place at a historical site.
Hanamichi
In kabuki theatre, a bridge running from behind the audience (toward the left side of the audience) to the stage. Performers can enter on the hanamichi; important scenes may also be played on it.
Suzuki Tadashi
Japanese director. Did western classics like Oedipus Rex and Trojan Women. His system of actor training is the realistic "shingeki" style. His theatre is driven by "animal energy" of the actor.
Bunraku
Japanese drama that features wooden, elaborately costumed marionettes that are about four feet tall; also called Doll Theater.
The Astor Place Riots
Protest thrown by the Bowery Boys because Macready was playing Macbeth and not Forrest; militia brought in and many died.
Invisible Theatre
Provocative dramas about burning issues are enacted in normal everyday settings such as subway cars or restaurants, as if they were happening in real life.
Proscenium Stage
In this configuration, the audience sits facing a raised stage. Also known as *Picture Frame Stage*.
Arena Stage
In this configuration, the audience sits on all four sides of a round or rectangular performance space. Also known as *Theatre-in-the-Round*.
Thrust Stage
In this configuration, the audience sits on three sides of a performance area that projects into the audience.
Representational acting
Influenced by psychoanalysis, actors study character action not just in dramatic terms but also through close examination of human behavior.
Social World
Interpersonal relationships of a play.
Giacomo Torelli
Invited the Pole-and-Chariot System for Simultaneous Scene Changes.
Augusto Boal
Learned Grotowski and Brechts concepts; argued for active participation by audience members; theatre was meant to be a revolutionary tool for change; Theatre of the Oppressed.
Rasa
Literally "tastes" or "flavors". A term from Indian theatre that refers to the different moods or feelings expressed in plays and by actors on stage.
Groundlings
Lower-class spectators who could not afford seats.
Forum Theatre
Members of a community create a short piece about shared problems that they perform for other spect-actors who are invited to stop the show at any time, take over roles, and try out new solutions.
Shamans
Priests and priestesses charged with communicating with the spirit world on behalf of the community to bring peace and prosperity to the populace or healing the sick.
Political Theatre
Moving the audience to action.
Mirror room
Noh Actor preps to enter stage by gazing into mirror to concentrate on role.
Henrik Ibsen
Norwegian playwright, Father of modern drama. A Doll's House was his first international success and the subject of intense debate.
Angelo Beolco
One of the earliest Italian actors and dramatists, connected with the origins of the commedia dell'arte.
Guerrilla Theatre
Political action theatre in the street.
Perspective Scenery
Scenery that represents three-dimensional space on a flat surface.
Lords' rooms
Stage Gallery about the stage wall used by rich people, Upper class, and nobility. Costed 5 pence, cushioned seats provided.
Living Theatre
Started by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, this type of theatre challenged traditional dramatic structures, inspired avant-garde theatre, and used spare technical aspects.
Stage Right
The right side of the stage from the perspective of an actor facing the audience.
Poor Theatre
Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his theatre, which was stripped to the bare essentials of actor and audience.
Dionysus
The Greek god of wine and fertility.
Learning Plays
The Man Who Says Yes / The Man Who Says No
Imagine and magic *if*
The ability of the actor to act as *if* the fictional given circumstances were true.
Aesthetic Distance
The ability to observe a work of art with a degree of detachment and objectivity.
Adaptation
The adjustment of the character's behavior as circumstances change.
Downstage
The area of the performance space that is closest to the audience.
Upstage
The area of the performance space that is farthest away from the audience.
Communion
The deep communication that takes places between actors and stage.
Psychological Realism
The extent to which the psychological processes triggered in an experiment are similar to psychological processes that occur in everyday life.
Concentration of attention
The focus of the actor's attention exclusively on the reality on stage.
Environmental Staging
The form of physical relationship between audience and performers in which there is little or no clear definition between the space dedicated to each.
Stage Left
The left side of the stage from the perspective of an actor facing the audience.
Given Circumstances
The physical and emotional conditions in the play that determine a character's behavior.
World of the Play
The space, time, climate, mood, tone and music of a play.
Universals of the Theatre
Theatre is Live, Ephemeral, Collaborative, and a Synthesis of Many Arts.
Theatrical Conventions
Theatre's "rules and understood communication codes".
Xiqu
This is the Chinese Opera. More sung than spoken, and it is sung in extremely high pitched tone. Audience is free to move about to talk and eat. There is no formal architecture to the theatre, and it is presented in many different ways. Based on Chinese history and myth. It is a mix of serious and comedic, with lots of make up and costumes. Also, there are strong acrobatics in the play.
Jerzy Grotowski
This man created "poor theater," which is theater stripped down to its essence and creates bare-bones play that has no set, few props, no make-up, no special lights, and no stage. This man at the Polish Laboratory took theater back to its basics. It limited the technical side of theater and promoted actor-audience relationships.
Physicalizing the character
What the actor does to give physical life-body, voice, mannerism-to the character on stage.
Psychological action
What the character does to achieve the objective or task.
Objective or task
What the character wants at any moment on the stage.
Angelo Beolco
Wrote Ruzzante Returns from the Wars
Bertolt Brecht
Wrote The Man Who Says Yes / The Man Who Says No
