DRA 111 test 2
Directors
African American Director Marion McClinton, Jerzy Growtowski's style of non-realistic theatre, director George C. Wolfe as well as Meryl Streep, in their production of Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children. Sometimes the directing was attributed to a famous acting star, such as the English- man Charles Kean or the American Edwin Booth, when in fact the work was done by a lesser functionary. In Booth's case, for example, D. W. Waller was the true director; George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914), was among the first of this breed and became known as the first "modern" director. In 1887 André Antoine began a movement of even greater realism in Paris with his Théâtre Libre, and in 1898 Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky initiated his Moscow Art Theatre, which eventually became the international model of realistic ensemble acting. Harley Granville-Barker in England, David Belasco in America, and Otto Brahm in Germany. Paul Fort, one of the first of these third-phase direc- tors, launched his Théâtre d'Art in Paris in 1890 as a direct assault upon the realist principles espoused by Antoine. Similarly, Vsevolod Meyerhold, a one-time disciple of Stanislavsky, began his theatre of "bio- mechanical constructivism" Susan Stroman Charles Marowitz may have led this movement, raising shock waves in London and Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s with his drastically revised version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. he great 1935 American folk opera Porgy and Bess, retitled The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess (after its composer and lyricist, George and Ira Gersh- win) was substantially revised by its adapter (Suzan Lori- Parks) and director (Diane Paulus) Tennessee Williams's 1947 A Streetcar Named Desire was, with the permission of the playwright's estate, radically adapted by both directors Frank Castorf (in Berlin, 2004) and Sebastian Nübling (Munich, 2011) with added and deleted scenes that led to astonishing results. Chekhov's The Three sisters. producing Macbeth as if taking place during Russia's Stalinist era (as British director Rupert Goold did in 2007). resetting Molière's seventeenth-century Tartuffe from the Catholic-oriented France of the playwright's time and placing it in the Islamic-dominated, contempo- rary Middle East (as French director Arianne Mnouch- kine did in 1995) And director Lee Breuer's casting of his Mabou Mines company's production of the same play with actors four feet tall or less in all the male roles and tall women for the female ones proved an equally brilliant stroke. Peter Brook in his celebrated 1962 production of King Lear,
augmented sound
Augmented sound is now routinely used in theatri- cal performances. Musical theatre and larger theatres increasingly employ electronic sound enhancement to reinforce the actors' voices and create a "louder than life" sonic ambiance for almost all musicals and for many straight plays.
Susan Stroman
The Producers in 2001, and Tony nominations in both of those categories for Scottsboro Boys in 2011—along with three Tonys and five nominations for her earlier work in Crazy for You, Showboat, Contact, Steel Pier, The Music Man, Oklahoma, and Young Frankenstein.
realistic scenery
attempts to depict often in great detail a specific time and place in the real world where the plays events are presumed to take place
actable clothing
being able to preform well without feeling constricted or uncomfortable Thus the costume designer cannot be content merely to draw pictures on paper but must also design workable, danceable, actable clothing, for which cutting, stitching, fitting, and quick changing are considerations as important as color coordination and historical context.
projections
both image and video projections have frequently become integral to theatrical design, and the projection designer (sometimes called the image designer or video designer) has become a new member of theatrical design teams around the world.
Determining Elements of costume design
color, shape, fabric, movement, texture, actable clothing By the judicious use of color, shape, fabric, and even the movement and sound the fabric makes, costume designers can imbue each character with distinct qualities that contrast that character to the others in the play.
focus
ensures that it sees this without undue distraction.-active accomplishment
visibility
ensures that the audience sees what it's meant to see,-passive accomplishment
realism plays
having historical accuracy
realistic makeup
makeup artist may try to suggest character by exag- gerating or distorting the actor's natural eye place- ment, the size and shape of her mouth, the angularity of her nose, or the tilt of her eyebrows. Still another use of makeup, also within the realistic and practical spectrum, seeks merely to simplify and embolden the actor's features in order to make them distinct and expressive to every member of the audience.
contemporary directors
susan stroman Craig's renaissance has arrived: this indeed is the "age of the director," an age in which the directorial function is fully established as the art of synthesizing script, design, and performance into a unique and splendid theatrical event that creates its own harmony and its own ineffable yet memorable distinction. If, as performance theorist J. L. Styan says, "the theatre persists in communicating by the simultaneity of sensory impressions," it is above all the director who is charged with inspiring these impressions and ensuring their simultaneity. mix of. realism and antirealism
core concept
the director's determination of the most important of the many images, ideas, and emotions that should emerge from the play. Why should there be only one core concept when every play, when read, presents a multiplicity of important images, ideas, and emotions?
costume color
the pigment and hue of the costume
directors pt 2
for example, Elia Kazan was first an actor, Susan Stroman a choreographer, Harold Prince a producer, Peter Hunt a lighting designer, Franco Zeffirelli a scene designer, Robert Brustein a drama critic, Mike Nichols an improvisational come- dian, and Robert Wilson an architectural student.
movement
how to fabric moves
history of directors
teacher-director, realism, anti realism, contemporary
final rehearsal
the director's responsibility becomes more and more one of coordination: of bringing together the concept and the designs, the acting and the staging, the pace and the performance. Now all the production elements that were developed separately must be judged, adjusted, polished, and perfected in their fuller context. Costumes must be seen under lights, staging must be seen against scenery, pacing must include the shifting of sets, act- ing must coalesce with sound amplification and the size of the performance hall, and the original concept must be reexamined in light of its emerging realization
functions of costume design
1)ceremony (separate actors from audience), 2)defines type of world, 3) identify character (what elements about character), 4) Wearable clothing establish relationships - establish social & economic status - identify occupation - establish time & place - reinforce director's approach - suggest time of day or year - suggest occasion - indicate gender - reflect age - enhance mood & atmosphere - alter an actor's appearance - enhance or impede movement
contemporary director
1. free to blend realism and anti-realism into one production 2. famous for changing any or all parts of an existing play 3. much more free to experiment with new techniques and styles
Konstantin Stanislavsky
1898 Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky initiated his Moscow Art Theatre, which eventually became the international model of realistic ensemble acting.
Andre Antoine (1887)
19/20th, director founded Theater Libre in Paris, naturalistic acting, realism, ensemble acting, controversial
cue sheet
A chart or list for lighting or sound showing all of the changes that will occur during a production
sound effects
A term referring to single sounds, normally played from offstage and often prerecorded, that represent specific (and usually real- istic) sounds, such as a telephone ringing, a car braking, or a cannon firing. Today, such effects are mostly incorporated into a play's overall sound design.
Scrim
A theatrical fabric woven so finely that when lit from the front it appears opaque and when lit from behind it becomes transparent. A scrim is often used for surprise effects or to create a mysterious mood.
ensemble acting
An approach to acting that emphasizes the interaction of actors, not the individual actor. In ensemble acting, a group of actors work together continuously in a single shot. Typically experienced in the theater, ensemble acting is used less in the movies because it requires the provision of rehearsal time that is usually denied to screen actors.
ASM
Assistant Stage Manager In rehearsals, ASMs typically set out props, follow the script, prompt actors who are "off book" (no longer rehearsing with script in hand) when they forget their lines, take line notes when actors mem- orize lines incorrectly, and substitute for actors who may be temporarily away from the rehearsal hall, as for conflicting publicity or costume-fitting appointments
drapery
Drapery is the great neutral stuff of stage scenery: black hanging drapes are conventional to mask (hide) backstage areas and overhead lighting instruments, and a stage curtain (typically but not necessarily dark red) may separate the stage from the audience to indicate, with its rise and fall, the play's (or act's) beginning and end.
Design process
For the visual designer, a physical presentation of proposed designs normally involves colors (primary, earthy, gloomy, pastel), textures (rough, shiny, delicate, steely), shapes (angular, spiraling, blockish, globular), balance (symmetrical, natural, fractal), scale (towering, compressed, vast), style (realistic, romantic, period, abstract, expressionist), and levels of detail (gross, fine, delicate), as rendered in drawings, digitized representations, three-dimensional models, fabric samples, and other media. For the sound designer, designs may move in the direction of music underscoring (retreating brass bands, lush violins, ominous chords), ambient noises (distant sirens, gunfire, ocean breakers), and enhanced, reverberated, or digitally manipulated live sounds (voices, footsteps, door slams), gathered into digitized recording media.
Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914),
German. in favor of realism, director. Insisted on historical accuracy in costumes and sets. Crafted intricate and crowded scenes on stage
Directors of Anti-Realism
These theatre artists demanded that directing aim primarily at the creation of originality, theatricality, and style, and be unrestrained by rigid formulas with respect to verisimilitude or realistic behavior. Their goal was to create sheer theatrical brilliance, beauty, and excitement, and to lead their collaborators in explorations of pure theatre and pure theatrical imagination.
stylized makeup
This includes makeup that is stylized, ceremonial, or represents the actor as a superhuman presence. The face painting of the traditional Chinese xiqu actor, for example, like the mask of the Japanese nō performer or the African shaman, can endow the person applying it with at least the illusion (and perhaps the inner feeling) of spiritual transcendence.
Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966),
urged the fluid use of space, form, and light as the fundamental principle of dramatic design. antirealism The modern sense of metaphoric scenery began with the theoretical (and occasionally practical) works of him perhaps the most influential proponent of this third- phase position of the director, however, he was not himself a director at all but an eminent designer and theorist: Edward Gordon Craig. In a seminal essay titled "The Art of the Theatre" (1905), Craig compared the director of a play to the captain of a ship: an absolutely indispensable leader whose rule, maintained by strict discipline, extends over every last facet of the enterprise.
metaphoric scenery
visual images seek to evoke the theme - remind us that we are in theatre - draw us more deeply into the play's larger issues. Metaphoric scenic design, in contrast, tends to be more conceptual than literal, more kinetic than stable, more theatrical than photographic. The use of scenic metaphor is hardly new.
technical rehearsal
when scenery, lighting, and sound are added
Dolls house
when, for example, director Anthony Page cast the gangly Janet McTeer (the New York Times critic called her "a woman of towering height") as Nora (whose husband Torvald calls her his "little love-bird") in his Broadway production of Ibsen's A Doll's House, it seemed to many an odd choice, but Page's notion and McTeer's dazzling performance brilliantly underscored Page's notion that Torvald and, by inference, all men of his ilk who shortchange their wives' capabilities, are themselves severely diminished.
historical accuracy
which required consistency, and by the early 1800s, painstaking efforts would be made to ensure that the design of every costume in a play (along with every prop and set piece) was accurate to its era.
Blocking
The basic architecture of staging is called blocking, which refers to the timing and placement of a character's entrances, exits, rises, crosses, embraces, and other major movements of all sorts. The "blocking pattern" that results from the interaction of characters in motion provides the framework of an overall staging;
production stage manager
PSM During performance, the PSM is in full charge of the show. He or she observes it (either directly from a booth above the audience, or from the side of the stage, or through one or more video monitors) and physically calls each lighting, sound, and scene-moving cue—normally through an electronic intercom system. The production stage manager may also signal actor entrances, usually by means of "cue-lights," which are tiny backstage lights the PSM triggers—
Stage spaces
Platforms, flats, and draperies are traditional building blocks of stage scenery and remain important.
local and pervasive
Stage sounds can be realistic (an ambulance siren), stylized (an amplified, accelerating heartbeat), stereophonically localized (an airplane heard as crossing overhead from left to right), or pervasive and "in-your-head" (a buzz- ing mosquito, electronic static, a thousand ringing cell phones).
TD
Technical director Technical director (TD) is a term that dates from early in the last century, when a person holding that title was responsible for the scenery, lighting, sound, stage machinery, and just about everything "technical" that was designed to operate onstage.Although the title is still used, the TD is usually now only in charge of the building and operation of scenery and stage machinery.
rendering
(drawings, first in black and white and then in color) supplemented with notes about each costume's accessories, hairstyles, and construction details. Enlarged drawings provide information about items too small to show in a single head- to-toe illustration.
color
(primary, earthy, gloomy, pastel) Sebastiano Serlio inserted sparkling panes of colored glass (the predecessors of today's gels) which, illuminated from behind, created glistening and seductive scenic effects. The incandescent filament is a reason- ably small, reasonably cool point of light that can be focused, reflected, aimed, shaped, and colored by a great variety of devices invented and adapted for those purposes, and electric light can be trained in innumer- able ways
actor's role in makeup
The theatre artists involved, therefore—actors, directors and designers—have serious choices to make in this decision. For in the final analysis, makeup always combines the realistic and symbolic functions of theatre
Direction
Verisimilitude and atmosphere also are common goals of the lighting designer can be achieved by the ____ of the light
Direction and color
Verisimilitude and atmosphere also are common goals of the lighting designer, and both can be achieved largely through the color and direction of lighting. automated lights, which can be computer- programmed to instantly change direction, color, and beam size at the mere touch of a button.
elements of sound design
sound effects, music/underscoring, augmented sound
realism director
strove to make their play productions more lifelike than those of past eras.
flats
sturdy wooden frames covered in vari- ous hard surfaces (such as plywood) and then painted or otherwise treated (pierced with doors and windows, adorned with paintings or moldings)—can realistically represent walls, ceilings, or pretty much any flat sur- face a designer might wish.
Inigo Jones (1573-1652)
English designer
Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554)
Italian designer
business
Business is a theatre term that refers to the small- scale movements a character performs within the larger pattern of entrances and crosses and exits. Mix- ing a cocktail, answering a telephone, adjusting a tie, shaking hands, fiddling with a pencil, winking an eye, and drumming on a tabletop are all "bits of business" that can lend a character credibility, depth, and fascination.
shape
Collaboration with the director, who ordinarily takes a leading role from the start, and with the other designers is important even at this early stage, as ideas begin to be translated into possible fabrics, colors, shapes, and time periods. Shape of costume or shapes on costume
Brief History of theatre
In Molière's play The Rehearsal at Versailles, the seventeenth-century playwright- director delightfully depicts himself staging one of his own plays; this is surely an effective model of the author-teacher-director for the seventeenth century and indeed for much of the theatre's history.The second stage in the development of modern-day directing began toward the end of the nineteenth century and brought to the fore a group of directors who restudied the conventions of theatrical presentation in the age of realism, and strove to make their play productions more lifelike than those of past eras. George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen (1826-1914), was among the first of this breed and became known as the first "modern" director by the 1890s, the position of a director that would organize and rehearse an entire company toward a complexly and comprehensively fashioned theatrical presentation was firmly established. In 1887 André Antoine began a movement of even greater realism in Paris with his Théâtre Libre, and in 1898 Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky initiated his Moscow Art Theatre, which eventually became the international model of realistic ensemble acting. Both of these directors, who like Meiningen were amateurs at the outset of their careers, went on to develop innovative techniques in acting and actor- coaching based on the duke's staging concepts. the realist phase of direction came a third phase—one that brought directors to their pres- ent positions of power and recognition. This phase arrived with the directors who joined forces with non- realist playwrights to create the modern antirealistic theatre. Craig's renaissance has arrived: this indeed is the "age of the director," an age in which the directorial func- tion is fully established as the art of synthesizing script, design, and performance into a unique and splendid the- atrical event that creates its own harmony and its own ineffable yet memorable distinction. Today's director understands realism and antirealism and feels free to mix them with impunity. At the beginning of a production, he or she faces a blank canvas but has at hand a generous palette.
Set pieces
Large portable pieces of the stage setting
conceptualization
In the preparation period, a play is selected, its text may be translated or adapted, a producer is found, and the director begins to conceptualize the play's production so as to guide a production team dramaturgically (this is the story we want to tell), intellectually (this is why we want to tell it), and aesthetically (this is how we want it to look, sound, and feel), and assembles a team of designers technicians, and—of course—actors. More has been written in modern times about the director's role in conceptualizing a play than about any other directorial task; entire books are devoted to the creation of a central concept that focuses and unifies an entire production.
History of lighting
It was in indoor stagings, however, that lighting technology attained its first significant sophistication. In a 1439 production of the Annunciation in Florence, one thousand oil lamps were used for illumination, and a host of candles were lighted by a "ray of fire" that shot through the cathedral. By the Renaissance, the sheer opulence of illumination was astonishing—even though the entire effect was created simply from tallow, wax, and fireworks. Raphael "painted" the name of his patron, Pope Leo X, with thirteen lighted chandeliers in a dramatic production; Sebastiano Serlio inserted sparkling panes of colored glass (the predecessors of today's gels) which, illuminated from behind, created glistening and seductive scenic effects. The "Sun King" of France, Louis XIV, ordered a 1664 presentation at Versailles that featured twenty thousand colored lanterns, hundreds of transparent veils, bowls of colored water, and a massive display of fireworks The inventions of gaslight in the nineteenth century and electric lighting thereafter—first in carbon arcs and "limelight" lighting, later in incandescence, and most recently with light-emitting diodes (LEDs)— have brought stage lighting into its contemporary phase, permitting it to favor the shaping of dramatic action more than simply being ostentatious and "showy." Electrical lighting also had the great advantage of being fully self-starting—it did not need to be relit or kept alive by pilot lights—and it could easily be switched off, dimmed up and down, and rehanged or reconnected simply by fastening and unfasten- ing flexible wires.
puppet plays
Puppets may not be living things, but when artfully created and manipulated they can evoke great laughter (in Avenue Q), awe (in Lion King), and genuine emotion (in War Horse). but increasingly they are used to represent human dramatic characters in contem- porary plays, such as Avenue Q, or as full-sized living animals, as in Julie Taymor's The Lion King (see the chapter titled "Global Theatre Today") and War Horse.
costume texture
The feel, appearance, or consistency of the costume
Staging
The medium of staging is the actor in space and time—with the space defined by the acting area and set- tings and the time defined by the duration of the theatrical event and the dynamics of its dramatic structure. The goals of staging are multiple and complementary: to create focus for the play's themes, to lend credibility to the play's characters, to generate interest in the play's actions, to impart an aesthetic wholeness to the play's appearance, to provoke suspenseful involvement in the play's events, and, in general, to stimulate a fulfilling theatricality for the entire production.
Craig and Appia
The modern sense of metaphoric scenery began with the theoretical (and occasionally practical) works of designers Adolphe Appia (1862-1928) and Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), both of whom urged the fluid use of space, form, and light as the fundamental principle of dramatic design.
platforms
The platform is perhaps most fundamental: all theatre requires is "two boards and a passion," goes an old adage (variously attributed to Molière, Lope de Vega, and Ben Jonson, among several others), and the boards represent the platform stage that elevates the actor above the standing audience.
live and recorded music
The use of live or recorded offstage sounds may establish locale (such as foghorns), time of day (midnight chimes), time of year (birdsong), weather (thunder and rain), and onstage or offstage events (a ringing telephone, an arriving taxi, an angel crashing through the ceiling).
sound is used to establish
The use of live or recorded offstage sounds may establish locale (such as foghorns), time of day (midnight chimes), time of year (birdsong), weather (thunder and rain), and onstage or offstage events (a ringing telephone, an arriving taxi, an angel crashing through the ceiling).
light in scenery
The very word theatre, meaning "seeing place," implies the crucial function of light. Light is the basic precondition for theatrical appearance. Without light, nothing can be seen.
Producer Role
Typically, in a regional or university theatre, the producer's primary goal is to safeguard the long-term interests of the institution that hosts the production—whether it is an American regional company, a European national theatre, or a university drama department. Any of these established groups could face a decline in future attendance if the local audience and press reviewers deemed a single production too shocking or too boring. So producers generally maintain a close eye on the productions they oversee, making suggestions and giving notes to the director during the preparation period and later sitting in on rehearsals—particularly technical and dress rehearsals, when the production is taking final form. In addition to hiring (or firing) the director, and providing and distributing the financial resources, the producer's functions include creating and managing the budget, choosing and acquiring the theatre facility, and establishing the play's rehearsal and performance dates. In addition, the producer is largely responsible for overseeing publicity, casting, ticketing, the house staff, and the creation of theatre programs.
light plot
a diagram showing the placement of the lighting instruments and plugging system and where the beams from all the lighting instruments fall
fabric
a material that is woven or knitted, such as cloth
dress rehearsal
a rehearsal conducted as if it were an actual performance when the actors don costumes and makeup for the first time
stage business
movements employing props, costumes, and makeup; used to strengthen the personality of a character
recorded music
music played in a studio and put on a CD-direct
live music
music that is listened to while it is performed (not recorded)
Props
natural and manufactured items of dramatic and decorative importance, illuminated by natural or artificially modulated light. Such
Teacher-Directors
passed on knowledge of "correct" technique
Directing Process
preparation period-findinng prodcuer picking play adapting the play coonceptualizationn- high concept or core concept implementation-is the assembling of a complete artistic team that will collaborate in the creation of the production collaborating with designers casting the actors rehearsals-staging actor coaching pacing coordinating presenting
high concept
productions captivate audiences worldwide by transcending their plays' original conventions and presenting profound, moving, new, and uniquely illuminating theatricalizations that make tell- ing references to current issues. High-concept theatre also avoids the "museum production" onus of traditional staging by taking actors out of, say, Elizabethan doublet and hose (traditional wear of the Shakespearean era) and putting them instead into something more contemporary, or making clearer references to the contemporary: if King Claudius (in Hamlet) looks like Muammar Gaddafi , the audience, without actually thinking about it, will quickly understand that this character is a brutal tyrant.
Underscoring
retreating brass bands, lush violins, ominous chords Extended musical underscoring in some plays raises objections that it turns drama into cinema and suffuses the articulation of ideas in the syrup of generalized emotion
