Theatergoing Sy Why Go to the Theater? Why go to the theater at all? What is so special about a theater performance? In a theatrical performance, there are live performers in the presence of a live audience, and the electricity generated between actors and spectators is the most exciting aspect of atlending a theater production, In (heater—unlike film or television—each performance is unique because each audience responds differently and brings different expectations and sensibilities to the event. For example, think about a comedy onstage and a comedy in the movies. During the staged performance, the audience’s response or lack of response will clearly affect the way the actors and actresses shape their performances; but during the running of the film, the reaction of the audience in the movie house can obviously have no impact” on the performers. A theater event exists in the present and changes over time; a film exists on celluloid in the past and does not change. Remember, then, that although a theater performance has many components—including playing space, scenery, costumes, lighting, sound, and text—its primary elements are always the performers and the audience. When people think about why they go to the theater, there are usually three basic reasons: entertainment, communal interaction, and_ personal growth, To begin with, for most audience members the desize to go t0 the theater is connected with their desire to be entertained. For these people, theater is a way to relax, a source of enjoyment and fun, an escape from daily existence. Slapstick comedies, farces, some musicals, and meloctramas are examples of theatrical works thal are _meant primarily to entertain. Second, a theatrical performance is a communal experience: it brings2 CHAPTER 1 audience members together for a period of time. (In fact, the origins of theater are closely related to religious ceremonies and rituals, which are also communal experiences.) Third, theater can enrich individual audience members intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually; it can help us to see and understand the complexities and crosscurrents of everyday life and can also expand our horizons far beyond everyday life. Indeed, some theater artists believe that the function of theater is to “teach.” When you yourself attend the theater, try to determine your own. reasons—keeping in mind that many theater pieces are both entertaining and enriching. From reading plays, watching television, and attending movies, you have probably formed a good idea of what kind of live theater you will enjoy. You know that comedies and farces can make you laugh and feel carefree. Dramas and tragedies can introduce you to new ways of looking at the world, and perhaps can ead you to think about parallels between your own experience and the universal human condition. ay Programs As you enter the auditorium, you will probably receive a program from an usher who may also escort you to your seat. The program will contain much useful information that can help you enjoy and understand the theater event. In the program, you will find the title of the play, the author, the cast of characters, the actors and actresses, the designers, the director, and various other people involved in mounting the production. In some playbills, you will also find brief biographies of these people. In addition, you will find information about the setting of the play (place and time), its division into acts or scenes, and the number of intermissions. (Examples from programs for a Broadway production and a university production are shown on the following pages.) Some playbills also include notes about the play; such notes may be written by the playwright, the director, or the dramaturg—the literary advisor to the production, (An example of such a note is shown on page 10.) Notes like these can make you aware of the historical relevance of a play and the director’s approach to the text. Be sure to read the program and any notes in it, but don’t read this material during the actual course of the performance. The best time to read the program is either before the performance starts or during intermissions.THEATRE THEATRE (US - theater) theatrical - a theatrical performance, a theatrical company theatergoing — activity, practice of going to the theatre theatregoer ~ a person who regularly goes to the theater PERFORM performer = izvodat (actor, musician, singer, dancer...) performance - predstava, izvodenje, izvedba -a theatrical performance, a theatre performance, a drama performance They gave a performance of Bizet's ‘Carmen’. Her performance as the betrayed Medea was superb. fo perform - His play was first performed in January 2005. - Unlike film, theatre means performing live before an audience. audience (publika) - spectators (gledaoci) playwright - dramatist (dramski pisac) act actor actress acting - Acting is a demanding profession. toact - She had a great wish to act. - He acted in most of the director 's films. COMPONENTS OF A DRAMA PERFORMANCE scenery - the painted background used to represent the fictional surroundings on a stage or film set. costume - a set of clothes worn by an actor or performer for a role. lighting equipment for producing light; the arrangement or effect of lights. sound — - music, speech, and sound effects accompanying a film or broadcast. textAnother quality shared by the performing arts is that they require an audience. 9 A performance can be recorded on film or tape, but the event itself must be “live,” SHILHOGMOS that is, it must occur in one place at one time with both performers and audience Introduction present. Ifa theater performance is recorded on film or tape without the presence of an audience, it becomes a movie or a television show rather than a theater expe- rience. To put this distinction another way, when an audience watches a film in a movie theater, there are no performers onstage; there are only images on a screens hence there is no interaction between performers and audience. Such interaction is absolutely essential to the performing arts. In Chapter 1, we will talk more about the special nature of “live” performance and the crucial role of the audience. In addition to the general qualities we have been discussing, each art form has unique qualities and principles that set it apart from other art forms and help us to understand it better, When we know how shapes and designs relate to overall com- position, for instance, and how colors contrast with one another and complement ‘one another, we are in a better position to judge and understand painting, In the same way, we can appreciate theater much more if we understand how it is created and what elements it consists of. We'll now consider theater as an art form, and the creation and elements of theater will be the focus of Part I of this book. The Art of Theater Elements of Theater ‘When we begin to examine theater as an att form, we discover that there are certain elements common to all theater. These clements are present whenever a theater event takes place; without them, an event ceases to be theater and. becomes a different art form and a dif- ferent experience. Performers The first element essential to theater is performance: people onstage presenting characters in dra- matic action. ‘Acting is at the heart of all theater. One person stands in front of other peo- ple and begins to portray a character-— to speak and move in ways that convey an image of the character. At this point rscsos viewed by an audience, This sapa- the magic pf theater has begun: the rates theater from film and television as wal transformation through which an audi- {tne other arts Hore we see Borje Anlstedt ence accepts, for a time, that @ per- and Bjérn Granath in a scene from tbsen’s former is actually someone else. The Peer Gyntdirected by the Swedish director character portrayed can be a historical Ingmar Bergman. (Bengt Wansetius/The figure, an imaginary figure, or even a Royal Dramatic Theatra, Stockholm) Rating: The hoart of theater At the center of a theatrical event and a theatrical ‘experience is the performance of actors and10 self-presentation; still, everyone accepts the notion that it is the character, not the actor or actress, who is speaking. Acting is a demanding profession. In addition to native talent—the poise and authority needed to appear onstage before others, and the innate ability to create a character convincingly—acting requires considerable craft and skill. Performers must learn to use both voice and body with flexibility and control; they mist be able, for example, to make themselves heard in a large theater even when speaking in a whisper, (This takes extensive physical and vocal training, which we will dis- cuss in more detail in Chapter 2.) Performers must also be able to create believ- ability, or the emotional teuth of the characters they portray; that is, the audience must be convinced that the actor or actress is thinking and feeling what the char- acter would think and feel. (This, too, is a difficult task requiring a special kind of training—which we will also discuss in Chapter 2.) Audience Although this may not be readily apparent, another element neces- sary for theater is the audience. In fact, the essence of theater is the interaction between performer and audience. A theater, dance, or musical event is not complete—one could almost say it does not occur—anless there are people to see and hear it. When we read a play in book form, or listen to recorded music, what we experience is similar to looking at a painting or reading a poem: it is a private event, not a public one, and the live performance is re-cre- ated and imagined rather than experienced firsthand. Later, we will explain this in more detail, but now we can note simply that in the performing arts a performance occurs when the event takes place, not before and not after. All the performing arts, including theater, are like an electrical con- nection: the connection is not made until positive and negative wires touch and complete the circuit. Performers ace half of that connection, and audiences are the other half. ‘One audience member who is not essential to the theater experience, but who can enhance it for other audience members, is the critic. He or she can provide cr teria by which audiences can judge productions and can offer helpful information about the playwright, the play, theater history, and other important subjects. The cxitic’s contributions make attendance at the theater more meaningful, Director A key clement of a theater production is the work of the director: the person who rehearses the performers and coordinates their actions to make cer- tain that they interpret the text appropriately, intelligently, and excitingly. As we will see in Chapter 3, the separate role of the director became prominent for the first time in modern theater, but many of the functions of the director have always been present. Theater Space Another necessary element of theater is the space in which performers and audiences come together, It is essential to have a stage, or some equivalent area, where actors and actresses can perform. It is also essential to have a place for audience members to sit or stand. We will discover that there have been several basic configurations of stage spaces and audience seating.ee coe ‘Whatever the configuration, however, a.stage and a space for the audience must be a part of it. Also, there must be a place for the actors and actresses to change costumes, as well as a way for them to enter and exit from the stage. Design Elements Closely related to the physical stage is another important element: the design aspects of a production. Design includes visual aspects— costumes, lighting, and some form of scenic background—and a nonvisual aspect, sound. A play can be produced on a bare stage with minimal lighting, and with the performers wearing everyday street clothes. Even in these conditions, however, some attention must be paid to visual elements; there must, for instance, be suffi- cient illumination for us to see the performers, and clothes worn onstage will rake on a special meaning even if they are quite ordinary. Usually, visual elements are prominent in theater productions. Costumes, especially, have been a hallmark of cheater from the beginning; and scenery has sometimes become more prominent than the performers. In certain arrange- ments, visual aspects come to the forefront; in others—such as the arena stage, where the audience surrounds the action—elaborate scenery is impractical or even impossible. The visual aspects of theater are particularly interesting to trace through history because their place in theater production has shifted markedly from time to time, For example, stage lighting changed dramatically when the electric light- bulb came into use at the end of the nineteenth century. As we noted above, a design clement that is not visual is sound. This, too, is a modern element that has come into its own with modern technology. Of course, there were always sound effects, such as thunder and wind created by offstage machines; and there was frequently music, especially during certain periods, when every intermission was accompanied by orchestral performances. In mod- ern times, though, with electronic inventions, there are far more elaborate sound cffects; and frequently there are also microphones, sometimes in the general stage area and sometimes actually worn by the performers. Dramatic Action Embodied in a Text A final element essential to theater is the text that is performed. This is a story, an incident, or an event that has been put into dramatic form by a playwright, or perhaps by performers or a director. It might be a true story about other people, such as an incident reported in newspa- pers or on television. It might be an autobiographical story, something that hap- pened to the author. It might be a historical event, such as the American Civil War; or the story of someone involved in the event, such as Abraham Lincoln. It might be a fantasy, a made-up story with the quality of a dream. It might be a myth, such as the legends on which Greek dramatists of the fifth century 0.C. based their plays. ‘Whatever the source of the dramatic story, it must be present for theater to occur. In its written form, a dramatic story is called a text, and it most com- monly takes the form of a script. The person who creates the text is usually the playwright. He or she transforms the raw material—the incident, the biographical GOSS OOESY Introductionevent, the myth—into a drama which features characters talking and interacting with one another, Making this transformation is not easy. [t requires intimate knowledge of stage practices, of how ro breathe life into characters, of how to build action so that it will hold the interest of the audience and arouse anticipation for what is coming next. In other words, the playwright must create characters and develop a dramatic structute. Along with structure, a text must have a focus and a point of view. Who is the play about? What is it about? Are we supposed to regard the characters and the story as sad or funny? The person who creates the text has the power as well as the responsibility to direct our attention toward certain characters and away from others—and to slant the story so that we look on it as tragic or comic. We will discover more about how the playwright accomplishes these tasks when we look at the nature of a dramatic text in Chapters 7 and 8. ‘To sum up, the following are the major elements of theater: Performers Audience Direétor Theater space Design aspects: scenery, costume, lighting, and sound ‘Text, which includes focus, purpose, point of dramatic characters -w, dramatic structure, and Theater as a Collaborative Art cis important to stress that theater is a collaborative art. For theater to occur, its elements must be brought together and coordinated. The director must stage the play written by the playwright and must share with the playwright an understanding of structure, theme, and style. At the same time, the director must work closely with the performers in rehearsing the play, and with the designers of scenery, lights, costumes, and sound, to bring the pro- duction to fruition, During performances many elements must be coordinated: the work of actors and actresses along with technical aspects—scene changes, lighting shifts, and sound cues. The people working on these elements are joined, in turn, by a number of collaborators: the stage manager, stage carpenters, makeup experts, costume sewers, computer lighting experts, Another essential component in this collaborative enterprise is the business and administrative side of a production or theater organization, This includes producers and managers, and their staffs—the people who organize and admin- ister press and public relations, advertising, scheduling, fund-raising, and all the details of keeping the theater running smoothly, including ticket sales, ticket taking, and ushering, Ultimately, the many elements integrated in a production—text, direction, design, and acting, assisted by the technical side and the business side—must be presented to an audience, At that point occurs the final collaboration in any theater enterprise: the performance itself before spectators.Acting (2) 1. Were the actors believable, given the requirements of the play? If they were believable, how did they seem to accomplish this? If they werent believable, what occurred to impair or destroy believability? (As you discuss this, be sure to separate the performer from the role. For example, you can dislike a character but admire the performance.) 2. Identify the performers you considered most successful. Citing specifies from the production, note what they did well: particular gestures, lines, or moments. Try to describe each performer so as to give the reader a clear image. For example, how did the performer’s voice sound? How did he or she interpret the role? 3. If there were performers you did not like, identify them and explain why you did not like them. Give concrete examples to explain why their performances were less successful. 4, Acting is more than a collection of individual performances. The entire company needs to work as a unit (this is sometimes called ensemble): each actor must not only perform his or her own role but also support the other performers. Discuss how the performers related or failed to relate to one another, Did they listen to each other and respond? Did any actor seem to be “showing off” and ignoring the others? Directing 1. The director unifies a production and frequently provides an interpreta- tion of the text, Did there seem to be a unifying idea behind the production? If so, how would you express it? How were you able to see it embodied in the production? Was it embodied in striking images or in the way the actors developed’ their performances? (You should be aware that this can be one of the most difficult aspects of a production to evaluate, even for very experienced theatergoers,) 2. Did all the elements of the production seem to be unified and to fit together seamlessly? How was this reflected, in particular, in the visual clements—the scenery, cosiumes, and lighting? 3. How did the director move the actors around onstage? Were there any moments when you felt that such movement was particularly effective or ineffective? Were entrances and exits smooth? 4, Did the pace or rhythm of the production scem right? Did it drag or move swiftly? Did one scene follow another quickly, or were there long, pauses or interruptions’?18 CHAPTER 2 Space 1. What type of theater was it? How large or small was it? How opulent or elaborate? How simple or modern? What type of stage did it have: proscenium, thrust, arena, or some other lype? How did the stage space relate to audience seating? 2. What was the size and shape of the playing space? 3. What sort of atmosphere did the space suggest? How was that atmosphere created’? 4. Did the space seem to meet the needs of the play? Did it affect the production, and if so, how? Scenery 1. What information was conveyed by the scenery about time, place, characters, and situation? How was this information conveyed to you? 2. What was the overall atmosphere of the setting? 3. Did any colors dominate? How did colors affect your impression of the theater event? 4, Was the setting a specific place, or was it no recognizable or real locale? Did that choice seem appropriate for the play? 5. If the setting was realistic, how effectively did it reproduce what the place would actually look like? 6. Were there symbolic elements in the scenery? If so, what were they? How did they relate to the play? Costumes What information was conveyed by the costumes about time, place, characters, and situation? How was this information conveyed to you? What was the period of the costumes? What was the style? Were the costumes from a period other than the period in which the play was written or originally set? If so, how did this affect the production? Why do you think this choice was made? How was color used to give you clues to the personalities of the characters? Did each character’s costume or costumes seem appropriate for his or her personality, social status, occupation, etc.? Why or why not?——— 5. Did the costumes help you understand conflicts, differing social groups, and interpersonal relationships? If so, how? Lighting 1 What information was conveyed by the lighting about time, place, characters, and situation? How was this information conveyed to you? Describe the mood of the lighting. How was color and intensity used to affect mood? What other characteristics of light were used to affect mood? Was the lighting appropriate for the mood of each scene? Why or why not? Was the lighting realistic or nonrealistic? What was the direction of the light? Did it seem to come from a natural source, or was it artificial? Did this choice seem appropriate for the text? Were the actors properly lit? Could their faces be seen? Were light changes made slowly or quickly? How dlicl this afleet the play? Did it seem right for the play? Text 1. 6. What was the text for the performance? Was ita traditional play? Was it a piece created by the actors or director? (“Director's Note” on page 10 is an example of a production created by performers and director.) Was the piece improvisatory? (Note that most productions you attend will use traditional scripts as texts, and most of the following questions are based on this traditional model. However, you can adapt these questions for texts which have been created in nontraditional ways.) What was the text about? What was the author of the text trying to communicate to the audience? Did the author try to communicate more than one message? How was the meaning of the text communicated through words, actions, or symbols? Did you agree with the point of view of the text? Why or why not? What was the genre of the text? Was it comedy, tragedy, farce, melodrama, or tragicomedy? Was the text realistic or nonrealistic? Was it presentational or representational? Using terms you have encountered in your theater course or textbook, describe the structure of the text. Was it climactic (intensive)? Was it episodic (extensive)? Was it some combination of the two?20 CHAPTER 2 7. Many theorists argue that conflict is necessary for a dramatic text. Describe the conflict within the text in the production you saw, Which characters were in conflict? Was there a moment in the action when the conflict seemed to come to a head? Was the conflict resolved or not? How did you fecl about its resolution or lack of resolution? If the conflict was resolved, how was it resolved? How did the conflict seem to embody the meaning of the text? Characters 1. What were the major desires, goals, objectives, and motivations of the leading characters? How did these help you understand the meaning of the text? 2. Were the characters realistic, symbolic, allegorical, totally divorced from reality, ete,’ 3. How did minor characters relate to major characters? For instance, were they contrasts or parallels? 4, Did you identify most with one of the characters? If so, describe this character and explain why you identified with him or her. ay Worksheets for Theatergoing The following worksheets have been designed as an aid to note-taking, They should be used while you are attending a production. They do not call for extensive information; rather, they will help you jot down quick impressions that you can use later to jog your memory when you are actually developing your report. That is, the questions on these sheets are meant to help you accumulate information which can be used to respond to the more in-depth questions in the preceding section. To fill out the worksheets, you will enter information at three different times during your attendance at a theater event. Remember: Do not try to write an essay or even any fully developed statements while you are watching the performance; that would defeat the whole purpose of theatergoing.Peter HANDKE: Offending the Audience I Read the following article very carefully and do the exercises underneath. My introduction to the work of Handke came in the Spring of 1966, I was working with 2 group at a little theatre in Frankfurt that just had modest tours in the surrounding area. The members of the group had come directly out of university theatres and drama schools. Our theatre was politically involved leftist theatre. One day, the manager of the Suhrkamp Theatre Book Company, Karlheinz Braun, came to us with a typewritten script, which he described as a “hot” play. The formal structure of this play was very similar to the musical structure of the first Beatle records. Braun had maintained his enthusiasm for the play despite the fact that some 60 theatres he had contacted before had not been interested in staging it. The title of the play was Offending the Audience. 1. Despite the group's and my ‘own enthusiasm, we had to deal with a number of difficulties before beginning the work: for example, our theatre manager refused to finance the play, and a couple of the actors left because they thought Handke’s work was “nonsense”. We were very happy when, finally, the people behind an “Experimental Theatre Week” in Frankfurt supplied funding for the project. We rehearsed late in the evenings, in offices and even sometimes out of doors, fighting our way from line to line, listening to the same Beatle records over and over again, and often ending in the most incredible quarrels. 2. . In this play, we accepted complete melody and rhythm structures from beat music and attempted to transfer these structures into language. The actors danced and raced around, disappeared into prompters’ boxes, hung from the proscenium, whispered into the ears of the “audience”, held speeches from the first row of seats; in short, they did everything to make a shocking spectacle. While we were rehearsing, Handke was at Princeton University, participating in a gathering of German authors known as Group 47. At that time Group 47 was one of the most influential groups of German-speaking authors. 3. . He described their work as “descriptive literature” and as completely “foolish, idiotic and banal.” This performance, which was widely reported in the press, encouraged us and inspired us to make greater efforts. The literary public in Germany was immediately split by Handke’s attitude at Princeton. 4. With Handke suddenly becoming the subject of everybody's conversation, we opened our premiere of Offending the Audience on June 8" 1966. Our production proved to be the theatre sensation of the year. ‘The spectators were completely shocked by the group's unconventional beat-like energies. They expected a “normal” theatre evening and experienced something completely different: they were constantly addressed directly, shouted at, praised, blamed, hit and hugged. Suddenly, they found themselves in a starring role.