Experiencing the Art of Theatre : A Concise Introduction

by Downs,William Missouri

Edition:

1st

ISBN13:

9780495001805

ISBN10:

0495001805

Format:

Paperback

Pub. Date:

1/3/2006

Publisher(s):

Cengage Learning

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Summary

This invigorating new introductory text makes timely and relevant connections between theatre and the familiar world of Hollywood television and film to help students understand how the living art of theatre relates to, predates, and influences the screen entertainment they are used to watching. From theatre's ritual origins to modern musicals, from the controversies surrounding the NEA to the applicability of acting lessons in everyday life, this book is an important first step toward a deeper awareness of theatre's continuing and contemporary significance. Featuring strong coverage of current events in theatre, the reviewer-praised anecdotal narrative makes this book fun to read and one that students will want to keep long after the course is over. THE ART OF THEATRE is organized into three distinct sections, giving you the flexibility to organize your course your way. Adding to this flexibility is the book's availability in two versions. THE ART OF THEATRE: THEN AND NOW contains 16 chapters with extensive coverage of the history of theatre. EXPERIENCING THE ART OF THEATRE: A CONCISE INTRODUCTION features 13 chapters and a briefer treatment of theatre history.

Preface

xiii

About the Authors

xvii

PART 1 THEATRE LITERACY

Theatre, Art, and Entertainment

(24)

Art, or Not Art: That Is the Question

(9)

The Qualities of Art

(3)

The Purpose of Art

(2)

The Politics of Art

(2)

This Wide and Universal Theatre: Theatre and Drama Defined

(7)

What Is Theatre? What Is Drama?

(2)

The Common Categories of Theatre

(5)

Art Versus Entertainment

(3)

Curtain Call

Spotlight Plato, Aristotle and the Theatre Arts

(5)

Spotlight on Diversity Artists, Entertainers, and Politics

(6)

From Stage to Screen Fair Is Foul: Setting for Horror and Tragedy in Macbeth

(8)

Comparing the Living Stage, Silver Screen, and Home Theatre

(24)

Audience: No Cell Phones, Please!

(2)

Acting: I'm Ready for My Close-Up

(2)

Directing: Direct and Indirect

(1)

Funding: Follow the Money

(7)

Funding the Screen

(1)

Funding Theatre and the Arts

(6)

Control: Who Pulls the Strings?

(4)

The Big Picture

(2)

The Theatre Next Door

(1)

Ownership: Copyrights and Cash

(2)

Curtain Call

Spotlights A Brief History of Screen Entertainments

(13)

Theatre Can Be Expensive

(7)

Spotlight on Diversity Exporting Entertainment and Culture

(8)

Theatre and Cultural Diversity

(28)

Critical Mirror: Art and Entertainment Reflect Culture

(3)

Theatre Can Promote Cultural Awareness

(14)

Theatre of Identity

(6)

Theatre of Protest

(4)

Cross-Cultural Theatre

(3)

Theatre as a Way of Seeing through Another's Eyes

(5)

Keeping the Theatre of the People Alive

(1)

Curtain Call

Spotlights Augusto Boal and The Theatre of the Oppressed

(6)

Diverse Beliefs and Values: Karen Finley and the NEA

Spotlight on Diversity Blackface, Redface, Yellowface

(13)

From Stage to Screen Real and Unreal: Angels in America

(6)

The Audience, Criticism, and Free Speech

(28)

The People Who Watch

(4)

Group Dynamics

(1)

Suspending Disbelief

(1)

Distancing Yourself

(2)

Levels of Participation

(5)

Sitting Quietly in the Dark

(1)

Audience Etiquette

(1)

Not Sitting Quietly in the Dark

(3)

Going to the Theatre

(3)

Finding a Play

(1)

Getting Your Tickets

(1)

Saving Money

(1)

Dress Codes

(1)

Reading the Program

(1)

After the Show

(1)

Everyone Is a Critic

(6)

Stating Opinions

(1)

Offering Interpretation and Analysis

(2)

Being More Than a Reviewer

(4)

The Right to Speak: Freedom of Speech and the Arts

(6)

You Can't Say That on Stage!

(2)

The First Amendment: Rights and Restrictions

100

(4)

Curtain Call

104

Spotlights Audiences Behaving Badly: The Astor Place Riot

(1)

Who Attends Performing Arts Events?

Spotlight on Diversity Let's Do the Time Warp Again

(18)

PART 2 THE ARTS WITHIN THE ART

Creativity and the Ensemble

106

(26)

A Creative Life

108

(4)

Creativity and Technique

108

(1)

Creativity and Talent

109

(3)

Creative People

112

(3)

A Burning Curiosity

112

(1)

The Power of Concentration

112

(1)

The Ability to Find Order

112

(1)

Mental Agility and the Ability to Find Options

113

(1)

The Willingness to Take Risks and Accept Failure

113

(2)

Enhancing Your Creativity

115

(3)

Get Enough Exercise and Sleep

115

(1)

Consider Your Environment

115

(1)

Make the Time

116

(1)

Assess Your Motivation

116

(1)

Temper Your Criticism

117

(1)

Creative Solutions

118

(2)

Theatre Is Teamwork

120

(10)

Administrative Team

122

(1)

Creative Team

123

(1)

Construction Crews

124

(1)

Production Crews

124

(6)

Curtain Call

130

Spotlights Identify Your Intelligences and Cultivate Your Creativity

110

(4)

The Process of Putting on a Play

126

Spotlight on Diversity Playfulness: The First Quality of Genius

114

(14)

From Stage to Screen Putting Offstage Action Onscreen: The Crucible

128

(4)

The Playwright and the Script

132

(26)

The Playwright's Life and Words

134

(3)

The Art of Playwriting

137

(10)

What Does It Mean? The Theme

137

(2)

Characters in Action

139

(1)

Conflict as Catalyst

139

(2)

The Art of Language

141

(4)

Plotting the Story

145

(2)

Formula Plots

147

(7)

In the Beginning

148

(2)

In the Middle

150

(1)

Where It All Ends

151

(3)

Plots outside the Formula

154

(2)

Curtain Call

156

Spotlights Genre

146

How Many Acts? How Many Intermissions?

153

Spotlight on Diversity The Life of a Playwright: Rebecca Gilman

138

(20)

The Art of Acting

158

(26)

Training to Be an Actor

160

(3)

Training the Body

160

(1)

Training the Voice

160

(3)

Training the Mind

163

(1)

Gurus and Mentors: Acting Teachers

163

(1)

Acting Techniques We All Can Use

164

(8)

Changing How You Feel: Outside/In and Inside/Out

165

(3)

Empathy and the Magic If: Sympathy Transformed

168

(1)

Substitution: It's All Yiddish to Me

168

(4)

Understanding a Character

172

(4)

Circumstances and Objectives

173

(1)

Public and Personal Images

174

(1)

Inner Conflicts and Character Flaws

175

(1)

Motivation: Thinking in Positives

176

(1)

The Actor's Life

176

(5)

Pursuing the Part: Perpetual Auditions

178

(1)

Perfecting the Part: Rehearsals

179

(1)

Playing the Part: Performances

180

(1)

Curtain Call

181

Spotlights The Life of an Actor: Don Cheadle

161

(4)

Synthespians versus a ``Poor Theatre''

178

Spotlight on Diversity Tadashi Suzuki

165

(5)

From Stage to Screen Confinement, Close-Ups, and Clues: Alfred Hitchcock's Rope

170

(14)

The Art of Directing

184

(26)

The Birth of Directors

187

(3)

Before Rehearsals Begin

190

(6)

It All Starts with a Script: Script Analysis

190

(1)

Studying Even the Smallest Elements: Structural Analysis

191

(3)

Meetings and More Meetings: Realizing the Production Concept

194

(1)

Don't Call Us; We'll Call You: Casting the Right Actors

195

(1)

The Director's Role during Rehearsals

196

(7)

Directing the Audience's Eye

196

(6)

Reinforcing the Story with Pictures

202

(1)

The Director's Collaboration with Others

203

(1)

Different Types of Directors

203

(2)

Interpretive Directors

203

(1)

Creative Directors

204

(1)

Contemporary Trends

205

(2)

Curtain Call

207

Spotlights The Life of a Director: Tisa Chang

186

(11)

Playwright versus Director

206

Spotlight on Diversity Color-Blind Casting

197

(13)

The Art of Design

210

(28)

From Page to Stage

212

(8)

Doing the Homework

212

(4)

Design Team Meetings

216

(4)

Filling the Empty Space

220

(14)

Designing the Set

220

(4)

Designing the Lights

224

(4)

Designing the Sound

228

(1)

Designing the Costumes

228

(2)

Preparing Makeup, Wigs, and False Noses

230

(4)

Now It's Got to Be Built

234

(1)

Curtain Call

235

Spotlights Theatre Spaces

214

(11)

Theatrical Styles

218

(7)

Spotlight on Diversity The Life of a Designer: Ming Cho Lee

225

(7)

From Stage to Screen A Mad, Mad World Inside and Out: Louis Nowra's Cosi

232

(6)

PART 3 A CONCISE HISTORY

Theatre's Beginnings

238

(34)

Wine and Fertility: The Birth of Tragedy

241

(6)

Tragedies That Weren't All That Tragic

242

(1)

Tragic Trilogies and Satyr Plays

243

(3)

Playwrights of the Golden Age

246

(1)

Greek Comedies: Political Satire and Dirty Jokes

247

(1)

Aristotle, Alexander, and the Spread of Greek Theatre

248

(2)

Classical Theatre of India: The Believable and the Unbelievable

250

(2)

Roman Entertainment: Obscene Spectacle

252

(4)

Roman Mimes

252

(1)

2,000-Year-Old Sitcoms

253

(3)

The Singing, Acting Emperor

256

(1)

The Rise of Christianity

256

(2)

Peking Opera Is Not Opera

258

(2)

The Japanese Say Yes to Theatre

260

(5)

Noh

260

(3)

Kabuki

263

(2)

Meanwhile, Back in Medieval Europe

265

(2)

Theatre in the Shadows

267

(1)

Curtain Call

268

Spotlights Oedipus Rex

244

(20)

Masks and Theatre

262

(2)

Spotlight on Diversity Women on Stage

264

Timeline Theatre's Beginnings through the Middle Ages

254

(18)

Theatre's Revival in Europe

272

(34)

The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Return of Secular Theatre

274

(7)

Aristotle: The Comeback Kid

275

(1)

The Italian Perspective

276

(1)

Spanish Dreams

277

(4)

Elizabethan England and Shakespeare's Heyday

281

(13)

The World of the Globe Theatre

283

(1)

Rogues and Vagabonds (Also Known as Actors)

284

(2)

Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

286

(4)

Masques: Entertaining in High Places

290

(4)

The Restoration and the Acceptance of Women in Theatre

294

(2)

French Theatre: Tennis, Anyone?

296

(1)

A New Light: Theatre in the Age of Reason

297

(7)

Revolutionary Theatre

299

(3)

Romanticism and the Birth of Melodrama

302

(2)

Curtain Call

304

Spotlights Women on the Elizabethan Stage

285

(6)

Puritans, Pilgrims, and the Beginning of Theatre in America

301

Spotlight on Diversity Multiculturalism Gets Off to a Rocky Start: The Masque of Blackness

291

Timeline The Renaissance through Romanticism

278

(14)

From Stage to Screen A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: Film Versions of Hamlet

292

(14)

Modern Theatre

306

(34)

Western Influence on World Theatre

308

(1)

Let's Get Real: The Advent of Realism

309

(7)

Box Sets and Fourth Walls

311

(1)

Local Flavor and Real People

312

(4)

Naturalism: A Slice of Life

316

(1)

The Rise of the Avant-Garde

317

(12)

Symbolic Acts, Hairy Apes, and the Theatre of Cruelty

318

(5)

Life Is Absurdism

323

(2)

Bertolt Brecht: Appealing to the Intellect, Not the Emotions

325

(1)

American Post-War Theatre

326

(3)

Off the Beaten Broadway Path: 1960s U.S. Theatre

329

(1)

Contemporary Theatre: It's Alive!

330

(5)

Theatre: Will It Survive?

335

(2)

Curtain Call

337

Spotlights Chekhov, Stanislavsky, and the Birth of Modern Acting

315

McCarthyism, Lillian Hellman, and the Theatre

326

Spotlight on Diversity Oscar Wilde

313

Timelines The 1800s

310

(30)

The 1900s and Beyond

320

(20)

The Musical

340

(24)

Something for Everyone: What Makes a Musical?

342

(6)

Good Things Come in Threes: The Scripts of Musicals

343

(1)

From Ballads to Showstoppers: The Music of Musicals

344

(4)

Musicals: Then and Now

348

(11)

Opera: High Art and Comic Relief

348

(1)

Early American Musicals: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

349

(3)

African American Musicals: Opening New Doors

352

(2)

The Railroad, the War, and All That Jazz

354

(1)

The Show Boat Revolution

354

(2)

Thoroughly Modern Musicals

356

(3)

The End or a New Beginning?

359

(1)

Curtain Call

360

Spotlights Stephen Sondheim

345

(13)

Unsung Heroines of the American Musical

353

(7)

The American Musical and the Movies

360

Spotlight on Diversity Hooray for Bollywood!

358

From Stage to Screen Filming All That Jazz: Chicago on Screen

346

(18)

Glossary

364

(13)

Index

377

Experiencing the Art of Theatre : A Concise Introduction

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