The Essential Theatre (with InfoTrac)

by Brockett, Oscar G.; Ball, Robert J.

• ISBN13: 9780534577858
• ISBN10: 0534577857
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-27
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

The Eighth Edition of THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE will help you get your students excited about theatre. The combined authorship of an authoritative theatre historian and his former student, an active theatre historian himself, make this the book perfect for your introductory theatre course. In the 35 years since it was first published, THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE has established a reputation as one of the most comprehensive, authoritative surveys of the theatre in academia. Now in a new full color format with many representations of current and classic performances, this text will encourage your students to become active theatergoers and fans. THE ESSENTIAL THEATRE works in tandem with its companion anthology, PLAYS FOR THEATRE. The scripts in PLAYS serve as a foundation for discussion of the various types of theatrical experience explored in the text.

Table of Contents

Preface	xvii
Part One: Foundations	1	(54)
The Nature of Theatre	3	(18)
The Basic Elements of Theatre	4	(3)
Theatre as a Form of Art	7	(7)
Special Qualities of Theatre	14	(2)
Art and Value	16	(3)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	19	(2)
Performance, Audience, and Critic	21	(14)
Watching a Performance	22	(2)
Who Is the Audience?	24	(4)
The Audience and Critical Perspective	28	(2)
The Basic Problems of Criticism	30	(3)
Qualities Needed by the Critic	33	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	33	(2)
The Playscript	35	(20)
On Reading a Play	35	(1)
Dramatic Action	36	(1)
Methods of Organizing Dramatic Action	37	(2)
Plot	39	(2)
The Beginning	39	(1)
The Middle	40	(1)
The End	41	(1)
Character and Characterization	41	(2)
Thought	43	(1)
Diction	44	(1)
Music	45	(1)
Spectacle	45	(2)
Form in Drama	47	(6)
Tragedy	49	(1)
Comedy	49	(1)
Other Forms	49	(2)
Style in Drama	51	(2)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	53	(2)
Part Two: Varieties of Theatrical Experience	55	(226)
Festival Theatre: Greek, Roman, and Medieval Theatre Experiences	57	(42)
The Theatre of Ancient Greece	57	(3)
The Theatre of Dionysus	60	(2)
The Performers	62	(4)
Oedipus the King and Its Performance	66	(6)
Greek Comedy	72	(2)
The Roman Theatre Experience	74	(2)
The Roman Theatrical Context	76	(3)
The Menaechmi	79	(2)
Other Roman Drama and Theatre	81	(1)
The Revival of Drama in the Middle Ages	82	(2)
Trade Guilds and the Corpus Christi Festival	84	(2)
Conventions of Medieval Theatre	86	(3)
The Wakefield Cycle	89	(2)
Noah and His Sons	91	(3)
Other Medieval Theatre and Drama	94	(3)
Comparing Greek, Roman, and Medieval Theatre	97	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	97	(2)
Creating a Professional Theatre: Elizabethan England, Italian Commedia dell'Arte, and Seventeenth-Century France	99	(40)
Creating a Professional Theatre	99	(2)
Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre	101	(6)
Hamlet	107	(5)
The Theatre Experience in Renaissance Italy	112	(6)
Commedia dell'Arte	118	(6)
The Servant of Two Masters	124	(4)
The French Background	128	(3)
Moliere and Seventeenth-Century French Theatre Practice	131	(2)
Tartuffe	133	(3)
The Elizabethan, Italian, and French Traditions	136	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	137	(2)
From Romanticism to Realism	139	(30)
The Emergence of Romanticism	140	(2)
Melodrama	142	(4)
Monte Cristo	146	(6)
The Advent of Realism	152	(2)
Realism and Naturalism	154	(2)
A Doll's House	156	(2)
Zola and Naturalism	158	(1)
The Emergence of the Director	159	(4)
The Independent Theatre Movement	163	(4)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	167	(2)
The Modernist Temperament: 1885--1940	169	(26)
Symbolism	169	(3)
Appia, Craig, and Reinhardt	172	(3)
New Artistic Movements	175	(4)
``The Hairy Ape''	179	(2)
The Postwar Era	181	(3)
The Federal Theatre and the Group Theatre	184	(1)
Epic Theatre	185	(3)
The Good Woman of Setzuan	188	(2)
Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty	190	(3)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	193	(2)
Reevaluation, Decentralization, and Subsidization	195	(32)
Postwar American Theatre	195	(1)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof	196	(4)
The Musical in Postwar America	200	(3)
Postwar Europe	203	(1)
Absurdism	204	(1)
Happy Days	205	(2)
Decentralization and Subsidization	207	(1)
The Postwar British Theatre	208	(5)
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway	213	(3)
Regional Theatres	216	(2)
Subsidization of the Arts in the United States	218	(2)
Broadway and Musicals after Subsidization	220	(3)
American Playwrights after 1960	223	(2)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	225	(2)
Contemporary Theatre and Its Diversity	227	(36)
Alternative Theatre Groups	227	(3)
Poor and Environmental Theatres	230	(3)
Multimedia, Happenings, and Performance Art	233	(5)
Postmodernism	238	(2)
Trends in Directing	240	(2)
Cultural Diversity	242	(1)
African American Theatre	243	(3)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom	246	(2)
Latino Theatre	248	(1)
Roosters	249	(3)
Asian American Theatre	252	(2)
Native American Theatre	254	(2)
Theatre by and for Women	256	(1)
How I Learned to Drive	257	(3)
Gay and Lesbian Theatre	260	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	261	(2)
Asian and African Theatre	263	(18)
Theatre in Japan	263	(1)
Noh Theatre	264	(3)
The Shrine in the Fields (Nonomiya)	267	(2)
Other Japanese Theatre Forms	269	(4)
Theatre in Africa	273	(2)
Performance in Nigeria	275	(1)
The Strong Breed	276	(2)
Theatre Elsewhere in Africa	278	(1)
Epilogue	278	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	279	(2)
Part Three: Theatrical Production	281	(148)
Theatrical Space and Production Design	283	(16)
The Influence of Theatrical Space	283	(1)
The Proscenium-Arch Stage	284	(1)
The Thrust Stage	285	(1)
The Arena Stage	286	(1)
Flexible Space	287	(2)
Auxiliary Spaces	289	(2)
Using the Theatrical Space	291	(1)
Collaborative Production Design	292	(5)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	297	(2)
Playwriting and Dramaturgy	299	(16)
The Playwright	299	(7)
The Dramaturg	306	(1)
Dramaturgy and Literary Management	307	(4)
Production Dramaturgy	311	(2)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	313	(2)
Directing and Producing	315	(28)
The Producer	315	(4)
The Director	319	(11)
Analyzing and Studying the Script	319	(3)
Approaches to Directing	322	(3)
The Director and the Designers	325	(2)
Auditions and Casting	327	(1)
Working with the Actors	327	(3)
The Director's Means	330	(6)
Stage Images	330	(2)
Movement, Gesture, and Business	332	(2)
Voice and Speech	334	(2)
Rehearsing the Play	336	(4)
The Director's Assistants	339	(1)
Thinking about the Director's Work	340	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	341	(2)
Acting	343	(18)
The Actor's Training and Means	344	(14)
The Actor's Instrument	345	(2)
Observation and Imagination	347	(1)
Concentration	347	(1)
Stage Vocabulary	348	(2)
Scene Study	350	(1)
From Training to Performing	350	(1)
Creating a Role	351	(2)
Psychological and Emotional Preparation	353	(1)
Movement, Gesture, and Business	353	(1)
Vocal Characterization	354	(2)
Memorization and Line Readings	356	(1)
Refining a Role	356	(1)
Dress Rehearsals and Performance	357	(1)
Thinking about the Actor's Work	358	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	359	(2)
Scene Design	361	(22)
The Functions of Scene Design	361	(2)
The Scene Designer's Skills	363	(2)
Working Plans and Procedures	365	(3)
Basic Scene Elements	368	(6)
Soft-Scenery Units	369	(1)
Framed Units	370	(1)
Three-Dimensional Units	371	(1)
Innovative Materials and Methods	371	(3)
Assembling and Painting Scenery	374	(1)
Shifting Scenery on Stage	375	(3)
Set Decoration and Properties	378	(1)
Technical Rehearsals, Dress Rehearsals, and Performances	379	(1)
The Scene Designer's Assistants and Coworkers	380	(1)
Thinking about the Scene Designer's Work	380	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	381	(2)
Costume Design and Makeup	383	(22)
The Functions of Costume Design	383	(3)
The Costume Designer's Skills	386	(2)
Working Plans and Procedures	388	(3)
Realizing the Designs	391	(2)
The Costume Designer and the Actor	393	(2)
Makeup	395	(6)
The Functions of Makeup	395	(1)
The Makeup Plot	396	(1)
Types of Makeup	396	(2)
Makeup Materials	398	(3)
The Costume Parade, Dress Rehearsals, and Performances	401	(1)
The Costume Designer's Assistants	402	(1)
Thinking about Costume and Makeup	402	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	403	(2)
Lighting and Sound Design	405	(24)
The Controllable Qualities of Light	405	(2)
The Functions of Stage Lighting	407	(2)
The Lighting Designer's Skills	409	(2)
The Lighting Designer's Working Procedures	411	(2)
Organizing the Distribution of Light	413	(5)
Setting the Lights, Rehearsals, and Performances	418	(2)
The Lighting Designer's Employment and Assistants	420	(1)
The Increasing Role of Sound Design	421	(1)
The Functions of Sound Design	421	(1)
The Sound Designer's Working Methods and Resources	422	(2)
Mixed-Media Productions	424	(2)
Thinking about Stage Lighting and Sound	426	(1)
Afterword	427	(1)
Additional Opportunities with InfoTrac College Edition	427	(2)
Glossary	429	(10)
Bibliography	439	(14)
Index	453