Experiencing the Art of Theatre A Concise Introduction

by Downs, William Missouri; Wright; Ramsey, Erik

• ISBN13: 9780495001805
• ISBN10: 0495001805
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-03
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

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.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
About the Authors	xvii
PART 1 THEATRE LITERACY
Theatre, Art, and Entertainment	2	(24)
Art, or Not Art: That Is the Question	4	(9)
The Qualities of Art	6	(3)
The Purpose of Art	9	(2)
The Politics of Art	11	(2)
This Wide and Universal Theatre: Theatre and Drama Defined	13	(7)
What Is Theatre? What Is Drama?	13	(2)
The Common Categories of Theatre	15	(5)
Art Versus Entertainment	20	(3)
Curtain Call	23
Spotlight Plato, Aristotle and the Theatre Arts	7	(5)
Spotlight on Diversity Artists, Entertainers, and Politics	12	(6)
From Stage to Screen Fair Is Foul: Setting for Horror and Tragedy in Macbeth	18	(8)
Comparing the Living Stage, Silver Screen, and Home Theatre	26	(24)
Audience: No Cell Phones, Please!	28	(2)
Acting: I'm Ready for My Close-Up	30	(2)
Directing: Direct and Indirect	32	(1)
Funding: Follow the Money	33	(7)
Funding the Screen	33	(1)
Funding Theatre and the Arts	34	(6)
Control: Who Pulls the Strings?	40	(4)
The Big Picture	41	(2)
The Theatre Next Door	43	(1)
Ownership: Copyrights and Cash	44	(2)
Curtain Call	46
Spotlights A Brief History of Screen Entertainments	29	(13)
Theatre Can Be Expensive	35	(7)
Spotlight on Diversity Exporting Entertainment and Culture	42	(8)
Theatre and Cultural Diversity	50	(28)
Critical Mirror: Art and Entertainment Reflect Culture	52	(3)
Theatre Can Promote Cultural Awareness	55	(14)
Theatre of Identity	56	(6)
Theatre of Protest	62	(4)
Cross-Cultural Theatre	66	(3)
Theatre as a Way of Seeing through Another's Eyes	69	(5)
Keeping the Theatre of the People Alive	74	(1)
Curtain Call	74
Spotlights Augusto Boal and The Theatre of the Oppressed	53	(6)
Diverse Beliefs and Values: Karen Finley and the NEA	65
Spotlight on Diversity Blackface, Redface, Yellowface	59	(13)
From Stage to Screen Real and Unreal: Angels in America	72	(6)
The Audience, Criticism, and Free Speech	78	(28)
The People Who Watch	80	(4)
Group Dynamics	80	(1)
Suspending Disbelief	81	(1)
Distancing Yourself	82	(2)
Levels of Participation	84	(5)
Sitting Quietly in the Dark	85	(1)
Audience Etiquette	85	(1)
Not Sitting Quietly in the Dark	86	(3)
Going to the Theatre	89	(3)
Finding a Play	89	(1)
Getting Your Tickets	89	(1)
Saving Money	89	(1)
Dress Codes	90	(1)
Reading the Program	90	(1)
After the Show	91	(1)
Everyone Is a Critic	92	(6)
Stating Opinions	92	(1)
Offering Interpretation and Analysis	92	(2)
Being More Than a Reviewer	94	(4)
The Right to Speak: Freedom of Speech and the Arts	98	(6)
You Can't Say That on Stage!	98	(2)
The First Amendment: Rights and Restrictions	100	(4)
Curtain Call	104
Spotlights Audiences Behaving Badly: The Astor Place Riot	87	(1)
Who Attends Performing Arts Events?	91
Spotlight on Diversity Let's Do the Time Warp Again	88	(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