Theater: The Lively Art, 5/e & CD-ROM w/ Theatergoer's Guide

by Wilson, Edwin; Goldfarb, Alvin

• ISBN13: 9780073025681
• ISBN10: 0073025682
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-15
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

Created for Theater Appreciation courses that cover both history and elements, the new fifth edition of The Lively Art remains a comprehensive introductory theater text that incorporates a number of elements in one volume: an introduction to the audience's experience of theater, an investigation of the elements of theater, and a study of the important developments in the history of theater.

Author Biography

Edwin Wilson, as teacher, author, director, and critic, has worked in many aspects of theater. Educated at Vanderbilt University, the University of Edinburgh, and Yale University, he received a master of fine arts degree from the Yale Drama School, as well as the first doctor of fine arts degree awarded by Yale. He has taught at Yale, Hofstra, Vanderbilt, Hunter College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. At Hunter he served as chair of the Department of Theatre and Film and head of the graduate theater program. At CUNY he directed the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center devoted to theater research, publication, and communication. From 1972 to 1994 he was the theater critic of The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Theater Experience and a co-author, with Alvin Goldfarb, of Living Theatre: A History, as well as coeditor of The Anthology of Living Theater; all published by McGraw-Hill. He edited and wrote the introduction for Shaw on Shakespeare. He has been a member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, of which he served as president, and has been on the selection committees of the Pulitzer Prize in drama and the Tony awards. He serves on the board of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the John Golden Fund, and has for many years served on the board of the Theatre Development Fund, of which he was president for two terms. Alvin Goldfarb is President and Professor of Theatre at Western Illinois University. Dr. Goldfarb also served as vice president and provost, dean of Fine Arts, and chair of Theatre at Illinois State University. Dr. Goldfarb holds a Ph.D. in theater history from the City University of New York and a master's degree from Hunter College. He is the coauthor of Living Theatre:A History and coeditor of The Anthology of Living Theater with Edwin Wilson. Dr. Goldfarb is also the coeditor, with Rebecca Rovit, of Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs, which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist. He has published numerous articles and reviews in scholarly journals and anthologies. Dr. Goldfarb served as a member of the Illinois Arts Council and president of the Illinois Alliance for Arts Education. He has received service awards from the latter organization as well as from the American College Theater Festival. Dr. Goldfarb also received an Alumni Achievement Award from the City University of New York Graduate Center's Alumni Association.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Experiencing Theater

Theater as an Art Form

What is Art?/The Art of Theater

Summary

PART ONE: CREATING THEATER

CHAPTER 1 AUDIENCES AND CRITICS

The Theater Audience/How the Audience Participates/Diversity of Audiences/Play Synopses: Fences/The Theater Critic/What Is Criticism?/Critics and Reviewers/Getting Started in Theater—Mel Gussow: Critic/Preparing for Criticism/Criteria for Criticism/Descriptive versus Prescriptive Criticism/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 2 THE PLAYWRIGHT: CREATING THE SCRIPT

CHAPTER 2 THE PLAYWRIGHT: CREATING THE SCRIPT The Playwright’s Centrality/Getting Started in Theater: Suzan-Lori Parks/The Playwright’s TasksSubjectFocus and EmphasisDramatic PurposeMaking Connections: WritersStructure in DramaEssentials of Dramatic Structure/Creating a Dramatic StructureGetting Started in Theater—August Wilson: PlaywrightTwo Basic Structures: Climactic and EpisodicPlay Synopses: Mother Courage and Her ChildrenOther Dramatic StructuresCreating Dramatic CharactersTypes of Dramatic Characters/Juxtaposition of CharactersSummaryKey Terms

CHAPTER 3 TRAGEDY OR COMEDY? DRAMATIC GENRES

What is Genre?/Tragedy Conditions for Tragedy: Theater and Society/Traditional Tragedy/Modern Tragedy Comedy/Characteristics of Comedy/Forms of ComedyPlay Synopses: Tartuffe-Heroic Drama/Melodrama -Domestic of Bourgeois Drama/Tragicomedy - Shakespearian /Tragicomedy - Modern Tragicomedy/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 4 STAGE PERFORMERS

A Historical Perspective: Demands of Classical Acting/Three Challenges of Acting/Getting Started in Theater—James Earl Jones: Performer/Mastering the Craft of Acting/Making Characters Believable/Play Synopses: The Cherry Orchard/Synthesis and Integration/Making Connections: Acting/Judging Performances/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 5 THE DIRECTOR AND THE PRODUCER

The Director/Evolution of the Director/The Auteur Director/The Director at Work/Getting Started in Theater—Richard Foreman/Getting Started in Theater—Emily Mann/The Director’s Collaborators/The Producer or ManagerProducers in Commercial Theater/Noncommercial TheatersSummary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 6 THEATER SPACES

Proscenium or Picture-Frame Stage: History and Characteristics/Thrust Stage: History and Characteristics/Arena Stage: History and Characteristics/Making Connections: Popular Performance Spaces/Created or Found Spaces/Multifocus Environments/All-Purpose and Experimental Spaces/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 7 DESIGNERS: SCENERY AND COSTUMES

Scene Design/The Scene Designer’s Objectives/Getting Started in Theater—Robin Wagner/Elements of Scene Design/The Process of Scene Design: Steps in the Design Process/The Scene Designer’s Collaborators/Designing a Total Environment/Costume Design/The Costume Designer/The Costume Designer’s Objectives/Getting Started in Theater—Jess Goldstein/Elements of Costume Design/The Costume Designer’s Collaborators/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 8 DESIGNERS: LIGHTING AND SOUND

Stage Lighting/Lighting in Theater History/Getting Started in Theater—Peggy Eisenhauer/Objectives of Lighting Design/Elements of Stage Lighting/The Lighting Designer’s Resources/The Lighting Designer’s Collaborators/Sound Design/The Sound Designer/Objectives of Sound Design/Sound Reproduction and Sound Reinforcement/Elements of Sound: Sound Technology/The Sound Designer’s Collaborators/Special Effects in Lighting and Sound/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 9 PROFILE OF A PRODUCTION: Roundabout

Theatre’s Production of Big River

PART TWO THEATER TRADITION AND THEATER TODAY

CHAPTER 10 GREEK AND ROMAN THEATER

Origins of Theater/Greece/Background: The Golden Age of Greece/Theater and Culture: Greek Theater Emerges/Timeline: Greece/Greek Tragedy - Living History: Antigone/Play Synopses: King Oedipus/Greek Comedy/Theater Production in Greece/Dramatic Criticism in Greece: Aristotle/Later Greek Theater/Rome/Background: Rome and Its Civilization/Theater and Culture in Rome/Popular Entertainment in Rome/Timeline: Rome/Roman Comedy: Plautus and Terence/Living History: The Menaechmi/Roman Tragedy: Seneca/Dramatic Criticism in Rome: Horace/Theater Production in Rome/Decline of Roman TheaterSummary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 11 ASIAN AND MEDIEVAL THEATER

Asia Background: Asian Theater/Theater in IndiaTimeline: Asia/Theater in China/Theater in JapanLiving History: Sotoba Kamachi/Play Synopses: Sotoba Komahi The Middle Ages/Background: Medieval Europe/Theater and Culture in the Middle Ages/Timeline: Middle AgesMedieval Drama: Mystery, Miracle, and Morality PlaysLiving History: Noah’s Ark/Medieval Theater ProductionSummary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 12 RENAISSANCE THEATER

Italy/Background: The Renaissance Era/Italian Theater: Commedia dell’Arte/Timeline: Italian RenaissanceLiving History: Commedia dell’Arte/Italian Dramatic Rules: The Neoclassical Ideals/Theater Production in ItalyEngland/Background: Elizabethan England/Elizabethan DramaTimeline: English Renaissance/Elizabethan Theater ProductionLiving History: Hamlet/Making Connections: Popular Arts of Shakespeare’s Time/Theater After Elizabeth’s ReignSpain/Background: The Spanish Golden Age/Spanish DramaTimeline: Spanish Golden Age/Living History: The KingTheater Production in Spain/France/Background: France in the Seventeenth Century/French Drama: The Neoclassical EraTimeline: Neoclassical France/Living History: TartuffeTheater Production in France/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 13 FROM RESTORATION THROUGH ROMANTICISM

The English Restoration/Background: England in the Seventeenth Century/Restoration Drama: Comedies of Manners/Timeline: The English Restoration/Living History: The Country Wife/Theater Production in the Restoration/Play Synopses: The Way of the World/The Eighteenth Century/Background: A More Complex World/Timeline: The Eighteenth Century/Eighteenth-Century Drama: New Dramatic Forms/Theater Production in the Eighteenth Century/Living History: The Marriage of Figaro/The Nineteenth Century/Background: A Time of Social Change/Theater in Nineteenth-Century Life/Timeline: Nineteenth Century/Nineteenth-Century Dramatic FormsMaking Connections: Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatrical Arts/Theater Production in the Nineteenth Century/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 14 EARLY MODERN MOVEMENTS

The Birth of Realism/Background: The Modern Era/Timeline: 1875-1915/Theatrical Realism/Realistic Playwrights/Play Synopses: A Doll’s HouseRealism and Naturalism/Producers of Realism: Independent Theaters/Living History: The Sea Gull/Realistic Theater between 1915 and 1945/Timeline: 1915 to 1945/Departures from Realism/Antirealist Playwrights: Ibsen, Strindberg, and Wedekind/Symbolism/ Antirealist Designers: Appia and Craig/Russian Theatricalism: Meyerhold/Early Eclectics/Departure From Realism: 1915-1945Totalitarianism, the Second World War, and Theater/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 15 TWENTIETH CENTURY DIVERSITY

Postwar Realistic Theater/Background: The Postwar Era/Timeline: 1945-2000/American Selective RealismPlay Synopses: Death of a Salesman/The “Angry Young Men” in England and Documentary Drama in Germany/Experimentation and Departures from Realism: 1945 to 1980/Living History: Waiting for Godot/Existentialism and Theater of the Absurd/Experimental Theater/Play Synopses: Waiting for Godot/Postwar Eclectics/Developments in Postwar American TheaterAfrican American Theater/Musical Theater/Alternatives to Commercial Theater/Making Connections: Film and the Other Mass Media/Summary/Key Terms

CHAPTER 16 CONTEMPORARY TRENDS

The Beginning of a New Century/Today’s Theater: Diversity and Eclecticism/Asian American Theater/Hispanic Theater/Native American Theater/Feminist Theater/Play Synopses: Fefu and Her FriendsGay and Lesbian Theater/Performance Art/Postmodernism/International Trends/Two African Playwrights/Today and Tomorrow: A Look Ahead/Making Connections: The Digital Arts/Summary/Key Terms

Index

LIST OF BOXES

GETTING STARTED IN THEATER

Mel Gussow: Critic/Joan MacIntosh: Performer/Richard Foreman: Director, playwright, and designer/Zelda Fichlander: Director and artistic director/Robin Wagner: Scene designer/Jess Goldstein: Costume designer/Peggy Eisenhauer: Lighting designer/Emily Mann: Director-playwright/August Wilson: Playwright

SYNOPSES OF PLAYS

A Raisin in the Sun

The Cherry Orchard

Tartuffe

Mother Courage and Her Children

King Oedipus

Sotoba Komachi

The Way of the World

A Doll’s House

Death of a Salesman

Waiting for Godot

Fefu and Her Friends

TIME LINES

Greece

Rome

The Middle Ages

Asia

The Italian Renaissance

The English Renaissance

The Spanish Golden Age

Neoclassical France

The English Restoration

The Eighteenth Century

The Nineteenth Century, 1800-1875

1875-1945

1945-1990s

LIVING HISTORY

Antigone

The Menaechmi

Noah’s Ark

Sotoba Komachi

Commedia dell’Arte

Hamlet

The King, The Greatest Alcalde

Tartuffe

The Country Wife

The Marriage of Figaro

The Sea Gull

Waiting for Godot