Term
|
Definition
Entrances:
[The men enter] “all bundled up and go at once to
the stove.”
[The women enter] “slowly, and stand close together
near the door.”
Men move in directed, goal driven ways, penetrating the
center of the room.
Women move in intuitive ways, sensitive to their
environment. |
|
|
Term
| Trifles Gender Perspectives |
|
Definition
Men enter a crime scene
Women enter a home
Men: Domesticity unimportant
Women: domesticity important |
|
|
Term
| Trifles More Gender Perspectives |
|
Definition
Men are performing a professional
obligation.
Women are fulfilling a personal request
(getting Minnie’s things for her in jail).
Men’s purpose (and style) is rigid.
Women’s purpose (and style) is fluid (it
changes). |
|
|
Term
| Trifles- Ways of Knowing MEN |
|
Definition
-Research a single moment of violence
-Cannot find the single most important clue (the bird) |
|
|
Term
| Trifles- Ways of Knowing WOMEN |
|
Definition
-Reconstruct an entire life
-Discover life prior to the bird that gives that action significance
-Not expected to know the truth
-Because they weren't expecting anything, they are open-minded and flexible |
|
|
Term
| Trifles- Gender judgements MALE |
|
Definition
-Offer judgements quickly, sometimes thoughtlessly
-Thought that she was a bad housekeeper |
|
|
Term
| Trifles- Gender judgements FEMALE |
|
Definition
-Women withhold judgment, defending
against judgment until they “knew” all
the facts. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-Most knowledge construction requires a
“tolerance of ambiguity.”
-If you already know what you’re looking
for, why bother looking?
-Glaspell’s play goes beyond gender and
suggests ways about how humans pursue
“truth.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Language is "a symbolic means of inducing
cooperation in beings that by nature respond
to symbols."social interaction and
communication should be understood in
terms of a pentad, which includes act, scene,
agent, agency, and purpose. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
act, scene,
agent, agency, and purpose. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Drama (and life) determined by rations
between five pentadic elements.
Drama and literature has a significant
sociological impact, thus we cannot say
they are not “real life.”
Neither can “real life” be said to NOT be theatrical. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| System of molecules, i.e. (carbon, proteins, hydrogen, water). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
system of symbols
(Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim,
Capitalist, Socialist, Mystic, Materialist, etc.). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
system of symbols within
a culturally bound system of symbols. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Mode of symbolic action, not a mode of knowledge.
"I now pronounce you man and wife" etc. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| study of reality, "what exists" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the study of knowledge, or
“what is knowledge?” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| where and when, context of act. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Entity that performs the act |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| methods or tools used to perform act |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| goal of the act (objective) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the plot of all
human activity.
Guilt = tension, anxiety, shame, disgust,embarrassment, etc.
Agents seek to purge guilt.
Redemption is the opposite of guilt
(wholeness, integration, relationship, peace, etc.). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Burkean Analysis looks for words that are actions, which construct reality, and resolve guilt (conflict).
Such analysis can be as easily applied to life as to theatre, and indeed, Burke sees no difference. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888 – 1953) playwright
and Nobel laureate in Literature.
The first to introduce Realism into American drama. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Use of American vernacular in the dialogue
Marginalized and/or dispossessed characters
Ignoble behavior in the face of the harsh struggle
for life
Themes of tragedy and personal pessimism |
|
|
Term
| Desire Under The Elms Purpose |
|
Definition
O’Neill hoped to “see the transfiguring nobility of
tragedy, in as near the Greek sense as one can grasp it, in seemingly the most ignoble, debased lives.” |
|
|
Term
| DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS Elements of Greek Tragedy |
|
Definition
-Ruthless, oppressive force of FATE
Tragic flaws in all the characters
Unity of Action
Unity of Place
Sacrifice of family for love/honor/power |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A concept is a cognitive unit of meaning -- an abstract
idea or a symbol constructed using other units that act
as a concept's characteristics. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
A theatrical concept is an idea from which every aspect of the produced play evolves. Concepts help
unify productions, emphasize or clarify specific ideas,
actions, or characters in the play.
Theatrical concepts are sometimes metaphors or similes that serve symbolic functions.
A theatrical concept should be expressible in a simple sentence. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Post Atomic reaction to art, culture, and thought.
Influenced by Søren Kierkegaard and
Friedrich Nietzsche (19th Century
Philosophers). |
|
|
Term
| Existentialism Philosophical Stance |
|
Definition
Existentialism postulates the absence of a transcendent force (such as God).
Individuals are entirely free, and, therefore, entirely responsible. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
seek to create an ethos of personal
responsibility outside any supernatural belief
system.
Individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, rather than deities or human authorities creating it in the name of a deity. |
|
|
Term
| Existentialism- The Atomic Bomb |
|
Definition
Put an apocalyptic power in the hands of humans.
Traditional philosophies, such as rationalism and empiricism, that sought to discover an “ultimate, universal order” in metaphysical principles or in natural structures in the world, seemed unable to explain this shift in who now held the lightning bolts (e.g., Zeus, Thor, Yahweh, etc.). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
To be absurd is to “be without meaning.”
If we humans can end all life at our own whim, then “life” itself seems meaningless, a whim, an accident of an indifferent and ambiguous universe.
If there is no transcendent force (God)
preventing us from this whim, then meaning can only be the result of human activity.
Meaning is therefore human made, unstable, mutable, and contestable. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Life is lonely, difficult, short, and true companionship is impossible.
Change is an illusion.
Universal Meaning is an illusion.
Only death is universal. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Nobel Prize in Literature (1969) for writing that lifted "the destitution of modern man” into a new form of art.
A native English speaker, Beckett wrote in French because it was easier to write "without style" |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Vivian Mercier wrote: Beckett "achieved a theoretical
impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued to their seats. What's more, since the second act is a subtly different reprise of the first, he has written a play in which nothing happens, twice." |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the logical and structural rules that govern
the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in
any given natural language (e.g., the whole enchilada). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the principles and rules for constructing
sentences in natural languages (e.g., just sentences). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the means by which each of the above
together create a wholeness of idea, argument, or expression. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
the sentence that provides a road
map for the reader
-indicates the subject of
the essay
-suggests, indicates, or shows the
organizational layout of the argument/
treatment
-makes a claim that is disputable;
and is persuasive in tone. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
-the central claim of relevance to
your subject.
• Your idea should be expressible in the simplest of sentences.
• Your idea should be clearly your own (no plagiarism). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
An argument is a set of one or more
meaningful declarative sentences (or
premises) that lead to a final declarative
sentence (or proposition) known as the
conclusion.
• Arguments are primarily classified as
deductive, inductive, and by analogy. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
In criticism (not philosophical or logical arguments) if the premises (claims) are reasonable and justified, then the conclusion is defensible and acceptable.
• Few critical/cultural arguments are
deductive. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Inductive arguments suggest conclusions
based on reasonable or probable causes.
• Induction identifies patterns or
congruencies and makes generalizable
conclusions based on those observations.
• Many academic/cultural/criticism arguments are inductive. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• An argument by analogy goes from one
particular to another particular.
• An argument by analogy may use a
particular idea in a premise to argue
towards a similar particular idea/
interpretation in the conclusion.
• Ethos and Pathos are often employed in these arguments (Logos being Deductive). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Style is the cluster of traits that create
mood, readability, and Pathos.
• Style is a correlative to communicative
persistence.
• Simplicity is a subset of style.
• Simplicity is a correlative to
comprehension. |
|
|
Term
Eugen Berthold
Friedrich Brecht |
|
Definition
German poet, playwright, and theatre
director.
One of two influential theatre practitioners of
the 20th century (Artaud).
Changed both theatrical theory and theatrical
production.
“Epic Theatre.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Epic Theatre was nurtured here, in the postwar theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel.
Internationally acclaimed productions &
extensive tours.
East German (Communist) support. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Epic Theatre was nurtured here, in the postwar theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife and long-time collaborator, the actress Helene Weigel.
Internationally acclaimed productions &
extensive tours.
East German (Communist) support. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Developed during a time of economic and political crisis (1929-1930), it is an essentially revolutionary
view of social change. |
|
|
Term
| Characteristics of Epic Theater |
|
Definition
Collective and collaborative working methods.
A reaction against Wagnarian practice (hypnotic, empathic experience overwhelming a passive audience an idealized experience of transcendent beauty).
Most developments in modern theatre since 1930s have been in response to or affected by Epic Theatre or Theatre of Cruelty.
Brecht viewed theatre as a collective experiment rather than as expression or as experience. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
'verfremdung' or the Alienation effect
audience drawn out of emotional attachments
episodic in nature |
|
|
Term
| Tenets of Epic Theater II |
|
Definition
Plays are dialectic (gestus or argument unifies plays, not plot) and focused on social/ethical problems.
Mechanics of theatre exposed (more breaking of the illusion).
Actors didn't enact but rather presented (stood outside character while being character-the most troublesome of Brecht's ideas, and most difficult to realize). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
To make the familiar strange.
In Greek theatre, the chorus works as a dialectic force, asking the audience to reflect on the widely known myths they enacted. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A pencil is a writing or drawing instrument consisting of a smooth, thin stick of pigment (usually graphite, but can also be colored pigment or charcoal) and clay, usually encased in a thin wood cylinder (paper or plastic). Pencils are distinct from pens, which use a liquid marking material. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
By the end of the 19th century, over 240,000 pencils were used each day in the United States alone.
Most were Red Cedar because it was aromatic and did not splinter when sharpened.
In the early 1900s supplies of Red Cedar were dwindling so that pencil manufacturers were forced to recycle the wood from cedar fences and barns to maintain supply. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Led to the first mechanical pencil, manufactured in 1915.
Incense cedar, when dyed and perfumed to resemble Red Cedar, was a suitable alternative and most pencils today are made from this timber which is grown in managed forests.
Over 14 billion pencils are manufactured worldwide annually. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Thomas Lanier Williams was born March 26, 1911, died February 25, 1983.
Moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee," the state of his father's birth.
One of America’s most famous and notable playwrights. |
|
|
Term
| Tennessee Williams Body of Work |
|
Definition
-intensely biographical
-For examples, strong echoes of his sister Rose
are present in:
Blanche (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Catherine (Suddenly, Last Summer)
Esmeralda (Camino Real)
Heavenly Finley (Sweet Bird of Youth)
Joanie (A House Not Meant to Stand)
And ...
Laura Wingfield, of course. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Tom is alone,
remembering his family. |
|
|
Term
| MENAGERIE- INCITING ACTION |
|
Definition
“We can’t say grace until you
come to the table.” |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| MENAGERIE- STASIS at the END |
|
Definition
| Tom is alone, remembering his sister |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• (1915 – 2005) was an American playwright and essayist.
• The Crucible, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, and
Death of a Salesman known throughout the world.
• Famously refused to give evidence against others to the
House Un-American Activities Committee (both The
Crucible and On The Waterfront grew from these
experiences).
• Tony Award, Drama Circle Critics Award, & the Pulitzer
Prize for Drama.
• One of America's greatest playwrights. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Intellectual vibrancy of the 1930s gave way to WWII, the Red Scare, McCarthyism, and the Cold War.
• The promise of the intellectual and political ideals of the 1930s and the economic and human sacrifices of the early 1940s (WWII) seemed to have been for naught.
• Redlining, White Flight, and Interstate Highways lead to
dramatic growth of suburbs. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• reality is visible only through lens of artist's consciousness
(anthropomorphic)
• truth exists in spiritual (internal/subjective) revelation
• surface details (realism/naturalism) unimportant (hinder truth)
• language is devalued
• little external conflict-mostly internal (Medieval morality
play). |
|
|
Term
| Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka |
|
Definition
Born in 1934 in Abeokuta, southwestern
Nigeria, which was then a British colony.
Imprisoned several times and has lived
long periods in exile.
First black African who was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Include comedies, tragedies, political satires, and theatre of the absurd.
Combined influences from Western traditions with African myth, legends, and folklore.
Sought to “translate culture, not words.” |
|
|
Term
| STRONG BREED What does it do? |
|
Definition
| The play traces the individual’s struggle against hegemonic forces, suggesting the need for the transformative subject's reconstitution of an alternative vision of agency and the world. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
a cultural force exercised
through power (coercion and consent),
rather than through force (arms) that
seeks to maintain the status quo. |
|
|
Term
| Transformative subject - Eman |
|
Definition
| the one whose change enacts or causes the change in the world. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Soyinka now fights “those who have chosen to belong to the party of death, those who say they receive their orders from God somewhere and believe they have a duty to set the world on fire to achieve their own salvation, whether they are in the warrens of Iraq, or in the White House." |
|
|
Term
History of Children’s
Theatre |
|
Definition
Commedia dell'arte was probably entertaining for children, but it wasn’t directed exclusively to children.
“Punch & Judy” shows in the mid to late 1600s were
directed at adults, though children were likely present.
By late Victorian Age (1900s), “Punch & Judy” had evolved into a show for children as part of the Victorian
concern with childhood as a unique experience. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Story varies from puppeteer to puppeteer and over time.
Early 19th century shows is still present.
Punch behaves outrageously, struggling with his wife, Judy, and the Baby, but triumphs in a series of encounters
with the forces of law and order and/or the supernatural.
Basic story structure = Punch is a deformed, child murdering,
wife-beating psychopath who commits
appalling acts of violence and cruelty upon all those around him and escapes with impunity. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Spirit of outrageous comedy intended to provoke shocked laughter.
Victorian shows embodied the morality of its day.
The “Punch & Judy College of Professors” state that the 20th and 21st Century versions of the story evolved into something more like “The Simpsons,” e.g., a bizarre family in a grotesque visual comedy that subtly critiques contemporary society. |
|
|
Term
| Birth of Modern Children’s Theatre |
|
Definition
First emerged after WWI and primarily in totalitarian countries (e.g., Soviet Union and Eastern European
counties under their influence).
By the 1930s, Association Internationale du Theatre pour
l’Enfance et la Jeunesse was based in Paris and had members in 40 different countries worldwide.
Most countries where theatre is subsidized also included strong children’s theatre programs (e.g., Sweden, Germany, France, Japan).
Federal Theatre Project (1935 - 1939) included a strong Children’s Theatre component. |
|
|
Term
| Contemporary Children’s Theatre |
|
Definition
The rise of the “regional theatre movement” in
the 1950s and 1960s coincided with a resurgence
of Children’s theaters in the USA.
Famous examples include The Seattle Children’s
Theatre, The Goodman Children’s Theatre, The
Children’s Theatre Company & School in
Minneapolis, The Children's Theatre of
Cincinnati, and Missoula Children's Theatre |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Pagan theatrical activity and probable participation in
Liturgical drama during the Middle Ages.
• 1637 - Werburgh Street Theatre, Dublin (first public theatre).
• 1639 - James Shirley’s St. Patrick for Ireland, first historical play
on an Irish subject.
• Commonwealth (1649 - 1658 Oliver Cromwell) interrupted all
official theatrical activity in England, Ireland, and Scotland.
• Ireland under the control of the English from 1,169 - 1922,
one of the longest occupations in history. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
1662 John Ogilby opens Smock Alley Theatre with
John Fletcher’s Wit Without Money.
• One of only three official theaters under British rules
(Covent Garden and Drury Lane).
• Thomas Sheridan, father of the famous Richard,
operated the theatre from 1744 - 1758.
• Dublin was part of the “English Circuit” which also
included America. |
|
|
Term
| Irish Theater Characteristics |
|
Definition
• Up until the 20th century, all “official” theatre in Ireland was
English.
• Irish playwrights (Goldsmith, Sheridan, Boucicault, Congreve,
Farquhar, Shaw, and Wilde) all left for London or America to
establish themselves as artists.
• 1899 - Lady Gregory & W. B. Yeats establish the Irish Literary
Theatre (The Abbey Theatre).
• The Abbey played a significant role in the establishment of the
Irish Free State/Republic of Ireland. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Revolutionary theatre in many respects:
• Fervently and fundamentally national, independent of English and
European influences. First such theatre established.
• Subjects and methodologies were native and poetic, and many
plays were deliberately political.
• Independent from Box Office and popular control, first state
subsidized theatre in the English speaking world.
• Actors were deliberately amateurs (Barry Fitzgerald, John
McCormick.
• Style was “natural,” which deeply influenced subsequent styles of
acting in Europe & America. |
|
|
Term
| Abbey Theater The Effects |
|
Definition
• Audiences frequently expressed their displeasure (riots), but
were extraordinarily engaged (attendance, newspapers, coffee
houses, etc.).
• Irish Nationalism was grounded in a pro-Gaelic movement
supported by and constituted of non-Gaelic speakers.
• The nationalist movement had an intellectual and cultural
foundation that deflected criticism of the later radical
elements of that movement (IRA, Sinn Féin).
• These tensions were themselves the subject of new plays (e.g.,
Shadow of a Gunman, Translations). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• 1929 - 80 years old this fall!
• Blends biographical, historical, and political sources into plays that investigate the unhappy intersection of
individuals with various kinds of institutional failures
(government, Church, class, and family).
• One of Ireland’s greatest living playwrights.
• Translations is one of his most critically acclaimed plays. |
|
|
Term
RACE AND GENDER PLAYS 1960s-Present
Key Characteristics |
|
Definition
• Raise consciousness of (race or gender) through
liberating the spirits and strengthening the minds of the
group.
• Be political (i.e. must deal with existing conditions of
oppression, usually positively).
• Be educational (i.e. give knowledge of actual conditions
or history previous hidden or oppressed).
• Be entertaining
Process (the empowerment of actors and audiences) is
more important than product (a hit show).
• Clarify issues |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
• Feminism postulates that women should have the
same political, social, sexual, intellectual, and
economic rights as men.
Don't have to be female to be feminist
Three Waves |
|
|
Term
| FEMINISM and THEATER KEY ARGUMENTS |
|
Definition
• Deconstruction of power relationships among men and
women.
• The “male gaze” and female subjectivity.
• Narrative itself as a “male” construct, i.e., plot structure
follows a pattern of male sexual activity, not a female one. |
|
|
Term
| FEMINISM- Dangerous Thinking |
|
Definition
• In contemporary Feminism, materialism/ existentialism postulates that “existence precedes essence.”
• Women therefore, and the idea/cultural construct
of a woman, are not born; they are made.
• Thus, the very concept of “woman” itself is the means by which women have been, and are, oppressed. |
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|
