Bertolt Brecht

-made Brecht's epic theatre

-used history to comment on history

-reminded audience they were in the theatre

Brecht's Epic Theatre

alienated the audience, so they would think and not feel

How did Brecht remind the audience they were in the theatre?

-used open stagecraft

-put musical numbers into his plays

- used puppets

- used narrators

-used film

Samuel Beckett

- wrote the play "Waiting for Godot"

-made his characters be stuck in bizarre situations

- his plays had circular/static plots

-used sparse language

Name the 5 trends in contemporary theatre

1. adaptations in history & literature

2. Non-traditional movement

3. Puppetry

4. use of video/film

5. docudrama/ethnography

Adaptations of History & Literature

-adapations of novels

-exploration of historic events/people

Non-traditional Movement

- use of clowing/mime/acrobatics

- physical acting styles (i.e viewpoints)

- often combined with classical texts 

Puppetry

- used to enhance/tell the story

-create fantasy worlds

Use of video/film

- create scenery

- contract reality vs scenic reality

Docudrama/Ethnography

- combines elements of drama & documentary

-dramatizes real peoples' words

- based on true events, speeches, interviews

Film/Television Adaptations 

-film translated to stage (and back again)

- musicals and non-musicals 

Who is Stephen Adly Guirgis?

- a playwright, actor, and director

- an artistic director of the LABrynth Theater in NYC

- writer for NYPD Blue & the Sopranos 

What is the Last Days of Judas about?

- a fictionalized court case of Judas Iscariot, set in purgatory

Who wrote the Last Days of Judas?

Stephen Adly Guirgis

When did the Last Days of Judas premeire?

2005

What did Stephen Adly Guirgis do when he was writing The Last Days of Judas?

-consulted with a catholic priest 

Who are the witnesses in the Last Days of Judas?

historical figures 

What are the two functions of an actor?

1. to create an intellectual and emotional illusion

2. to project the illusion from stage to audience

What is acting?

behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances

What are the four actor's tools?

1. body

2. voice

3. imagination

4. intellect

What is body?

how should the actors move, walk, stand?

What is voice?

how should they sound?

What is imagination?

how does the actor behave like the character?

What is intellect?

What does the character mean?

How is the audience going to react?

What are the two type of training an actor must go through?

1. movement

2. voice

What kind of movement training does the actor undergo?

1. flexibility

2. strength training

3. dance training 

4. stage combat

Why does the actor undergo movement training?

to achieve neutral body

What is neutral body?

What kind of voice training does the actor undergo?

-projection

-articulation

-singing training

-dialects

Why does the actor undergo voice training?

to achieve neutral body

What are the 4 stages that the actor goes through?

1. preparation

2. rehearsal

3. performance

4. end results

How does the actor prepare?

-by analyzing the script and the character

- analyze the given circumstances

- what does the character want?

- what does the character say?

- how does the character say it?

-what does the character mean?

-what does the character do?

- what do others say about the character?

What are the given circumstances?

all the information the playwright has given in the script

What is the subtext?

the hidden meaning in the play/ the characters' actions

Where is the subtext?

What does an actor do during rehearsal?

- rehearsal process

- collaboration

- improvisation

- curiosity

- willing to fail

- lines & blocking

What is the rehearsal process?

experimentation then selection

What is collaboration?

working well with others

What is improvisation?

learning to adapt & respond

What is curiosity?

memorizing the lines and blocking

What is blocking?

 noted movement onstage 

What is important in the performace part of the stages the actor's must go through?

- having energy

- being "in the moment"

- knowing your space

- feeding off other actors/ the audience

What are the end results of the actor's stages?

- stage presence

- consistent performances

- safety

- believability 

- artistic integrity 

What is stage presence?

an actor's ability to draw in the audience's attention

consistency 

What are the three things the designer does?

1. support the performers

2. create the world of the play

3. inform the audience of what is going on 

What are the 4 main types of designers?

1. scenic designer

2. costume designer

3. lighting designer

4. sound designer

What are 4 other types of designers?

1. make-up designer

2. properties designer

3. video/animation designer

4. puppet designer

What does a scenic designer do?

-all scenic elements: color, texture, lines, perspective

- furniture (finding it/buying it)

- creates drawings and models

What does a costume designer do?

-reveals/completes the character

- chooses the props tied to a character

- creates costume renderings

What does a lighting designer do?

- chooses the illumination

- chooses what to highlight, shadow, color

- creates light plots

(a blueprint for lighting)

What does a sound designer do?

-composes/chooses the music

- chooses/creates the sound effects

What does a make-up designer do?

-illuminates the actor's face

- uses creative effects

(animals, injuries, prosthetics)

What does a properties designer do?

- small objects on stage, not tied to costume

-set dressing

What does the video/animation  designer do?

- creates interactive effects

-can create the videos/animations used as scenery

What does the puppet

designer do?

- makes fantasy worlds with puppets

-there are international styles of puppets

What is the designer's

process?

1. read the script

2. meet with the director

3. research, create collages

4. initial drawings

5. consult w/ the director, other designers

6. finalize designs: renderings, models, blue prints

7. build process

Early Women's Roles:

Women in the time of the Greeks and Shakespeare

played by men

Nope

yes, but they were mostly prostitutes

The actress/ prostiture overlap

women were used as entertainment

auletrides

women in Japan that performed satires and danced

-- theatres were linked to brothels

What were women entertainers called in the U.S?

Ziegfield girls

*they were Broadway girls

Why were women banned from stage?

considerred too dangerous and scintilating 

men played women's roles until the 1870s

When were women banned from the stage in Japan? 

women were banned in 1629

When were women banned from the stage in Europe?

the 1500s

In Europe what did women actually perform in?

- medieval pageants (bible stories)

- Italian Improv comedy

young boys

Is gender flexible onstage?

Totally!

What was first applied to theatre in the 1980s?

feminist ideas

How early were feminist ideas applied works?

Greek and Shakespeare 

What do the roles of men/women tell us about?

the time period

What is a montage?

- montage

- non- linear

- gender switching

- role doubling

What is role doubling?

when an actor plays two or more roles

What does non-linear mean?

jumping back & forth in time

What is gender switching?

Who are 5 women in theater today?

1. Anna Deavere Smith

2. Julie Taymor

3. Eve Ensler

4. Anne Bogart

5. Sarah Ruhl

Who is Anna Deavere Smith?

- actress, playwright

- examines current events through interviews-- docudrama

- typically will perform all the characters

- explores identities: gender, racial, ethnic

Who is Julie Taymor?

- a director and designer

- studied bunraku

- works in theatre, opera, and film

-adapts film for stage

What is bunruku?

Japanese puppetry used in Lion King 

Who is Eve Ensler?

- a playwright and actor

- her plays explore women's bodies and sexuality 

What play did Eve Ensler write?

The Vagina Monologues-- based on interviews               - use of humor and oral history

Who is Anne Bogart?

a director that founded the SITI Company

-she thinks three things are important

1. something to say

2. technique

3. passion

What style of acting did Anne Bogart develop?

the viewpoints style of acting

Who is Sarah Ruhl?

-uses blend of styles: realistic, nonrealistic, etc.

- bringing myth into the present 

-examination of male&female roles

- challenging use of design

What did queer mean in the beginning?

strange and unusual

What happened to the term queer?

LGBT community reclaimed it

What does queer mean today?

something that doesn't conform to the normative 

What does queer theatre focus on?

studying and questioning the mainstream

What is a stereotype about gay men and theatre?

that all gay men love musical theatre

Theatre allows...

-allows people to become something else

-allows people too celebrate who they are

Until ___, querness was downplayed by playwrights

as flamboyent and effeminate 

for comic effect 

Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley 

(1968)

What was Boys in the Band about?

8 gay men from different backgrounds

-suggested that gay men were unhappy

La Cage aux Folles by Harvey Fierstein and Jerry Herman

(1973)

What play uses a lot of camp?

La Cage aux Folles

What is camp?

satirical humor that uses extreme stereotypes

What was one of the first plays about AIDs?

The Normal Heart by Larry Kramer (1985)

What is The Normal Heart about?

- it is a critique of the govts innaction in the face of the AIDs epidemic

                                                            - criticizes the gay culture for promiscuity 

What is Angels in America about?

- addresses American identity, destiny, history 

-religion and spirituality

- gay & straight relationships

What is the Laramie Project?

- A Brechtian docudrama

- created from interviews, journals, news clips

-combat homophobia / hate crimes

Who wrote the Laramie Project?

Moises Kaufman in 2000

I am My Own Wife by Doug Wright (2003)

What is I am My Own Wife based on?

a musical

What was the first American musical?

                                          The Black Crook  

The Black Crook

- had french ballet fancers + American melodrama

-toured for 40 years

What is a melodrama?

What was the first black musical on Broadway?

In Dahomey 

What did In Dahomey use?

vaudeville comedy, ragtime, and opera

What is the Show Boat?

- a musical about workers & entertainers

- had a subplot about interracial relationships

The Show Boat

What musical was written by the Gershwins?

Porgy and Bess

What is Porgy & Bess referred to as?

a folk opera 

What is Porgy and Bess about?

- a black tenement on Catfish Row

- music invokes mood, atmosphere

What musical is a love story set in the American plains?

Oklahoma!

Who wrote Oklahoma?

Rogers and Hammerstein

What does Oklahoma have?

- it does not have a kickline!

- uses contemporary folk dance

What musical is about immigrants in NY?

West Side Story

What is West Side Story an update of?

Romeo and Juliet

What tells the story in West Side Story?

dance

Who is Stephen Sonheim and what did he write?

- edgy, musically complex work

-he wrote:

- Sweeney Todd

- Into the Woods

- Assassins

Who is Andrew Lloyd Weber and what did he write?

- an internationall successful composer

- began theatre merchandising

- used reality tv to cast his musicals

wrote: Jesus Christ Superstar

Cats

The Phantom of the Opera

What is the Rock Musical?

where songwriters use rock music to tell a larger story

the rock musical

What was Rent?

a rock musical

Where do ideas for theatre come from today?

- original ideas

- movie/tv adaptations

- jukebox musicals

- literary adaptations

What is a jukebox musical?

Where is commercial theatre centered?

Broadway

When did Broadway begin and who developed it?

Why choose Broadway?

- it draws big talent

- it has a tourist audience

- it is a risky investment

What succeeds on Broadway?

- musicals

- light comedy

- proven imports

- revivals

- serious plays

- plays like Stomp! and Blue Man Group

What do the most successful Broadway production receive?

Tony awards

emmy, grammy, oscar, tony

What is "off-broadway"? 

-centered in Greenwich Village

- trial ground New York

-young artists

- there are smaller theatres

- lower cost

Obie Awards

Where is regional theatre?

outside NYC

-widespread around the U.S.

regional professional theatre

What is the longest running regional professional theatre?

The Cleveland Playhouse

What is regional professional theatre a source for?

Broadway

What does regional professional theatre develop?

new audiences, plays, and playwrights

What is senior adult theatre?

Theatre for people over 50

with audiences of all ages

-provides creative opportunities for people in retirement

-educates people about the issue of aging

What was the firs senior adult theatre?

The Senior Repertory of Ohio

(Columbus, 1984) 

High school theatre

After WWII as a result of the GI bill

What is community theatre?

-used a recreation and for experimentation

- supported by local businesses

What does outdoor drama do?

- celebrates area history

-uses a lot of spectacle

Name four notable outdoor dramas:

- Trumpet in the Land

- Tecumseh

- Blue Jacket

- The Living Word 

- we can see things in 3D 

- get a broad view

-the audience chooses where to focus

- important to remember in a digital age

-collaboration is an important skill

Every aspect of theatre is a _________.

CHOICE

subject matter

delivered 

Can a realistic story be told in a presentational way?

YES

human stories

What does live interaction try to do?

capture what it is to be human