Example Actors Stage What is a Play It is not a thing but an event taking place in real time and occupying real space It is a drama original from the Greek word dran something done ID: 784979
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Slide1
What is a Play?
Using single words only, write down terminology of what makes up a play.
Example: Actors, Stage
Slide2What is a Play?
It is not a thing, but
an event
, taking place in real time and occupying real space.
It is a
drama
(original from the Greek word
dran
, “something done.”)
It is
action
, not just the words printed in a book.
A play is
“playing”
and those who create plays are
“players.”
Slide3What is a Play?
There are different
genres
: tragedy, comedy, satyr, melodrama, farce, musical
There are different
durations
: full-length, five act, three-act, two-act one-act.
There are different
periods
: Greek, Shakespearean, Modern, Contemporary
Slide4What is a Play?
Plays can be analyzed in two ways:
By their order of organization
By their components
Slide5The Order of a Play
A theatrical experience involves an orderly sequence that can be divided into three groupings:
Preplay
Play proper
Postplay
The Gathering of the Audience
The chief concerns and processes to get the crowd to come see the show.
Greek
: the playwrights and actors held public meetings days before the play began.
Elizabethan (Shakespeare’s Time)
: flags flew atop the playhouses on performance days.
Slide7The Gathering of the Audience
Modern Theatre
: Posters, newspaper ads, press releases, mailings to patrons announce performances.
Once gathered, the patrons are seated and ready to see the show.
Slide8The Transition
The theatre must “shift” the audience’s awareness from real life to stage life.
Written program (playbill) gives locale, time of the
action, characters, actors
- The lobby displays pictures or docs relevant to the play
Music sets a mood
Scenery is on stage (no curtain)
Lights dim
Slide9The Exposition
The background information the audience must have in order to understand what’s going on in the action of the play.
Most plays begin with dialogue or action calculated to ease us into the concerns of the characters.
Greeks and Shakespeare used a prologue (usually a simple speech delivered to the audience.)
Modern plays mostly use minor characters that discuss something that is about to happen.
Slide10The Conflict
The struggle a character(s) faces against opposing forces; this conflict creates the “drama” of the play.
- Conflict may be set up between characters as well as within them; it maybe reducible to one central situation, or evolve out of many.
Conflict will make up the bulk of the play by building tension, step-by-step.
Slide11The Climax
The point in the plot where the conflict reaches its most extreme; it is the moment of maximum tension.
The character has reached a point of
recognition
and
reversal
.
Audience reaches
catharsis
(a cleansing or purification of
the pity felt for the character’s conflict.)
Slide12The Denouement
(
dey-noo-mah
)
The
resolution
in which a final action or speech gives a new harmony or understanding.
- Must provide clarity concerning the problems raised by the play, and give some vision or deeper and more permanent understanding.
Slide13The Curtain Call
The last stage element in which the actors break out of their characters and bow as the audience “hopefully” applauds.
- Liberates the audience from the world of the play and take them back to real life.
Slide14Criticism
The play enjoys an extended afterlife through published reviews, conversations, scholarly articles, and sometimes formal classroom discussions.
Slide15The Poetics
The first philosophical theatre critic was the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)
He wrote an essay on the definition of tragedy called
The Poetics
.
Much of his thought process was derived from the tragedy play
Oedipus,
by Sophocles.
Slide16Aristotle
Student of
Plato
Teacher of Alexander the
Great
One of the most influential thinkers of all time
Slide17Why Do We Care?
The
reason that we study Aristotle’s perfect tragedy
and
The Poetics
is
because all literary tragedies are
still compared
to and talked about using Aristotle’s
ideas.
Thus, you
will need to know this for any future
literary
class in both high school and
college.
Plus
Oedipus
is pretty cool to study.
Slide18Aristotle’s Six Ingredients
of Theatre
Plot (most important)
Character
Theme
Diction
Music
Spectacle
Slide19Plot
The
order of actions
that take place on
stage (this happens, and then this happens, and then this happens next…)
Includes the comings and goings of the characters, the timetable of the events, and the order of revelations, reversals, and discoveries.
Think of a murder mystery or an episode of “CSI.” The story pulls you along, step-by-step
.
Slide20Characters
The human figures --- or impersonated presences---who undertake the actions of the plot.
Character depth is what gives a play its psychological complexity, it sensuality and its warmth. Without it, we cannot experience love, hate, fear, hope, joy, despair.
In other words, we live through the characters.
Slide21Theme
A play’s abstracted intellectual content.
It may be described as the play’s overall
statement: its topic, central idea, or message.
What is the play about?
Slide22Diction
The pronunciation of spoken dialogue by the characters.
Includes tone, imagery, cadence, articulation
Also includes use of literary forms: verse, rhyme, metaphor, apostrophe, jest.
Slide23Music
Rhythmic or melodic sounds in a play.
Singing used as a type of diction (dialogue).
Musical instruments to enhance tone.
Offstage music (band playing outside a window.)
Vocal tones, footsteps, sighs, shouts, gunshots, animal cries, and amplified special effects.
Slide24Spectacle
The visual aspects of a play’s production.
Scenery
Costumes
Lighting
Makeup
Props.
Slide25The Perfect Tragedy
According to Aristotle, the best example of the perfect tragedy was
Oedipus Rex.
As we continue, think of how
Oedipus Rex
meets each of the following requirements.
Slide26The Three Unities
According to Aristotle the perfect tragedy should hold to three unities:
Time
:
ideally
, the
action should take place
in 24
hours
Place
–
one location
– no set changes
Action
–
one plot
– no sub plots
(the mysterious fourth – mood – the entire play should be serious – no comic relief)
Slide27The Tragic Hero
Five Parts
Must be a
noble King or Ruler
(but the audience should be able to identify with the hero)
Must
have a
tragic flaw
:
(Hubris
:
Pride)
Downfall must be caused by his
own actions
as a result of his tragic flaw
Must have
recognition of his own demise
He should
die with honor and courage
Slide28Oh, the Insanity!
If the tragedy is done properly, the audience should be moved to
a
catharsis
: purging of emotions, especially pity and
fear
A catharsis should lead to a reinvigorated love of life