How to read a play From course materials In his book State of the Nation 2007 theatre critic Michael Billington observes One thing was clear by the midFifties the generational class and cultural divisions that had been bubbling away for some time in British society were at last beg ID: 134008
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Slide1
EN107 Week one
How to read a playSlide2From course materials
'In
his book State of the Nation (2007), theatre critic Michael
Billington
observes: "One thing was clear by the mid-Fifties: the generational, class and cultural divisions that had been bubbling away for some time in British society were at last beginning to find their expression on the public stage". Discuss this statement
with reference to
two of the plays studied in the module so far
.’
Central issue:
how to make this reference?Slide3A plea for the basics
The best reading address the most basic,
and so fundamental, aspects of plays
As a researcher, I find myself reading and re-reading basic guides to plays and to theater
Continually undoing our training in how to read plays—and, indeed, how to readSlide4
lenses
All of these layers of meaning and interpretation are present, continuously, together
Some more relevant to some texts than others
The best academic work:
Keep layers of meaning discrete—clarification
Moves across layers, while keeping layers discrete
Gives sense of work as a whole
(If necessary) gives sense of work as part of tradition
Focuses on a small amount of evidence, which explained in detail and with insightSlide5GENRE, INTERVENTION, detail
Often the hardest question:
“why is this a play?”
Every literary work an
intervention
in a genre
Drama often taken for granted
Key to this course:
individual detail
vs.
grand narrative
We will come to the course narratives later, once we have details down
A literary text
should be able to surprise us
Course synthesis
Exam and essays will ask about the period; but you must answer these questions via small detailsSlide6The play and its text
To be considered firstSlide7LANGUAGE
GO HERE FIRST
“Close reading”/”practical criticism”
Polyvalence (multiple meanings)
Clarification (single meanings)
Nonsense (meaninglessness)
Oral presence
Are speeches hard to say out loud?
Do the speeches make you talk in particular ways?
Is there a rhythm to the words, or some other oral ordering?Slide8EMBODIMENT
Actors
What do stage dramatis personae say about the actors’ bodies?
What race/class presence is called for?
Who is excluded?
What do stage directions call on the actors to do
What training is required of actors?
What are actors meant to feel or experience?
Does this script require preparation,
and if so what kinds of preparation?
Can this script be performed? Is it instead
closet drama?Slide9structure
How is the play divided?
Discrete, long acts? Shorter scenes?
Contextless
lines of dialogue?
Audience focus
Presentation of information
How long is the play?
Text: how long does it take to read, and how difficult is it to read?
Performance: how long would this play take to perform?
Repetition
What elements are repeated? What does repetition do?Slide10plot
Does the play possess a consistent plot?
Is this plot fulfilled?
Sequence
Sequential
Non-sequential
Sequence unclearSlide11ONSTAGE performance
Ensemble
Why are these characters together?
What characters are on stage at any given moment?
Who understands other characters’ dialogue, and who fails to?
Are there multiple overlapping worlds onstage?
Characters in multiple times, places, settings
What juxtapositions are created? Slide12Offstage, in performance
Mise
-en-scene
Where could this play be performed, and where not?
What
properties appear onstage?
Audience
What sort of audience does the play address?
What do they know?
What do they believe?Slide13The book
What kind of edition is the play?
How do the words appear on the page
?
What other materials appear with the play?
What is the effect of these materials over reading and performing the play?
Why does whatever these materials say not appear in the play itself? Why was this supplement to the play necessary?
Why does this play appear in this sort of edition?
Who is the publisher? Where is this publisher located, and for whom does it publish?
What editorial choices have been made?
What is the author/estate’s relationship to this edition?
Does this edition itself have a history?Slide14“REALISM”
Probably the most difficult term to use
Is the play realistic?
Term always relational
Is it more realistic than specified other plays?
Is it realistic in particular aspects: dialogue, setting, content
Is the play not realistic?
What is the play’s relationship to a specific non-theatrical reality?
What elements of this reality are heightened, diminished, promoted, or hidden?Slide15“PHILOSOPHY”Slide16The play and its context*
To be considered second
*Historical context, tradition, relationship to other plays, place in anthology…Slide17TYPE OF PLAY
Genre and literary period
How does this play compare with other plays of its type?
How does it compare with other plays of this type from this period?
How does it compare with its period more generally?Slide18HISTORICAL CONTEXT
When was the play written, and where?
Was the play written for particular actors?
Was the play written for a political theater company, or for a particular theatrical establishment?
How do elements of this historical period appear within the play?
What is the play’s attitude, or attitudes, towards its time?
Popularity
Was the play written for a wide or a specific audience?Slide19politics
What do we mean by politics?
Then: how does this “politics” appear within the play?
Politics
Conservative?
Emergent or progressive?
Incoherent
?
Some combination of all of these?Slide20“THE AUTHOR”
GO HERE LAST, IF AT ALL
What do we mean when we say “the author”?
How does the play relate to this author’s other works?
How is “the author” present in the play, if at all?