Chapter 3
Seeing vs. Reading
• Reading a play is an incomplete experience of the
play
– Seeing music notes, versus hearing the music
• Seeing the play produce a different effect
• The text (when reading) leaves blanks for the
reader to be filled in
• Takes time to visualize what is happening during
the reading process
• Takes more effort to understand the play and
visualize the appearance
Prelim work
• Title-it gives important information about the play
and provides a clue to the meaning in the play
• Cast of characters-helps us to understand the
personalities, relationships and other physical
qualities of a character
• Opening stage directions-explains the opening
moments
– In media res- in the middle of the action
– Helps to orient us to the action
• While reading, start to develop questions and
seek those answers from the text or from other
sources. (Time period, physical stage for
entrances and exits, etc)
• Visualize what a stage might look like and
contain- read the play through that frame of mind
• Now that you have prepared your mind for
reading the play, keep that visualization in mind
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Ending- think about what has happened
Where goals achieved by the characters?
Where the outcomes serious or playful?
Who ended the play better or worse than
began it?
• Make a judgment about the play as a whole
Play Analysis and Aristotle
• Remember Aristotle was the first person to
introduce us to analysis of theatre
• Six major parts of a play:
– Plot
– Character
– Idea
– Language
– Music
– Spectacle (least important)
Two Important Points
• 1. The order of the parts is important (the way
they are listed)
• 2. These are parts of a system, integrally
related with one another.
– Each part impacts another part
Plot
• Exposition
• Point of Attack-the place that story begins
– Early
– Late
• Action-the central chain of events in the play
– Bound to the character
– Successful action in plays have a beginning,
middle and end to have wholeness
• Action (con)
– Action begins with a character’s discovery
– Discovery might lead to reversal (or change in
direction of action)
– The play ends when there is no more action
– Value of a logical play
– Helps the audience see the big picture when the
character can’t
– Different from real life-play has the beginning,
middle and end and our lives don’t have that small
of a scope in the time frame.
• Complications-entangling of the action
– Obstacles get in the way and complicate the
action
– Conflict- the most common type of complication
– The complication threatens the course of action
– Caused complications vs. accidental complications
• Rising action-increase of complications
• Crisis vs. Climax- crisis means “decisive
moment” (Gk)- crisis= major reversal
– Climax the most exciting moment- refers to
audience’s response to the plot.
• Falling Action, Resolution or Denouement
– “The untying”, or unraveling of the complication
– Crisis passes, complication is resolved
• Kinds of plots
– Causal Plot (linear, climatic-we are most familiar
with this one)
• Seen as one event leads to another
• Single line
• Multiple line
– Episodic plot (contextual or thematic)
• Not a play of causality, but rather by a related idea or
concept that might be explored
• Many contemporary play are arranged this way.
Character
• Modeled after humans, but is not human
– Lifelike by not real life
• Protagonist
• Confidant-character with whom the protagonist
confides
• Antagonist
• Raisonneur-author’s character-speaks for the
author giving the moral or philosophical view
• Foil-character opposite (brave vs. cowardly)
Clues to Discovering the Character
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Stage directions as suggestions
Other characters’ dialogue
Character’s own dialogue
Character’s actions
Relationships with other characters
The plot (most important)-go through
trials/events and learn something (we hope)
Idea
• Two categories
– Meanings contained with in the play
– Extrinsic meaning- that which occurs in society and
the time in which the play take place
• Every play has some type of meaning, even if it is
silly
• Idea comes from the plot, organization, character
• Revealed in language (such as the speech of the
raisonneur or speech to a confidant)
Language
• Speeches of the characters share important
meanings about the play
• Repeated images or metaphors carry meaning
(revealed through language)
Music
• Helps establish mood through rhythm
• It’s related to language in how it reveals more
about the plot, characters, or ideas
• In nonmusicals, poetry helps provide this
sense of musicality.
Spectacle
• Visual component to the action
• Provide enough so that the audience can
engage with their imagination
• Color of costume, symbols displayed on stage
• Always works on the sense of sight
• Imagination of the reader and in the actual
performance should hopefully suggest the
same meaning
Response
• Analysis of the play should be organized,
informed and defensible (you can find
information that supports your ideas)
• Respond based on Aristotle’s six ideas
• Respond based on genre (the kind or type)
Genre Review
• Tragedy-human decision is central to tragic actionsad ending
• Comedy- issues are usually social or mundane
(everyday), human decision is limited, happy
ending
• Tragicomedy-combination of above; serious play
and happy ending or vice versa
• Melodrama-serious issue with extremes; issue is
less profound than it is made out to be; good is
rewarded and evil is punished
• Farce-comic work to get people to laugh;
mechanical