Elements of Theatre
• MAT IN 609
• Virginia R. Francisco
Francisco 2000
1
Four Arts
•
•
•
•
Art
Music
Theatre
Dance
Francisco 2000
2
What is an art work?
• product of a maker and his/her process
• intended for audience
• artist-maker selects, perhaps manipulates,
arranges materials
• materials, process, arrangement
distinctive to art form
• and to maker’s purpose(s)
Francisco 2000
3
What is it for?
•
•
•
•
•
enhance and extend life experience
make meaning of human experience
express thought, feeling
explicate values, problems, concerns
develop vision, creativity, imagination,
flexibility, fluency
• develop skills, artistic, analytical, and other
• explore materials, arts process
Francisco 2000
4
Materials arranged in time and/or
space . . .
• space, line, form, color, value, texture
• body, motion, shape, space, time
• melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color
Francisco 2000
5
How does art make meaning?
• where is the deep hidden meaning?
• materials
selection (and non-selection)
• arrangement
emphasis, balance,
• interpretation (based in the work)
operating forces, outcome
title and other verbal or aural clues
Francisco 2000
6
Artists respond to experience and
environment: the method
•
•
•
•
•
formal (a.k.a. aesthetic)
historical
biographical
cultural and cross cultural
interpretive
Francisco 2000
7
Purpose of theatrical art?
• imitate an action
• dramatic manner
embodiment
• make a point or create a response
• provoke esthetic satisfaction or
admiration
Francisco 2000
8
Esthetic criteria create demands
•
•
•
•
•
magnitude
significance
unity
variety
creation and completion of response
Francisco 2000
9
Desired response influences
fundamental decisions.
• pity, fear
serious action
• laughter, ridicule
seemingly serious action
• fear, hate
temporarily serious action
• response beyond the performance
Francisco 2000
10
Theatre artists select
“theatrical” materials
• plot
an ordered arrangement of incidents (events)
so what’s funny? serious? temporarily serious?
• characters
agents or patients in an action
have distinctive qualities of character and thought
what kinds of qualities exist?
which are appropriate to a desired response?a
Francisco 2000
11
. . . as appropriate to the action
and response desired
• thought
horizontal/vertical plots
how do we know characters most fully?
• diction
ordered language, as appropriate to . . .
• music a pleasurable accessory
rhythm, harmony, song
• spectacle a significant element
Francisco 2000
12
Any of these can be the focus of
interest
• what kind of action makes a good plot?
conflict or problem
• what kind of character makes a good
character-centered drama?
• can we effectively eliminate thought and
just have fun?
Francisco 2000
13
How are plots organized?
Time
Beginning
Middle
Middle
Middle
End
Function
Inciting
Event(s)
Complication
Complication
Crisis,
Reversal
Resolution
Style
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Act V
Style
Modern
Act 1
Act 1
Act 1
Ends w/
crisis
Act 2
Act 2
Rising to
Crisis,
Falling
Action
Prior or
Antecedent
Events
Exposition
Attention
Interest
Renaissance
Act I
Energy
At Rest
Rising
Action
Rising
End
14
Other sorts of choices are
a matter of style . . .
• particular characteristics which distinguish a work from
all others, however similar
the style of Much Ado About Nothing
• or of the work of an artist, composer, choreographer, or
playwright
the style of Shakespeare, or Mozart, or Agnes de Mille
• or the characteristics of a group of artists or works
which distinguish them from other groups
the style of the Renaissance, or of the Elizabethans,
or of the post-modern era
Francisco 2000
15