Theater and Drama
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Wikipedia-Article "Theater"
- For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation)
Theatre is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera, mummers' plays, and pantomime.
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Overview of theatre
"Drama" (literally translated, is defined as: Action) is that branch of theatre in which speech, either from written text (plays), or improvised is paramount. "Musical theatre" is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and spoken dialogue. However, theatre is more than just what one sees on stage. Theatre involves an entire world behind the scenes that creates the costumes, sets and lighting to make the overall effect interesting. There is a particularly long tradition of political theatre, intended to educate audiences on contemporary issues and encourage social change. Various creeds, Catholicism for instance, have built upon the entertainment value of theatre and created (for example) passion plays, mystery plays and morality plays.
There is an enormous variety of philosophies, artistic processes, and theatrical approaches to creating plays and drama. Some are connected to political or spiritual ideologies, and some are based on purely "artistic" concerns. Some processes focus on a story, some on theatre as an event, some on theatre as a catalyst for social change. According to Aristotle's seminal theatrical critique Poetics, there are six elements necessary for theatre. They are Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Song, and Spectacle. The 17th-century Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote that for theatre one needs "three boards, two actors, and one passion". Others notable for their contribution to theatrical philosophy are Konstantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski.
The most recognisable figures in theatre are the directors, playwrights and actors, but theatre is a highly collaborative endeavour. Plays are usually produced by a production team that commonly includes a scenic or set designer, lighting designer, costume designer, sound designer, dramaturg, stage manager, and production manager. The artistic staff are assisted by technical theatre personnel who handle the creation and execution of the production.
Styles of theatre
There are a variety of genres that writers, producers and directors can employ in theatre to suit a variety of tastes:
- Musical theatre: A theatrical genre in which the primary means of performance is through singing and music.
- Rock opera: Same style as opera, except that the musical form is rock music.
- Comedy: Comes from the Greek word komos which means celebration, revel or merrymaking. It does not necessarily mean funny, but more focuses on a problem that leads to some form of catastrophe which in the end has a happy and joyful outcome.
- Farce: A comic dramatic piece that uses highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant exaggeration, and violent horseplay.
- Pantomime: A form of musical drama in which elements of dance, puppetry, slapstick and melodrama are combined to produce an entertaining and comic theatrical experience, often designed for children.
- Romantic comedy: A medley of clever scheming, calculated coincidence, and wondrous discovery, all of which contribute ultimately to making the events answer precisely to the hero's or heroine's wishes, with the focus on love.
- Comedy of situation: A comedy that grows out of a character's attempt to solve a problem created by a situation. The attempt is often bumbling but ends up happily.
- Comedy of manners: Witty, cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirises the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards.
- Commedia dell'arte: Very physical form of comedy which was created and originally performed in Italy. Commedia uses a series of stock characters and a list of events to improvise an entire play.
- Musical comedy: Comedy enacted through music, singing and dance.
- Black comedy: Comedy that tests the boundaries of good taste and moral acceptability by juxtaposing morbid or ghastly elements with comical ones.
- Melodrama: Originally, a sentimental drama with musical underscoring. Often with an unlikely plot that concerns the suffering of the good at the hands of the villains but ends happily with good triumphant. Featuring stock characters such as the noble hero, the long-suffering heroine, and the cold-blooded villain.
- Tragedy: A drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.
- Tragicomedy: A drama that has a bitter/sweet quality, containing elements of tragedy and comedy.
- Domestic drama: Drama in which the focus is on the everyday domestic lives of people and their relationships in the community that they live in.
- Fantasy: The creation of a unique landscape on a which a hero goes on a quest to find something that will defeat the powers of evil. Along the way, this hero meets a variety of weird and fantastic characters.
- Morality play: A morality play is an allegory in which the characters are abstractions of moral ideas.
- Physical theatre: Theatrical performance in which the primary means of communication is the body, through dance, mime, puppetry and movement, rather than the spoken word.
- Theatre of the Absurd: Term coined by Martin Esslin, theatre in which characters are engaged in an absurd, that is meaningless, activity or life. Related to existentialism.
- Meta-Theater: A genre of theater made popular with mostly modern audiences, although it did start back in the Elizabethan Era. Meta-Theater is when a play often completely demolishes the so called "fourth wall" and completely engages the audience. Often times about a group of actors, a director, writer and so on. It usually blurs the line between what is scripted and what goes on by accident.
This list is not only somewhat incomplete and eurocentric, but none of the genre listed are actually mutually exclusive. The richness of live theatre today is such that its practitioners can borrow from all of these elements and more, and present something that is a multi-disciplinary melange of pretty much everything.
Theatre or Theater?
The traditional spelling of this word in Commonwealth English is theatre.
In the United States, the alternative spelling theater has become more common. The general consensus of most American style guides is to use this spelling unless the word is part of the proper name of a performing arts facility or company, as some venues are branded with "theatre" [1] [2] [3]. However, both spellings are in widely accepted when referring to the branch of the arts.
For some people in the U.S., the two spellings carry different meanings. In this case, "theatre" denotes a branch of the performing arts, whereas "theater" refers to the building in which performances or other entertainments are presented. However, among theatre professionals in the U.S., "theatre" is common for both the art and the building.
Theatre venues and styles
- Broadway and the West End
- Off-Broadway and the London fringe
- Off-Off-Broadway
- Regional theatre
- Repertory theatre
- Summer stock theatre
- Community theatre
- Improvisational theatre
- Fringe festival
- Postmodern theater
- Proletcult Theatre
- Street theatre
- Physical theatre
- Temple dance
- Dinner Theatre
Awards in theatre
- European Theatre Award
- Laurence Olivier Awards (United Kingdom)
- Tony Award (USA)
- Golden Mask Award (Russia)
- Molière Award (France)
- Hans-Reinhart-Ring (Switzerland)
- Lucille Lortel Award (USA)
- Drama Desk Award (USA)
See also
- List of theater terms
- Theater in the United States
- History of theatre
- Theatre technique
- Suspension of disbelief
- Stagecraft
- Epic Theater
- Irish theatre
- Movie theater
- Puppet theater
- Theatre for development
- Tableaux Vivant
- Mask Sound & Dance Theater
- Digital theatre
- Theater in architecture
- Opera house
- Dramatist
- List of playwrights
- List of theatre directors
- List of Irish dramatists
External links
Wikipedia-Article "Drama"
- This article refers to the art form. For the town, see Drama, Greece.
Drama is a term generally used to refer to a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. It is a Greek word meaning `action', drawn from the Greek verb dran, `to do'.
Dramas can be performed in a variety of media: live performance, film, or television. "Closet dramas" are works written in the same form as plays (with dialogue, scenes, and "stage directions"), but meant to be read rather than staged; examples include the plays of Seneca, Manfred by Byron, and Prometheus Unbound by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Other dramatic literature may not resemble plays at all, such as the Imaginary Conversations of Walter Savage Landor.
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Greek drama
The three types of drama composed in the city of Athens were tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. The origins of Athenian tragedy and comedy are far from clear. We must understand that drama began for the Greeks as a part of religious ritual.
The chorus seems to have originated first, with a leader, singing a song about some legendary hero; in later years the leader, rather than singing about the hero, began to impersonate him. Spoken dialogue between several actors was added, and the result was "tragedy" in the Greek form. The very first prize for tragedy went to Thespis in 534 BC.
In fact, the two masks associated with drama with the smiling and frowning faces are both symbols of the Muses Thalia and Melpomene. Thalia is the Muse of Comedy (the smiling face), and Melpomene is the Muse of Tragedy (the frowning face).
Uses of drama today
The most usual form of drama is as entertainment, see the article on Theatre for more information on this. However drama can also be used as an educational activity or for therapeutic purposes.
It has a unique ability to allow us to play, allowing us to be another person or in a situation that we would not normally encounter such as, being a general in a war. This is what makes drama a useful way of teaching, learning, and growing as a person.
Drama has a holistic way of teaching people. Whether it be in a play or by partaking in a role-play situation, we learn through interactions with others--this allows participants to not only learn facts as they would from a book or in a classroom, but to enter the world of another person, to be allowed to explore how they feel about this situation or person, whether it be a war-torn town or the wolf in the Three Little Pigs. Every interaction with another character or situation gives a greater understanding of what is happening around us.
If you look at a small child when they are playing they are enthralled with their own world, and through their actions, thoughts and the way they play they learn about themselves, others, and the world around them. Play allows them to act out new situations, try out new ways of doing things and by doing so learn.
When people grow up the idea of play becomes less important and entering into the imagination becomes more difficult. However this is where drama has the unique and undeniable ability to help others learn and grow as individuals, as it allows them to play. Through playing we can once again try out situations, whether it be for a job interview by live action role-playing (aka. LARP), or just to think about new ideas, we can also gain confidence in ourselves and learn to trust others.
Role-play and can also play an important part in therapy, again entering the imagination and allowing ourselves to pretend and to think of things in other ways. Drama therapy is often considered an effective treatment for people who have had severe emotional, and psychological problems, although it is important to note that the evidence to support therapeutic efficacy of Drama therapy is anecdotal rather than scientific.
Drama as a tool for education
There are many forms of Educational drama these all share one common goal, to create awareness or an understanding of an idea, or issue.The following is a few examples of the main forms in which drama is used as a tool for education.
T.I.E. (Theatre in education). This is the typical image of drama, seen highly throughout the 1960s to 1990s. Usually performed for youth groups, or schools by a drama group this form of theatre was usually a devised piece which used abstract ideas to communicate a message, it follows in the tradition of plays seen throughout history such as morality plays like Everyman. This form of theatre could also be compared to commedia del arte, and other such travelling forms of theatre.
Pantomime. These stories follow in the tradition of fables and folk tales, usually there is a lesson learned, and with some help from the audience the hero/heroine saves the day. This kind of play uses stock characters seen in masque and again commedia del arte, these characters include the villain(doctore) the clown/servant(Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons) the lovers etc. These plays usually have an emphasis on moral dilemnas, and good always triumphs over evil, this kind of play is also very entertaining making it a very effective way of reaching many people.
D.I.E. (Drama in Education). Unlike Theatre in education, D.I.E. is based more upon workshops, and the group creating their own scenarios, ideas and even subject matter through the use of Drama and Drama workshops. Sometimes this kind of work may lead to the creation of a play, or a piece of T.I.E or some other kind of means to show a result from the work. Drama in Education utilises skills used across the spectrum of dramatic activity, everything from teacher in role to normal theatrical conventions of audience and spectator. D.I.E is usually run in youth clubs, schools, community centres etc. D.I.E. involves a high amount of participation by the group, and is therefore aimed for smaller groups of individuals.
Workshops
A workshop is a situation where a group is allowed to explore and think about an issue, a book, a thought, a play, anything. Within drama terms it is an active situation with a lot of learning and experiencing. Drama workshops have many different styles and approaches much like any group activity, this style and approach is determined by the group's willingness to participate, the frame and distance that they are from the drama is usually the holding form for the session, in the example shown through teacher in role we see the group are "framed" as social workers and because of their role in the drama they are at a very close distance, if the group were older at age 14-17 say then they would be less likely to enter into the drama and a more suitable frame would have to be chosen. For example instead of social workers they could become reporters, which would allow them to remain at the spectator end of the drama and give them chance to reflect on the conditions surrounding events. However this does not mean that the group always have to have a frame, they can remain themselves and still participate in the drama, allowing them to think about how they feel about the situation. In this case the group may enter the drama as themselves and how they would act in a situation, or explore being characters in a situation and what is making them act the way they are, comparing them to situations that they could imagine being in. The important thing about drama workshops is to allow the group to play, and through playing learn.
See also
- Teacher in role: Teaching using drama, a practical application
- Constructivism: Theories in education
- Drama therapy: using drama to work through emotional problems
- Role playing: The use of character, and situations
- Frames and distance: The level at which an audience, or class enter into a dramatic situation
- Drama Workshops: Using drama to explore issues/events
- Imagined experience: Learning from experiences which we have imagined
- Dramatic convention: Implicit agreements between actors/dramtists and audience/drama groups.
- Literature: (for a general discussion)
- Aristotle's Poetics
- Shakespeare
- Dramatists (for individual authors)
- Dramaturgy: for the editorial assistance given to dramatists
- the entries on the various subgenres such as comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy, farce, romance, courtroom drama, etc.
- Casting drama
- Melodrama
- In-yer-face theatre
- Opera
- Soap opera
- BBC television drama
- Flash drama
- Natya Shastra
External links
- Magic Star of Dramatic Writing, a compilation of the wisdom of contemporary and classical experts on dramatic writing, including a discussion of concept, character, story, dialogue, and action.
- Greek & Roman Drama Timeline
- Greek & Roman Mask Timeline