Intro to Theatre

Yet during the next 85 intermissionless minutes, the tension will steadily seep out of “The Mountaintop,” despite a teasing mystery at the center of its plot. Defusion may be what Ms. Hall had in mind. Though it considers a watershed act of violence in American history, this is at heart a comfort play, a nursery room fable for grown-ups that seeks to reconcile us with a tragedy that tore the fabric of a nation. Unfortunately, this big-picture drama (and Ms. Hall’s big picture is bigger than you imagine) is short on revelatory close-ups. And despite an engagingly low-key performance by Mr. Jackson, it never provides the organic details and insights that would make Martin Luther King live anew.

A big-time New York incarnation — in a Broadway house with a fast-rising director (Kenny Leon, who staged the Tony-winning revival of “Fences”) and two formidable Hollywood stars — should give this story a triumphant final chapter. Yet it’s hard not to feel that “The Mountaintop” might have worked better in a smaller, lower-profile production. Its charms are those of an ingenious sketch. Mounting it on this scale turns out to be a bit like spinning gossamer into Dacron.

All actors in college:

• analyze plays
• history/theory of drama
• voice class
• combat class
• dialects
• dance/circus
• acting classes

Then out into the world:

• It's all who you know
• Union or non-union
• Audition, Audition, Audition
• Directors talk to casting directors
• Casting directors talk to agents
• Agents talk to you

Examples of Objectives from Clybourne Park

Lindsey – to prove to others she’s not racist. To grab others attention and pity. To get Steve to stop his overbeary. To rally others to her side

Steve – to get others to get to the point. To persuading others support him.

Kevin – to get others to lay back. To make steve see underlying themes. To slap sense into steve. To make steve and lena respect him.

Lena – to overpower Lindsey. To lure respect.

Kathy -

Tom – to rally everybody to productivity.

http://theater.nytimes.com/2012/04/20/theater/reviews/clybourne-park-by-bruce-norris-at-walter-kerr-theater.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Sept. 9

Clybourne Park

Mr. Norris uses some fairly hoary dramatic contrivances (like a trunk that’s buried in one act and unearthed in the second) to connect this diptych. But the implicit parallels in speech and sensibility between then and now are brilliantly set up and thought through.

Use your notes and ideas.

1. Name the 3 questions we should answer to critique a work of art (according to Goethe).

2. Describe one of the tools playwrights have to help them write plays.

3. Describe one of the tools actors have to help them perform.

4. Draw the mountain of climactic dramatic structure. Label 4 points.

Sept. 30

Peter and the Starcatcher

Sample Critiques

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike

The Mountaintop

Purpose: Entertain

Themes: Trust your instincts, Work hard for love, Believe in magic

Lighting

Strong analysis

Directing

"The cage that Bat Boy was in was probably one of the coolest props that was on stage. It's odd build, sharp edges, and dark colours helped with the mood of the play itself, showing how strange everything was - how it wasn't part of this world." -KM

Acting

• The shadows on the scrim were effective for the plot.
• The flashing lights and the shadows kept my attention throughout the play.
• The fire was very realistic.
• The colors of the lights changed the colors of the characters' clothing, keeping the audience engaged.
• The lighting helped convey mood, especially the dark, mysterious mood during the storm.

Quizzes

"In one particular scene where Bat Boy is torn between his animalistic nature and the love that is felt for Shelley, the struggle for whether to feed his hunger creates a tension that is felt throughout the room." -EG

Plays to Read/See

• The acting style was not consistent. Some pursued cartoon-like movements while others were realistic.
• The scene changes were quick and smooth to keep the play moving and the audience engaged.
• The director didn't handle the quick learning of Bat Boy with the proper humor.

"I could tell from watching the show that a lot of time was spent working together. This was a musical that had a lot of movements in dance that took place. These dance movements were so fluid they seemed natural to the actors. They were moving for a purpose like gettign to another character or getting away from a character instead of just moving because." -NN

Text

Group Project Options:

• The actors were animated.
• Main four actors took more serious roles, while the rest of the cast was comedic.
• The actors' emotions kept them and the audience in the moment.
• Mrs. Taylor's lullaby to Bat Boy was a beautiful song; she is clearly a talented singer.
• The actor who played the doctor was evil throughout the play -
• Jayla's acting was strong, the difference between her characters was evident in her voice and movement.

"The lights did not give any information about the setting of the play, but the moods it set for the audience and show was incredible. For example, when Roy encounters Bat Boy for the first time he attacked his sister, the lights became low and spotty. The mood for this scene was very intense and nerve-wracking for the audience. They did not know if Roy was going to harm Bat Boy or if he was going to attack Shelley for trying to protect him." -NB

Costuming

"The actor I believed to have been the most successful was Jason. He was able to communicate with more than just words. He showed how Bat Boy progressed once he was found. Jason was able to show the phases he went through, as Bat Boy, to get to being a normal functioning member of society." -AO

"Red typically seems like an angry or dark mood, so showing the red in the woods gives the feelings of being scared in the dark woods." -KV

The Book of Mormon - a musical

Lonely Planet

Chinglish

Scenic

4000 Miles

Clybourne Park

• The style was evident throughout the text, with words like "normaler" and lines about growing cattle at the foot of a mountain.
• The twist at the end kept the audience at the edge of their seat.
• The part where the song stopped and started was unclear.
• The conclusion of the play seemed very abrupt and shoved together. It needed more build.
• The quickness of Bat Boy's learning seemed a little too much.
• The humor in the dialogue kept me engaged.

"It can be difficult to use the same items in each scene, but the blocks and how they were assembled provided a rustic outline. This allowed the audience to imagine what was trying to be portrayed without focusing too much on the scenery and clouding up other aspects such as acting and lighting." -BH

Lauren Gunderson Quote:

• The costume changes seemed excessive, confusing me about when actors were changing characters or changing outfits.
• The black and grey costumes made the red stand out. The red was more prevalent in the evil characters, helping us to understand their personalities.
• The farmers kept the same costumes throughout, helping the audience identify them.
• The costumes were not always accurate - perhaps the doctor returning with dead geese should have had a little more indication of a murderer.
• Costumes showed the roles each character played in the world, like mother and doctor.

• The floor treatment reminiscent of marble, combined with the costumes, made the setting seem to be the 80s, but they wanted to convey 50s.
• Scenery allowed audience to imagine the setting.
• The boxes were utilized in many different ways, which was creative.

"Some parts were too realistic and some were not at all. The play was about a "Bat" boy, how real could it actually be? With that inconsistency, I believe the actors and director left the audience confused on what the dialogue was saying and the theme was not understood to its fullest extent." -MH

Bat Boy critique sentences

Radio Golf

Hurt Village

Good People

Whipping Man

Doll's House

Water by the Spoonful

The Glass Menagerie

How to write

PURPOSES:

Create emotion

Tell a story

Entertain

Tell a truth

Show different effects on one person

Make audience get involved

Change a situation based on a setting

Reminisce

Create an escape from reality

An artistic form

Be appreciated

Make people think

Educate

Makes audience feel relevance to their lives – their involved

Lift your spirits

If you take a child to the theater, not only will they practice empathy, they might also laugh uproariously, or come home singing about science, or want to know more about history, or tell you what happened at school today, or spend all dinner discussing music, or learn how to handle conflict, or start becoming future patrons of the arts.

What to write

Purpose: Enlighten

Themes: Believe in family, Trust your instincts, Children bring life to a dark world

Why to write

Theatre should change to be more effective…

Advertise better

Change people’s mind about what it is

Make it more available

Give more power/choice to actors

Incorporate technology on stage

Plays on a larger scale – bigger!

Involve current events

Modernize venues, comfortable audience

Change target audience – go for the young people instead of the blue hairs

Find more entertaining ideas

Don’t make it so expensive

Length shorter

Faster pace

Target college age

Make it part of the curriculum for the younger kids in school

SNL clip:

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/airport/n41324/

Intro to Theatre

Your spouse tells you that s/he made a deal with God. S/he was so happy about the work in D.C. that s/he promised God to sacrifice first thing that came out of the house. S/he thought it would be a pet, but it was your eldest daughter. What do you do? How do you feel?

When your spouse returns, your eldest daughter runs outside to greet him, but instead he falls down on the ground crying. He calls out to God and cries. What do you do?

Theatre Words

Context

Your spouse returns. What do you do?

Your spouse leaves to do some work in Washington D.C. You are left to run the household alone. Describe how you feel.

Self

Playwrights

• Playbill
• Applause
• Tickets
• Ushers
• House Manager
• Attire

Your spouse sacrifices your daughter so that God will not punish you all. Then he leaves for DC, and you know he will be gone for a long time. What do you do?

You are the spouse of the mayor. You have 2 daughters and a baby boy. Everyone in the city trusts your family to lead them. Describe how you feel.

Dramatic Structure

Tools to write plays

Tools to critique the text

• Concept
• Scenic Design
• Lighting Design
• Costumes
• Producing
• Thrust Stage
• Proscenium Stage
• Arena Stage (in the round)
• Props

• Plot
• Theme
• Climax
• Through-line
• Style
• Form/Genre
• Inciting Incident
• Rising Action
• Antagonist
• Protagonist

Greek Theatre

Time

Space

Other people

Settings

Audience

• Gesture
• Monologue
• Dialogue
• Pantomime
• Role
• Stage Left
• Stage Right
• Upstage
• Downstage
• Cue
• Upstaging
• Backstage
• Aside
• Cold Read
• Strike

1. Climax of the play

2. Rising Action

3. Point of Attack

4. Exposition

5. Falling Action

6. Stasis

7. Linear or non-linear

8. Continuous or non-continuous

Body

Voice

Imagination

Discipline

Playwright's tools

• Describe the speeches characters say
• Playwright's primary tool

• Tells actors what their character feels at particular moments
• Helps shape what audience experiences

Theme

Dialogue

Description

Characters

Action

• Agent for Action
• Needed for dialogue to be heard and seen
• Give body and coherence to dialogue and descriptions

Don't know these words? Look them up in the glossary below! Know the definitions so you can use these words in your critiques that you write!

What can the play teach us?

(If you make fun of others, you will be embarrassed.)

• Events that lead to a change in stasis

Glossary

Purpose

Playwright's major concern or idea expressed throughout the play

Text

How did theatre start?

3. Find a venue

4. Find your play

8. Design

9. Technicians

10. Rehearsal

5. Who's the boss

6. Find your cast

7. Publicity/Marketing

1. Make a budget

2. Make a list of who you know

Clues in text

• stage directions
• what character says of herself
• what other characters say of her
• what the character DOES

Let's Produce a Show!

The Modern Era

Renaissance

Ancient Egypt and Other Ritualistic Ceremonies

LIGHTING

• Forms of lighting (electric, natural, etc.)
• History of Lighting (1. Sun, 2. Candles, 3. Oil lamps, 4. Gas, 5. Electric)
• Why do we need lighting (mood, focus, etc.)
• Qualities of lighting (intensity, direction, color, movement, shape)

SCENIC

1. Research images that fit with the mood, the director's vision, needs in the script, etc.

2. Build 3-D images

3. Choose areas for movement (and venue)

4. Communication with Tech Director

COSTUMES

Is ritual a kind of theatre? Is story telling theatre? Think of stand up comedians. Think of church services. What is theatre?

Clues in script!

Clothing has meaning:

• Gender
• Age
• Occupation
• Social Status
• Geographical Area

• Season and Weather
• Time of Day
• Occasion
• Activity
• Historical Period
• Mood
• Family

Lighting Designer

Scenic Designer

Costume Designer

Property Designer

Sound Designer

Projection Designer

Special Effects Designer

• Ritals are a form of knowledge, defining people in the world. Ritual teaches something. Ritual controls events. Ritual glorifies the supernatural. Ritual entertains.
• Egyptian myths are based on rituals of seasonal patterns of birth, growth, maturity, death, and rebirth.

534 bce

1790-1850

DIRECTING

1850-1960

1400-1800

2800 bce

For example...

Acting Tools

Greek and Roman (Classical) Period

c.534 bce - 500 ce

Romantic Period

http://www.baltimoreravens.com/team/front-office.html

Goethe's Principles of Criticism

Theatre since 1960

All Actors Must...

1. Read the script

2. Analyze the script

3. Create a character

Was it worth doing?

What was the artist trying to do?

How well did the artist accomplish it?

• Read the play, analyze
• Create a concept (unite the team)
• Research cultural, political, historical significance of the play
• Lead rehearsals
• Lead design meetings

Acting is the worst profession in the world with respect to financial reward and emotional suffering, but that actor has no choice: we can't not do it. -Sir Laurence Olivier

Katori Hall's

THE

MOUNTAINTOP

Kristin Katsu