RCC Midterm
Terms
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- Aesthetics
- The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and expression of beauty.
- Aristotle
- Greek comic playwright who believed theater is a creation meant to interpret the world and awake the soul.
- Peter Brook
- English director. In his book The Empty Space, he said that all that is needed for theater to occur is an empty space and someone to walk across that space while someone watches.
- Plato
- mentor of Aristotle. Believed that theater must be subservient to the state
- Art vs. entertainment
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artists create to express themselves. Entertainters create to please an audience
- conflict core of drama
- the key to the movement of a story, the element that qualifies a theatrical work as a play.
- Copywright
- A legal guarantee granted by the government to artists that allows them to control and profit from their creative work and intellectual property.
- federal theater project
- established in 1930 a part of FDR new deal. Employed over 10,000 theater professionals and mounted more than 1000 productions. in 1939 people believed it was dominated by communists
- NEA
- national endowment for the arts. federal agency that disburses arts tax dollars. one of the smallest of all government programs. Acts as an independent commission and decisions don\'t need to be rubber stamped by congress.
- non profit company
- Do not have stockholders. Pay no dividends or federal taxes. They are not designed for private financial gain and provide the general public with charitable educational and recreational services. MOst theaters apply for and receive nonprofit status because most plays lose money.
- Public domain.
- a copyright only lasts lifetime of the creator plus 70 years. After this time it passes into public domain. The copyright expires and the art is owned by the general public and everyone has the right to produce or change them without permisson or payment
- royalty payment
- a payment made to the playwright or the playwright\'s estate when a play is produced
- legitimate actors
- actors who work primarily on stage. Because in england in 18th century, censorship laws required theater companies to be licensed.
- absurdism
- absurdist playwrights believe that human beings face a cold hostile universe and that most plays fail to reflect the ridiculousnes,s anxiety and chaos of the world. Absurd characters are often filled with anxiety, anguish, and guilt as they suffer and endure for no reason. Absurdism is loosely divided into three broad categories that overlap: fatalistic absurdism suggests we are trapped in an irrational universe where even basic communication is impossible. Hilarious absurdism highlights the insanity of life in a comical way. Existential absurdism holds that humans are naturaly alone, without purpose or mission, in a universe that has no God. The absence of God means that humans have no fixed identity but for the existentialists, on god means that humans can create their own existences, purpose and meaning. Created after WWII.
- Alienation effect
- unique to Brecht\'s idea of epic theatre; happens when a dramatist or director tries to distance or estrange the audience so that they can consciously think about the themes of the play. Brecht alienated the audience by using various techniques: the actors addressed the audience while out of character.
- Avant garde
- describes any work of art that is experimental, innovative, or unconventional
- Samuel Beckett
- the most famous of the absurdist playwrights, his most famous work is Waiting for Godot.
- Bertolt Brecht
- a German poet, director, and playwright who challenged traditional ideas about theatre; he saw epic theatre as a way to confront the social and political problems of his day; he took epic theatre to a new level by eliminating the vicarious experience and catharsis that had been standard in the there for thousands of years. He removed illusions such as suspense, rising action, climax and other trance-like emotional states.
- Catharsis
- when the audience experiences an intense, twofold feeling of pity and fear; this can occur when on truly encounters life and confronts its many riddles
- comedy of ideas
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socially relevant plays that force audiences to reassess their culture, community, and values; these comedies were and are often censored in more repressive societies
- comedy of manners
- plays that are set during the age of aristocrats and kings and poke fun at the bedroom escapades, marital infidelities, and hypocrisies of the upper classes.
- dark comedy
- a rather gloomy, even sinister type of comedy in which the audience laughs at the bleaker and more absurd aspects of life
- David Mamet
- A realist playwright who wrote plays like Glengarry Glen Ross and Oleanna.
- Domestic comedy
- takes an entertaining look at the problems of everyday people
- farce
- one of the most popular forms of low comedy it traps the characters ina fastpaced situation with wild complications mistaken identities and incredible coincidences
- fourth wall
- actors in realistic plays are taught to perform as though there were an invisible wall between them and the spectators a fourth wall allows the audience to spy on the characters private lives
- high comedy
- any play that depends on sophisticated humor, wit, political satire, or social commentary
- Kitchen sink realism
- a realistic play that takes place in a kitchen
- low comedy
- depends on gags, clowning, puns and slapstick
- Hubris
- a common hamartia or flaw in which the character has overbearing pride or arrogance
- melodrama
- one of the most common types of romanticism, it is a blend of melody and drama and refers to the background music once played during performances. Melodramas had formulaic plots filled with oversimplified moral dilemmas and support the values of love, marriage, God and country.
- Naturalism
- directors actors and playwrights began calling for even more extreme forms of realism creating a new genre called naturalism. Most tv dramas are realistic however reality tv shows are naturalism
- problem plays
- another name for realistic plays
- realism
- the most common type of theater today. realistic plays have natural sounding dialogue and characters whose behavior is much like that of everyday modern people
- romantic comedy
- examins the funny side of falling in love. these plays often have sympathetic young lovers that are kept apart by complicated circumstances
- sentimental comedy
- takes and entertaining look at the problems and ocmplications of common everyday people
- Straight plays
- plays without music
- tragedy
- a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in viewing
- Tragic hero
- an extraordinary person of noble birth or a person who has risen to great political or social heights, yet is someone with whom the audience can empathize, the tragic hero is not a victim who suffers an accident or a catastrophe over which he or she has no control. Tragic heroes are characters that can make choices, take action, bring trouble upon themselves and ultimately take responsibility for their choices.
- tragicomedy
- a performance that blends comedy and tragedy
- verbal scene painting
- when the actors let their words paint pictures so that the audience could dress the stage in their imaginations
- Henrik Ibsen
- often called the father of realism, his most important realistic play is A Doll\'s House
- Epic theater
- most often associated with the work of Bertolt Brecht who challenged traditional ideas about theater
- Aesthetic distance
- the audiences ability to remove themselves from a work of art just far enough so that they can contemplate it or even judge it. Most artists don\'t want the audience to totally forget themselves but still be able to have a vicarious experience, feel empathy for the characters yet they can also think.
- Aristotle\'s 6 elements
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1. plot - a unified arrangement of the incidents.
2. character - personalities of the story. made up of motivation and action.
3. Thought - what the play means, ideas its trying to communicate
4. diction - modes of utterance. The dialogue used to create thought character and plot.
5. spectacle - set, costumes, effects, it is the sensory aspect of the production.
6. song: because ancient tragedies had songs. Aristotle included song as a standard part of any play but today it is optional. - Audience etiquette
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1. turn off phones.
2. do not text or tweet
3. do not talk
4. try not to cough
5. do not be late
6. do not eat.
7. be courteous.
8. on\'t wear too much perfume or cologne.
9. don\'t leave until intermission or end
10. no photos or recording devices allowed
- Thomas Bowdler
- in 1818 he published the family shakespeare. he edited out all bawdy jokes, playful banter or sexuality. This created term bowdlerize: to remove any possibly vulgar, obscene or otherwise objectional material.
- Breach of the peace
- free speech is not a viable defense when such speech is used to perpetrate a fraud. for example the 1st amendment doesn\'t protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing panic.
- The Licensing Act
- in 1737, this law placed the censoring of plays under the authority of the Lord Chamberlain. Any plays that contained negative comments about the king or queen, unorthodox opinions, or statements considered heretical or seditious could be censored.
- censorship
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the altering, restriction, or suppressing of information, images, or words circulated within a society. It can take the form of banning or altering books, periodicals, films, television and radio programs, video games, content on the internet, news reporst, theatrical productions, etc.
- defamation
- freedom of speech doesn\'t cover the publication or statement of alleged facts that are false and harm the reputation of another. A review could put down a play and essentially turn people away from seing the play eventually causing the playwright to declare bankruptcy.
- director\'s note
- or playwrights note explains what he or she intended to accomplish with the play. you may also find historical informations about the play, playwright or style of productions.
- group dynamics
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the functioning of humans when they come together into groups, whether they are gangs, families, church congregations, or theater audiences.
- obscenity
- freedom of speech doesn\'t apply to obscenity but the courts have struggled to define the word obscene
- paper the house
- house=auditorium, paper = ticket. Giving away a lot of free tickets to families and friends of cast to make it appear as though a performance is well attended.
- preview
- preview performances usually have tickets for half price. way to save money. previews are performances open to public before play opens
- representational theater
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when actors never acknowledge the audience and go about their business as if there were no audience
- reviews vs criticism
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reveiws - also notices. evaluations of productions. newspaper or magazine. Anyone who expresses opinion about dramatic performance is reviewer. Goal is to inform whether play is worth attending.
Critisism offers discriminating, scholarly interpretation. literary quarterlies, academic books and more sophisticated mags and newspapers - willing suspension of disbelief
- when we admit that what is happening is not real so we don\'t need to rush up and save and actor who is being attacked or call police. put aside our concerns about reality and accept quasi reality.
- first amendment
- protects our right to express ourselves not only with words but also with nonverbal visual and symbolic forms of expression. symbolic gestures such as burning american flag is protected under 1st amendment.
- Actors Equity Association
- union represents stage actors. shortened to actors equity or equity.
- equity waiver
- loophole that allows members to work free in small productions due to few acting jobs.
- stella adler
- famous acting teacher who developed stanislavskis methods
- Blockin Rehearsal
- rehearsals where directors and actors work out basic movments
- Michael Chekhov
- famous acting teacher, one of stanislavski brightest students, stage actor
- dark night
- only night when theater is closed, usually monday
- dress rehearsal
- final rehearsals few days before play opens. adds costumes and makeup
- emotional memory
- stanislavsky method known as sense memory or affective memory. Think back over incident remember well enought to relive emotions.
- empathy
- ability to understand and identify with other situeation feelings motives. close as can come to shared experience
- fatal flaw
- inner conflict powerful enough to affect characters good judgement. cripples character
- final dress rehearsal
- last rehearsal before audience invited. run like real
- general working rehearsal
- director and actor work individual scenes
- given circumstances
- actors look at circumstances of life such as situation their problems and limits life has placed on them.
- green room
- space in theater where performers who dont need to be on stage wait
- uta hagen
- famous acting teacher
- inner conflict
- ghost from past of unfinished business. so compelling handicaps character until confronted
- magic if
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stanislavsky tehcnique: What would i do if i were this character? in these circumstances?
- sanford meisner
- famous acting teacher
- method acting
- stanislavsky system.
- off book rehearsal
- actors must have lines memorized
- run through
- actors go through entire play from beginning to end
- SAG
- screen actors guild represents movie and television actors
- konstantin stanislavski
- father of modern acting greatest teachers. cofounder of moscow art theater wrote several books
- Stanislavsky system
- famous technique. Recall own emotions, transfer to characters finding identification with character.
- substitution
- actor has little or no emotional bond with a character. replace characters emotion with unrelated but personal emotions of their own
- table work
- a type of rehearsal where cast reads through play out loud around table
- technical rehearsal
- when rehearsals move from rehearsal hall to stage. lights props and set
- inside out approach
- when you change emotions and cause body to react
- outside in approach
- change yourself physically you change how you feel on inside
- superobjective
- good actor singles out most important want, driving force
- cattle call
- type of audition. actors given 1 minute to impress director. if director is impressed, callback.