Happenings And Other Acts By Mariellen R. Sandford

The dramatic arts have had great influence on my life and on my perspective of the world. Through this artistic expression, I can take on any persona, freeing both my mind and my heart. The understanding of people’s actions and emotions has shaped me into the young woman I am. Performance and the study of performing, I find, are enlightening, priceless, and eternal. So long as life persists, the timeless themes found in plays and works will persist.

There were many facets to Artaud, including acting, directing, poet and playwright. From Artaud’s earliest moments, he had been experimenting with new theatrical forms. One moment that he would never forget: In 1931, he saw a group of Balinese dancers. Their use of movement, music, costume and sound stunned him. At that moment, all his revolutionary ideas about theatre and life settled into a single dramatic theory called the “theatre of cruelty”.

non-fiction. From her wide array of published works this critical analysis will be focused on her

“…Then you realise that theatre is a more personal experience.” (Stephen Atkins, Dante’s Inferno Director) After viewing Zen Zen Zo’s physical theatre reincarnation of the

In the intro to The Dramatic Imagination, John Mason Brown wrote that Robert Jones’ theatre was “an extension of life, not a duplication, a heightening rather than a reproduction” (Jones 1). Of course, we know that plays are about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. However, Jones poses the question of what can designers do to heighten the “extraordinary circumstances” to the audience without interfering the message of the show? The Dramatic Imagination focused on most aspects of artistry in the theatre, including actors and designers. As someone who does not consider myself a designer, but is an actor with a liberal arts education, this was more helpful than only focusing on scenic design. Furthermore, it supported the need for intense collaboration between all theatre artists when working on a show, a highly valued characteristic of mine.

For decades people found theatre one of the most enjoyable form of entertainment all across the world. With every play comes a cost. A value which somebody's story is told. Obviously it can be comic drama or despairing,. Each second of these plays are genuinely delightful and exceptional. Where the performing artists show a totally distinctive side of characters to the group of onlookers where they demonstrate to them something new and pleasurable. And behind the theatre and its plays is one person who keeps it all in check and that is the director. The director is like the heart of a person. You don’t see the heart but you know if it’s doing its job correctly

This past week, I had the opportunity to experience a magnificent play called Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin. This performance was the third of three plays I saw at the Arizona Repertory Theatre. The other two plays were Epic Proportions by Larry Coen and David Crane and Hands on a Hardbody by Doug Wright. These were the first plays I have been to, not only while attending the University of Arizona, but in my generation as a teenager. All together, these performances were amazing and have brought a newly improved insight to my perception of theatre. The hard work and dedication by the actors, directors, producers, cast members, and sound developers were absolutely incredible and I have tremendous respect for their efforts during the overall sequence of producing the plays. The most recent performance I saw, Born Yesterday, can be described and reflected on through various topics such as lighting, sound, directing and producing.

I am reviewing the University of Colorado’s performance of Karen Zacaria’s play, Legacy of Light, directed by Jennifer Hubbard. I will be focusing on the shifts between time periods and how these convey the overall message of the play, along with analyzing the acting for their overall effect on the performance. The production was complex but I will explore these specific points more closely to understand the overall meaning.

Having knowledge and involvement in both the acting and the technical aspects of theater, I expected the production to deliver a qualitative performance that gave its audience the full experience. This experience is achieved by the elements of theater such as acting, lights, sounds, props, costume and set design

In Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics,” he defines art as both “any human activity that doesn’t grow out of EITHER of our species two basic instincts: survival and reproduction” (164), and “the way we assert our identities as individuals and break out of the narrow roles nature cast us in” (166). Although McCloud was discussing graphic novels in his work, I think that these quotes and his argument apply to any type of visual rhetoric. As a former theatre minor at Marquette, I have had the opportunity to be privy to this argument in the form of theatre. Watching a play unfold onstage has an effect on the participating audience, largely due to the intricacies of each scene. While a good play must start out

The live performance I have chosen to write about is ‘Warhorse’ which I saw on the 3rd February at the New London Theatre. In this essay, I am going to explain and analyse how the staging and the lighting together created the different atmospheres and moods such as fear and tension. Throughout the play, numerous themes are illustrated such as the barbarity of war and the cruelty of man. The themes of loyalty and hope are also illustrated and portrayed. Not only did the set and lighting help portray these

When reading Annie Baker’s “The Flick,” it was difficult to avoid the level of engagement that the author planned for with an audience. It is said that Annie Baker who now lives in New York has become one of the freshest voices in American theater. There are several deliberate choices that Annie Baker arranges in relation to the action and the characters that contributes to the success of the play. “The Flick” acts like a mirror that forces us to reflect and take a profound look at ourselves and the world we live in. In unison, when all of these elements are combined the culminating result is a play that does not necessarily need to be seen to be labeled as exceptional in the way Baker accounts for engagement with an audience.

In the words of Gay McAuley, “for an activity to be regarded as a performance, it must involve the live presence of the performers and those witnessing it…” (McAuley, 2009, cited in Schechner, 2013, pp.38). This statement recognises the importance of both the actor and the audience for something to truly function as a performance. In addition, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones highlights the significance of the theatrical space and how it can influence an audience stating that “on entering a theatre of any kind, a spectator walks into a specific space, one that is designed to produce a certain reaction or series of responses” (Llewellyn-Jones, 2002, pp.3). The relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space is no less important today than it was at the time of theatre during the Spanish Golden Age and the creation of Commedia dell’arte in Italy. Despite being very close geographically with theatre thriving for both in the same era, sources that explore the social, cultural and historical context of these countries and the theatre styles will bring to light the similarities and differences. This essay will analyse the staging, the behaviour of the audience as well as the challenges the actors faced, and how this directly influenced the relationship between actor, audience and theatrical space.

This paper will explore a range of perspectives on the relationship between the live event and the document within performance practice, specifically focus on in relation to body, time and space. Performance art is commonly known as a performance presented to a viewer within a fine art context. Through performance artists emphasize the body’s role in artistic production. Historically, performance archive has been characterized as an unfaithful representation of the momentary art experience. Yet, in contemporary art the relationship between live performance practices and documentation has progressed towards reconciliation. Whether, the performance is scripted or unscripted, the performer’s body is present or absent. Performance art can happen in any type of venue and for any length of time. Documentation of performance practice documents the actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time.

The development and improvement of the Internet has revolutionised the way of communication and greatly changed how information is shared. It is now an essential means of communication, and can be used for most of the daily activities: sending messages, online shopping, reading news, and even watching performances. Producers and performers have been experiencing with this new medium, and many interesting and innovative forms of performances had been created ever since. With the use of Internet, performances can be accessible for audiences all over the world at relatively low cost. However, many had questioned if such hybrid of technology and theatre arts have lost the essence of ‘liveness’ in performance and whether it will change the audience-performer relationship in the 21st Century. This essay will discuss the