Language And The Mise In Scene In Luigi Pindello And Anton Chekhov

For the first two weeks of Mr. Rosenberg’s leave we read a book called “Backwards and Forwards” by David Ball which was a guide to help us understand both “theater and literature complements”. It was a way for us to comprehend traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. The book used its examples from many different Greek such

When people think of theatre they usually think of acting, directing, and maybe script writers. They would correct, all of those disciplines are part of theatre but there's more to theatre than just that; however, due to personal interests those specific disciplines will be exactly what this essay is about. What most people don't think of when they think of theatre is how much thought is put into it. The different type of methods, not just for acting but, for directing, and script writing as well. Everyone has a different method of running a show but this paper will discuss some of the legendary people that have influenced theatre the most.

Born in 1896 and although died, insane and in poverty in 1948, Artaud lived an influential life. All his attempts to create a theatre of magic, of beauty and power that would change the hearts of people, ended in failure. He was the father of the Theatre of Cruelty. Although his views and practices are unsupported in his lifetime, since his death, Artaud’s extraordinary and imaginative ideas have been a major influence in the world of theatre. It has given us an entirely new way of perceiving reality and communicating competently. One can see his influence on theatre

The triviality of melodrama is so often the theatrical scapegoat that boils the blood of the modern-day critic: the sentimental monologues, the martyred young lovers, the triumphant hero, and the self-indulgent imagery. Melodrama would seem the ultimate taboo; another failed Shakespearean staging or even worse, an opera minus the pretty music. Ironically, Bertolt Brecht, dramatic revolutionary and cynic of all things contrived found promise in the melodramatic presentation. Brecht examined and manipulated the various superficial and spectacular aspects of theatre, establishing a synthesis of entertainment and social criticism as his fundamental goal. Bertolt Brecht employs various facets of melodramatic technique in The Jewish Wife,

Theatre is a complex art that attempts to weave stories of varying degrees of intricacies with the hope that feelings will be elicited from the audience. Samuel Beckett’s most famous work in the theatre world, however, is Waiting for Godot, the play in which, according to well-known Irish critic Vivian Mercier, “nothing happens, twice.” Beckett pioneered many different levels of groundbreaking and avant-garde theatre and had a large influence on the section of the modern idea of presentational theatre as opposed to the representational. His career seemingly marks the end of modernism in theatre and the creation of what is known as the “Theatre of the Absurd.”

Shakespeare was very specific, in 1603, about his choice of words when he wrote the play, “Othello”. The three language devices – “words as power”, “words as character” and “words as conversation” with the audience – are used to create characters’ identities and fates, and also to drive the plot of the play (Krieger, 2012).

In Act 1, Scene 1 of King Henry V, the audience is given the impression that Henry is a decisive, magisterial ruler, who considers the consequences of his actions and decisions. Our first impression of the character comes from a dialogue between Bishops Ely and Canterbury, who are discussing his unexpected rise to maturity. It is described that he was initially an irresponsible young man: "His companies unlettered, rude and shallow, / His hours filled up with riots, banquets , sports". The use of parallelism, repetition and tricolon convey this idea. But he is then described as having changed, rather suddenly, into a studious, noble man, with acumen and decisiveness: "Consideration like an angel came, / And whipped th'offending Adam out of him, / leaving his body as a paradise / T'envelop and contain celestial spirits.

Authors often times use diction, figurative language, and dialogue to convey different ideas that highlight the importance of certain characters and the way they feel. Manipulating language allows an author to give insight into the characters, expand the plot, and amplify the reader’s understanding of the piece as a whole. Edmond Rostand does this very successfully in his play,“Cyrano de Bergerac”. The exchanges between characters allow the story to develop, and put an emphasis on the importance of characters through dialogue. By writing “Cyrano de Bergerac” in the form of a play, Edmond Rostand successfully employs dialogue to reveal characters’ inner conflicts through how they interact with each other.

A word’s connotative meaning can have an emotional effect upon an audience; the audience can respond in different ways (emotionally rather than intellectually) when hearing a word rather than reading a word (Taflinger, 1996). Powerful words are used in Othello to ask the audience for a response about their feeling towards the characters in the play. The characters talk directly to the audience through the use of soliloquy. “I’ll have our Michael Cassio on the hip / Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward me” (II.ii.300,303). Iago makes the audience his friends by speaking to them immediately, sharing his secret plots, -motives and -inner thoughts which he keeps secret from the other characters; he makes the audience laugh because he is funny and asks for help when he is in trouble. “How am I then a villain, to council Cassio to this parallel course directly to his good?” (II.iii.239-241). The language device, words as conversation with the audience, also emphasises “dramatic irony” for the audience knows what is going to happen in the play (Krieger,

Good morning/afternoon year eleven. Today, I will be speaking about how the power of language is explored in Shakespeare’s “Othello” through the complex characters and their speeches throughout the play. Othello and Iago, the protagonist and antagonist, both have moments in which they use language to speak directly to the audience. They convince us to feel or think a certain way, despite the underlying truth in their speech. Iago’s speech in Act 1, Scene 1, Line 42, detailing his feelings towards Othello, and Othello’s speech at the beginning of Act 5, Scene 2, prior to murdering his wife Desdemona, both use language to convey a manipulated truth and intent. These speeches inflict emotions onto the audience, as though we are being spoken to and tricked just as the characters in the play are.

"Nowadays the plays' meaning is usually blurred by the fact that the actor plays to the audiences hearts. The figures portrayed are foisted on the audience and are falsified in the process. Contrary to present custom they ought to be presented quite coldly, classically and objectively. For they are not matter for empathy; they are there to be understood and politely added

The tragedy, “Romeo and Juliet” was originally a play created by William Shakespeare, one of many world famous plays by the same. This play has been converted into its intended style many times in the past, the earliest version in 1968 was directed by Franco Zeffirelli, the latest film in 1996 by Baz Luhrmann. The latter is quite modern and only occassionally uses the words of Shakespeare. On the contrary, the older version was very traditional, and almost completely stuck to the original script. In this essay, I will compare the modern day film to the traditional version of the tragic play, “Romeo and Juliet.

While walking on the street, Raskolnikov is enraged by a man who is preying upon a drunken girl. All of the sudden, Raskolnikov has a complete shift in attitude toward the situation and becomes indifferent to what the man does with the girl. In this scene, Dostoevsky uses diction, figurative language and dialogue to convey the complexity of Raskolnikov’s thoughts and feelings. With this insight he provides, Dostoevsky reveals an inner-conflict that Raskolnikov struggles with: his desire to be protective and have good morals, which conflicts with his pessimism and lack of control over his emotions.

As a group, contrasting from Stanislavsky to Brecht, we selected to continually break the fourth wall, giving the assurance to the audience that what they see is fiction. In order for the audience to appreciate the art of theatre, not just the entertainment value nowadays is influenced by film and television; but the poetry, the verses, the hymns of theatre currently ‘lost in translation’ with the emergence of money-mongering

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.