The dramatic arts, that originated from the Greeks, has changed drastically into the theatre that is known today. Many people contributed to this metamorphosis and aided in bringing the technical, emotional, and physical art form to life. Theatre should depict a real part of life for the audience. This is the goal that Andre Antoine had set for himself. His view on a realistic theatre brought modern naturalism to life and continues to be seen in the work of modern day directors. Antoine was alive from 1858 to 1943 in France. France was drawn to street performers and plays with a moral lesson and political context. The plays of the time would deliver a message to the audience, but the actors would never move around or show any real emotion. This however also went in the other direction and displayed productions of melodrama. Antoine was all about getting a story across even if it was political, but seeing actors stand stiff and deliver lines or overact was something he thought was unprofessional. Antoine firmly believed in making theatre as realistic as possible in every way.
Antoine knew that he needed to bring his ideas to life and to the stage. He tried to get the director of a previous theatre group he had worked for at the time, to direct a novel by Emile Zola, but he was repeatedly turned away. This only fueled him into going further with his ideas. As a result, in 1887 he founded Theatre-Libre. His theatre was a showcase for naturalistic playwrights such as:
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.”
Jacques LeCoq and Augusto Boal had fairly similar philosophies but had extremely different ideas for theatre. Boal believed that “An actor’s instrument is their body, which needs to be completely ‘free’ in order to express true emotions”. Where as LeCoq believed that “Everything moves” and that as we ‘free’ the body, we begin
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.
Andre’s love of theater and the play Hamlet gave us an insight to his life. At the beginning of the play Cal expresses Andre’s love of theatre. Cal expresses, “God, how much he wanted to play Hamlet again. He would have gone to Timbuktu to have another go at that part. The summer he did in Boston, he was so happy!”(McNally 736). This reference to Hamlet, I believe showcases the struggles Andre went through. Andre struggled with decision-making and avoiding things, as did Hamlet. Hamlet struggled whether to avenge his father and struggled with the decision that he had been avoiding. This is also apparent when Cal brings up Andre’s great performance saying, “You should have come up the summer he plated Hamlet. He was magnificent”(McNally 738). I believe the Hamlet
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
During the 19th century, theater adopted a realistic viewpoint by romanticism but also a rise in modern nationalism to give people a sense of belonging in a community or culture (Carlson 2014: 21). In the 20th century, realism in theater was challenged and plays were now easier to attend due to the improvements of communication and the ability to reach other areas of the world by travel (Carlson 2014: 23-24). Theater is another addition to the world of art that is continuously evolving and adapting to the world and cultures influencing its
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
“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”
Theatre allows a significant message to be portrayed and convicted to many different people in many unexpected ways. Director Moises Kaufman has helped shaped the world of theatre with his unique outlook from an anthropologist’s form of theoretical framework. Kaufman’s distinctive productions give the people in the audience a new form of relatable scenarios through his directing of deep dialogue. The I AM THEATRE video enlightened me with numerous facts and interesting elements that Kaufman has instituted during his directing life. Kaufman has been awarded numerous awards including one of the most prestigious honors, known as the Tony Award, which recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. Speaking to one’s life experiences through theatre can be a major breakthrough for people like Kaufman. Using the I AM THEATRE video, this essay will offer a brief overview of director, Moises Kaufman, and enlighten his idea that theatre offers much more than what is expected.
In some aspects great musicals and orchestral scores can add to the experience of a theatrical play, but films have adapted these aspects as well and have proven to be a more successful form of entertainment. Theatre productions have become secondhand in comparison, though still viewed as a high class of an entertainment, it is not nearly as successful to reaching a widespread audience as the film industry has accomplished. The resulting film adaptations that have theatre-like qualities often fail completely due to their inability to capture the attention of contemporary audience members, essentially creating a stagnant film. In this paper, I am specifically narrowing my focus and discussing tragedy film adaptations in comparison to themselves and theatre. But first, I will give an overall briefing of the history of film and theatre. Then I will discuss their relationship and what elements create successful entertainment within films and how theatre-like adaptations have a crippling effect to a film’s success rate. Finally I will have an in-depth discussion on these elements within the films: Waiting for Godot, Hamlet, and Moulin Rouge!, and the success rate of each.
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.
The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than
“In roughly built playhouses and cobblestone inn yards, an extraordinary development took place in England in the 1500s.” (Yancey, 8). At that time, an opportunity combined to produce literature achievement never before witnessed in the history of drama and theater. The renaissance, helped spark this movement by inspiring scientific and artistic creativity throughout the land. Models began writing dramas that portrayed life in both realistic and imaginative ways. This created work later captured the attention of the world that changed the English drama. The many aspects of Elizabethan theater helped to shape the acting and theater world forever.
The history of theatre in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries is one of the increasing commercialization of the art, accompanied by technological innovations, the introduction of serious critical review, expansion of the subject matters portrayed to include ordinary people, and an emphasis on more natural forms of acting. Theatre, which had been dominated by the church for centuries, and then by the tastes of monarchs for more than 200 years, became accessible to merchants, industrialists, and the less privileged and then the masses.
In today's busy world, people usually struggle to find time for fun and a way of relaxation but when it happens, they often spend it on entertainment. One of those forms of entertainment is watching stage or film productions. Theatre and film have lots of aspects in common and depend on each other, however, they involve differences. People choose between theater and film based on factors and their own preferences. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast between those two forms of art.