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In his book, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman (1959) focuses on the self as a staged production in which people actively present themselves to different audiences one encounters. To bolster his conceptualization, Goffman used an interesting metaphor of “all the world’s a stage” (1959, 254). This, he terms as a “dramaturgical approach” (Goffman 1959, 240) in which an actor puts on a show for others; drawing analogies between human behaviors and the theater. Goffman (1959) likens the individual to an actor on stage performing for and with other individuals involved in the situation. Three types of space exist for the actor to perform on, to enact the self, and to interact with others: the front stage, the backstage, the outer region. Goffman (1959) utilizes specific dramaturgical terms such as performance, teams, front and back regions, sign-vehicles, and highlights the process of dramatic realization. These terms will be discussed in the following sections.

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.”

The theory of dramaturgy is considered a micro theory, under the category of “interpretive”, which also includes interactionism, ethomethodology, and phenomolohy.

The audience then became lost and frightened as there were no signs leading them to their next destination, once again forcing them to partake in the performance. This physicalisation not only successfully involved the contemporary audience, but demonstrated the necessity of physical composition to give audiences that real experience. This use of physical composition provided immediate reaction and emotional expression through action and contrast. These elements ultimately enhanced the mood and symbolism of the performance, allowing audiences to not only partake in the production on an intimate level but also on an emotional level. Another way in which mood and symbol can be created is through the use of complicité.

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

A fallacy is the use of poor, or invalid, reasoning for the construction of an argument. It is an argument that makes an error in logic or makes assumptions that should not have been made. In the formal setting, an argument is two sides presenting their sides use logic and deductive reasoning. In the book “Writing Arguments”, authors John Ramage, John Bean, and June Johnson compare several fallacies. The authors’ describe the straw man fallacy as an argument when a writer constructs a misinterpreted version of an argument, that distorts its original meaning and intentions, soon after criticizes that as if it were the real argument. (401) A false dilemma fallacy is explained as two choices that are presented as if though they are the only

How Brecht achieves producing this state of consciousness is more subtle and elegant than the previous technique of having actors walk out with blatant placards to remind the audience that they are watching a play. One of the marks of Brecht’s epic theater is his alienation effect, or “a representation which allows [the audience] to recognize its subject, but at the same time makes it seem unfamiliar” (Brecht 1948, 8).

"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

“Theatre makes us think about power and the way our society works and it does this with a clear purpose, to make a change.”

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

The quote “Art is a lie that brings us closer to the truth,” is significant in the arts as an Area of Knowledge. In this essay, I concentrate on Theater as a specific art form. The assertion by Pablo Picasso is just as true as it is also ironically false. Picasso’s words imply two seemingly contradictory postulates: Everything in theater is a lie, and it serves as a mechanism to bring us closer to the truth. But what exactly are the truth and the lie in this context? This question is important in order to understand both concepts in the context of theater and substantiate my claims for targeting this quote as both empirical and spurious! So to start off for my evaluation, I am going to define the “Lies in Theater” as well as the “Truths in

In service of this argument, the essay unfolds in three parts. The first section sketches an appropriate framework for understanding how cinema marshals and moves viewers by engaging them in a fully embodied experience.4 The second section offers a brief overview of the film's plot before turning to an analysis of its triptych narrative and affective development. The third and final section considers the methodological, critical, and theoretical implications suggested by the preceding analysis.

“DV8's work is characterised by the desire to communicate ideas and feelings clearly and unpretentiously, often with a focus on socio-political issues.”(Wikipedia. 2016. DV8 Physical Theatre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DV8_Physical_Theatre. [Accessed 21 May 2016].) DV8's work innately addresses the conventional style and structures which swarm both advanced and established move, and endeavors to push past the qualities they reflect to empower discourse of more extensive and more intricate issues.

Academic and artistic interest in something is usually a sure sign that matters are unclear, conceptual boundaries are blurred and that old certainties are anything but that. There is also little doubt that the major challenges we face: the media revolution, globalization and migration, climate change, the erosion of public finances and services (to name just a few) – have all in some way a bearing on the public sphere, the realm where issues are debated and where citizens are free to enter and engage in discourse. As the public sphere is primarily a discursive arena located outside and between state bureaucracies on the one hand and economics and business on the other, it occupies a crucial role in the functioning of so-called free societies. The question to be explored here is what role theatre and performance in practice play in this realm and how performance and theatre theory can contribute to the debates.” (Balme