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Word Dramatic Form Dramatic Conventions Performance Style Meaning Set of rules that define how play should be performed and/or critically evaluated. Includes expressionism, melodrama, Elizabethan etc. Refers to how play is structured, how characters are created and the use of language. Conventions for realism include acts, build to climax, and natural everyday speech. Refers to how the script is realised on stage through acting, set, lights, sounds and costumes. Discussion of performance styles refers to the sensory elements that go into presenting the story (e.g. movement, sound, space, levels, lights etc.) Are issues raised within and underneath the story / the themes, morals or messages presented.

Thematic Concerns DRAMATIC ELEMENTS Focus

Concentration / engagement; assisting the performer in the portrayal of believable characters. Also the memorisation of text. requires focusing of performer to characters goals or objectives. Conflict / development of suspense in a performance; tension goes along and helps with advancement of plot and climax. Refers to dramatic timing of movements and gestures, can be stylised and carefully considered. Csn be manipulated to create contrast in a scene or demonstrate non-naturalistic, robotic movements even. Refers to timing and pace of performance. Rhythm should not be the same throughout a performance. Rhythm could follow emotional state of characters or atmosphere. Without the use of contrast, a performance can be boring and lack tension. Contrast can be a happy scene to a sad one, but can also be the difference in setting, change in colours, or a difference in space or rhythm. The feeling or tone in a performance; created through many elements working together. The mood of a performance can follow a characters feelings. Refers to use of space, distance from objects/characters. Levels of space (sitting, bending over, crawling). Movement is an important factor to space, as you need to be careful not to downstage or upstage other people. Use of space also contributes to a change in scene, tension or mood. Can be used to create atmosphere /mood. Can be level of volume, tone of sound and type of sound - can be technological, from props or from actors mouths. Implies a greater meaning than the literal meaning. Props are used to show symbols in everyday life (e.g. roses symbolising love). Symbols can also be used through colour of costumes/props. Is mostly used in application of gesture and

Tension Timing

Rhythm

Contrast

Mood Space

Sound

Symbol

movement, e.g. if a particular action is repeated, this can emphasise the symbol. Conflict Conflict should be used in every performance, otherwise it could be uninspiring and boring. Could be inner conflict of a character, or a fight between characters. Tension, space, language and movement portray conflict. Most drama has one or more crises in the development of the plot. A crisis is a key moment of dramatic tension and conflict in the play, usually occurring between 2 or more characters with serious implications to the plot. The ultimate crisis is the climax, and is usually situated near the end.

Climax

THEATRE HISTORY & DRAMA STYLES Ancient Greeks Started in the celebration of he god Dionysus (wine and fertility). Hymns to the gods where written and performed by a chorus of 50 people. Drama became a way of exploring the human experience and human character and motivations. They wrote plays of the gods and their controlling of humans. It was a way of justifying their existence. Used tragedy plays to explore the underlining meaning of life. When they conquered Greece and the rest of the world, they took over comic tradition, not Greek tragedies. Crowds up to 50 000 filled the Coliseum and comedy was supplemented by clown and circus artists, with acrobats and animal baiting, gladiatorial and bloodshed.

Ancient Rome

Between Rome and When the Roman Empire weakened and people where becoming Christian, Middle Ages Greek and Roman arts and learning took place in monasteries - but was censored to suit Christianity. Christianity banned theatre as sinful as it was used as a propaganda weapon against the early Christian church. Acrobats and mimics travelled still for entertainment. Middle Ages Many people were illiterate, so the church used theatre of a way as communicating and teaching people about Christ's and saints lives. Churches moved its plays into city streets, and here became known as Mystery and Miracle plays aimed to tell the history of the universe, from creation to the end in about 16 stages. This flourished in France, Germany, and England. This continued for about 600 years. By the 15th century this became much broader and included Morality plays, which had the purpose to teach people how to live their lives in a moral fashion.

Elizabethan Theatre Theatre was banned, but took place outside of the city. There was a sudden flowering of drama in the renaissance, with the revival of ancient Greek drama. The nature of man's condition and the complexity of relationships one more became the subject matter of dramatists, Shakespeare questioned these the best. Commedia Dell'Arte Ancient Roman theatre influenced renaissance theatre. Commedia emerged in the 16th century, using plots of mostly romantic intrigues to combine low farce and tear-jerking sentimentality. A commedia actor had to be an improviser who combined skills of dancing, singing, comedy and acrobatics. It is outdoor theatre, but there were also carnivals. There are stereotypical characters, comic stage routines, music and dance, and variations of a simple plot. The

actors controlled commedia, there were no directors or writers. They wore masks, and each actor only had one role. The brief plot summary (scenario) was that panteloni wants to marry his daughter of to one of the old ugly men or doctor, or fraud. Issibella is in love with flavio though. There are happy endings where everyone gets what they deserve. There are stock characters, each 2 dimensional, with their own mask, stance, walk, animal, gesture and voice. The old men are Pantalone (high status father, chicken), Il Capitano (impostor) and Il Dottore (doctor , pig). The lovers do not wear masks; they are Isabella (daughter,) and Flavio (brave hero). Both act spoilt, vain, self centred and infatuated with love. The zanni are low class immigrants who are rough and tough. Arlecchino (servant in love with columbina, cat), Columbina (isabellas maid, dove or heifer), Brighella (top zanni, Pantalone's servant, frog), Pedrolino (he is the most human, wears white, and is sometimes a mute, Il Dottore) Moliere Jean-Baptiste Poquelin known as Moliere was born in Paris 1622. Troup De Monsieur was his company, who performed in front of Louis XIV. Were very successful. Moliere's central character had a trait of hatred of mankind, they always tell the truth, and insult their friends while complimenting themselves. His work portrayed love as winning over others opinion or beliefs. The Elizabethan age came to an abrupt end with the puritan revolution in 1642. The puritans saw all pleasure as sinful , and so theatres were closed and all performances where banned; they performed in secrecy. New theatres were built as of the restoration. The dramatic form was the comedy of manners, and was very sexually explicit. The introduction of professional actresses in risqu scenes. There were stock characters of the lively hero; stupid, dull fathers and husbands; attractive, delicate heroines; the gossiping widows and jealous wives. The costumes were grand and elaborate. This came to an end by the 17th century. The next burst of theatrical energy was storm and stress, a movement in Germany. This theatre was provoking society to think differently about itself. This was a romantic age, and emotional passionate time. Romantic theatre encourage exploration of fantasy. In Germany this was 'strum und Drang' storm and stress. Melodrama was also in the 19th century. In melodrama, good and evil are clearly defined and separated. Many melodramas were based on the injustices occurring in society in the wake of the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Plots were based on social issues such as unemployment, unsafe factories. In the plays, the rebels in society (thieves) became the heroes. Many productions had large, authentic props as well as backdrops that were elaborately painted. The action was full of suspense, with a double ending of punishing evil and rewarding virtue. There were stereotypical stock characters, of the Villain, Hero, Heroine, Victims, Dumb Boy, and Audience. Emerged in the 19th century in Russia, focussing on making production and performance more realistic in terms of script, physical and psychological characterisation and style. Plots where character driven - internal developments and struggle of everyday characters. There were themes of truthfulness, psychological motivation, social forces, gender roles, feminism.

Restoration Comedy

18th Century European Theatre 19thNineteenth Century Melodrama

Realism

Sets were realistic. Ibsen (father of realism) criticized society in plays, use of colloquial dialogue in tragedies (dolls house). Chekov incorporated stream of consciousness (the continuous flow of sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories of human kind). He portrayed characters point of view through monologue or actions of thought processes. His plays represented the decay of the privileged class in Russia and the search for meaning in the modern world. Stanislavski created his acting system in 1909, which requires actors to use their emotional memory and personal experience - so they appear real onstage; and also to develop their psychological state of the character and to understand the characters subconscious. He though internal feeling are as important. Shaw (1856) was influenced by Ibsen, and valued the way that stage could communicate ideas of social and political issues. Also explored subjects of sexual relations, class distinctions, political activity. O'Casey (1880) Irish playwright. Wilde (1854) helped 'art for arts sake' movement. Had dramatic portrayals of humans kind. 20th Century English Theatre Includes naturalism, realism, and expressionism. Common themes where political, reflecting the unease or rebellion of workers against the state, philosophical, human existence. Explored factory conditions, socialism, and women. Industrialism and war influenced playwrights to question society. Dario Fo (1926) employs comedic methods of Comedia, improvised, satirical; criticised crime, political corruption, conflict in middle east, abortion.

Magic and Selective Selective realism, closely related to naturalism and realism, emphasises Realism distasteful and pessimistic aspects of life; aimed to change society. dealt with strong issues of right and wrong and how people treat those issues under pressure. Reflects ethical values, and portrays difficulties in maintaining those values. The ultimate tragedies of characters lives, the way they suffer and struggle under greater forces, are intended to connect the audience with the struggles of man. The style employs distortion and fragmentation with themes of industrialisation and alienation. Magic realism is an aesthetic style where magic elements blend with the real world. Magic elements are presented as the same as real occurrences clearly (e.g. where a character may live longer than normal length of time). Plot lines make use of scenes in different contexts, opposing (e.g. the same experience may happen to a character in different time periods, perhaps centuries apart). There is a key aspect of mystery, where the narrator does not provide explanations about accuracy or credibility of events described or views expressed by characters. Expressionism + Epic Theatre Expressionisms aim was to teach their audience to criticise the injustices and inequalities in modern life. Evolved in Germany because of WW2, post war depression and poverty. Brecht fled to Denmark because of Hitler's rise, saw both sides of the fence - and incorporated showing different ideas and attitudes in his plays. Loosely connected scenes show different view points. Set his plays in far away places to show problems in society, including inherited privilege. Developed Epic Theatre from expressionism, using alienation of techniques such as flooding the stage with light, having the actors change, and

sit on stage to remind audience they were watching an enactment of reality rather than reality itself, so that audience could criticise what was happening on stage, making them question their lives and society. Themes of dreamlike, mystical, exaggeration, fantasy, deterioration of family, and dehumanisation of an individual by society. Very stylised movements and use of gestus (a repeated action, or stance to sum up a character). Dramatised subjective feelings and emotions in plays to evoke social change from the audience. Representative characters e.g. man women, figures depicting authority. Theatre of the Absurd/Cruelty Became recognised after WW2 , was an attempt to restore the importance of myth and ritual; to bring about being conscious of oneself. Used visual elements of movement and light to make performance disturbing. It openly rebelled against conventional theatre. Directly aimed at the viewer to make them realise and startle them out of conventional theatre concerns. Ridiculed traditional and stereotyped speech patterns, tyring to make people think outside the box. Plot ends the way it began. It was first introduced by Anton Artaud. It increased the sense of danger, violence and disorientation; was sometimes bloody. Influenced by America and Brittan. Early, it was English-style musical theatre, comedies. Early 19th century, the underlining theme was of the inhospitable landscape, where characters were battlers of the harsh environment. Ironic humour evolved in 30's. Social changes and post war shaped drama. 70's was an experimentation time. 80's and 90's saw the rise of indigenous plays. Australian humour comes from convicts, as dry, self-mocking, ironic, mocking moral and politically correct people and anti-authoritarian.

Australian Theatre

IMPROVISATION Offering Accepting Steps When improvising, team work is involved about each other giving and accepting offers. The offer becomes the focus of the performance Accepting is saying yes to an offer so that it can be developed. Offer (make a suggestion that establishes the focus) > Accept (yield to the offer and the focus) > Extend (use the offer while maintaining focus) > Offer Accept Extend > Offer Accept Extend > Advance (when appropriate, advance the offer with a change of focus). Makes offers, listens and concentrates, never blocks, shares responsibility of the scene with other actors, avoids stalling, is specific, accepts offers, always contributes to focus. The process of performers creating their own play; and experience roles of creator, performer, audience and critic. Improvisations offer opportunities for different things to happen, allow to explore the conflicts that are possible in a situation and the various viewpoints of characters. Characterisation is vitally important in playbuilding. Conflict is needed, as it is the basis for all drama. It is dependent on the motivations of the characters. There can be inner conflict, conflict between characters, or conflict between characters and the rest of the world. Conflict helps to create dramatic tension, which is the result of obstacles that stand in the way of characters achieving their goals.

A good improviser:

Play building

Conflict

Status

Status is the rank or position of the character, and is attributed to a character by the other characters. It is the responses of the other characters, and how they treat them that determines the characters status and status relationship. Who am I? (the characters role, including age, sex, status, emotional state, personality.) Where am I? (characters setting, details of the place.) What time is it? (consider the year, century, season, weather, month, date.) What surrounds me? (environment and people around you, smells, sights, senses.) What are the given circumstances? (the details of your recent past.) What are my relationships? (relationships with other characters.) What is my objective? (your motivations, and the reason for every action.) What is the obstacle? (the problems that you are encountering.) What is the action? (what you are doing to get what you want, physical or verbal.) What is my super-objective? (the main goal in the whole play.) What is my through-line of action? (the current connecting al the characters objectives, and directing them towards the super objectives. What makes characters tick or what leads characters to form super objectives. Mike Leigh's films have a basis of improvisation. The first stage is where characters to be developed are chosen. The actors each prepare notes on people they know, about their sex and age. Leigh and the actor discuss these people. Leigh then selects characters to use wish would be interesting. The second stage is where the actors develop and modify their characters, and learn a biography of them. In the third stage is where all the characters are brought together, and where they can further modify their biographies. In the fourth stage Leigh defines a structure for the product, and the actors act it out. The scenes are then examined, analysed, challenged, edited and clarified. (1863), was a Russian actor and theatre director. Created a realism system for actor training: actor prepares a character; character building, then creating a role. To make actors artist themselves, he created method acting, where they would use their own experiences, feelings and imagination to create a role. He placed emphasis on the physical actions of a character and adapting characters to their surroundings. Actors learnt to think as the character would, and find depth of a character including past. He used the fundamental questions to do script analysis.

Fundamental Questions

Mike Leigh

Stanislavski