Feb 1

Basic ideas of Plato (NEED ALL FOR MIDTERM)

-theater is negative (it is a copy of a copy)
-mimesisrepresentation, or copy
-plato is critiquing mimesis arts
-(bubble image) absolute good material world (copy/imitation)
representational arts
-absolute good begets forms (they are infinite and cover
everything that exists in the material world)
-philosophers are trying to get to the absolute good but others
dont have the awareness to even try
-plato is anti-emotion (and theater brings up too much emotion).
He says you can have it, but there has to be a balance that
doesnt get in the way. Brecht says go to a scientific theater
because of this.
-emotions get in the way of reasoning and the rational is the way
to the absolute good

Feb 3
Aristotle review:
-What is the overall objective of the tragedy in terms of Aristotle?
What is tragedy trying to do? Both on a structural and civic level.
Within the structure, what are the key things we need to know about
the structure?
-A tragedy is a representation of action (action being a want.
There is a thing that its reaching towards. The overall objective is
driven by a want)
-Know the six elements of tragedy (plot is the most important
and character is the second)
-Action is made of character and thought
-Text has to have a unity of action, which needs to be tight and
clean
-Tragedy isnt realism
-Following Aristotelian structure
-Has to have a beginning, middle, and end
-each scene has the seeds for the next scene. They string
together like beads and lead to reversal/discovery (change in fortune)
(the two have no definite order but do work together). Suffering is a
byproduct of this
-catharsis comes from this^ (need a clear definition) the
purgation of emotion.
-this is the structure for a good tragedy but not all
-reason and emotion come into balance through the tragedy
-tragedies are supposed to bring people to catharsis together.
They are performed in festival settings
-catharsis builds community and brings people together over
shared understanding. Their minds are all opening to a shared question
that has to do with their society

Feb 8
Antigone Review
-tracking a characters journey through events, could lead us to
an understanding of the action of the play
-French Scene A scene begins when a character enters
-The Watchman only reports but still creates conflict by causing
the chorus to doubt
-Climax discovery/recognition and reversal suffering
audience catharsis
-Know the key plot points in Antigone for Mid Term:
Disc./Rec./Rev. = Creon realizes that hes wrong and tries to fix it and
cant. Pg 46 Tyr.s prophecy When the chorus says its true and Creon
agrees. long scene/series of actions from discovery to suffering

Feb 10
-Sue Ellen Cases argument: WILL NEED HER STRUCTURE AND
MAIN POINT FOR THE MIDTERM:
-Classical age is creating drag versions of women because
they were written by men, played by men, theater was watched
by men, theater was produced by men.
-three things changed in the fifth century that made the
idea of separation of the private and public sphere: economic
structure started to change to take the power away from women,
there were more theaters but women were banned, then the
genealogy of the gods was changed
-Then she asks at the end what do we do with this
-Also think about why she uses the word classic in the title
uses classics to remind us that we hold this theater form to a
super high standard

Feb 22
-Theater and the Plague : theater and plague are
connected because of catharsis and the body.
Easier to understand catharsis in real life and then
related it to theater.
Contagion = plague and theater cause you can catch
both. Contagion, but not necessarily person to person
contact.
To him, literal not metaphoric energy is passing
which leads to theater virus
Historical period when he lived (1930s) is suggestive
of this kind of thinking
Artaud says what is the energy behind x experience?
How do we recreate that on stage?

Feb 29
Mar 7
- david wiles essay on Myth
-chapter we read with platos republic
-context as to how the myths were functioning in theater
-how they were translated
-why are they translated this way with this quality
-myths are flexible
-no fixed moral code for the gods. They were created off of
humans to open up conversations. They had vices and flaws
-myths reveal culture and values of a time. They can be worked
out through story telling

-when a playwright is constructing a tragedy they use the stories

to bring out important issues
-these myths are not like a bible or Koran. They are not fixed.

-Plato two part argument:

1. degradation through representation
2. theater is a place where emotion gets stirred up and
suppresses the irrational
-know cave metaphor and how it relates to theater
-men are chained in a cave looking at a wall. Behind them is a
road and behind the road is a fire. The fire and the people on the road
cast shadows onto the wall and the chained men think those are the
real things. One man is allowed to go outside the cave (which is a
different place than the road. The outside represents the absolute good
and the forms that come off of the absolute good. Theater would be a
painting of the shadows theyre seeing. Artists cant be philosophers,
and philosophers are the only ones who can get out of the cave

-Aristotle was platos student (4th century looking back on the 5th
century)
-says its a representation but not a replica. In the crafting of
representation we have the ability to bring audience to a shared
experience with equality of reason and emotion.
-says there must be linear structure: launching event (cant depend on
anything else) rising action reversal and recognition
beginning middle and end. Each depends on the thing before it. No plot
happens before or after.

-Antigone structure (5th century)

Launching event: ismenes says no to helping Antigone bury Polynices
Recognition: tyresius tells creon that he was wrong and
Reversal: he sees everyone is dead

Catharsis = purgation of emotion through pity and fear. Emotion and

reason come into balance

Tragedy is a representation of action

Action is made of character and thought

Sue Ellen Case:

Men wrote produced performed watched female characters in classical
theater.
Just know that there is a separation between public and private sphere.
She wants us to take this knowledge and potentially do something
different
Calls status of classic plays into question.
Says you can read against the text or not do the shows or have men
playing the women

Auslanders holy theater: theater changes the audiences affected

state through catharsis
-communal: cathartic moment together (brook and copeau)
(jungs philosophy)
-therapeutic: cathartic happens individually (artaud and
grotowksi) (freuds philosophy)

Artaud: theater as plague France in the 1930s, rise of fascism

Grotowski: stripping down social behaviours and masks that we wear

and gets to spiritual core. Very physical. Focus on the actor and actors
body as a way to get to a cathartic state

Post-modernism:
emerges post WWII.
Shift in perspective.
Confronts power of representation to construct things

Post-dramatic = expression of post-modern

Post dramatic messes with:
Time and space
Linearity
Character

Sarah Kanes play? Somebodys play? The way she doesnt name
characters and disrupts time.