Republic of the Philippines

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY Alaminos City Campus

Bolaney, Alaminos City, Pangasinan

Hum. 101 Art Appreciation and Aesthetics

1st Semester, 2011 - 2012

LECTURE SERIES NO. 6 DRAMA AND THEATER Relationship between theater and drama? Some mistake theater and drama to be the same thing. People might think they are the same thing because in theater there are dramatic plays, but not all of them. In theater there are different styles that involve you to be over dramatic weather it be farce or comedic or strait up dramatic theater. So there is a similarity but they are certainly not the same thing. Theater is a business, a lifestyle, and something to entertain people with. While, drama-is a style of theater or a part of a style of theater. It is meant to be performed comes alive when acted out on stage, radio of film. Theater One of the oldest and most popular forms of entertainment, in which actors perform live for an audience on a stage or in an other space designated for the performance. The space set aside for performances, either permanently or temporarily, is also known as a theater. It is also known as the space set aside for performance either permanently or temporarily. Comes from the Greek word theatron,meaning "seeing place" A prominent theater director, Peter Brook of Britain, has said that for theater to take place, an actor walks across an empty space while someone else is watching. In this empty space, called a stage, actors present themselves in a story about some aspect of human experience. The actors, the audience, and the space are three essentials of theater. The fourth is the performance, or the actors creative work in production. The performance is very often a playa tragedy, comedy, or musicalbut it need not be. Theater performances include vaudeville, puppet shows, mime, and other forms of entertainment.
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Elements of Theater 1. Fundamental to the theater experience is the act of seeing and being seen; in fact, the word theater comes from the Greek word theatron, meaning 'seeing place.

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2. throughout the history of world cultures, actors have used a variety of locations for theater, including amphitheaters, churches, marketplaces, garages, street corners, warehouses, and formal buildings. 3. It is not the building that makes theater but rather the use of space for actors to imitate human experience before audiences. 4. In addition to the actor and the audience in a space, other elements of theater include a written or improvised text, costumes, scenery, lights, sound, and properties (props). 5. Most theatrical performances require the collaborative efforts of many creative people working toward a common goal: the production. Styles of theater Theater Arts provides information on all performance genres from Shakespeare to street arts. This section is for theatre actors and audiences with listings of both schools of acting and performances. Comedy - is associated with humorous behavior, wordplay, pleasurable feeling, release of tension, and laughter. Musical - is theatrical production in which songs, instrumental accompaniments, and often dance are integrated into a dramatic plot. Puppetry - us a objects used as characters in theatrical performances. Audiences perceive life and spirit from their movement, their shape, and other aspects of their performance. Satire - is a prose or verse that employs wit in the form of irony, innuendo, or outright derision to expose human wickedness and folly Tragedy - is a dramatic genre that presents the heroic or moral struggle of an individual, culminating in his or her ultimate defeat. Vaudeville - it is a form of theatrical entertainment. The history of theatre charts the development of theatre over the past 2,500 years. While performative elements are present in every society, it is customary to acknowledge a distinction between theatre as an art form and entertainment and theatrical or performative elements in other activities. The history of theatre is primarily concerned with the origin and subsequent development of the theatre as an autonomous activity.The most widely accepted theory on the origin of western theatre is that it arose out of myth and ritual. Origins The most widely accepted theory on the origin of western theatre is that it aroseout of myth and ritual.This process can be summed up as follows: y y A society becomes conscious of forces that appear to sway or have power over its food supply and well being. Attributing these forces to supernatural or magical causes, they search for
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means to gain favour. Once an action is perceived as having a connection to desired results, the group repeats, refines and formalizes those actions into fixed ceremonies or rituals. Eventually those rituals come to include elements that entertain or give pleasure through spectacle and the skill of the performers

No one really knows how the theater began; it probably evolved from religious rituals, storytelling, and other activities of primitive man. There certainly were may semi dramatic rituals in ancient Egypt and the Near East, but theater as we know it seems to have emerged first in ancient Greece. Western tradition Greek theatre Greek theatre, most developed in Athens, is the root of the Western tradition; theatre is in origin a Greek word. It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposia The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play Roman theatre Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans. The Roman historian Livy wrote that the Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a performance by Etruscan actors. Beacham argues that Romans had been familiar with "pre-theatrical practices" for some time before that recorded contact. The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.

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Neoclassical theatre Was the dominant form of theatre in the 18th century. It demanded decorum and rigorous adherence to the classical unities. Neoclassical theatre as well as the time period is characterized by its grandiosity. The costumes and scenery were intricate and elaborate. The acting is characterized by large gestures and melodrama. Neoclassical theater encompasses the Restoration, Augustan, and Johnstinian Ages. In one sense, the neo-classical age directly follows the time of the Renaissance. Theater is more often than not, used synonymously with play or drama. In its broadest sense, theater includes dance, opera, mime, and other spectacles. As has been said, plays are not meant to be merely read, but to be performed on stage, with costumes, make- up, stage props, and lighting providing added dimensions to the theater gores experience. For this season, the reading of plays, at best, is only an approximation of such an experiences added depth and understanding of plays may be drained from dramatic readings or acting out of important or climatic scenes in class, or even to oneself, to an idea of the other elements of the dramatic experience. Theater in the Philippines is as varied as the cultural traditions and the historical influences that shapes it through the centuries. The dramatic forms that flourished and continue to flourish among the different people of the archipelago include: the indigenous theater, mainly MALAY is character, which are seen in rituals, mimetic dances, and mimetic costume; the plays of Spanish influence, among which are the KOMEDYA, the SENAKULO, the play lets, the zarzuela and the drama, the theater with ANGLO AMERICAN influences, which encompasses vaudeville and the plays in ENGLISH, and the modern or original plays by Filipinos, which employ representational and Presentation styles drawn from contemporary modern theater, or revitalize traditional forms with of outside the country. Drama Is a type of literature usually written to be performed. People often make a distinction between drama, which concerns the written text, or script, for the performance, and theater, which concerns the performance of this script. Many of the most honored and influential works of literature around the world have been dramas. A form of literature intended to be interpreted to an audience by actors who impersonate the characters, recite the speeches and performs the actions of the story.
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Theatrical text, often referred to as drama, usually provided the vital framework of a performance. Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing in the $th century BC. thought of drama as the most direct response to humanity's need to imitate experience. The Word drama has its source in the Greek verb Dran, meaning "to do" "to act" or "to perform." Aristotle further defined drama as 'an imitation of an action'. His concept of imatation (mimesis, in Greek) begins with the playwright's deliberation selection and arrangement of events, words and images into a dramatic pattern that makes up a meaningful course of human events. In Aristotle's famous defination, drama is an imitation of an action that is whole, complete, and of a certain magnitude or scope. Aristotle is also laid the foundations for the critical study of drama, divided the elements of drama into plot, character, thought, language and spectacle. He considered plot - the basic story and how it is told - the most important of these, and this is indeed typically the case. However, almost all drama use all of these elements to some extend, telling story by means of the interactions of characters, who express their thoughts through language within the particular visual settings. The balance of these elements, however, varies from play to play.

TYPES OF DRAMA 1. Allegory a work in which abstract qualities and values are represented as characters and definite item of thought is dramatized. 2. Burlesque a satiric treatment of some well known play or style of play, in which themes and conventions are ridiculed. 3. Comedy a light hearted play that ends happily. It depicts mainly the brighter side of life. 4. Fantasy Treats the unreal, the Fantastic or the supernatural. 5. Farce ludicrous ex - suggestion of comic actions and highly improbable situations. It is closely related to the parody and the burlesque. 6. Melodrama a play characterized by an excess of pathetic situations and thinness of characterization. 7. Mime a DUMB SHOW the story is acted out without words. 8. Naturalistic play presents the dark side of life. 9. Problem play a thesis play, propaganda play, a play with a message, a social drama. It attempts to set up some specific contemporary problem and provide explicitly or implicity, a solution by recommending a course of action. 10. Realistic play presents an image of what we ordinarily see and hear. 11. Romantic play presents images with enlarged outlines, magnifying their importance. 12. Symbolism objects, actions and characters are not created to give an illusion of reality but to reflect or define some truth that lies below the surface or things as we see them. 13. Tragedy a serious play about a great individual who is at war with himself, with his society or with the world around him. 14. Tragic - Comedy a play that mixes features of both the comedy and tragedy.
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15. Travesty a special kind of satire ridiculing manners, a way of life or old beliefs. 2 Main Kinds of Drama 1. Tragedy - deals with serious issues. The main characters usually goes through some kind of struggle, perhaps in trying to decide the right way to behave in a difficult situation. It generally ends unhappily, sometimes with a disaster or the death of an important character. 2. Comedy - deals with the lighter side of life. It pokes fun at people and usually ends happily. It can be witty and wise, or silly and full of ridiculous situations. 3 Minor Kinds of Drama 1. Melodrama - a comedy with romantic, improbable and sensational elements predominating, contents a lot of actions and lights dialogue. 2. Force - a hilarious comedy that depends on a improbable plot and ridiculous actions for its effects, exaggerated comedy. 3. Closet Drama - a drama intended to be read rather than performed. 3 Key Elements of Drama 1. Dialogue - which the story is presented through dialogue and actions. 2. Spectacles - it includes sound effects, scenery, costumes, make-up, lighting, movement, expressions and gestures. 3. Stage Directions - through the written version called script, the writer gives stage directions how actors should and speak. Steps in Play Production 1. First you find your play 2. Find the director 3. Choose a cast. To do this, you'll have readings or auditions 4. Select a choreographer and a musical director music and Dance involved. 5. Found a place to rehearse and arrange to rent a theater or performance site for however long the play is going to run. 6. Find a set designer, who will design the sets for your play, and a stage manager who will engage the carpenters, painters, etc. who will create the setting that the set designer has produced. 7. Bring everyone together for final rehearsals. 8. The Customer - who is responsible for making sure that every is dressed appropriately, the make-up and hair wizards, who can create the 'look' that each character needs. 9. The Prop Manager - who looks after all the little odds and ends on stage, and the bits and pieces needed by each character.

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Theatre organization and administration There are many modern theatre movements which go about producing theatre in a variety of ways. Theatrical enterprise varies enormously in sophistication and purpose. People who are involved vary from professionals to hobbyists to spontaneous novices. Theatre can be performed with no money at all or on a grand scale with multi-million dollar budgets. This diversity manifests in the abundance of theatre sub-categories, which include:
y y y y y y y y

Broadway theatre and West End theatre Community theatre Dinner theatre Fringe theatre Off-Broadway and Off West End Off-Off-Broadway Regional theatre Summer stock theatre

"West End theatre" is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre that is staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End.[53] Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Seeing a West End show is a common tourist activity in London.[32] Total attendances first surpassed 12 million in 2002 and 13 million in 2007, setting a new record for the West End.[54] Since the late 1990s there has been an increase in the number of famous screen actors on the London stage. Repertory companies While most modern theatre companies rehearse one piece of theatre at a time, perform that piece for a set "run", retire the piece, and begin rehearsing a new show, repertory companies rehearse multiple shows at one time. These companies are able to perform these various pieces upon request and often perform works for years before retiring them. Most dance companies operate on this repertory system. The Royal National Theatre in London performs on a repertory system. Repertory theatre generally involves a group of similarly accomplished actors, and relies more on the reputation of the group than on an individual star actor. It also typically relies less on strict control by a director and less on adherence to theatrical conventions, since actors who have worked together in multiple productions can respond to each other without relying as much on convention or external direction.

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Producing vs. Presenting In order to put on a piece of theatre, both a theatre company and a theatre venue are needed. When a theatre company is the sole company in residence at a theatre venue, this theatre (and its corresponding theatre company) is called a resident theatre or a producing theatre, because the venue produces its own work. Other theatre companies, as well as dance companies, do not have their own theatre venue. These companies perform at rental theatres or at presenting theatres. Both rental and presenting theatres have no full time resident companies. They do, however, sometimes have one or more part time resident companies, in addition to other independent partner companies who arrange to use the space when available. A rental theatre allows the independent companies to seek out the space, while a presenting theatre seeks out the independent companies to support their work by presenting them on their stage. Some performance groups perform in non-theatrical spaces. Such performances can take place outside or inside, in a non-traditional performance space, and include street theatre, and site specific theatre. Non-traditional venues can be used to create more immersive or meaningful environments for audiences. They can sometimes be modified more heavily than traditional theatre venues, or can accommodate different kinds of equipment, lighting and sets.[56] A touring company is an independent theatre or dance company that travels, often internationally, being presented at a different theatre in each city.

Men Behind The Scene Theater Personnel

1. The producer- is the person who puts together the financing, management staff, and the artistic team to produce the show 2. Directors -assume responsibility for the overall interpretation of a script, and they have the authority to approve, control, and coordinate all the elements of a production. 3. The performer-The actor is the creative artist most identified by audiences with their experience of theater. 4. Designers- collaborate with directors to create an environment for a play.

The Body of the Designer

y y y y The Scene Designer The Costume Designer The Lightning Designer The Sound Designer

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ASSIGNMENT: 1. What are the similarities of drama and theatre? 2. Differentiate the Greek theatre and Roman theatre? 3. Why does theory on the origin of western theatre is that it aroseout of myth and ritual illustrate? REFENRENCES 1. The Purpose of Playing: Modern Acting Theories in Perspective 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre

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