THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE

THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVES

Theater (derived from Greek “théatron” which means a place of
viewing)
a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the
experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific
place.
Performers may communicate this experience to the audience through
combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, or dance.
Elements of design and stagecraft are used to enhance the physicality,
presence, and immediacy of the experience
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
Basic concepts of theatre by Tony Mabesa

Theater is a living art that features living actors performing

before a live audience.
A certain dynamism occurs between the actors and the audience that
conditions a given performance. There is a grain of truth in the notion
that an actor is only as good as the audience he gets.
Theatre is an ephemeral art so that a performance (conditioned by the
dynamism between actor and audience) only lives for that moment.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THEATRE BY TONY MABESA
Theater is actor’s id based on imitation.

Theater can occur without a playwright, director, a production designer,

a front of the house and house manager, but not without an actor. An
actor can perform without words in the tradition of the famed mime
artist Marcel marcaeu, who can elicit laughter and tears from an
audience sans words. He can use words, gestures, and expressions which
he communicates to an audience to capture the essence of pain or
pleasure, pathos of joy, and the mysteries, complexities, anxieties and
vulnerability of people.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THEATRE BY TONY MABESA

An actors art is based on imitation.

The greek called it mimesis, the Indians abhinaya, and the Japanese
monomone. Actors are virtousos of the game’’ lets pretend,’’ masters of
the game people play, and paraphrasing Shakespeare, the chronicles of
the age. Actors are god’s fools; they perform at the drop of the hat.
And as Irving berlin says, days smile when they are low for theres no
business-like show business.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THEATRE BY TONY MABESA
Theater is a collaborative effort.
Teamwork is essential in theatre. Actors try to work as an ensemble
under the guidance of the director, work within the setting of the set
designer and light of the lighting designer, wear the costumes of the
costume designer, and promote the show in print interview, radio and
television appearances schedule by the sales and marketing people.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THEATRE BY TONY MABESA
Theater has two basic styles: Presentational and
Representational

* Presentational style denotes theater that is unabashedly theatrical.

Actors are presented as actors performing a role.
* Representational style Takes all effort to create an illusion on stages
that the audience sees is virtual reality.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THEATRE BY TONY MABESA

The Electric theater style (Between two extreme styles is the

happy middle ground)
Incorporates many aspects of the two aforementioned styles plus
influences from naturalism, expressionism, symbolism, surrealism– theater
isms that emerge from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVES
Drama vs Theater
Drama refers to a literary genre that provides written text in the form of a
script. Thus, drama follows similar conventions as other narratives. The term
drama comes from dran meaning action, which is derived from the verb ‘to do’
or ‘to act’.
The theater the actual realization of the script in the form of the actors
performing on the stage in front of the audience. Theater can be called the
verbalization or visualization of drama, since actors use the script as a basis on
which they build their performance on stage.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
DRAMA VS THEATER

The enactment of drama in theater, performed by actors on

the stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative
modes of productions and a collective form of reception.
 THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVES
Types of Drama
o Tragedy a drama in which a character (usually a good and noble person of
high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a
superior force (fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values), but also comes
to understand the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate
punishment.
Romeo and Juliet
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA

o Melodrama, any literary works that relies on implausible events and

sensational action for its effect. The conflict in melodramas typically arise out
of plot rather than characterization: often a virtuous individual must some how
confront and overcome wicked oppressor.
Oliver
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA
o Comedy, A work intended to interest, involve, and amuse the reader or
audience, in which terrible disaster occurs and that ends happily for the
main characters.
Go Comedy Theater
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA
o Farce, Britannica defines farce as a comic dramatic piece that uses
highly improbable situations, stereotyped characters, extravagant
exaggerations, and violent horseplay, often slapstick, pratfalls or other
physical humor.
Noises Off
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA
o Fantasy, a completely fictional work where characters virtually display
supernatural skills. It’s more appealing to children as fairies, angels,
superheroes, or other fantastic creatures are embedded in the plot.

Harry Potter and The Cursed

Child
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA
o Musical- music, melody, and dance play a significant role in a musical
drama. The music should be in sync with the action and the performers
often uses dance as a means of self-expression.

CoSA’s award-winning Musical

Theatre and Drama
 THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
TYPES OF DRAMA
o Tragicomedy- is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and
comic forms. Most common seen in dramatic literature, the term can variously
describe either a tragic play w/c contains enough comic elements to lighten the
overall mood or, often, a serious play with a happy ending.
Curtain Call
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVES
Functions of Theater

Horace, in his Ars Poetica, Defined the functions of theatre as two-fold:

profit (education) and pleasures (entertainment).

“Subscribers to the notion that the primary function of theatre is to

effect change in the audience” – Bertolt Brecht
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
FUNCTIONS OF THEATER

Others believe that the primary purpose is to entertain.

Entertaining theatre includes: the musical, comedies full of bellyache
laughter, revues and variety shows.
Theater becomes more meaningful and popular when the two basic
functions are fused in a production, theater that challenges the mind and
touches the heart.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVES
Elements of Theater
Are present whenever a theatre even takes place; without them, an
event ceases to be theatre and becomes a different art form of
different experience
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
ELEMENTS OF THEATER
o Performers are people on stage presenting characters in dramatic
action. The audience is coming to see a performer pretend to be
someone else.
Cats the Musical
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
ELEMENTS OF THEATER
o Audience, the essence of theater is the interaction between the
perfomer in audience. Theater needs to be experienced live. There is a
‘call and response’ atmosphere that cannot be witnessed in a movie
theater.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
ELEMENTS OF THEATER
o Director, the director makes certain that the performers understand the
text and deliver the script excitingly and appropriately. The director
also make sure the blocking, costume designs, set design and aspect of
the show blend together to make a production that works together. All
the aspects of theatre should complement each other, and the director
oversees all these things.
THE PERFORMING ARTS: STORIES THAT MOVE
ELEMENTS OF THEATER
o Theater Space, another necessary element of theatre in the space in
which performers or audience come together it is essential to have a
stage, or some equivalent area, where actors and actresses can
perform. It is also essential to have space for audience members to sit or
stand.