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Theatre Playwrights

Theatre Playwrights. Theater Terms. Stage directions – words often in italics in a script that are not meant to be read. These words give directions to how a line should be said. Props – objects used by actors and actresses on stage

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Theatre Playwrights

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  1. Theatre Playwrights

  2. Theater Terms • Stage directions – words often in italics in a script that are not meant to be read. These words give directions to how a line should be said. • Props – objects used by actors and actresses on stage • Ad lib – words spoken by an actor that are not in the script; improvisation • Cue – a line or phrase before a line or entrance or exit that prompts an actor. • Upstaging – blocking another actor or actress. Often referred to in a negative way. • Technical rehearsal – rehearsal with all sound, lights, costumes, and scenery; often the week before a performance. Also called ‘tech week’.

  3. Playwrights • A playwright is an old-fashioned term for someone who writes plays • Famous playwrights we will study: Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, and Henrik Ibsen

  4. Tennessee Williams • Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, on March 26, 1911 • At the age of 16, he encountered his first brush with the publishing world when he won third prize and received $5 for an essay, “Can a Good Wife Be a Good Sport?,” in Smart Set. • A year later, he published “The Vengeance of Nitocris” in Weird Tales.

  5. Tennessee Williams • It was six years later when his first play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay, was produced in Memphis, in many respects the true beginning of his literary and stage career. • Williams died on February 24, 1983, at the Hotel Elysée in New York City.

  6. Tennessee Williams • Famous plays: • The Glass Menagerie, • A Streetcar Named Desire, • Summer and Smoke • A Rose Tattoo • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

  7. Henrik Ibsen • 19th Century Norwegian • born in Skien, a tiny coastal town in the south of Norway • dreamed of becoming an artist • In 1950, he wrote two plays, Catiline, a tragedy, which reflected the atmosphere of the revolutionary year of 1848, and The Burial Mound, written under the pseudonym of Brynjolf Bjarme. Ibsen hoped to become a physician, but failed university entrance examinations.

  8. Henrik Ibsen • A Doll´s House (1879) was a social drama, which caused a sensation and toured Europe and America.In the play a woman refuses to obey her husband and walks out from her apparently perfect marriage, her life in the "doll's house". At the the turn-of-the-century physicians used Nora, whose mood changes from joy to depression in short cycles of time, as an example of "female hysteria".

  9. Henrik Ibsen • In An Enemy of the People (1882) Ibsen attacked "the compact liberal majority" and the mass opinion. Arthur Miller's adaptation from 1950 was a clear statement of resistance to conformity. "The majority," says the honest and brave Dr. Stockmann, "is never right until it does right."

  10. Shakespeare 1563-1616 • Widely regarded as the greatest writer in English Literature • Lived most of his life in Stratford-on-Avon, England • wrote 37 plays • about 154 sonnets • started out as an actor

  11. Shakespeare • Wrote: • Comedies (Midsummer Night’s Dream) • Histories (King Henry) • Tragedies (Macbeth) • Most famous play: Romeo and Juliet • Written about 1595 • Considered a tragedy • West Side Story (Movie) based on Romeo and Juliet

  12. The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day • Plays produced for the general public • Roofless - open air • No artificial lighting • Courtyard surrounded by 3 levels of galleries

  13. The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day • Spectators • Wealthy got benches • “Groundlings” - poorer people stood and watched from the courtyard (“pit”) • All but wealthy were uneducated/illiterate • Much more interaction than today

  14. The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day • Staging Areas • Stage - platform that extended into the pit • Dressing & storage rooms in galleries behind & above stage • second-level gallery - upper stage> famous balcony scene in R & J • Trap door -ghosts • “Heavens” - angelic beings

  15. The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day • Differences • No scenery • Settings - references in dialogue • Elaborate costumes • Plenty of props • Fast-paced, colorful -2 hours!

  16. The Theatre in Shakespeare’s Day • Actors • Only men and boys • Young boys whose voices had not changed play women’s roles • Would have been considered indecent for a woman to appear on stage

  17. Theatre vs. Movie • Theater is live – no retakes • Theater often has audience participation • Movies captures even the smallest gesture and magnifies it 20 or 30 times • Theater demands a more flamboyant and stylized bodily performance from the actor • IN SHORT: Theater has a LIVE AUDIENCE. Theater relies on over-the-top, large gestures for everyone in the audience to see whereas movie actors can use small facial gestures that can be picked up by a camera

  18. Bibliography • http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/williams_tennessee/ • http://www.folger.edu/Content/Teach-and-Learn/Teaching-Resources/Elementary-Students/ • http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:6pwjYOTIoSQJ:jc-schools.net/tutorials/eng9/BrickeyShakespeare.ppt+shakespeare+powerpoint&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us • http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/ibsen.htm • http://www.folger.edu/imgdtl.cfm?imageid=193&cid=960 • http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/designshake/linking/vrml.htm • Movies and Film: Film Acting vs. Theater Acting — Infoplease.comhttp://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/film-acting-vs-theater-acting.html#ixzz2K8FURncb

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