JUST ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL PLAY What we should know…

1. JUST ANOTHER HIGH SCHOOL PLAYWhat we should know…

2. The first known actor! • Before Thespis, actors spoke in unison, chanting lines • We get the term for actor: THESPIAN from Thespis

3. STAGE MANAGER VS. ASST. DIRECTOR • These two jobs may be very different or performed by the exact same person in some theaters. • MOST COMMON DIFFERENCE: • AD directs rehearsals • SM manages performances

4. WILLIAM SHAKESPEAREor The Bard • Playwright • Lived 1564-1616 • Wrote tragedies, comedies and histories • Known for his iambic pentameter verse

5. SAMUEL BECKETT • Playwright • Lived 1906-1989 • Wrote the famous existentialistic play called Waiting for Godot • Father of “Theatre of the Absurd”

6. TOM STOPPARD • Playwright • Born 1937 • Most known for his extension of Hamlet in the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

7. EDWARD ALBEE • Playwright • Born 1928 • Known for plays such as The Zoo Story and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

8. JOEY BUTTAFUOCO Reached celebrity status in 1992 when his girlfriend, Amy Fisher, shot his wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face

9. EGYPTIAN THEATRE • Plays about reincarnation • Plays about magical healing • Plays about the gods • Plays about kings’ crownings • Plays about pharoah’s 30th year

10. GREEK THEATRE • Celebrated Dionysus, the Greek god of partying, at festivals • Actors wore masks • Plays often written in trilogies • Ampitheaters built into hillsides

11. ROMAN THEATRE • Very violent • Very satirical • Greek plays were abandoned for reality tv style death matches

12. EARLY CHINESE THEATRE • Besides mime and acrobatics, Chinese theatre introduced SHADOW PUPPETRY

13. ELIZABETHAN THEATRE • Shakespeare and Marlowe were the most famous playwrights of this period • In Italy, Commedia Dell’Arte utilized stock characters in improvisational scenes

14. The Fourth Wall…What is it? • The imaginary wall through which the audience views the play • A concept that separates the world of the play from the real world

15. SURREALISM • Art that developed in the 1920s that allows the unconscious to express itself • AntoninArtaudorginated the Theatre of Cruelty in which emotions, feelings, and dreams are expressed visually

16. CONTEMPORARY PLAYS? • Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – 1962 play about the breakdown of modern marriage • Rent – 1996 rock musical by AIDS victim Jonathon Larson • Urinetown – 2001 satirical musical, mocks Our Town as well as other musicals • Titus Andronicus – Shakespeare’s earliest tragedy - a violent and bloody Roman play

17. MOVIE QUOTES • “You talkin to me?” - TAXI DRIVER • “Rose…bud” – CITIZEN KANE • “I coulda been somebody! I coulda been a contender!” - ON THE WATERFRONT • “I’d divorce you if you existed” – WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? • “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a…” – GONE WITH THE WIND • “And that’s all I have to say about that” – FORREST GUMP

18. TOM JONES & DAVID COPPERFIELD

19. SCENE WORK • Frankenchicken = Frankenstein • THE CRUCIBLE • Burn the Girl Scout! = Burn the Witch! • SCARLET LETTER (A for Adultery) • Banjo player’s daughter’s = Hester Prynne & Pearl • LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS • Oven Mitt & Cookies = The Plant & Human Flesh • A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE • Mozzarella, Jella, Novella, Citronella, Mandela, Salmonella, Acapella = STELLA! • MY FAIR LADY • Lisa, the Valley Girl = Eliza Doolittle, the flower girl