DRAM 1310 Chapter 4 Lecture Slides part 2

Chapter Four
Experiencing and Analyzing Plays

The People Who Watch
JamesEstrin/TheNewYorkTimes/ReduxPictures

Three Factors by which Theatre
Artists Manipulate their Audiences
1. Group Dynamics – how
people function when
members of a group
● Emotion overcomes
the intellect
● Laughter becomes
infectious
2. Willing Suspension of
Disbelief – we accept the
world of the play over
that of our everyday
reality
Kevin Berne/Courtesy American Conservatory Theater

Three Factors by which Theatre
Artists Manipulate their Audiences
3. Aesthetic Distance –
the audience’s ability
to remove
themselves so that
they can contemplate
and evaluate the
performance and the
play
Sygma/Corbis

Levels of Participation
Presentational Theatre
is self-consciously
theatrical and will often
acknowledge the
audience and may even
invite them to participate
Example –
The Rocky Horror Picture
Show
Representational Theatre
is based on the idea of
the “fourth wall,” in which
the actors never
acknowledge the
presence of the audience
Example –
A Doll’s House

Etiquette in the Theatre
Do not come late and
don’t leave until
intermission or the
end.
Do not talk.
Turn off cell phones and
don’t text or tweet.
Do not take photos or
use recording
devices.
RichardFeldman

Going to the Theatre
● Check your local paper, TV, or websites
for play listings.
● Reserve your nonrefundable tickets.
● To save money, attend preview
performances or check for student rates.
● Observe the dress code for that theatre.
● Read the program to be better informed.
● Analyze and discuss the performance after
the show.

Everyone is a Critic
Reviews
are often short
evaluations of a
production
presented in the
print or electronic
media that offer
the opinion of
whether the play’s
worth attending.
RICHARDPERRY/TheNewYorkTimes/ReduxPictures

Everyone is a Critic
Dramatic Criticism
offers the reader a
discriminating,
often scholarly
interpretation and
analysis of a play,
an artist’s body of
work, or a period
of theatre history.
APPhoto/MaryAltaffer

Goethe
Three Essential Questions Dramatic
Criticism Should Address
1. What is the artist trying to do?
2. How well has the artist done it?
3. Is it worth doing?

Aristotle’s Poetics
The Six Elements of Drama
1. Plot – what is the story about?
2. Character – Who is doing the action?
3. Thought – What do the actions in the play
mean?
4. Diction – How is the dialogue used to reveal
character and set the environment?
5. Spectacle – How do each of the visual and
auditory elements of the play contribute to the
performance?
6. Song – How do the musical elements of the
play move the plot to its conclusion?

Freedom of Speech and the Arts
Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press; or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble,
and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.

Exceptions to Freedom of Speech
• Defamation – can not state publicly or publish
alleged facts that are false and can harm the
reputation of another.
• Sedition and Incitement to Crime – if one’s words
incite another to commit a crime, you may be in
violation of the First Amendment.
• Separation of Church and State.
• Obscenity is not protected.

Exceptions to Freedom of Speech
• Breach of the Peace
Some people hearing
Orson Wells’ War of
the Worlds radio
drama thought the
alien invasion of earth
was real, and
panicked.
Bettmann/Corbis

You Can’t Say That!
● Censorship – the altering, restricting, or suppressing
of information, images, or words.
● Licensing Act of 1737 – placed the review and
censoring of plays in England under the purview of
the Lord Chamberlain.
DonaldCooper/PhotostageLtd.

You Can’t Say That!
● To Bowdlerize – to remove possible vulgar, obscene,
or otherwise objectionable material before publication.
● Comstock Act of 1873 – used to censor mail in the
United States.
● Hays Code – used to censor movies from the 1930s to
the 1960s. Photofest

Curtain Call
“[I]f theatre is free conversation, free
dialogue, among free people about the
mysteries of the world, then it is precisely
what will show humankind the way toward
tolerance, mutual respect, and respect for
the miracle of Being.”
Vaclav Havel, playwright and former
President of Czechoslovakia

DRAM 1310 Chapter 4 Lecture Slides part 2

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DRAM 1310 Chapter 4 Lecture Slides part 2