Play into Performance
- 1. The Play as Text and the Play as Performance Rachel Goldberg
- 2. TEXT A story told on paper in the form of dialogue and stage directions PERFORMANCE A live presentation by actors before an audience -- based on the actors’, director’s and designers’ interpretation of the text
- 3. Set and Lighting Design in Text ACT 1 …Only the blue light of the sky falls upon the house…the surrounding area shows an angry glow of orange…we see a solid vault of apartment houses around the small, fragile-seeming home. An air of the dream clings to the place, a dream rising out of reality. The kitchen at center seems actual enough, for there is a kitchen table with three chairs, and a refrigerator… (from “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller)
- 4. Set and Lighting Design in Performance Village Theatre Waterdown Prod. Indiana Repertory Theatre Prod. Set Design by Lisa Summers Set Design by Erhard Rom
- 5. Character, Costumes, Props in Text “…WILLY LOMAN, the Salesman, enters, carrying two large sample cases…He is past sixty years of age, dressed quietly.”
- 6. Character, Costume, Props in Performance Goodman Theatre Production Yale Repertory Theatre Production Brian Dennehy (centre) as Willy Loman, Charles S. Dutton (center) Ato Essandoh flanked by Ron Eldard (left) and Ted Koch (left) and Billy Eugene Jones (right) Costume Design by Birgit Rattenborg Wise Costume Design by Katherine O’Neill
- 7. Dialogue as Text BIFF: Oh, Pop, you didn’t see my sneakers! (He holds up a foot for WILLY to look at.) WILLY: Hey, that’s a beautiful job of printing! BERNARD: Just because he printed University of Virginia on his sneakers doesn’t mean they’ve got to graduate him, Uncle Willy! WILLY: What’re you talking about? With scholarships to three universities they’re gonna flunk him? Excerpt from “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller.
- 8. Dialogue as Performance George Segal and Lee J. Cobb in “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Alex Segal John Malkovich and Dustin Hoffman in “Death of a Salesman,” directed by Volker Schlondorff
- 9. Text Performance Private Individual Public Collaborative
- 10. Meaning can Change from Text to Performance TEXT – in 1949, “Death of a Salesman” about the American Dream and its failures and dangers. PERFORMANCE – in 1983, performed in Communist China. Now, about a universal human experience. Ying Ruocheng in Arthur Miller’s production of “Death of a Salesman” with the Beijing People’s Art Theatre in China
- 11. Text Performance Private Individual Original meaning Can be a reflection of the past Public Collaborative New meaning Can be a reflection of the present
- 12. Hidden Possibilities in Performance Peter Brook’s production of “Marat/Sade” by Peter Weiss with the Royal Shakespeare Company Patrick Magee (center) as Sade and Glenda Jackson (behind him) as Charlotte Corday
- 13. Hidden Possibilities in Performance Lauren Feldman (left), Leesa Beck (center), Peter Glidden (right) in the Gateway Theatre Production of “A Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams
- 14. Text Performance Private Individual Original meaning Can be a reflection of the past Holds hidden possibilities Lasting Unchanging Manipulates emotion through story and words Public Collaborative New meaning Can be a reflection of the present Reveals possibilities Fleeting Changes every time Manipulates emotion through story and staging, design and performance
- 15. The Play as Performance is a unique, once-in-a-lifetime presentation that can never be replicated. The Play as Text can not capture that MAGIC. Remember, the Play as Text is MEANT to be Performed! The best way to experience the difference? Read a play and then go see a live performance!