9780077333515

This lively introduction to theatre offers equal measures of appreciation of theatrical arts and descriptions of the collaborative theatrical crafts. The author's enthusiasm for and knowledge of the current theatre, highlighted by contemporary production shots from around the world, put the students in the front row.

ROBERT COHEN was the founding chair Drama at the University of California at Irvine, where he continues to serve as the department’s Claire Trevor Professor of Drama. He has also been a resident acting teacher at the Actors Center in New York, the Shanghai Theatre Academy, the Korean National Arts University, and the national theatre academies of Hungary, Finland, and Estonia. He is an accomplished stage director, scholar, playwright, drama critic, and teacher. A director by training (Doctor of Fine Arts, Yale Drama School), Cohen has staged thirteen professional productions at the Utah and Colorado Shakespeare Festivals, plus well over a hundred productions at Stages Theatre Center (Hollywood), Virginia Museum Theatre (Richmond), Theatre 40 (Beverly Hills), Image Theatre (Boston), Summer Repertory Theatre (Santa Rosa), the Medieval Drama Project (Irvine), the Manhattan Theatre Source, various universities, and several operas, videos and films. In addition to Theatre and Theatre: Brief Edition, he is also the author of many theatre books, including Acting One, Advanced Acting, Acting in Shakespeare, Acting Professionally, Acting Power, More Power to You, Giraudoux: Three Faces of Destiny, Creative Play Direction, and two dramatic anthologies. His essays have appeared in Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, Theatre Forum, Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, Theater der Zeit, Essays in Theatre, On Stage Studies, The Drama Review, Contemporary Literature, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Slavic and East European Performance, Experiment and Innovation, and Dramatic Theory and Criticism. Cohen’s play, The Prince, published by Dramatic Publishing Company, has been professionally produced in Long Beach, Pittsburgh, Budapest, and in staged readings in New York and Los Angeles; his dramatic translations (The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Misanthrope, Clizia, Tibi’s Law) and opera translations (The Magic Flute, Carmen) have been both produced and published widely. For the past twenty years, Cohen has been the Southern California drama critic for Plays International, reviewing over two hundred plays. In 1999, he received the national Career Achievement award from ATHE - the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: What Is the Theatre?
The Theatre Building
The Company, or Troupe, of Players
The Occupation of Theatre
Work
Art
Impersonation
Performance
Live Performance
Scripted and Rehearsed Performance
Chapter 2: What Is a Play?
Classifying Plays
Duration
Genre
Tragedy
Comedy and Other Genres
Dramaturgy: The Construction of Drama and Dramatic Performance
Drama’s Components: The Vertical Axis
Plot
Characters
Theme
Diction
Music
Spectacle
Conventions
Drama’s Timeline: The Horizontal Axis
Preplay
Play
Postplay
Non-Aristotelian Theatre Events
Chapter 3: The Playwright
We Are All Playwrights
Literary and Nonliterary Aspects of Playwrighting
Playwrighting as Event Writing
The Qualities of a Fine Play
Credibility and Intrigue
Speakability, Stageability, and Flow
Richness
Depth of Characterization
Gravity and Pertinence
Compression, Economy, and Intensity
Celebration
The Playwright's Process
Dialogue
Conflict
Structure
The Playwright's Rewards
A Sampling of Current American Playwrights
David Mamet
Tony Kushner
David Henry Hwang
Neil LaBute
Lynn Nottage
Photo Essay: Playwright Neil LaBute
Chapter 4: The Actor
What Is Acting?
The Paradox of Acting - from Socrates to Stanislavsky
Acting Today
Acting from the Inside: The Stanislavsky Legacy
Emotion Memory
Acting from the Outside
The Actor as Virtuoso
Putting It Together
Magic
Becoming an Actor
The Approach
The Actor's Instrument
Voice and Speech
The Psychological Instrument
Photo Essay: Actor Patrick Stewart
Movement
Discipline
The Actor's Routine
Audition
Rehearsal
Performance
The Actor in Life
Chapter 5: The Director
The Arrival of the Director: A Historical Overview
Teacher-Directors
Realistic Directors
Stylizing Directors
The Contemporary Director
Photo Essay: Director Susan Stroman
Director and Producer
Vision and Leadership
Play Selection
Conceptualizing
Designer Selection
Director-Designer Collaboration
Photo Essay: The School for Wives
Casting
Implementation
Staging
Actor-Coaching
Pacing
Coordinating
Presenting
The Training of a Director
Chapter 6: Designers and Technicians
The Design Process
What Design Does
Scenery
Scenic Materials
The Scene Designer at Work
Photo Essay: Scene Designer Tony Walton
The Scene Designer at Work
Lighting
Modern Lighting Design
The Lighting Designer at Work
Photo Essay: Lighting Designer Don Holder
Costumes
The Functions of Costume
The Costume Designer at Work
Photo Essay: Costume Designer Catherine Zuber
Makeup
Sound Design
Photo Essay: Sound Designer Scott Lehrer
Projection Design
Special Effects
Digital Technologies in Theatre Design
The Technical Production Team
Photo Essay: Stage Manager Michael McGoff
Chapter 7: Theatre Traditions: East and West
The Origins of Theatre
Ritual
Storytelling
Shamanism, Trance, and Magic
The Beginnings of Traditional Drama
Traditional Drama in Sub-Saharan Africa
Egyptian Drama
Theatre in the West
Greek Drama
Roman Drama
Medieval Drama
Renaissance Drama
The Royal Theatre
The Romantic Theatre
Theatre in the East
Indian Sanskrit Drama
Indian Kathakali
Chinese Xiqu
Japanese Nō
Japanese Kabuki
The Theatrical Tradition Today: East and West
Chapter 8: The Modern Theatre
Realism A Laboratory Pioneers of Realism Naturalism
Antirealism
The Symbolist Rebellion
The Era of "Isms"
Stylized Theatre
The French Avant-Garde: Ubu Roi
Intellectual Comedy: Man and Superman
Expressionism: The Hairy Ape
Metatheatre: Six Characters in Search of an Author
Theatre of Cruelty: Jet of Blood
Philosophical Melodrama: No Exit
Theatre of the Absurd: Waiting for Godot
Theatre of Alienation: The Good Person of Szechuan
Comedy of Contemporary Manners: Bedroom Farce
Political Satire: Serious Money
Chapter 9: The Musical Theatre
The Role of Music in Theatre History
The Development of the Broadway Musical: America's Contribution
Musical Comedy: Gershwin, Kern, Darktown Follies, and Rodgers and Hart
A Golden Age
The Contemporary Musical
The Emergence of Choreographer-Directors
Stephen Sondheim
Black Musicals
Foreign Invasions: British, French, Swedish, and Disney
Musicals of the Twenty-first Century
Chapter 10: Theatre Today
What's Happening?
A Theatre of Postmodern Experiment
A Nonlinear Theatre
An Open Theatre
A Diverse Theatre
Photo Essay: Theatre in the Borderlands
A Global Theatre
A Macaronic Theatre
A Theatre of Difference
A Theatre of Nontraditional Casting
Spectacular Theatre
Verbatim Theatre
A Dangerous Theatre
A Theatre of Community
Movement Art and Dance-Theatre
Solo Performance
Three Theatre-Makers in the Theatre Today
Peter Brook
Robert Wilson
Julie Taymor
Theatre Today: Where Can You Find It?
New York City
Broadway
Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway
Regional American Theatre: Not for Profit
Boston
Chicago
Los Angeles
Minneapolis
Seattle
Washington, D.C.
Shakespeare Festivals
Summer and Dinner Theatres
Amateur Theatre: Academic and Community
International Theatre
Beyond North America
Conclusions about Theatre Today?
Chapter 11: The Critic and the Dramaturg
Critical and Dramaturgical Perspectives
Social Significance
Human Significance
Artistic Quality
Relationship to the Theatre Itself
Entertainment Value
Critical and Dramaturgical Focus
Professional Criticism
Professional Dramaturgy
Student Criticism and Dramaturgy
We Are the Critics
Glossary
Selected Bibliography
Credits
Index

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Theatre Brief

Theatre Brief

0077333519

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: What Is the Theatre?

The Theatre Building

The Company, or Troupe, of Players

The Occupation of Theatre

Work

Art

Impersonation

Performance

Live Performance

Scripted and Rehearsed Performance

Chapter 2: What Is a Play?

Classifying Plays

Duration

Genre

Tragedy

Comedy and Other Genres

Dramaturgy: The Construction of Drama and Dramatic Performance

Drama’s Components: The Vertical Axis

Plot

Characters

Theme

Diction

Music

Spectacle

Conventions

Drama’s Timeline: The Horizontal Axis

Preplay

Play

Postplay

Non-Aristotelian Theatre Events

Chapter 3: The Playwright

We Are All Playwrights

Literary and Nonliterary Aspects of Playwrighting

Playwrighting as Event Writing

The Qualities of a Fine Play

Credibility and Intrigue

Speakability, Stageability, and Flow

Richness

Depth of Characterization

Gravity and Pertinence

Compression, Economy, and Intensity

Celebration

The Playwright's Process

Dialogue

Conflict

Structure

The Playwright's Rewards

A Sampling of Current American Playwrights

David Mamet

Tony Kushner

David Henry Hwang

Neil LaBute

Lynn Nottage

Photo Essay: Playwright Neil LaBute

Chapter 4: The Actor

What Is Acting?

The Paradox of Acting - from Socrates to Stanislavsky

Acting Today

Acting from the Inside: The Stanislavsky Legacy

Emotion Memory

Acting from the Outside

The Actor as Virtuoso

Putting It Together

Magic

Becoming an Actor

The Approach

The Actor's Instrument

Voice and Speech

The Psychological Instrument

Photo Essay: Actor Patrick Stewart

Movement