What is the Theatre? Robert Cohen’s Theatre, Chapter 1 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Retrieved from: in-the-Night-Time-tickets.aspx The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Retrieved from: Olivier Theatre, National Theatre. Retrieved from: Mummenschanz. Retrieved from: without-words-mummenschanz-mimes-celebrate-40 A Doll’s House, Retrieved from: heatre-review

“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.” –Peter Brook, legendary Royal Shakespeare Company director “The word theatre comes from the Greeks. It means the seeing place. It is the place people come to see the truth about life and the social situation.” -Stella Adler, Group Theatre member, famous acting teacher “I will accept anything in the theatre... provided it amuses or moves me. But if it does neither, I want to go home.” -Noel Coward, playwright “I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.” -Oscar Wilde, playwright Hamilton. Photo by Sarah Kulwich, NY Times. Retrieved from: changing-history-and-theater.html

The Theatre “Building”: All you need is a place to act and a place to watch! The Ancient Greeks used huge amphitheaters for their play festivals—an ingenious design that enabled thousands of people to be able to hear the actors due to the seats reflection of the noise and their formation of acoustic traps. The voices from the stage were carried upward to the audience. Also, performers wore masks and used huge gestures to be seen clearly. In the Middle Ages, troupes of actors would perform from city to city in pageant wagons, large carts that carried the performers and basic scenery and enabled them to perform outdoors in multiple locations. Often the plays were religious in theme. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (a replica was built in 1997 where the company endeavors to present the plays as they would have been performed in the Elizabethan era) has the actors on a raised stage with the audience surrounding on three sides, (the “wooden ‘O’”) with areas to watch from the galleries and standing room in front of the stage, known as “the groundlings” area. In the 1600s, the French converted indoor tennis courts into playhouses, which had a great influence on Charles II of England who lived in France until he was restored to the throne in He reopened all of the theaters and allowed women to take the stage. The proscenium stage, where the audience views the action through a “frame” and are separated from the actors is still popular today. Smaller theaters with thrust stages, where the audience surrounds the action on three sides, and black box theaters where the audience can be arranged in multiple ways, are very popular options for contemporary theatre companies. Found space theatre (converting unconventional spaces for performances) and street theatre have been popular for centuries, whether staged for pure entertainment or political activism. Theater spaces will always reflect what is popular for a culture at a particular time, and in this day and age, with technological advances, the sky is the limit for producing exciting theatre! Roman amphitheatre, Jordan. hnology/amphitheater/images- videos Black Box Theatre. Belmont University. Retrieved from: atre/facilities.html

Theatre Jobs There are many, many jobs and specializations in the world of theatre. Here are the main categories for theatre practitioners in no special order—everyone plays an important role in getting productions on their feet. Please watch the video clips under “Study Materials and Resources.” Producers: Secure all spaces, personnel and finances, and distribute proceeds—they have a say in the artistic development of the production, but hire the director to lead the artists. Directors: Create a unified artistic vision for the show, supervise all artistic elements, and lead rehearsals Stage Manager: Hub of information for the show, actually calls cues and is in charge of the show throughout its run. Actors: Perform the roles of the play. Designers: Scenic, Props, Costume, Lighting, Sound Crew Members : Scenic running crew, light/sound board operators, dressers. Retrieved from: Retrieved from: Peter Brook. Director. elmisteriodelaspalabras/2011/02/11/en_arte_la_irreverencia_es_respeto/

Impersonation Performers taking on the qualities of “characters” makes theatre unique from other art forms. In Ancient Greece, they used masks to separate the actor from the character, denoting to the audience that they were being asked to accept a “new world” on the stage and suspend their disbelief. Contemporary actor training teaches the art of seemingly becoming one with the character. The trick is to make the audience believe that there is no separation between the actor and character, to suspend their disbelief. With hard work and technique, “the mask” shouldn’t be seen by the audience at all. We want to truly believe in the events of the play, even if only for a couple of hours. Greek Chorus. Retrieved from: Derek Jacobi, Hamlet, Retrieved from: /David-Tennant-realises-pianists-dying-wish- using-skull-left-play-Alas-poor-Yorick-scene-Hamlet.html

Presentational and Representational Performance Please watch the video clips under “Study Materials and Resources.” Representational Presentational Steve Martin. Retrieved from: 07/11/18/confessions_of_a_stand_up_guy/ God of Carnage. Photo by Craig Schwartz. Retrieved from: carnage/

The Text The play fully exists only in performance, though the text is the foundation and blueprint of the production. Though the study of theatre history thrives due to the existence of archived scripts and fragmented texts, the script itself can be an inaccurate depiction of what the fully realized production became, and, of course, the possibilities are endless as to what the play might become for a new generation. A Woman Killed with Kindness National Theatre. Photo by Tristram Kenton. with-kindness-review Retrieved from: tragedy-renaissance/