1. HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT SHOW TO SEE?

2. WHAT TYPES OF PLAYS CAN YOU GO SEE? ARE ALL PLAYS GOOD?

3. THE PROFESSIONAL THEATRE CRITIC

4. TYPES OF THEATRE CRITICS

5. 1.Newspaper 2.Magazine 3.Television 4.Analyst

6. FUNCTIONS OF CRITICISM 1.Function as a news item 2.Present an impression of the production. 3. Assess the production’s value 4.Acknowledge the reviewer’s preferences

7. REQUISITES FOR EXCELLENCE IN CRITICISM

8. 1.Love of the theatre 2.Fairness 3. Theatrical experience 4.Writing skills 5.Concentration

9. CRITICAL PREFERENCES 1.Pleasure 2.Impact 3. Form

10. TYPES OF DRAMA

11. Representational Characteristics?

12. TYPES OF DRAMA Presentational Characteristics?

13. GENRES OF PLAYS Tragedy Melodrama Comedy Satire Farce

14. GENRES OF PLAYS Tragedy Origins: Ancient Greece Tragoidia=Goat Song 534 BC Festival of Dionysus

15. GENRES OF PLAYS Tragedy Characteristics?

16. GENRES OF PLAYS Tragedy Playwrights: Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides

17. GENRES OF PLAYS Tragedy Performances Characteristics?

18. GENRES OF PLAYS Melodrama Origins: Mid-19 th Century Characteristics? Differences with Tragedy

19. GENRES OF PLAYS Melodrama Origins: Mid-19 th Century Characteristics? Differences with Tragedy

20. GENRES OF PLAYS Comedy Origins: Ancient Greece 487 BC

21. GENRES OF PLAYS Satire The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues. Its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism.

22. GENRES OF PLAYS Farce A comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations. A farce is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant

23. STYLES OF PLAYS Realism Naturalism Symbolism Expressionism Epic Theatre Absurdism Postmodernism

24. STYLES OF PLAYS Realism Theatrical realism was a general movement in 19th-century theatre from the time period of 1870-1960 that developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances

25. STYLES OF PLAYS Realism Great Playwrights: Henrik IbsenAnton ChekhovEugene O’Neill Arthur Miller

26. STYLES OF PLAYS Naturalism Naturalism was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies: detailed, three-dimensional settings; everyday speech forms (prose over poetry); a secular world-view (no ghosts, spirits or gods intervening in the human action); an exclusive focus on subjects that are contemporary and indigenous (no exotic, otherworldly or fantastic locales, nor historical or mythic time-periods) Naturalism vs. Realism?

27. STYLES OF PLAYS Symbolism A movement from France in the 1880’s and lasting until 1900. A production’s words, actions and plots are made meaningful through interpretation whether conscious or subconscious. Plays are allegories where the action is reinterpreted on a higher philosophical plane.

28. STYLES OF PLAYS Expressionism The plays often dramatise the struggle against bourgeois values and established authority. Post World War I. Expressionism seeks to reveal the inner emotions of the characters and expose the hidden truths of life, often through distorting or exaggerating the scenery, costumes and lighting, as well as the dialog, the direction and stylized acting.

29. STYLES OF PLAYS Epic Theatre A theatrical movement from the early to mid-20 th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners, including Bertold Brecht. One of the goals of epic theatre is for the audience to always be aware that it is watching a play: Epic theatre was a reaction against popular forms of theatre, particularly the naturalistic approach

30. STYLES OF PLAYS Absurdism A drama in which normal conventions and dramatic structure are ignored or modified in order to present life as irrational or meaningless

31. STYLES OF PLAYS Postmodernism Postmodern theatre is a recent phenomenon in world theatre, coming as it does out of the postmodern philosophy that originated in Europe in the middle of the twentieth century. Postmodern theatre emerged as a reaction against modernist theatre. Most postmodern productions are centered on highlighting the fallibility of definite truth, instead encouraging the audience to reach their own individual understanding. Essentially, thus, postmodern theatre raises questions rather than attempting to supply answers.