1. Chapter 6 – Structures of Seeing The play is a quest for a solution. —David Mamet

2. Chapter Summary To read the printed page of a script is to experience much of the playwright’s art. Words on a page have the potential for becoming human speech, movement, and sound. Playwrights use many kinds of play structures and dramatic conventions to aid in the telling of their stories.

3. Drama Drama from Greek verb dran (“to do” or “to act”) A pattern of words and actions with potential for “doing” or “becoming” living words or actions Pattern of words = dialogue

4. Drama as Imitation Origins of drama lie in childhood play, imitation. Why do we imitate? –To process ambivalent feelings about the world –To master the unknown Drama is imitation: –Allows us to confront and transform our fears of the strange

5. Drama as Imitation Similarities between drama and play: –Begin with imagined scenario –Entertain –Contribute to a sense of well-being –Fixed rules –Imitate human events

6. Drama’s Elements Plot: –Sequence of events with a beginning, middle, end Character: –Physiological and psychological makeup of persons in the play Language: –Spoken word, symbols, and signs Meaning: –Underlying idea (theme, message) Spectacle: –Music, lighting, scenery, properties, etc.

7. Drama’s Elements Time: –Symbolic time (as opposed to duration of performance) Action: –Not the same as plot –Source of play’s inner meaning –Spiritual and psychological forces that drive the play

8. Play Structures Western drama based on central conflict Usually follows progression: –Exposition –Confrontation –Crisis –Climax –Resolution Three primary ways of organizing progression: –Climactic –Episodic –Situational

9. Play Structures Climactic structure: –Cause-to-effect arrangement of incidents –Characters move quickly toward climax –Ends in climax and quick resolution Episodic structure: –Traces character’s journey to final action –Looser: doesn’t force characters into climax –Ends with understanding of what journey means Situational structure: –Situation, not plot, shapes the play –Situation has own inner rhythms

10. Play Structures Situational structure of Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano:

11. Play Structures Samuel Beckett’s monodrama: –Old dramatic techniques inadequate for expressing psychic distress –Monodrama: Stream-of-consciousness monologue Presents conscious and unconscious thought processes of speaker

12. Recent Structures Solo performances: –Long history: Shamans Medieval mimes, minstrels, jugglers –Modern incarnations: Theatrical biographies Experimental theatre (“Off Off Broadway”): –Low budget –Exploring moral and social fringes

13. Recent Structures Performance art: –Single performer “doing” and “redoing” in presence of spectators –Solo texts: Improvisatory Reduced emphasis on literary forms and language Nontraditional narrative, nonlinear storytelling Lack of unity and coherence Confrontational attitudes Presentational performance styles –Material based on autobiography, personal response to political, social, cultural environment

14. Recent Structures Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror: –Biography of people involved in 1991 Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn –Plays each role herself—brings “voices of unheard” onstage –Shows how each character’s perspective reflects his or her background I try to represent multiple points of view and to capture the personality of a place by showing its individuals. —Anna Deavere Smith

15. Recent Structures Postmodernism in theatre: –Reaction against modernism –“Doubling”: Placing contradictory experiences within the same frame of reference Celebrates fragmentation of experience –Explores randomness, subjectivity of “truth” –“Assemblages” and “collages”: Compilations of diverse fragments of text, image, impressions, etc.

16. Recent Structures Theatre of Images: –Term coined by Bonnie Marranca, 1976 –Describes postmodern work of Phillip Glass, Robert Wilson, Lee Brener: Revolted against verbal texts (scripts) Created events dominated by visual and aural images Abandoned cause-and-effect relationships, plot, and character Actors juxtaposed against projected images, atonal sounds, sculptured images, etc.

17. Recent Structures Theatre of Images: –Robert Wilson’s A Letter for Queen Victoria: Elements of production “collage”: –Bits of overheard conversations –Clichés –Newspaper blurbs –Colors –Spot announcements –Television images –Film clips –Communicates theme of imperialism indirectly: Pilots talk over sounds of gunfire and bomb blasts.

18. Core Concepts Drama is a special way of imitating human behavior and events. Depending on the perspective of the playwright, imitation can take several forms. For 2,500 years, Western playwrights have used climactic, episodic, and situational play structures. Recently, playwrights have moved away from conventions such as cause-and-effect relationships and verbal texts. Playwrights are using new aural and visual technologies to create postmodern “texts.”