The Theatre Experience

Chapter 1: The Audience: Its Role and Imagination

• • The Mediated Arts: Film and Television
• • The Contrast Between Theatre, Film, Television, and Streamed Media
• • Theatre Is Transitory and Immediate
• • Human Beings—The Focus of Theatre
• • The Chemistry of the Performer–Audience Contact
• • Theatre as a Group Experience
• • Psychology of Groups
• • How Audience Composition Affects the Theatre Experience
• • The Separate Roles of Performers and Spectators
• • How Should the Audience Be Involved?
• • Audience Participation through Direct Action
• • The Imagination of the Audience
• • Tools of the Imagination: Symbol and Metaphor
• • The “Reality” of the Imagination
• • The Imaginary Worlds of Theatre
• • Realistic Elements of Theatre
• • Departures from Realism: Nonrealistic Elements of Theatre
• • Combining the Realistic and the Nonrealistic
• • Distinguishing Stage Reality from Fact
• • Summary

Chapter 2: Background and Expectations of the Audience

• • Background of Individual Spectators
• • Background Information on the Play or Playwright
• • Background of the Period
• • Theatre and Society
• • Modern Theatre and Culture
• • Expectations: The Variety of Experiences in Modern Theatre
• • Broadway and Touring Theatre
• • Resident Professional Theatre
• • Alternative Theatre: Off-Broadway and Elsewhere
• • Young People’s and Children’s Theatre
• • College and University Theatre
• • Community and Amateur Theatre
• • Diverse and Global Theatres
• • The Audience, Critic, Reviewer, and Blogger
• • The Critic, Reviewer, and Blogger
• • Online Theatre Critics and Reviewers: New Approaches
• • Preparation for Criticism
• • Fact and Opinion in Criticism
• • Critical Criteria
• • The Dramaturg or Literary Manager
• • The Audience’s Relation to Criticism
• • The Audience’s Independent Judgment
• • Summary

Chapter 3: Theatre Spaces

• • Creating the Environment
• • Theatre Spaces
• • Proscenium or Picture-Frame Stage: History and Characteristics
• • Arena Stage: History and Characteristics
• • Thrust Stage: History and Characteristics
• • Alley or Traverse Theatre Space
• • Created and Found Spaces
• • All-Purpose Theatre Spaces: The Black Box
• • Special Requirements of Theatre Environments
• • Evaluating the Theatre Space
• • Summary

Chapter 4: Acting for the Stage

• • Acting in Everyday Life
• • Social Roles
• • Personal Roles
• • Acting in Life versus Acting on Stage
• • Three Challenges of Acting
• • Making Characters Believable
• • Physical Acting: Voice and Body
• • Synthesis and Integration
• • Evaluating Performances
• • Summary

Chapter 5: The Director and the Producer

• • The Theatre Director
• • The Traditional Director
• • The Director and the Script
• • The Auteur Director and the Postmodern Director
• • The Auteur Director
• • The Postmodern Director
• • The Director and the Production: The Physical Production
• • The Director’s Work with the Performers
• • Casting
• • Diversity and Inclusion in Directing: Inclusive Casting
• • Rehearsals
• • The Director as the Audience’s Eye
• • Movement, Pace, and Rhythm
• • Technical Rehearsal
• • Dress Rehearsal
• • Previews
• • The Director’s Collaborator: The Stage Manager
• • The Director’s Collaborator: The Choreographer
• • The Director’s Collaborators: The Fight Director and the Intimacy Director
• • The Director’s Collaborator: The Dramaturg
• • The Director’s Power and Responsibility
• • The Producer or Managing Director
• • The Commercial Producer
• • Noncommercial Theatres
• • The Producer and Director’s Collaborator: The Production Manager
• • Completing The Picture: Playwright, Director, and Producer
• • Evaluating Directing
• • Summary

Chapter 6: Scenery

• • The Audience’s View
• • The Scene Designer
• • A Brief History of Stage Design
• • Scenic Design Today
• • The Scene Designer’s Objectives
• • Elements of Scene Design
• • The Process of Scene Design
• • The Scene Designer’s Collaborators and the Production Process
• • Designing a Total Environment
• • Evaluating Scene Design
• • Summary

Chapter 7: Stage Costumes

• • Costumes for the Stage
• • Objectives of Costume Design
• • The Process of Costume Design
• • The Costume Designer at Work
• • The Costume Designer’s Resources
• • The Costume Designer’s Collaborators
• • Related Elements of Costume Design
• • Makeup
• • Hairstyles and Wigs
• • Masks
• • Millinery, Accessories, and Crafts
• • Coordination of the Whole
• • Evaluating Costume Design
• • Summary

Chapter 8: Lighting and Sound

• • Stage Lighting
• • A Brief History of Stage Lighting
• • Objectives and Functions of Lighting Design
• • The Lighting Designer
• • Sound in the Theatre
• • Sound Reproduction: Advantages and Disadvantages
• • The Sound Designer
• • Understanding Sound Reproduction and Sound Reinforcement
• • Sound Creates the Environment
• • Sound Technology
• • Special Effects in Lighting and Sound
• • Evaluating Lighting and Sound Design
• • Summary

Chapter 9: Creating the World of the Play

• • The Subject and Verb of Drama: People and Action
• • Structural Conventions: The Rules of the Game
• • Limited Space
• • Limited Time
• • Strongly Opposed Forces
• • A Balance of Forces
• • Incentive and Motivation
• • Creating Structure
• • Plot versus Story
• • The Opening Scene
• • Obstacles and Complications
• • Crisis and Climax
• • Point of View
• • The Dramatist’s Point of View
• • Society’s Point of View
• • Summary

Chapter 10: Dramatic Structure and Dramatic Characters

• • Dramatic Structure
• • Characteristics of Climactic Structure
• • Characteristics of Episodic Structure
• • Combinations of Climactic and Episodic Form
• • Rituals as Dramatic Structure
• • Patterns as Dramatic Structure
• • Serial Structure
• • Structure in Experimental and Avant-Garde Theatre
• • Structure in Musical Theatre
• • Diversity and Inclusion in Dramatic Structure: Feminist Structure
• • Dramatic Characters
• • Extraordinary Characters
• • Representative or Quintessential Characters
• • Stock Characters
• • Minor Characters
• • A Narrator or Chorus
• • Nonhuman Characters
• • The Audience and Character Types
• • Juxtaposition of Characters
• • Orchestration of Characters
• • Summary

Chapter 11: Theatrical Genres

• • Types of Drama
• • Tragedy
• • Traditional Tragedy
• • Modern Tragedy
• • Heroic Drama
• • Bourgeois or Domestic Drama
• • Melodrama
• • Comedy
• • Characteristics of Comedy
• • Techniques of Comedy
• • Forms of Comedy
• • Tragicomedy
• • What Is Tragicomedy?
• • Modern Tragicomedy
• • Theatre of the Absurd
• • Absurdist Plots: Illogicality
• • Absurdist Language: Nonsense and Non Sequitur
• • Absurdist Characters: Existential Beings
• • Musical Theatre
• • Antecedents
• • The Book Musical Is Born
• • A High Point of Musicals
• • Musicals after 1975
• • Summary

Chapter 12: Alternative and Experimental Dramatic and Theatrical Forms

• • Expressionism, Surrealism, Epic Theatre, and Theatre of Cruelty
• • Other Nontraditional and Experimental Forms
• • Two Forms that Bridge the Traditonal and Nontraditional
• • Traditional Genres and Forms Continue and Transform
• • Summary

Chapter 13: Diverse and Inclusive Plays, Playwrights, and Theatrical Forms

• • Diverse Multicultural Theatre and Playwrights
• • African American Theatre and Playwrights: Introduction
• • African Theatres and Drama
• • African American Theatres and Playwrights
• • Asian American Playwrights and Theatres
• • Latinx Theatre
• • Indigenous Theatres and Playwrights
• • Feminist Theatre and Women Playwrights
• • LGBTQ Theatre and Playwrights
• • Global Theatre
• • Summary