1. 1-1
Theatre of Diversity
• Today, many types of theatre are available:
– Multiethnic and multicultural
– Performance art
– Avant-garde and experimental
– Crossover TF

2. 1-2
A Theatre of Infinite Variety
• There is an incredible variety of plays: TF
– Old and new
– Classics and cutting-edge
– Multiethnic, multicultural, and political
• Plays are offered in an amazing array of
performance spaces: TF
– Indoors and outdoors
– Elegant, modern auditoriums
– Bare stages

3. The Audience: Its
Role and Imagination
2
© Michal Daniel

4. DID
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5. YOU
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6. review
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7. Your
Notes?
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8. 2-8
Performer and Audience
 Ina world of technological innovations,
how has theatre survived?
 The relationship between performer and
audience
 The special nature of that relationship
 The chemistry of that contact
 We are not just in the presence of the
performers—they are also in OUR
presence. TF
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

9. 2-9
Theatre as a Group Experience
 Theatre provides a communal experience.
Which art forms don’t demand a group?
 A theatre audience does not contemplate
theatre individually, but rather as
individuals within a
larger group
 Without an audience,
can there be a
theatrical event?
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © T. Charles Erickson

10. 2-10
Performer and Audience
―At it’s most basic, theatre
requires someone to walk
across an empty space
while someone else
watches.‖
Director Peter Brook TF
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

11. 2-11
Psychology of Groups
 Gustave Le Bon’s theory of group
behavior:
 A collection of people ―presents new
characteristics very different from those of the
individuals composing it‖
 A crowd develops a ―COLLECTIVE MIND TF
which makes them feel, think, and act in a
manner quite different from that in which each
individual of them would feel, think, and act
were he in a state of isolation.‖
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. 2-12
Audience Makeup and the
Theatre Experience
 It is not just important to have an audience, but
also to know who the audience is.
 Are the audience members homogeneous or
from a variety of backgrounds?
 Some factors that contribute to the audience’s
makeup:
 Gender
 Race
 Socioeconomic background
 Geography
 Age
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

13. 2-13
Separate Roles of Performers
and Spectators
 Audience Involvement
 Aesthetic Distance
 Observed theatre
 Audience participates
vicariously and
empathically
 Participatory theatre © Phillip Buehler
 Involves participation through Direct Action
 Creative dramatics, sociodrama, psychodrama, and
drama therapy
 Participatory theatre is a means to another
end—its aim is not public performance
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. 2-14
Separate Roles of Performers
and Spectators
 AESTHETIC DISTANCE: separation
of the audience from the
performance TT/TP
 You KNOW it’s just a play
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

15. 2-15
The Imagination of the
Audience
 The audience’s role in the creation of illusion
 WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF TF
• Believing in fantasy
• Accepting drastic shifts in time and space
• Rapid movements back and forth in time
• Anachronism
 In theatre, the
audience must be
as willing to use its’
imagination as are
the performers
© Geraint Lewis
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16. © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

17. 2-17
The Imagination of the
Audience
 The audience’s role in the creation of illusion
IMAGINATION:
 WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF TF
+
 AESTHETIC DISTANCE TT/TP
© Geraint Lewis
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

18. 2-18
The Imagination of the
Audience
YOUR
IMAGINATION
IS
REAL
© Geraint Lewis
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

19. 2-19
Tools of the Imagination
 SYMBOL TF
 a sign, token, or emblem
that signifies something
else
 METAPHOR TF
 Stating that one thing is
another in order to describe
its meaning more clearly
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © R. Morely/PhotoLink/Getty Images

20. 2-20
Imaginary Worlds of Theatre
 Realism
 Brought to you by Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov TF
 Realistic Elements of theatre TT/TP
 Resembles observable reality
 Characters rooted in recognizable human truth
 Characters with life histories, motives, and anxieties
 Setting and costumes that reflect where ―real‖
people would live and
what they would wear
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Sarah Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux

21. REMEMBER
TO
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22. REVIEW
YOUR
NOTES
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23. 2-23
Imaginary Worlds of Theatre
 Nonrealism
 Nonrealistic elements of theatre TT/TP
• Everything that does not conform to our observations of
surface reality
• Poetry not prose
• Ghosts, soliloquy, and fantasy
• Abstract design elements
• Dreams and symbols
 The surface of life can
never convey the whole
truth
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © Craig Schwartz/Center Theatre Group, Ahmanson Theatre

24. 2-24
Stage Reality vs. Fact
 Whether theatre is realistic, nonrealistic, or
a combination of both, it is not the same
as the physical reality of everyday life
 No matter how involved we become in a
theatrical event, it is
important that we are
always aware on
some level that we
are in a theatre
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. © Richard Termine

25.  ANACHRONISM: when a
person, object, event is taken out of their
time period and
And placed in another. TF
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26.  ANACHRONISM: when a person, object, or
event is taken out of their proper time period and
And placed in another.
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27.  PANTOMIME (MIME): Pretending to use
 Objects that aren’t there
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28. Musical Theatre
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29. SYMBOL: a token or sign that
represents something else
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30. SYMBOL: a token or sign that
represents something else
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31.  METAPHOR
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32.  METAPHOR
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33.  OBSERVED THEATRE
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34.  OBSERVED THEATRE
Observed theatre
Audience
participates
vicariously
and
empathically
TT/TP
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35.  PARTICPATORY THEATRE
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36.  PARTICPATORY THEATRE
Participatory theatre
Involves participation through
Direct Action
(______________ ability)
Creative dramatics, sociodrama,
psychodrama, and drama
therapy TT/TP
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

37.  REPRESENTATIONAL THEATRE
Attempt to look and feel
realistic. Actors will ignore
the audience. The audience
watches the lives of the
characters through the
FOURTH WALL. Which
REPRESENTATIONAL t.v.
shows do you watch?
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

38.  REPRESENTATIONAL THEATRE
Attempt to look and feel
realistic. Actors will ignore
the audience. The audience
watches the lives of the
characters through the
FOURTH WALL. Which
REPRESENTATIONAL t.v.
shows do you watch?
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

39.  PRESENTATIONAL THEATRE:
Actors may play more than one role.
Actors BREAK THE FOURTH WALL
by acknowledging the audience and
talking to them. Sets and costumes
are often changed in front of the
audience. The audience is expected
to engage more of their
___________ability TF/TP Are
there any television shows that are
Presentational?
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

40.  PRESENTATIONAL THEATRE:
Actors may play more than one role.
Actors BREAK THE FOURTH WALL
by acknowledging the audience and
talking to them.
© 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

41.  PRESENTATIONAL
or
 REPRESENTATIONAL?:
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42. FIVE ELEMENTS
MUST EXIST
TO HAVE THEATRE
TF
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43. ONE OR MORE
ACTORS TF
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44. AN AUDIENCE TF
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45. PARTICULAR
PLACE TF
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46.  PARTICULAR
TIME TF
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47. Attending a play
is like catching a
flight
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48.  Attending a play is like catching a flight
WE WILL BEGIN
WITHOUT YOU
You will miss something
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49.  A STRUCTURED
EVENT TF
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50. We plan, rehearse
There are moments
to be anticipated
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51. THE POTENTIAL
OF THEATRE TT/TP
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52. ENGAGE ALL
FIVE SENSES TT/TP
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53. SIGHT
SOUND
SMELL
TASTE TT/TP
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54. TOUCH
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55. THEATRICAL
CONVENTIONS
TT/TP
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56. THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS
The “rules” of
Theatre
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57. THEATRICAL CONVENTIONS
The “rules” of Theatre
Remember; we’re Playing
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58. VIRTUAL
TIME TT/TP
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59. © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

60. VIRTUAL
PLACE TT/TP
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61. © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

62. © 2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

63. PRESENTATION
TIME TF
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64. REPRESENTATION
TIME TT/TP
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65. LASTING
IMPACT TT/TP
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