Theatre Studies: The Basics

1 Theatre STUDIES. T H E BAS ICS. This is an essential read for anyone setting out to consider the thrilling world of live Theatre , in-depth and for the rst time. Introducing you to all the aspects of drama and theatrical perfor- mance from the theoretical to the practical, you will be guided through the following topics and more: dramatic genres, from tragedy to political documentary theories of performance the history of the Theatre in the West acting, directing and scenography the audience. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from Sophocles' Oedipus Tyr- annus to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti's controversial Behzti, and including chapter summaries and pointers to further reading, Theatre Studies: The Basics has all you need to get your studies off to a ying start.

2 Robert leach is the Drama Pathway Leader at the University of Cumbria. He has published widely and his books include Makers of Modern Theatre (Routledge, 2004) and Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and the Making of Modern British Theatre (2006). Also available from Routledge FIFTY KEY Theatre DIRECTORS. EDITED BY SHOMIT MITTER AND MARIA SHEVTSOVA. 0-415-18732-X. FIFTY CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS (2ND EDITION). EDITED BY MARTHA BREMSER AND IAN BRAMLEY. 0-415-10364-9. WHO'S WHO IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD Theatre . EDITED BY DANIEL MEYER-DINKEGRA FE.

3 0-415-14162-1. Theatre STUDIES. THE Basics . robert leach First published 2008. by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to . # 2008 Robert leach All rights reserved.

4 No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Theatre studies : the Basics / Robert leach . p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

5 1. Drama. 2. Theater. I. Title. 2008. 792 dc22. 2007047893. ISBN 0-203-92694-3 Master e-book ISBN. ISBN10: 0-415-42638-3 (hbk). ISBN10: 0-415-42639-1 (pbk). ISBN10: 0-203-92694-3 (ebk). ISBN13: 978-0-415-42638-1 (hbk). ISBN13: 978-0-415-42639-8 (pbk). ISBN13: 978-0-203-92694-9 (ebk). CONTENTS. List of boxes viii Preface ix 1 Performance 1. Playing Performance, performative, performativity All the world's a stage Reading performance Performance and identity Summary Further reading 2 The text 18. Text and texts Playwrights and writers of plays The playtext Dramatic structures Devising Summary Further reading vi contents 3 Dramatic form 38.

6 Tragedy Comedy Tragicomedy Epic Documentary and agitprop Farce Melodrama The well-made play Dramatic form deconstructed Summary Further reading 4 Theatre and history 65. The necessity of history Historical evidence Drama and society Summary Further reading 5 Acting 93. A body in space The paradox of acting Realism in acting Creativity and tradition Alienation Acting in the holy Theatre The mastery of movement Speaking a text Summary Further reading 6 Directing 118. Historical The great directors The contemporary director First tasks Before rehearsals Rehearsals contents vii The last lap Summary Further reading 7 Scenography 146.

7 Theatre architecture Stage design On stage LX stage lighting Running the show Theatre beyond Theatre Summary Further reading 8 The audience 165. The drama's patrons The horizon of expectation The theatrical event Conventions Audience and performance Summary Further reading Glossary 180. Bibliography 185. Index 187. BOXES. Performance studies Appearance and reality The play within the play Two Oedipuses Ritual and ceremony King Johan: rewriting history Twelfth Night: Shakespeare and gender Cathleen ni Houlihan: Theatre and nation The Mahabharata: intercultural performance Bezhti: dishonour Clothes and costumes The psychological gesture The street scene The Storming of the Winter Palace Film director, stage director Total theatres The box set A rough guide to running a Theatre performance Hiss the villain Forum Theatre The gaze PREFACE.

8 In the age of iPods and mobile phone cameras, downloads and broadband, when certainly cinema and perhaps even television are beginning to seem passe , what business has that old impostor, live Theatre , doing clamouring for our attention? It's alive, that's what! Perhaps the Theatre has never been more necessary than today, when it stands so rmly against the rush into recorded media. It is true that more and more students want to study it, to do it, to present it. An informal festival like the Edinburgh Fringe exhibits many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of groups of people wanting to make live Theatre .

9 Which is justi cation enough for a book like this. This book tries to treat the Basics of modern Theatre , to raise at least some contemporary ideas, problems, concerns, but the subject is so colossal it cannot claim the last word even on the Basics . Some of its limitations are obvious. It only attempts to address issues in the Theatre of the West. There is a vast Theatre culture beyond the West, in India, China, Indonesia, all over Africa and among all sorts of people, which is not even mentioned in this book. A line had to be drawn somewhere.

10 The book aims to air ideas about Western modern Theatre , to explain, to illustrate, to stimulate. Its basic premise is that Theatre and drama offer a unique combination of thinking and doing, and that anybody who tries to practise it, at however simple a level, x preface will gain by it. This book tries to suggest the links between theory and practice (which explains why some chapters move from the very theoretical suddenly into the absolutely hands-on practical). There is an implicit belief in the integration of theory and practice which underlies everything that is written here.