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The Necessity of Theater

The Necessity of Theater PDF Author: Paul Woodruff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199715756
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to earth. The Necessity of Theater analyzes the unique power of theater by separating it into the twin arts of watching and being watched, practiced together in harmony by watchers and the watched. Whereas performers practice the art of being watched - making their actions worth watching, and paying attention to action, choice, plot, character, mimesis, and the sacredness of performance space - audiences practice the art of watching: paying close attention. A good audience is emotionally engaged as spectators; their engagement takes a form of empathy that can lead to a special kind of human wisdom. As Plato implied, theater cannot teach us transcendent truths, but it can teach us about ourselves. Characteristically thoughtful, probing, and original, Paul Woodruff makes the case for theater as a unique form of expression connected to our most human instincts. The Necessity of Theater should appeal to anyone seriously interested or involved in theater or performance more broadly.

The Necessity of Theater

The Necessity of Theater PDF Author: Paul Woodruff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199715756
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to earth. The Necessity of Theater analyzes the unique power of theater by separating it into the twin arts of watching and being watched, practiced together in harmony by watchers and the watched. Whereas performers practice the art of being watched - making their actions worth watching, and paying attention to action, choice, plot, character, mimesis, and the sacredness of performance space - audiences practice the art of watching: paying close attention. A good audience is emotionally engaged as spectators; their engagement takes a form of empathy that can lead to a special kind of human wisdom. As Plato implied, theater cannot teach us transcendent truths, but it can teach us about ourselves. Characteristically thoughtful, probing, and original, Paul Woodruff makes the case for theater as a unique form of expression connected to our most human instincts. The Necessity of Theater should appeal to anyone seriously interested or involved in theater or performance more broadly.

Seeing Theater

Seeing Theater PDF Author: Naomi Weiss
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520393090
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
This is the first book to approach the visuality of ancient Greek drama through the lens of theater phenomenology. Gathering evidence from tragedy, comedy, satyr play, and vase painting, Naomi Weiss argues that, from its very beginnings, Greek theater in the fifth century BCE was understood as a complex interplay of actuality and virtuality. Classical drama frequently exposes and interrogates potential viewing experiences within the theatron—literally, “the place for seeing.” Weiss shows how, in so doing, it demands distinctive modes of engagement from its audiences. Examining plays and pottery with attention to the instability and ambiguity inherent in visual perception, Seeing Theater provides an entirely new model for understanding this ancient art form.

The New Music Theater

The New Music Theater PDF Author: Eric Salzman
Publisher: OUP USA
ISBN: 0195099362
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Book Description
"The New Music Theater is the first comprehensive attempt in English to cover a still-emerging art form in its widest range. This book, written for the reader who comes from the contemporary worlds of music, theater, film, literature, and visual arts, provides a wealth of examples and descriptions, not only of the works themselves but of the concepts, ideas and trends that have gone into the evolution of what may be the most central performance art form of the post-modern world."--BOOK JACKET.

Seeing Theater

Seeing Theater PDF Author: Naomi Weiss
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520393082
Category : Greek drama
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Book Description
This is the first book to approach the visuality of ancient Greek drama through the lens of theater phenomenology. Gathering evidence from tragedy, comedy, satyr play, and vase painting, Naomi Weiss argues that, from its very beginnings, Greek theater in the fifth century BCE was understood as a complex interplay of actuality and virtuality. Classical drama frequently exposes and interrogates potential viewing experiences within the theatron--literally, "the place for seeing." Weiss shows how, in so doing, it demands distinctive modes of engagement from its audiences. Examining plays and pottery with attention to the instability and ambiguity inherent in visual perception, Seeing Theater provides an entirely new model for understanding this ancient art form.

Theater and Film

Theater and Film PDF Author: Robert Knopf
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300128703
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Book Description
This is the first book in more than twenty-five years to examine the complex historical, cultural, and aesthetic relationship between theater and film, and the effect that each has had on the other’s development.Robert Knopf here assembles essays from performers, directors, writers, and critics that illuminate this ongoing inquiry. The book is divided into five parts—historical influence, comparisons and contrasts, writing, directing, and acting—with interludes by major artists whose work and words have shaped the development of theater and film. A comprehensive bibliography and filmography support further work in this area.The book contains contributions from Susan Sontag, Stanley Kauffmann, Sarah Bey-Cheng, Bertolt Brecht, Ingmar Bergman, Harold Pinter, David Mamet, Julia Taymor, Judi Dench, Sam Waterston, Orson Welles, Antonin Artaud, and Milos Forman, among others.

Theatre, a Way of Seeing

Theatre, a Way of Seeing PDF Author: Milly S. Barranger
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780534056469
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 412

Book Description
Consistently praised for being "streamlined" and "clear and student friendly," this text offers the beginning theatre student an exciting, full-color introduction to all aspects of theatre. It presents the experience of theatre, who sees, what is seen, where and how it is seen largely from the viewpoint of audiences exposed to a complex, living art that involves people, spaces, plays, designs, staging, forms, language, and productions. The book includes the appropriate coverage of the history, diversity and most critical moments in theatre in a way that encourages students to experience theatre as "a performing art and humanistic event."

Theater and Integrity

Theater and Integrity PDF Author: Larry D. Bouchard
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810125625
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Book Description
Four decades ago Tom F. Driver brought theater into discussion with religion and modern theology. It has been a rich ongoing dialogue, but one that now demands a bold new engagement. In Theater and Integrity, Larry D. Bouchard argues that while the “antitheatrical prejudice” regards theater as epitomizing the absence of integrity, theater’s ways of being realized in ensembles, texts, and performances allow us to reenvision integrity’s emergence and ephemeral presence. This book follows such questions across theatrical, philosophical, and theological studies of moral, personal, bodily, and kenotic patterns of integrity. It locates ambiguities in our discourse about integrity, and it delves into conceptions of identity, morality, selfhood, and otherness. Its explorations ask if integrity is less a quality we might possess than a contingent gift that may appear, disappear, and perhaps reappear. Not only does he chart anew the ethical and religious dimensions of integrity, but he also reads closely across the history of theater, from Greek and Shakespearean drama to the likes of Seamus Heaney, T. S. Eliot, Caryl Churchill, Wole Soyinka, Tony Kushner, and Suzan-Lori Parks. His is an approach of juxtaposition and reflection, starting from the perennial observation that theater both criticizes and acknowledges dimensions of drama and theatricality in life.

Working on a Song

Working on a Song PDF Author: Anaïs Mitchell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593182588
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
"Working On A Song is one of the best books about lyric writing for the theater I've read."—Lin-Manuel Miranda Anaïs Mitchell named to TIME's List of the 100 Most Influential People in the World of 2020 An illuminating book of lyrics and stories from Hadestown—the winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical—from its author, songwriter Anaïs Mitchell with a foreword by Steve Earle On Broadway, this fresh take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has become a modern classic. Heralded as “The best new musical of the season,” by The Wall Street Journal, and “Sumptuous. Gorgeous. As good as it gets,” by The New York Times, the show was a breakout hit, with its poignant social commentary, and spellbinding music and lyrics. In this book, Anaïs Mitchell takes readers inside her more than decade’s-long process of building the musical from the ground up—detailing her inspiration, breaking down the lyrics, and opening up the process of creation that gave birth to Hadestown. Fans and newcomers alike will love this deeply thoughtful, revealing look at how the songs from “the underground” evolved, and became the songs we sing again and again.

Popular Theater and Society in Tsarist Russia

Popular Theater and Society in Tsarist Russia PDF Author: E. Anthony Swift
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520225945
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 366

Book Description
"This is the fullest and most richly detailed study available of the popular theater that developed during the last decades of tsarist Russia. Swift brings alive the world of Ostrovsky, Stanislavsky, Chekhov, and Tolstoy as he examines the origins and significance of the new 'people's theaters' that were created for the lower classes in St. Petersburg and Moscow between 1861 and 1917. His extensively researched study, full of anecdotes from the theater world of the day, shows how these people's theaters became a major arena in which the cultural contests of late imperial Russia were played out and how they contributed to the emergence of an urban consumer culture during this period of rapid social and political change."--Cover leaf.

Imagining Human Rights in Twenty-First Century Theater

Imagining Human Rights in Twenty-First Century Theater PDF Author: F. Becker
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 113702710X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
There is extraordinary diversity, depth, and complexity in the encounter between theatre, performance, and human rights. Through an examination of a rich repertoire of plays and performance practices from and about countries across six continents, the contributors open the way toward understanding the character and significance of this encounter.