notes TOPICS & ISSUES Aesthetics and Morals: Science is about nature, Art is about human nature, us. Mind - Soul - Spirit - Heart The laws of composition (dramatic): Theatre and Art, Theatre and Music. 5 min THR History, timetable, dates and styles. History of Theatre or history of Drama? How to write theatre papers, shows reviews List (Analysis) -- list of professions. Opinion v. Analysis (arguments) My favorites (scene, actor, image, line, costume, set, etc.): good v. bad. Use the program for names. State the date, when you saw the show. Must have endnotes and bibliography. Title is a must. Terms Introduced Dramatic Composition Exposition Climax Resolution Aristotle Theatro (Greek) - place for seeing Stages: Proscenium, thrust, arena or round Professions: Playwright Actors Directors Designers Tech Crew First 200 words paper is "My Favorite Movie", the second -- the play (Hamlet) 2002 shows Summary In Chapter 1, A says that all poetry is mimetic and the mimesis can differ by way of • Medium: the medium can be colour, form, voice, rhythm, language, harmony - ie painting, poetry (include but not limited to tragedy), music (without words) and rhythm (without music). • Object: The objects of mimesis are (Ch 2) "men in action", or "men doing / acting": these men are either as they are in real life, worse or better. • Manner or mode: The manners of mimesis include narration, or by presenting "all his characters as living and moving before us" ie acting or the direct speech used in Homer, which was presented by a rhapsode using direct speech, similar in this sense to the actor in tragedy. Questions Poetics (Dover Thrift Editions) Among the most influential books in Western civilization, the Poetics is really a treatise on fine art. It offers seminal ideas on the nature of drama, tragedy, poetry, music and more, including such concepts as catharsis, the tragic flaw, unities of time and place and other rules of drama. This inexpensive edition enables readers to enjoy the critical insights of one humanity’s greatest minds laying the foundations for thought about the arts. $1.50 Notes ..."tragedy is an imitation ( mimesis ) not of men, but of an action ( praxis ) and of life, and life consists in action ( praxis ), and its end is a mode of action ( praxis ), not a quality"... praxis = doing, a transaction, business affair; the progress or result of a business; an action and what happens as a result of the action; set of doings/ transactions: actions connected to each other to form a coherent set of actions or pattern. * mini-form show review * Playwright's Workbook: Playmaking Vector Theory Semiotics Theatre Books Master-Page * Shakespeare: Hamlet, Shrew, 12th Night (SHOWS directory) Complete Shake: 12th Night 2007

Drama Intro

Meyerhold: Theatre Biomechanics

If you know next to nothing about drama, this is a directory to start with...

I found by experience that I can do little in any theatre class, if I do not introduce the basics of the Poetics by Aristotle.

Well, this introduction usually takes a lot of time.

The simple is always the most complex.

The three elements of dramatic composition (there are more than three) take many hours of analysis, if indeed you want to know and apply it. Exposition, for example. What do you as an actor (or director) have to do to complete the first segment? What do you have to ESTABLISH in order for me to follow the action?

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Tragedy (Aristotle's definitions)

In tragedy, what outside the play is called praxis , inside the play is called dramata (from dran ): action (dramata) is the mimesis of action (praxis)

Plot (muthos)

The plot is the most important of all because it is the plot which in a concrete way is the mimesis of the praxis

"On the one hand art is the imitation of a form, and the form which the tragic art imitates is an action. On the other hand, that which is visible to the mind's eye as an action - a naked essence, like all forms - is not realised as a work of art until the dramatist articulates it on the stage in terms of a plot " [Jones, 1962, 24]

Theatre is played out in time and space - must be articulated through time, and the element which articulates this time is the structure or plot.

{ hyperlink the terms! ]

PS

Professions of theatre: writer, director, designer, actor, tech (see main directory Theatre w/Anatoly). Public and emotional Literacy.

Aristotle, 6 principles (Structure: idea, plot, character).

Questions

Why do we spell the play writer as playwright?
* Craftsman!

DISCUSSIONS: How does theatre reflect on life? The Mirror (Shakespeare) History -- 9-11. (Improv and Demonstrations -- scenes in class, Mikado, class project for the finals)

Homework

Notes

Next: Language