This is a discussion blog for MUTH 127-The Elements of Theatre for Musical Theatre. Each student can author their own blog and students are encouraged to comment on one another's blog entries. Dawn will pose questions and topics to get the conversations started.
One thing that really stuck for me is the popularity of live theatre. Back then, it was like a religion, literally. Now, not so much. On Broadway, yes, it is popular and many people go to them. But around here in Vancouver, as an example, most of the shows I've been to have only filled half the seats. Theater then had a different meaning then it does today, in other words. I guess I just don't like how theater is labeled nowadays. And that we won't make a lot of money, if any at all.
Would theater be more popular if we used mask work more frequently? Like in the good old days of Greece. That'd be cool. Coming back to how theater is viewed today, people would probably be a little creeped out. Especially if we were to do satyr plays. That stuff would not go well.
Anyway, I think I'd like to see a Greek performance back in the day if I could travel through time. Get a feel for what it was like. I picture BC Place split in half and cheering just as loudly as if there were a touchdown.
I apologize for the late submission, but I just had to get two-cents in here!
This term has been a very interesting experience for me. I have always had an interest in history and of course I have always loved theatre, but I had never had much knowledge of how theatre developed into the form we're studying.
I'm the type that will always attempt to argue the abstract, even if it doesn't align with my actual opinion. The discussion we had at the beginning of the year was, for the most part, one of those circumstances. I felt that although events which involved spectacle and entertainment could be considered "theatrical", I wouldn't consider them "theatre". Studying the many evolutionary forms of the art and the different ways that they have expanded and developed, has not altered my opinion much... it has, however, widened the spectrum of what I perceive as theatre. A chant, based on religious practices, would not fit my definition of theatre, but, knowing that theatre came from rituals worshipping Dionysus, theatre and choral chanting are much more closely related than I ever would have guessed.
Theatre is incredibly universal. It could almost be used as an example of convergent evolution, where different sects of the same species develop a similar skill at a similar time. Theatre has risen out of a variety of cultural practices, but has always been connected by the elements of storytelling and spectacle. From Europe to Asia, theatre has been a means of communication and entertainment, a way of connecting the masses through story. I'm sure if we delved into Native American culture we would see similarities in several of their practices as well.
The power of communication is one we're all familiar with. The different styles of theatre are tailored to fit the needs of the society at the time, but it also has the power to influence change (we see this in Shakespeare's age, with the development of his language style). It is both influenced by society and also influential to society. As Oscar Wilde said "life imitates art almost as much as art imitates life".
The thing I found most interesting in the history if theatre, is the way the acoustics work in a Greek theatre. After hearing many educated guesses from people through history, I believe what most people have concluded. Theatre comes from rituals.Though there is no way to prove where theatre comes from, religion seems to be the beginning of many things. I suppose theatre falls under that category as well. I loved all the different rule alterations during the development of theatre, and how it is still changing today. From natives dancing around a fire praising spirits, to live puppet sex in vigorous harmony. Theatre has changed quite a bit since when ever it started. Even though it has come so far, it is best sometimes to consider your roots. It is like the Greek theatre. You could stand in the center of the orchestra, whisper, and people in the last row would hear what you're saying. Since then, shows around the world have tried to find a theatre that provides as good of acoustics as that but all they had to do was look back into the old ways.
I'm going to share my final thoughts about theatre. Exciting, I know... okay.. so.. I conclude.. Theatre is awesome!!
Ha I'm just kidding. Well it is awesome. No, I'm going to discuss how I never actually thought about theatre history before. Of course, there's history in everything ever made, but I never have actually took the time to really try to dig deep in.
I find it really interesting to think theatre started from brilliant works, such as Euripides or Shakespear, and have to developed into our huge spectacles of today!
Another thing I'd like to touch on was the asain theatre we learned about. Again, I had never thought of theatre from foreign places, but all the theatre genres sound so cool. Kabuki and showdow plays are the two that were my favourite. I really love big, eloborate costumes, and in most of the asain geres, theor costume were truly gorgeous
Anyway, I learned a lot and I'd just like to thank everyone for and awesome class!
Sophie Leroux
Friday, April 20, 2012
The thing that surprised me the most about theatre, is that it seems to naturally emerge within any society. If we look at both the Greek and the Japanese, both societies came up with theatre without influence from each other. Although their traditional forms have many distinct differences, they involve similar factors. I found this incredibly interesting. As if theatre is inherent in human nature and that it will always exist. For me, this realization has validated my choice to pursue performing because it is something that is very important to our culture. It was also neat to see how theatre evolves. Because people get so passionate, they want to revolutionize this art and make it their own. All of the rules (neoclassicism), choices (reducing the dithyramb), and rebellions (storm and stress/romanticism) individuals and groups of people have made in the past have shaped what theatre is today, which is very broad and diverse (this is why theatre is so hard to define). My idea of what theatre is hasn't changed much from the start of this course, but I now have a better understanding of why i define it the way I do. I feel that above all else, it must tell a story and entertain an audience. The story does not have to be anything concrete, but it must be something that has been thought out in order to have an influence on the viewers. My reasons for believing this are because, when we look at history, theatre was used as a tool to prove a point, create change, satirize, glorify, mock, etc. In general, theatre has been our way of communicating something to the masses. It is then the responsibility of the public to do with it as they will.
At the beginning of the year when we had the definitive theatre debate I was on the side that said that anything could be considered theatre as long as it involved players and an audience. In some ways I still agree with that I mean look at the ancient greeks and dithyramb or Japanese Banraku... If chanting in front of a crowd without dialogue and big puppet shows are "theatre" then who's to say that Pro-Wrestling, or a birthday party clown can't be considered the same.
However, my gut tells me that there are things in life that are more theatrical than others without actually crossing into the realm of theatre and that's where I stand.
Theatre is planned but not necessarily scripted, it has to be acted but sincere, it has to be a performance that resonates with the players and anyone watching through the 4th wall unbeknownst to the players.
Theatre is like emotion, it is a cluster of contradictions, but always powerful and present.
Over this past few months I've learned a lot about theatre (mostly in the past few weeks of cramming, but hey, that's learning, right?)
The biggest thing I have realized is to not rush to compare different styles and genres of theatre, as well as everything that comes with it. Learning to appreciate everything for it's differences and similarities, much like anything in life.
Without learning about the origins of Greek Theatre, or Minstrel Shows, or the life of Stephen Sondheim, we wouldn't have what we know today as the Musical Theatre lifestyle that we love and live for.
The history of anything takes more than just a few steps, it takes an entire set of stairs to build up to what the present holds, and what the future promises.
At the beginning of this semester, we were asked as a class: "What is Theatre?" Naturally this sparked a debate as obviously musicals and plays fit into the category, but other events that are theatrical in own manner could be debated to fit the definition of theatre. As a part of the Practice blog post, I wrote that "arguably, [theatre] could be anything you want it to be. But I think if we examine theatrical elements and determine what is crucial to most pieces of theatre, we may be able to be closer to defining the ever-undefinable art of theatre." (To view the entire blog post, go here.) Now that we are at the end of the semester, I feel as though I still agree with this statement.
We have traveled through the many eras of theatre, but one thing remains true: Theatre is about sharing the art of humanity with society and taking influences from society and integrating it. From Thespis stepping out of the Dithyrambic chorus and becoming the first actor to the introduction of the proscenium arch in the Italian Renaissance to Agnes DeMille's choreography in Oklahoma!, theatre continues to shape itself and redefine itself. It acts as a mirror to societies values and stories; the showgirls in the Ziegfeld Follies might not have been as popular in the time of Plautus' comedies, but in their respective eras, they were a hit simply because it was the sort of entertainment that the public was looking for. Theatre is a shared experience. The performers and the artists assemble to inspire the audiences, and the audiences and the general public inspire the artists to create these stories. In the theatre, the energy of the audience and the actors is shared infectiously. Theatre teaches us how to observe others and really listen. It shares ideas and stories.
One of the theatrical elements that I think really defines theatre is one that Peter Brook declared. It is that there must be an agreement between the artists and the audience that a theatrical event is taking place. After all, two people can't share if only one of them knows that they are sharing. So let's share.
This question has always struck me as unusual- because, theatre is theatre, how could it possibly be anything else? Yes of course, there's the argument that things that are theatrical in nature could in fact be identified as theatre, but I just don't agree.
All year we have been studying Musical Theatre History. I feel that everything that we touched on: from Greek tragedies, to Operetta, to the book musicals of today, can be fully and unquestionably considered to be theatre. I feel like instead of broadening my views on the definition of theatre, the things we have learned this semester actually narrowed them. At the beginning of the semester I believed that most things could be considered to be theatre, if there was some sort of spectacle and spectatorship involved, but now, I'm not so sure. Certainly the phenomenon of gladiators influenced the development of what theatre is today, but if it is theatre, then a hockey game could be called theatre, and that's just something I can't agree with. Because we didn't really study gladiators and hockey players did we? We studied playwrights and opera singers and the Quem quaeritis tropes. Those are all things that I would consider to be theatre. Or at least steps toward it.
I don't think this new perspective is narrow-minded in any way. It really just comes down to personal opinion, and I think that theatre in its true form was revealed to us through the things that we have learned throughout the semester.
So to conclude...
Theatre:
Not theatre:
Hello! So I am not entirely sure what I am supposed to do for this post but here is what I think I was asked for... Funnily enough I feel that our first class involving our obnoxious discussion about, "What is Theatre?" gave us an amazing insight into the link between each topic we studied this semester! That link is...........EVERYTHING WE LEARNED ABOUT THIS SEMESTER HAS BEEN CONSIDERED THEATRE AT AT LEAST SOME POINT IN HISTORY!!! ...I know shocking but it's true! Due to this link I have learned that what theatre actually is definitely comes down to personal interpretation, era, personal opinion, and taste. A strong example of this is me showing my sister Kabuki theatre and her saying, and I quote, "What the f&$@ is this? Do people actually watch this stuff?", after I had just described how wonderful it was. I feel that my opinion of what theatre is has broadened simply because I now know so many different types of theatre from so many different periods in time.
As a closing statement I’d just like to say that I have had a wonderful year with all of you and that this class has been hugely complimented by all of your strong and unique personalities and incites. I could not have chosen a better class or a better to teacher to join and guide me in exploring the history of our crazy career path that is theatre. I Love you All! Break a leg next week! XOXO
after this semester I have actually changed my mind of what my definition of theatre is. I now believe that theatre is your class play/musical/orchestra/dance/ etc. type performance on a traditional stage set up with an audience. Things such as street performers, flash mobs, weddings, movies and such I view as being entertainment. I feel that entertainment is a more broad definition than theatre which is why I think it pertains better to performances that are not on your traditional stage. another reason is because if we are in the musical THEATRE program we are not learning how to do flash mobs and rehearse weddings... we are learning how to sing, dance, and act, which are your everyday theatre experiences. I believe there are many different forms of entertainment, theatre being one specific section to it all.
This is still a strange question for me. I'm one of the people who argued that darn near anything can be classified as theatre depending on the situation and the person. I still believe this strongly, and though I can understand where people from other points of view are coming from, I don't think I'm likely to change my mind, haha.
As far as what we've done this year, and how it has affected my point of view, there are quite a few things of note. For instance, I really enjoyed studying plays with their musical counterparts, and beginning to understand the tendencies that occur when a show is rewritten into a musical format. I think that, based on what we have studied this year, I have come to a few conclusions as to what these tendencies are.
1. Music is added to create a heightened mood or sense of being for the characters (as we have been told since the beginning of the year - a character sings when they mere words cannot express what they want to say). I believe this assists the audience in following a character's journey through the plot of the show.
2. In rewriting a show with music it is often the goal of the writer/directing team to create something new, or perhaps a better word is, relevant. For example, with Spring Awakening, the difference between the two versions of the show is over 100 years, and yet the issues that are raised are still valid concerns in today's modern world. The introduction of popular sounding music and adding a sort of suspension of disbelief with the sudden shifts from early 20th century speech to modern rock, I believe, makes the show more accessible to audiences today.
To end this post I think it might be prudent to examine a piece from a certain Stephen Sondheim show that we are about to audition for. "Into the Woods" is an excellent example of what I was saying above; you can't get much more classic than the fairy tales that are being told in this show. However, Mr. Sondheim and James Lapine manage to take those fairy tales and make them relevant to the audience of today by throwing them on their head in the second act, creating three dimensional characters out of what used to be sheer stereotypes, and having their actions be riddled with consequences, not at all like the classic fairy tales we grew up with.
Apologies for the awkward text at the beginning, it's not like that the whole way through I promise.
Innovations
The main realizations I had about theatre through this course are its development through innovators. The modern musical theatre show we see today is only a result of people who broke away from traditional constrictions and conventions of theatre and revolutionized aspects of theatre. Innovations through each age is what allows us to enjoy the theatre that we love to see today.
Not just acting styles has allowed for these changes. Everything from set design to the sociological aspects of societies has influenced what we see on stages today.
Italian designers such as Serlio helped to develop perspective scenery on stage and allow for new technologies in set movement. Our standard indoor theatre buildings with the proscenium arch as taken extreme changes since the times of the ancient Greeks and their huge outdoor ampitheatre.
Even the topics of shows has changed- whereas the ancient Greeks mainly wrote about god and dieties, Medeival people wrote about religion as well; in fact, the initial main purpose of theatre in this time was to affirm and establish faith throughout the society. Fast forward to 2011, and we have musicals ridiculing the Morman religion (in a charming way).
It took ALOT to create the genre of musical theatre that we love so much- it has really only come to develop in the last century. Although many things have changed since the time of the Greeks, many elements have contiued in some way. This can be seen with elements such as the stock characters in the comedies of ancient Rome. These were then rediscovered in the renaissance, and playwrights such as Moliere used this same type of stock characters in commedia de'arte. Now, it is carried over into countless shows such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
The Florentine Camarata, in an attempt to recreate Greek and Roman theatre, started developing opera which was a great influence on the development of musical theatre.
In short, I made the connection that musical theatre didn't just spring up out of nowhere from talented people such as Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwin brothers. Musical theatre is the product of human innovations through centuries and centuries, and is still a work in progress today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2ODfuMMyss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDZC5UOPb6E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s62MrU8mHx4
My notion of the definition of theatre has not changed much, if at all. It's always been a very broad term for me, and is subjective. Different things mean different things to different people, and theatre is no exception. What one may see as theatre, others may not. For me, it's such a broad term that you can't really label it. There are so many forms of theatre that weren't touched on in class that would be so exciting to explore. For example, flash mobs, human behaviour, and popular artists such as Mariah Carey. To me, allof these are things which qualify as theatre. As it is, our time together was short and we were only able to explore one of the many branches of the theatre tree. A recurring theme which popped up for me during the course was rebellion against higher powers. For Oedipus, it was fate. For Romeo and Juliet and Spring Awakening, it was the parents. For West Side Story, it was human ignorance and our own minds and preconceptions. Unfortunately, in the span of a term we can only dig so deep. Although we merely scratched the surface of available knowledge, knowing this class, I'm sure we'll keep searching.
At this time, I'd like you to click on the link below and listen to this while reading my post. I think it adds to the experience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbN0g8-zbdY
Alright guys, here we go. Theatre History is wrapping up, writing a final blog, it's time to say goodbye.
But let's all take a moment to reflect.
A big thing for me in this class that I've gained is a perspective of everything that has lead to what we call modern Musical Theatre. Seeing how theatrics from way-back-when influence our era is really quite interesting, and I think knowing how to observe and comment on these things can only further our knowledge as a unit in understanding the beast that is musical theatre.
Ah, musical theatre, it is a beautiful beast.
Has my perception on the difference between theatrical/theatre changed? Probably. I think my original view on theatre prior this class was the 'Oh, everything's theatre, because theatre is in all of us' kind of thing that you get out of fortune cookies. I do still feel that to a degree, but the more I think looking back at watching (and researching on) the projects on every era and having a few thoughts of 'Hm. I don't know if I totally think of that as 'theatre.' necessarily.' Important to theatre? Definitely. A puzzle piece to the world of theatre as we know it? I fully think so. But I see a bit more of a difference between certain things.
And hey, maybe in like, 50 years, when Joel Grey's brain has been placed in a cyborg to preserve his career forever and Phantom on Broadway has maybe, perhaps, closed, students at Cap in the year 2062 will look back at what we're doing and go 'But wait, how can you call that theatre?' And they will face that same debate on the first day of class.
But until that time, I believe we have to say goodbye.
Questions:
1.When did Oscar Hammerstein die?
-1960
2.All the awards Richard Rodgers won were collectively known as a what?
-EGOT
3.Who was Stephen Sonheim's Mentor?
-Oscar Hammerstein
4.The creators of, "The Book of Mormon", were also the creators of what TV show?
-"South Park"
....yes we did four questions...not sure if they all will be used but there they are just in case :)
Questions -
1. The ideas of the _______ _______ originated the style of music known as monody. (ANSWER - Florentine Camerata)
2. About 70% of singers in the Baroque period were men, emasculated to preserve their high voices. What were they called? (ANSWER - Castrati)
3. Who created the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (total art work) and created the Ring Cycle? (ANSWER - Richard Wagner)
