CHAPTER 5: THEATRE

“THE NOVEL IS MORE OF A WHISPER, WHEREAS THE STAGE IS A SHOUT”

-ROBERT HOLMAN
 Theatre: A building specifically design for the purpose of presenting
dramatic performances before an audience.

REPORTER: Shannon Erika Edaño

Elements of
Theatre
Performers — Performers must learn
to use both voice and body with the
necessary flexibility and control;
they must also be able to create
acceptance and the truths and traits
of the character they portray.
Elements of
Theatre
Audience — The essence of a theatre
is the interaction between the
performers and the audience.
Elements of
Theatre
Director — The director, the pivotal
element of theatre rehearses the
actors and coordinates their
performances to make certain that
they interpret the text/script
appropriately, and excitingly.
 Classifications of Directors

A.Traditional Director — adheres as close as possible to the playwright’s original

intention.
B. Virtuoso Director — uses the script only as a means to project his own ideas and
intensions, not that of the playwright’s.

Elements of
Theatre
Theatre Space (Set) — another
necessary element of a theatre is the
space which the performers and
audience come together.
Design Elements — includes costume, make up, properties, light
and sounds. Five general classification of props:
a.) Trim props
b.) Set props
c.) Hand props
d.) Prop visual effects
e.) Props sound effects
Five functions of costumes

1. To clothe the performers

2. To help prepare the mood
3. To help the project the theme
4. To set the time, place and
character relationships
5.To magnify the visual impact
functions of make-up
 Function of Props

1. It helps to make the physical,

particular facial features visible
2. It adds to the mood, theme, and visual
impact of the production
3. It helps in the portrayal of the
character’s facial features
4. It helps beautify or disguise the actors
 FUNCTIONS OF STAGE LIGHTING

1. It provides necessary visibility for

actor and audience alike
2. It helps established mood
3. It can draw and focus audience
attention, especially the spotlight
4. It can heighten realism in the
setting and performance
 5. Text / Script — the final element
essential to a theatre is the text that
is performed
 PRINCIPLES OF THEATRICAL BALANCE
- Directors give their actors the entire business, teaching them on
how to act every part of their roles
- Directors who let their actors alone

REPORTER: Val Angelo Escutin

AVENUES OF THEATRE
Avenue of the ear (auditory)
Avenue of the eye (visual)

REPORTER: Val Angelo Escutin

 DRAMA
a written work that tells a story through action and speech and is
acted out : a usually serious play, movie, or television production.

Drama has one characteristics peculiar to itself – it is written primarily

to be performed not to be read.

REPORTER: Val Angelo Escutin

 REPORTER: Jan Marie Santos

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
Plot — the sequence of events or incidents of which the
story is composed.

A. Conflict — is a clash of actions, ideas, desires or

wills.
B. Protagonist / Antagonist — a protagonist is the
main character of the story. They may be the good guy,
but sometimes they are evil. The antagonist, in
contrast, works against this mai character to stop them
from reaching their goal.
C. Artistic Unity — essentials to a good plot
D. Plot Manipulated — a good plot should not have
any unjustified or unexpected turns of twist
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
Character

A. Direct Presentation — author tells us straight

out, by exposition or analysis, or through another
person
B. Indirect Presentation — the author show us
the character in action; the reader infers what a
character is like from what she/he thinks, or says,
or does.
C. Character Types — there are different types
of characters and those are, flat characters,
round characters, stock character, static
characters, and dynamic characters.
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
Character

Theme — the controlling idea or

central insight
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA

Points of View

A. Omniscient — a story told by the author, using the

third person
B. Limited Omniscient — a story which the author
associates with a major or minor character
C. First Person — the author identifies with or
disappears in a major or minor character
D. Objective or Dramatic — the opposite of the
omniscient
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
. Symbols — a literary symbols means more
than what it is. It has layers of meanings.
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
Irony — it is used to suggest the difference
between appearance and reality, between
expectations and fulfillment, the complexity
or experience, to furnish indirectly an
evaluation of the author’s material, and at the
same time to achieve compression.
A. Verbal Irony
B. Dramatic Irony
C. Irony of situation
KINDS OF DRAMA
. Tragedy — a tragedy is the imitation in dramatic
form of an action that is serious and complete,
with incidents arousing pity and fear where it
affects a catharsis of such emotions.
Central features of the Aristotelian Archetype:

1. The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness.

2. Through the tragic hero is pre-eminently great
3. The hero’s downfall, therefore, is partially his/her own fault
4. Nevertheless the hero’s misfortune is not wholly deserved
5. Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss – though it may result in the hero’s
death, before it, there is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-
knowledge
KINDS OF DRAMA
Melodrama — arouses pity and fear
through cruder means, good and evil are
clearly depicted in white and black
motifs.nt
KINDS OF DRAMA
Farce — aimed at arousing
explosive laughter using crude
means.
ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
Character

Points of View

A. Omniscient — a story told

by the author, using the third
person
B. Limited Omniscient — a
story which the author
associates with a major or
minor character
C. First Person — the author
identifies with or disappears in
a major or minor character
D. Objective or Dramatic —
the opposite of the omniscient
HISTORY OF THEATRE
EGYPT

• The theatre history can be traced to Egyptian

religious drama, which was essentially
ritualistic (3200 BC).
• The Classical Period, (500-300 BC) during the
Age of Pericles, was considered the Golden Age
of Drama.

Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

HISTORY OF THEATRE
Western Europe

• The year 970 AD saw the earliest example of

Christian liturgical drama.
• By the year 1210 AD, priest were forbidden
to appear on public stage.

Christian liturgical drama

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

CLASSIFICATION OF
DRAMA
Tragedy — Central to the study of Tragedy is
the analysis of the Tragic Hero

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Classic Hero and
Modern Hero
Classic Hero — In Greece, a tragic hero was
presented as undergoing a cycle from renown
to adversity after he attains hubris or
alienation from the gods, largely though his
arrogance which the gods could not forgive

Oedipus

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Other classic hero
examples:
Circe
Achilles
Hercules
Romeo
Peeta
Severus Snape

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Classic Hero and
Modern Hero
Firemen

Modern Hero — The modern hero has nothing

of the qualities of the classic hero except the
nobility of the spirit.

OFW's

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Catharsis
— An element of tragedy, the Catharsis, is the
process of purging or relieving the spectator
of his burden of terrible memories, releasing
from tension and leaving him “as empty, as
changed and as sad…”
Two factors, therefore, must be present in
the audience before “catharsis” may be
achieved:
• Admiration for the hero; and
• Ability to identify with him

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Comedy
— In the study of comedy, wit and humor go
hand and hand. Humor arises from ludicrous
situations and characters. Wit, on the other
hand, arises from repartee — the give and
take conversation.

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

Types of Acting
1. Subjective School — the actor is able to
move the audience only if he himself moved.

2. Objective School — the actor must

approach his role with a cool mind, and must
not be “carried away” by his role.

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

The Actor
The essential qualities required of a good
actor are:

• Imagination — imaginative or ever creative

• Mobility of Inner Constitution — knowing
what is illusion and reality

REPORTER: Orlando Manaog

FILIPINO THEATRE-Brief Survey

- Pre-Colonial Period Theater in the

Philippines traces it’s roots to the indigenous
culture before the arrival of the Spaniards.

- The early forms were in the nature of

animistic and religious rituals but there soon
developed formal theatrical forms for
entertainment.
FILIPINO THEATRE-Brief Survey

Religious rituals
FILIPINO THEATRE-Brief Survey

The Duplo and Karagatan were described by Eric David as “gamed of wit.., consisting of
a verbal battle and riddles and usually played during wakes for the deceased.”

The Carillo was a shadow play in which puppet-like cardboard figures were handled
and moved before a lightened lamp behind a white sheet.

The Puteje was a common form of entertainment among the Chinese laborers.
Spanish and Early American
Periods
Theatrical forms were strongly influenced by the Christian religion introduced by the
Spanish missionaries.

The Panuluyan enacts the plight of Mary and Joseph in their search for shelter during
the night they were in Bethlehem.

The Salubong enacts the meeting of Mary and Jesus on the dawn of his Resurrection.

The Cenaculo is a passion play reenacting the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.
Professor Dionisio Salazar adds
the following forms:

The Pangaluluwa, meaning “for the soul”, is a tradition wherein a group of singers goes
from house to house on the night of November 1st.

The Tibag, which is performed during the months of April and May, depicts the search
for Helen (Elena), mother of Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor, for the true cross
on which Christ was crucified.

Santacruzan which is a procession held in May to commemorate the findings of the

Cross by Queen Helen.

Moriones depicts the story of the blind centurion (Morion) Longinus whose blindness is
miraculously healed by a drop of blood from the side of the crucified Jesus.
Professor Dionisio Salazar adds
the following forms:

The Moro-Moro was originated in 1637 from a mock battle reenacted by a group of boys
between “Christians” and “Moros”. Moro was also called a Comedia. The subject of the
moro-moro was later extended to include Mohammedan and Christian royalty in
imaginary European kingdoms.

The Zarzuela is a play that combines dialogue with music, songs, and dances.
American Period

During the first decades of the American occupation, patriotic writers wrote seditious
anti-American literature, many in the form of Zarzuelas which hid their nationalistic
messages through symbolism (talinghaga).

The popularity of the zarzuelas warned with the coming of the movies and other
modern entertainment media.
Nationalistic Plays

Aurelio Tolentino’s Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas attacked the American occupation and
ended it with a scene depicting a revolutionary victory.

After the arrival of the Thomasites, plays in English were introduced but largely for
language improvement rather than for theater development.
 Japanese Period (1941 – 1944)

During the Japanese occupation (1942 –

1945), only propaganda pictures that
glorified the Japanese “Greater East Asia
Co Prosperity; sphere” policy were shown
in theaters.

Stage play were produced but most of

them were written by the director
themselves.
 FILIPINO POETRY DURING THIS PERIOD
The common theme of most poems during the Japanese occupation was nationalism, country,
love, and life in the barrios, faith, religion and the arts.

Three types of poems emerged during this period.

They were:

1. Haiku – a poem of free verse that the Japanese like. It was made up of 17 syllables divided into
three lines. The first line had 5 syllables, the second, 7 syllables, and the third, five. The Haiku is
allegorical in meaning, is short and covers a wide scope in meaning.

2.Tanaga – like the Haiku, is short but it had measure and rhyme. Each line had 17 syllables and
it’s also allegorical in meaning.
 Post War (1946-to present)

Efforts to rebuild the cultural fabric of civilization after the devastation of World War II led to a
rethinking of the role of theatre in the new society. Competing with the technical refinements of
motion pictures, radio, and television (all of which were offering drama), the live theatre had to
rediscover what it could give to the community that the mass media could not. In one direction,
this led to a search for a “popular” theatre that would embrace the whole community, just as the
Greek theatre and the Elizabethan theatre had done.
 Avant-garde experiments

The epic theatre of Brecht

Although Bertolt Brecht wrote his first plays in
Germany during the 1920s, he was not widely
known until much later. Eventually his theories
of stage presentation exerted more influence on
the course of mid-century theatre in the West
than did those of any other individual. This was
largely because he proposed the major
alternative to the Stanislavsky-oriented realism
that dominated acting and the “well-made
play” construction that dominated playwriting.
 Theatre of Fact

A more uncompromising method of bringing social issues to the stage was Documentary Theatre,
or the Theatre of Fact. In this case, the presentation of factual information usually took
precedence over aesthetic considerations. Coming out of the social protest movement that arose
during the years of depression in the 1930s, a unit of the WPA Federal Theatre Project in the
United States adopted what it called a Living Newspaper technique, taking inspiration from
motion pictures (especially in the use of short scenes) to present highlighted versions of
contemporary problems.
 Theatre of the Absurd

The postwar mood of disillusionment and skepticism was expressed by a number of foreign
playwrights living in Paris. Although they did not consider themselves as belonging to a formal
movement, they shared a belief that human life was essentially without meaning or purpose and
that valid communication was no longer possible. The human condition, they felt, had sunk to a
state of absurdity (the term was used most prominently by the French Existentialist novelist and
philosopher Albert Camus).
 Theatre of Cruelty

During the early 1930s, the French dramatist and actor Antonin Artaud put forth a theory for a
Surrealist theatre called the Theatre of Cruelty. Based on ritual and fantasy, this form of theatre
launched an attack on the spectators’ subconscious in an attempt to release deep-rooted fears
and anxieties that are normally suppressed, forcing people to view themselves and their natures
without the shield of civilization. In order to shock the audience and thus evoke the necessary
response, the extremes of human nature (often madness and perversion) were graphically
portrayed on stage.
 Poor theatre

In terms of furthering the actor’s technique, the Polish director Jerzy Grotowski, together with
Stanislavsky and Brecht, were the key figures of the 20th century. Grotowski first became
internationally known when his Laboratory Theatre, established in Opole, Pol., in 1959,
triumphantly toured Europe and the United States during the mid-1960s. His influence was
further enhanced by the publication of his theoretical pronouncements in Towards a Poor Theatre
(1968). Grotowski shared many ideas with Artaud (though the connection was initially
coincidental), especially in the conception of the performer as a “holy actor” and the theatre as a
“secular religion.”
 Broadway

Broadway, the street running the length of Manhattan in New York City, has been associated with
American theatrical activity since 1735, when the first theatre opened on the street. By the end of
the 20th century, the word Broadway had come to refer to a theatrical district in New York (which
included Broadway itself as well as the side streets from Times Square to 53rd Street), a category
(a theatre with more than 500 seats), and a sensibility (commercial theatre run strictly for profit).
Throughout the century, however, the word was most closely associated with the American
musical.
Problems in Philippine Theater

- The Pandemic Present: Notetaking in Crisis

- The Status Quo of (Neo-)Colonialism and Inequality
- The Case of the Missing Audience
- The (Un)necessary Critic
- The Status Quo of Staying Small
THAT'S ALL!
SALAMAT! THANKS