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Theatre: A Way of Seeing 7th Edition

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C ontents vii

The Living Theatre 62


The Brig 62
The Living Theatre on Tour 64
Théâtre du Soleil 65
Ariane Mnouchkine’s Environmental Space 65
Les Atrides 67
The Bread and Puppet Theatre 68
Peter Schumann’s Open-Air Performances 68
Domestic Resurrection Circus 68
The Free Southern Theater 70
In White America 71

PART Two: Playwrights, Perspectives, and Forms

4: Image Maker: The Playwright 77


The Play and the Audience 77
The Play: A “Blueprint of a House Not Yet Built” 79
The Playwright’s Beginnings 80
The Playwright’s Role 81
The Playwright’s Tools 84
The Playwright’s Industry 90
New American Writing: Alternative Voices 92
Gay and Lesbian Writing 92
African American Writing 92
Asian American Writing 96
U.S. Latino/a Writing 97

5: Theatrical Writing: Perspectives and Forms 103


Drama’s Perspectives 103
Tragedy 104
The Tragic Vision 104
The Tragic Realization 104
Aristotle on Tragedy 104
Euripides’s Medea as Tragedy 107
Comedy 107
The Comic Vision 108
Tragicomedy 110
Definitions 110
Modern Tragicomedy 112
Modern “American” Tragicomedy 113
Melodrama 114
The Mixed Form 114
Melodrama’s View of Life 116

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viii C ontents

Farce 116
The “Psychology” of Farce 117
Society’s Safety Valve 118
Epic Theatre 122
The Epic Play 122
Epic Theatre as Eyewitness Account 122
The Alienation Effect 125
Absurdist Theatre 125
The Absurd 126
The “American” Absurd 127

6: Structures of Seeing 131


The Playwright’s Art 131
Drama as Imitation 131
Drama’s Elements 132
Time—Actual and Symbolic 133
Play Structures 134
Climactic Structure 134
Episodic Structure 136
Situational Structure 137
Monodrama 139
Recent Structures 140
Solo Texts and Performance Art 140
Postmodern Texts 148
Theatre of Images 150
Visual and Audio Texts 151

7: Drama’s Conventions 157


Writing Strategies 157
Stage Directions 157
Exposition 161
Point of Attack 162
Complication, Crisis, Climax 163
Resolutions or Endings 164
Simultaneous Plots 164
Conventions of Time 165
Dramatic vs. Actual Time 165
Conventions of Metaphor 166
The Play-Within-the-Play 167

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C ontents ix

8: Stage Language 175


Language for the Theatre 176
Words and Gestures 176
Verbal and Nonverbal Language 177
Types of Stage Language 178
Shakespeare’s Verse 179
Sounds and Silences 181
Brecht’s Gestic Language 183
Contemporary Trends in American Theatre 185
Influences: Artaud’s “Theatre of Cruelty” 185
David Mamet’s Wordsmiths 186
Sam Shepard’s Magical Realism 187

PART THREE: Theatre’s Practitioners

9: Image Maker: The Actor 193


Acting—As Imagination and Technique 193
Acting Is Doing 193
The Actor’s Reality 195
External Technique 196
Internal Belief 198
The Actor’s Tools 199
The Actor’s Training 199
Preparing the Role 200
Trends in Training American Actors 203
Sanford Meisner’s Foundations 204
“Practical Aesthetics” with David Mamet and William H. Macy 204
Anne Bogart’s “Viewpoints” 205
Actors at Work 207
Auditions 207
Improvisations, Exercises, and Games 207
Movement and Voice Training 209
Rehearsals and Performance 212
Acting with the Camera 213

10: Image Maker: The Director 219


Forerunners 219
Director as Artist 222
Peter Brook and The Mahabharata 225
Directors at Work 228
Early Responsibilities 228
Auditions and Casting 229

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x C ontents

Design Conferences 229


Director’s Assistants 231
Staging: Approaches and Styles 232
Preplanned Approach 236
Collaborative Approach 236
Director as Auteur 237
Julie Taymor, Martha Clarke, Robert Lepage 237

11: Image Makers: Designers 245


Scenery, Costumes, Makeup, Masks, Wigs, and Puppets 245
The Scene Designer 245
Background 245
Stage Design—as Visual Story-Telling 249
Advances in Stage Technology 253
The Costume Designer 253
The Costume 254
The Designer’s Process and Conferences 256
Costume Construction 258
Dress Rehearsal and Wardrobe Personnel 259
Makeup, Wigs, Masks, and Puppets 260
Makeup 260
Wigs 261
Masks 262
Puppets 263

12: Image Makers: Designers Lighting


and Sound 267
The Lighting Designer 267
Background 267
The Art of Light 270
The Designer’s Process 270
The Designer’s Working Methods: Plotting, Focusing,
and Cueing 272
Special Lighting Effects 274
The Designer’s Assistants 275
The Sound Designer 275
The Art of Theatrical Sound 275
The Designer’s Working Methods 279
Special Effects with Sound 280
Computer-Aided Design for Scenery, Costumes,
Lighting, Sound 281
Technical Production 282
The Production Team 282
Technical Assistants and Running Crews 284

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C ontents xi

13: Image Makers: Producers 289


Producing on Broadway 289
The Broadway Producer 289
The Broadway Option 290
Associations and Craft Unions 292
Casting 294
The Agent 296
Previews and Out-of-Town-Tryouts 296
Broadway Openings and After 297
Producing Off Broadway 298
Producing in Regional Theatres 299
Staging Diversity 304
African American Companies 304
Asian American Companies 307
Latino/Hispanic/Mexican American Companies 308
Native American Companies 310

PART FOUR: American Musical Theatre

14: The American Musical 315


Musical Books, Composers, Lyricists, Choreographers,
and Megamusicals 315
Precedents 315
An American Musical Idiom 317
Post–Second World War Musical Theatre 319
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II’s Oklahoma! 319
Musical Theatre at Mid-Century 321
Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story 323
Sixties Alternatives to Broadway Musicals 324
MacDermott, Ragni, and Rado’s Hair 324
New Directions 325
The Concept Musicals 325
Rock Opera—Jonathan Larson’s Rent 327
British Megamusicals 328
Cameron Mackintosh’s Miss Saigon 329
Broadway’s Audiences 331

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xii C ontents

PART FIVE: Theatre’s Critics

15: Viewpoints 335


Criticism 335
Seeing Theatre 336
Audience as Critic 336
Audience Viewpoints—Human Significance, Social Significance,
Aesthetic Significance, and Entertainment 337
The Professional Critic 340
The Critic’s Job 340
The Critic’s Creativity 342
The Critic’s Questions 342
Performance/Production Notes 343
Theatre Scholarship 344
Modern Pathfinders Among Theatre Critics 344
Critical Standards 349

Notes 352
Glossary 359
Index 373

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Features
Focus on People in Theatre
Actors
Mei Lanfang 42

Actor-Manager
Caroline Neuber 220

Choreographer
Agnes de Mille 322

Composers and Lyricists


Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II 321
Stephen Sondheim 326

Creator
Julie Taymor 237

Designers
Adolphe Appia and Edward Gordon Craig (Set Design) 247
Ming Cho Lee and John Lee Beatty (Set Design) 251
Jane Greenwood and William Ivey Long (Costume) 255
Theoni V. Aldredge (Costume) 256
Susan Hilferty (Costume) 257
Paul Huntley (Wig and Hair) 261
Jennifer Tipton (Lighting) 269
Jules Fisher, Peggy Eisenhauer, and Natasha Katz (Lighting) 271
Abe Jacob (Sound) 277
Jonathan Deans (Sound) 279

Directors
Jerzy Grotowski 59
Ariane Mnouchkine 66
Elia Kazan 224
Peter Brook 226

Directors-Choreographers
Martha Clarke and Robert Lepage 241

Director-Teacher
Anne Bogart 206

xiii

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xiv F eatures

Founding Artistic Director


James Houghton 304

Performance Artists
Anna Deavere Smith 144

Playwrights
Aeschylus and the Athenian Festivals 27
William Shakespeare 32
Tang Xianzu 40
Chikamatsu Monzaemon 45
Kalidasa 51
Edward Albee 81
Sam Shepard 83
David Mamet 86
Tennessee Williams 88
August Wilson 89
Arthur Miller 91
Paula Vogel 93
Lorraine Hansberry 94
Suzan-Lori Parks 95
David Henry Hwang 97
Euripides 106
Molière 109
Samuel Beckett 112
Tony Kushner 113
Bertolt Brecht 121
Eugène Ionesco 126
Henrik Ibsen 134
Luigi Pirandello 168
Anton Chekhov 181

Playwrights’ Agent
Audrey Wood 296

Playwright-Director-Designer
Robert Wilson 151

Producers
Jeffrey Richards and Daryl Roth 293

Producer-Director
André Antoine 221
Konstantin Stanislavski 221

Puppeteers
Peter Schumann 69

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F eatures xv

Focus on Theatre

Audience Viewpoints: Audience as Motley Crew 7


Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot 15
Tropes 28
The Globe Restored 33
Audience Viewpoints: London’s New Globe 34
Islamic Traditions of the Middle East 50
Natyasastra 51
Julian Beck and Judith Malina: The Living Theatre 63
Cofounders of the Free Southern Theater:
Gilbert Moses III, John O’Neal, and Doris Derby 71
María Irene Fornés and Nilo Cruz 98
Sophocles’s Oedipus the King 105
Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters 111
Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes 115
Stage Adaptations 120
Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo 124
Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano 127
Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle 137
Samuel Beckett’s Rockaby 140
Performance Diversity: Karen Finley, Eve Ensler, Holly Hughes,
Lohn Leguizamo, Guillermo Gómez-Peña 146
Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire 159
Euripides’s Prologue in The Trojan Women 161
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth 163
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet 165
Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard 182
Anton Chekhov’s Sound Effects in The Cherry Orchard 183
Uta Hagen “Preparing” the Role of Blanche DuBois 202
Lee Strasberg and The Actors Studio 203
Atlantic Theatre Company 204
Open Calls 208
Jewel Walker and Movement Training 208
Four Pillars of Voice Training: Cicely Berry, Catherine
Fitzmaurice, Kristen Linklater, Patsy Rodenberg 212
Actors’ Equity Association 214
Elia Kazan’s Notebook for A Streetcar Named Desire 223
The Mahabharata 227

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xvi F eatures

Stage Vocabulary 228


Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers 232
Directors on Directing: Robert Falls, Elizabeth LeCompte,
Mike Nichols, Dan Sullivan 233
Artistic Directors in Today’s Regional Theatres: Susan V. Booth,
Martha Levy, Emily Mann, Diane Paulus, Carey Perloff,
Olga Sanchez, Molly Smith 235
Designs for Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children 248
Mielziner’s Design for Death of a Salesman 250
Women Designers: Heidi Ettinger, Anna Louizos 252
Costume Construction at Tricorne Studios, New York City:
Katherine Marshall 259
Jennifer Tipton 270
Mary Louise Geiger 272
Robert Wierzel’s Lighting for The Cherry Orchard 273
Theatrical Instruments for Stage Lighting 274
Sound Effects 278
Laurie Anderson and Moby Dick 280
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) 283
Actors’ Equity Association Contracts 294
Literary Management and Literary Managers 305
Hip-Hop Expressions 306
Vaudeville 318
Bob Fosse’s Chicago 325
Recent American Choreographers-Directors: Susan Stroman,
Casey Nicholaw 328
Musical Theatre Creators: Sir Cameron Mackintosh and
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber 330
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman 338
Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika 339
Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie 341
Brooks Atkinson on Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire 345
Claudia Cassidy on Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie 346
Edith Oliver on David Mamet’s American Buffalo 347
Today’s Critics at Work: Ben Brantley and Charles Isherwood,
Chris Jones, Misha Berson, Linda Winer 348
Writing the Theatre Review 349

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F eatures xvii

Focus on Plays

Theatre and Life 9


David Ives’s Venus in Fur 118
Eugène Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano 138
“Stage Directions” in Shakespeare’s Hamlet 160
Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author (with text) 168
Michael Frayn’s Noises Off 170
Soliloquy in Shakespeare’s Hamlet 180
David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (with text) 187

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Preface

T
heatre as a way of seeing is the subject of this book. Theatre, a complex and
­living art, requires a number of people engaged in the creative process to craft
and sustain this vibrant form of artistic expression. Many individuals—writers,
actors, directors, designers, choreographers, technicians, craftspeople, managers,
and producers—contribute to the creation of this performing art that has e­ ndured
for 2,500 years.
In the creation of a theatrical event, writers and artists devise a form of theatrical
art for others to watch, experience, feel, and understand. Chiefly through the actor’s
presence, theatre becomes humanness, aliveness, and experience. As such, theatre does
not exist in any book, for books can only describe the passion, wisdom, and excitement
that derive from experiencing theatre’s stories, colors, sounds, and motion.

Features of This Book


This edition of Theatre: A Way of Seeing discusses theatre as a composite experience
of art, life, and the human imagination. Arranged in fifteen chapters, the discussions
include spaces, artists, audiences, plays, designs, staging, styles, productions, perfor-
mances, and theatrical criticism. Chapters 1–3 address the complex answer to the
question: What is theatre? And, who contributes to this collaborative form of artistic
expression? These chapters include discussions of aesthetics, theatrical spaces, audi-
ence expectations, dramatic writing, the artistic process, and stage conventions. Chap-
ters 4–8 discuss playwrights, writing styles, structures, conventions, and language,
with examples taken from classical, Elizabethan, modern, and postmodern texts.
Chapters 9–13 examine the contributions of artists and producers to the theatrical
event. Chapter 14 introduces the musical, the most popular of American theatrical
genres, and Chapter 15 examines the influence of theatre critics on the life of produc-
tions and audience attendance.

• Cultural diversity. Cultural diversity and intercultural expressions of world


theatre are threads woven throughout the fifteen chapters. Western and Eastern
cultural and theatrical traditions, stages, and architecture are presented in their
historical and present-day contexts. Given the fact that so much has taken place
in the theatre of the United States since the mid-twentieth century, discussions
about the artistic expressions of emerging American playwrights, performers,
and solo artists dedicated to cultural and ethnic diversity are also woven
throughout the book.
• Artists’ insights. All discussions are supported by the insights of writers and
artists talking about their work, texts and scenes from plays, biographical
sketches, diagrams and definitions, and colorful photographs of Eastern and
Western stages and productions. Of course, none of these discussions takes the

xviii

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P reface xix

place of sitting with others in a theatre and experiencing the actors, texts, sets,
costumes, lights, music, and sound effects in a carefully crafted event
demonstrating the human imagination in its theatrical form.
• Model plays. Written as an introduction to the theatrical experience, Theatre: A
Way of Seeing introduces readers to theatre as a way of seeing women and men
in action in the creation of onstage reality and theatrical worlds. After all,
Shakespeare said that “All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women
merely players . . .” (As You Like It). To assist readers discovering theatre for the
first time and perhaps even attending their first performances, this edition
features a number of “model” plays as examples of trends, styles, and forms of
theatrical production. They range from ancient playwrights to postmodern
writers and include such plays as Oedipus the King, Macbeth, The Cherry
Orchard, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named
Desire, Death of a Salesman, The Life of Galileo, Fences, Juan Darién, the CIVIL
warS, and Glengarry Glen Ross. The musical stage is represented by such
musicals as Oklahoma!, West Side Story, Hair, and Miss Saigon. Each of these
plays has a special place in the ongoing history of theatrical writing and
performance. From Sophocles’s Oedipus the King to Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America, these model plays represent the extraordinary range and magnitude of
human expression as theatrical achievement.
• Texts of several plays. In addition, abbreviated texts of several plays are
included to illustrate styles and conventions of theatrical writing. Excerpts and
scenes from Euripides’s The Trojan Women, William Shakespeare’s As You Like
It, Hamlet, and Macbeth, Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Luigi
Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Bertolt Brecht’s The
Caucasian Chalk Circle, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Tennessee
Williams’s The Glass Menagerie and A Streetcar Named Desire, Arthur Miller’s
Death of a Salesman, August Wilson’s Fences, Tony Kushner’s Angels in
America, and David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross are included.
• Detailed discussions of artists and craftspeople. This new edition also features
expanded discussions of the artists and craftspeople who engage in making
theatre come alive: stage directors and auteurs (Anne Bogart, Peter Brook,
Martha Clarke, Jerzy Grotowski, Elia Kazan, Ariane Mnouchkine, John O’Neal,
Robert Lepage, Andrei Serban, Peter Schumann, Julie Taymor, and Robert
Wilson); playwrights, choreographers, and solo performers; composers and
librettists; producers and artistic directors; dramaturgs and literary managers,
actor-voice-and-movement trainers and coaches; and theatrical designers and
production teams. Moreover, new color photographs illustrate ancient and
modern stages, theatrical designs, international productions, and celebrated
performances.
• Tools to clarify theatre details. There are also tools to clarify details of theatre
history, biography, modern stage history, and terms that belong to the business
of theatre. Synopses of the model plays along with short biographies of

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
xx P reface

playwrights, actors, directors, designers, composers, librettists, producers, and


critics parallel the discussions. End-of-chapter features include a list of theatrical
terms, websites for research and entertainment, and a list of InfoTrac® College
Edition search terms students can use for further reading and to help them
research supporting materials for written assignments. A glossary at the end of
the book defines key terms to assist the reader.

Finally, Theatre: A Way of Seeing is by no means a definitive treatment of theatre


practice, history, or literature. Its aim is to put readers in touch with theatre as a
performing art and humanistic event. Most important, it introduces theatre as an
immediate experience, engaging actors and audiences for a brief time in a special
place. The Greeks called that special place—where audiences sat to watch perfor-
mances—a theatron, or “seeing place.” The idea of the “seeing place” has been our
guide as readers and theatregoers to understanding and enjoying theatrical writing
and performance.

In This New Edition


• Chapters have been revised to incorporate new subjects, artists, productions,
and photographs. Key topics include discussions of the emergence of women
artistic leaders in the nonprofit and regional theatres, new trends in stage
adaptations, alternative voices to mainstream playwrights, and performance
diversity. A discussion of “theatre as a way of seeing” introduces the book
(Chapter 1). The section on Eastern theatre practices includes their influences
on staging and design in Western theatre (Chapter 2). Discussion of
environmental theatre traces the international movement in the use of
alternative playing spaces from the Polish Laboratory Theatre to the Bread and
Puppet Theatre in Vermont (Chapter 3). The overview of solo texts and
performance art includes Spalding Gray, Anna Deavere Smith, and others
(Chapter 6). Analyses of play structures, stage conventions, and language are
found in chapters (Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), along with examples from plays by
William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekhov, Luigi Pirandello, Bertolt
Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, David Mamet, Paula Vogel, Robert
Wilson. Also included are solo texts and postmodern visual and audio texts. The
chapters on theatrical design have been expanded to include the emergence of
women-designers in the commercial theatre, and the increasing use of puppetry
in design and staging (Chapters 11, 12). The chapter on producers features the
new producers and the choreographer-directors who are shaping American
drama and musicals along with the new producing organizations whose
purpose is to bring diversity onto America’s stages (Chapters 13, 14). Finally,
the chapter on theatre criticism ranges from pioneering critics (Brooks
Atkinson, Claudia Cassidy, Edith Oliver) to an expanded list of national critics
who influence the audience interest in shows from Chicago to Seattle to the
Web (Chapter 15).

Copyright 201 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
P reface xxi

• A chapter on musical theatre discusses American musicals, composers,


librettists, and the new choreographers-directors; British megamusicals on
Broadway; and Broadway audiences (Chapter 14).
• Issues of cultural and ethnic diversity in performance have been incorporated
throughout to illustrate this dynamic at work in world theatre. The section on
writing and staging diversity in U.S. theatres has been incorporated in the
discussions of alternative writing for the theatre and producing in nonprofit
regional theatres (Chapters 4, 13).
• Expanded discussions of audiences, types of playwriting, visual and audio
texts, and actor-training in America are included throughout.
• Examples of artists, writing, and performance styles have been updated. For
instance, audition and casting issues are examined from the actor’s and the
director’s perspective (Chapters 9 and 10); and discussions of the work of
August Wilson, Edward Albee, Suzan-Lori Parks, Nilo Cruz, David Henry
Hwang, David Ives, Lynn Nottage, and Tony Kushner are found in the chapter
on playwriting (Chapter 4).
• Feature and margin boxes have been added, rearranged, and updated to
complement ongoing discussions of playwrights, artists, creative teams,
producers, staging conventions, hip hop expressions, and theatrical business,
such as “open calls.”
• Moreover, a greater number of colorful photographs of artists and productions
are incorporated throughout to illustrate with visual images the artists and
productions being discussed.
• Finally, suggested readings and reference sources have been moved to the
book’s companion website.

Supplementary Materials
The seventh edition of Theatre: A Way of Seeing is accompanied by a suite of inte-
grated resources for students and instructors.

Student Resources
• Theatre CourseMate Cengage Learning’s Theatre CourseMate brings course
concepts to life with interactive learning, study, and exam preparation tools that
support the printed textbook. Watch student comprehension soar as your class
works with the printed textbook and the textbook-specific website. Theatre
CourseMate goes beyond the book to deliver what you need! Learn more at
cengage.com/coursemate.
• Theatregoer’s Guide This brief introduction to attending and critiquing drama
enhances the novice theatregoer’s experience and appreciation of theatre as a
living art. This essential guide can be packaged for free with this text.

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xxii P reface

Instructor Resources
• Instructor’s Resource Manual This guide is designed for beginning as well as
seasoned instructors. It includes suggested course syllabi and schedules,
teaching ideas, chapter objectives, lecture outlines, discussion questions and
activities, and test questions for each chapter.
• Cognero Online Testing Program Theatre: A Way of Seeing 7e provides a flexible
online testing system that allows you to author, edit, and manage the author
created test bank content. You can create multiple test versions instantly and
deliver them through your Learning Management System from your classroom,
or wherever you may be with no special installs or downloads.
• Evans Shakespeare Editions Each volume of the Evans Shakespeare Editions is
edited by a Shakespearean scholar. The pedagogy is designed to help students
contextualize Renaissance drama, while providing explanatory notes to each
play. The plays included in the series are The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, As You Like It, Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Measure for Measure, The
Winter’s Tale, and King Lear. These critical editions can be packaged with a
Cengage Learning theatre title. Consult your local sales representative for
packaging options.
• A Pocketful of Plays: Vintage Drama This selection of some of the most
commonly taught plays satisfies the need for a concise, quality collection that
students will find inexpensive and that instructors will enjoy teaching. The
plays include source materials to encourage further discussion and analysis, as
well as comments, biographical and critical commentaries, and reviews of
actual productions. The plays featured in the book are Susan Glaspell’s Trifles,
Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Henrik Ibsen’s A
Doll’s House, Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, and Lorraine
Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. Consult your local sales representative for
packaging options.

Acknowledgments
My thanks are due to friends and colleagues for their encouragement and assistance
in the preparation of the previous and current revisions of this book. Those who as-
sisted and advised on the seventh edition are designers, directors, scholars, teachers,
critics, agents, managers, and editors. It is important to mention the contributions of
Judy Adamson, Costume Director, PlayMakers Repertory Company, NC; McKay Coble,
Designer, PlayMakers Repertory Company, NC; Bill Clarke, New York-based set and
costume designer; F. Mitchell Dana, lighting designer and Professor at the Mason
Gross School of Arts, Rutgers University, NJ; Mary Louise Geiger, Arts Professor and
Associate Chairman of the Department of Design for Stage and Film, New York Uni-
versity; Alexis Greene, New York-based author, editor, and critic; Kimball King, Profes-
sor Emeritus of English, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Mary Porter Hall,
production stage manager for Fosse; Carrie F. Robbins, costume designer for M. But-
tefly and Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Tazewell Thompson, director of Porgy and

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
P reface xxiii

Bess, City Center Opera Company, New York City; and Liz Woodman, Casting Director,
C.S.A., New York City. Those who suggested useful revisions incorporated in this new
edition were Carey Hansen, University of Mississippi, Oxford; Christopher J. Herr,
Missouri State University; Tracy L. McAfee, Washington State Community College,
Marietta, OH; Jay Malarcher, West Virginia University, Morgantown; Kevin Malloy,
University of Mississippi, Oxford; Donald Stevens, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston;
and Daniel Volonte, Citrus College, Glendora, CA.
Also, my special thanks to the Cengage Learning team for their efforts on behalf of
the seventh edition of Theatre: A Way of Seeing: Michael A. Rosenberg, Publisher
Humanities; Megan Garvey, Managing Development Editor; Rebecca Donahue, Content
Coordinator; Jessica Badiner, media developer; Ben Rivera, executive brand manager;
Michael Lepera, senior content production manager; Paul Blake and Scott Dunay for
G&S Book Services; and Linda Sykes, photograph researcher.
Rhona Justice-Malloy has served as consultant on this seventh edition. She brings
her background as editor of Theatre History Studies, former chairwoman of the The-
atre Department, and Professor of Theatre at the University of Mississippi, Oxford. She
has brought thoughtful suggestions, skillful editing, and useful revisions to this new
edition. She is a colleague to be praised for her knowledge of theatre history, her com-
mitment to excellence in research and writing, and for her friendship as a colleague
and collaborator.
Again, my special appreciation to Linda Sykes for undertaking another edition
of Theatre: A Way of Seeing and for her patience and persistence in the collection
of remarkable images to illustrate the theatrical experience over several editions of
this book.
Milly S. Barranger

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
© Joan Marcus

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Discovering
1
Theatre
I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst
1
someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.
— Peter Brook, The Empty Space

THE IMMEDIATE ART


Theatre is a form of art and entertainment that places actors before a group
of people—an audience—in an act of engagement and discovery about life.
Theatrical performances have taken place for thousands of years and in
P r e v i e w
almost all world cultures with few exceptions. The great societies of
Europe, China, and India first nurtured theatre as a means of gathering While we are watching,
citizens together to celebrate civic accomplishments, warn of personal men and women make
errors, or ridicule society’s fools. In doing so, ancient civilizations in the
theatre happen before
East and West created dramatic art and stage traditions lasting centuries.
us. We see human
Definitions beings in action—what
they do and why they
Since early times, immediacy and presence have set theatrical art apart
from other forms of art. For theatre to happen, actors and audiences must do it—and we discover
come together at a certain time and in a certain place. On a stage, or in things about ourselves
a prearranged space, actors present themselves to an audience in a story and our world.
involving intensely personal aspects of human behavior. Audiences
share in the story and the occasion. They actively listen, gather informa-
tion, feel emotions, and respond to events taking place before them dur-
ing the performance. Audiences are not passive observers. They engage
as responders to the words, music, song, and spectacle created by the

The musical Wicked, a revisionist look at The Wizard of Oz with music and
book by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman, has enchanted audiences
since its Broadway opening in 2003. By featuring Glinda, the “Good Witch,”
and her rival the “Wicked Witch of the West,” audiences rediscover this tale
of discrimination based on superficial features (“green skin”) and the
triumph of inner truth over appearances.

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Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
Women wore sandals or low shoes. Black was the usual color for
foot-coverings, but gay colors were worn by women and young men.
The warm climate and custom permitted people often to dispense
with shoes in the house, and working-men went barefoot.

FIG. 69. GREEK SANDAL


FIG. 70. GREEK JEWELRY

The hair was worn long by men until the fifth century, and the
Spartans and Athenian gentlemen who admired Spartan ways
continued the fashion. It was sometimes allowed to fall on the
shoulders in curls or braids, but was more frequently braided in two
plaits and wound around the head, or made into a sort of roll at the
back and fastened by a gold pin. In the sixth century men wore
pointed beards without moustaches, but later it became customary to
shave the entire face, though short beards and moustaches were
worn by older men. A warrior arming, on an amphora on the bottom
of Case 4, has a pointed beard and long hair. His young squire, who
stands behind him, is beardless but his hair is long and curling. The
lyre-player on a large amphora on Pedestal R3 in the Third Room
has long hair in a knot at the back, held in place by a band. A
somewhat similar arrangement is seen in the bronze statuette of
Apollo in Case C2 in the same room. The fashion of plaited hair
wound around the head is illustrated by a terracotta relief of Phrixos
on the ram’s back in Case E in the Fourth Room. In the fifth century
short hair was usual for both young and old men; young men did not
wear beards but older men frequently wore short beards with
moustaches. A moustache without a beard was regarded as the
mark of the barbarian. The marble heads of two young men, Nos. 12
and 14 in the Sculpture Gallery, and the athlete’s head on Pedestal
H in the Sixth Room show the fashion for young men, and a
comparison of the vases and small bronzes in the Third Room with
those in the Fourth Room will make clear the gradual change of style
from elaboration to simplicity.
FIG. 71. WOMEN’S COIFFURES

The styles of women’s hair-dressing can be best understood by


looking at the statues, vases, and terracottas in the collection. A
variety of ornamental kerchiefs was worn, especially a very pretty
band called sphendone, “sling,” from its shape (fig. 71). On the
bottom of Case J in the Fifth Room is a large stamnos decorated
with groups of women dressed in the Ionic and Doric chitons and
wearing various kinds of head-dresses. Many of the terracottas in
the Sixth Room and the head of a young goddess, No. 7 in the
Sculpture Gallery, illustrate the “melon” coiffure which became the
mode in the fourth century.
Fashions in dress were the same in general throughout the Greek
world, although of course there were local peculiarities. In Sparta
boys and men often wore only a small wrap without a chiton, and
young men commonly went barefoot. The women wore the Doric
chiton.

FIG. 72. STRIGIL

The jewelry in use included necklaces and bracelets, rings for the
ears and fingers, and pins for the hair and clothes. The Doric chiton
originally required two very large pins, which were inserted with the
points upwards, but they went out of use in the sixth century when
the Ionic chiton came into fashion and were not worn with the later
Doric chiton. The fibula or safety-pin was used throughout the Greek
and Roman world. A group of these pins of various types is exhibited
in Case D in the Second Room. The fibula illustrated in the head-
band is in the Gold Room. Greek jewelry of the fifth and fourth
centuries was frequently of great beauty. Precious stones were used
but seldom until the Hellenistic period, but the excellence of Greek
workmanship has rarely been equalled by other craftsmen. The
Greek gentleman permitted himself only a handsome ring which was
useful as a seal, and the artistic value of these engraved seal rings
of gold or of gold set with a semi-precious stone has made them
favorites with collectors for many centuries. The rings and gems in
cases in the rooms of the Classical Wing, and the beautiful jewelry in
the Gold Room are proofs of the skill of Greek workmen and the fine
taste of their patrons (fig. 70).

FIG. 73. RAZOR

FIG. 74. ALABASTRON

Roman dress was similar to that of Greece in its principal


characteristics. The clothing of women was the same as that of the
Greek lady of the Hellenistic age represented in the terracotta
statuettes. The Ionic chiton, made usually of wool instead of linen,
and called stola, was worn in the house, but the married woman’s
stola had a wide piece like a flounce sewn on at the bottom. For the
street the himation, called by the Romans palla, was worn over it.
The Roman citizen wore a white woolen tunic like the Greek chiton,
but it was usually provided with short sleeves. Senators, knights, and
free-born children had this tunic ornamented with purple stripes
running from each shoulder to the bottom, both front and back. In the
statue of a camillus in the Eighth Room the stripes were inlaid in
silver, of which traces remain. Over this was worn the toga,
corresponding to the Greek himation and arranged in the same
general way. The toga, however, was usually larger than the
himation and was semicircular on the lower edge. For senators,
knights, and children it was ornamented with a broad purple stripe
following the straight edge. Shoes and sandals of various kinds were
in use; a special kind of high shoe called calceus was always worn
with the toga, and the tunic, toga, and calceus formed the regulation
dress for citizens in public. The toga, being a very heavy,
cumbersome garment, was not worn for traveling or active work, and
for these purposes there were many small wraps and longer cloaks
of various shapes.
FIG. 75. ARYBALLOS

FIG. 76. GLASS BOTTLE


Short hair was universally worn by men in Rome. Under the
Republic women’s hair was simply arranged, but throughout the
Imperial period a variety of styles prevailed at different times, most of
which were conspicuous for their bad taste and so elaborate that the
desired effect was produced by wearing wigs and wire supports.
Some of the better styles may be seen on the portraits in the
Sculpture Gallery, and on the heads of a girl and a woman on
pedestals in the Eighth Room. During most of their history the
Romans did not wear beards or moustaches, but under the Empire
fashion fluctuated, following the style favored by the reigning
emperor. After the time of Trajan beards were usual.

FIG. 77. SILVER PYXIS


FIG. 78. TERRACOTTA PYXIS

Roman ladies were fond of ornaments and wore a great many of


them. Large sums of money were expended on precious stones and
on shoes and other garments embroidered with pearls. During the
Republican period the Roman wore a gold ring as the badge of his
citizenship, but in the Imperial period, with the increase of luxurious
bad taste, dandies sometimes covered all the joints of their fingers
with rings.
Requisites for the toilet do not differ greatly from one period to
another, since the purposes for which they were intended remain
practically the same; so we find much that seems familiar among
those of the Greeks and Romans. Probably the oldest article in this
group is a razor with a crescent-shaped blade, made in Italy in the
early Iron Age. The shape seems to have been a common one (fig.
73). Tweezers, of which an example is shown in Case 5, were used
for removing superfluous hair. An article of daily use in ancient times,
though we have no modern utensil to correspond with it, is the strigil
or flesh-scraper (Case 5, fig. 72). It was used especially by athletes
after exercise, to remove the dust and sand of the wrestling-ground,
so that the strigil, oil-flask, and sponge became in Greece a kind of
symbol for the athlete’s life, which was, practically speaking, the life
of all well-to-do young men. On a gravestone, No. 7 in the Sculpture
Gallery, the dead youth is represented with a strigil in his hand, while
his little slave holds his towel and oil-flask. Both men and women
used strigils in the bath for scraping off the fuller’s earth or lye
powder used as soap. A silver strigil was included in the tomb
furniture of an Etruscan lady which is exhibited in Case F in the Sixth
Room. There is an example in glass of Roman date in Case 5.

FIG. 79. SPATULA

FIG. 80. DIPPING-ROD

It was customary among the Greeks and Romans to rub the body
with oil after the bath. The small jar called aryballos (Case G in the
Fifth Room, fig. 75) and the taller alabastron (Case 2, and Case A in
the Fourth Room, fig. 74) were used for holding oil and perfumes for
toilet use. Some small glass toilet bottles in Case J in the Third
Room are so charming in shape and coloring as to make a modern
woman envious (fig. 76). In the Gold Room are two crystal scent
bottles from Cyprus, one of which has a gold stopper. The toilet box
or pyxis held ointment, rouge, face or tooth powders, or small toilet
articles or ornaments. These charming boxes were made of metal,
as the silver box in Case F in the Sixth Room (fig. 77), or of painted
terracotta. The latter are often triumphs of the potter’s and vase
painter’s art; for example, the white pyxis in Case V in the Fourth
Room (fig. 78) and the red-figured pyxis in Case A in the same room,
with its interesting drawings of women working wool (compare fig.
39). Others of a variety of shapes and decoration will be found in
Cases C and G in the Fifth Room.

FIG. 81. GREEK MIRROR ON A STAND


FIG. 82. ETRUSCAN MIRROR

FIG. 83. GREEK MIRROR AND COVER

The bronze boxes known as cistae are Etruscan. Some of those


which have been found in tombs are very large and are elegantly
decorated with engraved scenes. They seem to have been a kind of
dressing-case, for holding all of a lady’s toilet equipment. A small
one was included in the tomb furniture of an Etruscan woman which
is shown in Case F in the Sixth Room.
Bronze spatulae were useful in a variety of ways for mixing and
applying the cosmetics which were employed so constantly by Greek
and Roman ladies (fig. 79). An instrument corresponding to our
medicine droppers are the dipping-rods of bronze or glass. They
could be inserted into bottles or jars to take out a small quantity of
liquid. A disk about half way up the rod kept it from slipping into the
bottle (fig. 80). Examples of both utensils will be found in Case 5.
Ancient mirrors were as inferior to the modern in power to reflect
as they are superior in beauty. Disks of highly polished metal, usually
bronze, were employed for this purpose, for the process of making a
mirror by backing a sheet of glass is not older than the fourteenth
century. Sometimes the mirror consists of a simple disk, plain or
ornamented on one side with an engraving or a design in relief, or
again it is made in one piece with a long handle or with a short tang
to be inserted into a bone or ivory handle, or it is provided with a
ring. The disk is often protected with a cover which bears the
principal decoration. Etruscan mirrors most frequently have handles
but no covers, and are decorated with engraved scenes, usually
taken from Greek mythology (fig. 82). Greek mirrors are of two types:
either a simple disk without a handle, fitting into a cover, usually
ornamented with a relief (fig. 83), or a disk supported on a stand,
often in the form of a human figure (fig. 81). In Case A in the Fourth
Room are two fine examples of the latter, two stands from which the
mirrors have been lost, and a mirror with a cover decorated with a
woman’s head in relief. Another charming stand of Etruscan
workmanship is in Case H in the Third Room. In Case A in the Fifth
Room are four very beautiful Greek mirrors of the fourth century, and
in Case C in the Sixth Room are examples of both Greek and
Etruscan types. A pretty terracotta statuette of a lady using a mirror
is in Case G in the same room; she is arranging her hair while
balancing her mirror on her knee.
VII
AMUSEMENTS, MUSIC, AND
DANCING
CASES 1, 3, AND 5

As at the present time, festivities frequently centered around


dining. In Greece, many dinners were given by men to their friends,
followed by the symposium, at which the guests drank wine mixed
with water, told jests, sang, and often watched hired performers,
such as jugglers, tumblers, and dancers. A kylix in Case E in the
Fourth Room is decorated with a scene from a symposium (fig. 84).
The special game for this occasion was “kottabos,” which was
played with the aid of a bronze contrivance like a candelabrum, of
which an example stands in the Fifth Room (fig. 85). The players
held their cups by one handle and tried to throw a small quantity of
liquid on the bronze disk at the top of the shaft, so that it fell down
with a ringing sound. The game was also played by throwing the
liquid into nutshells or small saucers floating in a krater full of water,
so as to make them sink. Many games of chance were known to the
Greeks and Romans. Perhaps the most popular were those played
with the knucklebones (astragaloi) of sheep and goats. They could
be used like dice, and also like “jacks,” being thrown up and caught
on the back of the hand. A toilet box on the middle shelf of Case 3
(fig. 87) shows three women playing, one of whom has an astragal
on the back of her hand. The knob on the cover of the box is
appropriately made in the same form. Nine very small examples of
glass are in Case 1 (fig. 86). The invention of draughts was ascribed
to Palamedes, one of the heroes of the Trojan War, a story which at
least proves that they were played in Greece in very early times.
Nuts and coins were also used as counters in various games, and
games of dice were played in various ways. Astragals could be used
as dice, and had the advantage of needing no marks, as the sides
were naturally different.

FIG. 84. SYMPOSIUM

The musical instruments in use were the lyre and kithara and the
flute, with some other less common varieties of stringed instruments.
The kithara, the instrument of professional musicians, had a
sounding-board and hollow arms of wood. The strings extended from
the “yoke,” a cross-piece connecting the arms, to the sounding-
board. The kithara was usually played standing, and was hung by a
band to the performer’s shoulders. He played with both hands, using
the plectron or “pick” in his right. A rather rude terracotta from
Cyprus in Case 1 represents a woman with a kithara, a terracotta
statuette of Eros with a kithara is in Case K in the Seventh Room,
and a wall-painting in the Eighth Room represents a lady playing one
(see fig. 21). Kithara players in festal costume at the public games
are represented on three vases in the collection (Case K in the Third
Room and Cases E and Y in the Fourth Room). Another illustration
is on an amphora on the bottom of Case P in the Fifth Room, where
Apollo, the god of music, stands before an altar holding his favorite
instrument (fig. 90). The best representation, however, is the kithara
held by a gold siren who forms the pendant of an earring exhibited in
the Gold Room. The details of construction are fully worked out and
the attachment of the strings can be clearly seen. Those used at
public festivals were often richly ornamented with carving and inlay
of semi-precious stones.
FIG. 85. KOTTABOS-
STAND
FIG. 86. GLASS ASTRAGALS

FIG. 87. GIRLS PLAYING WITH ASTRAGALS

The lyre was the usual instrument of the amateur. Boys learned to
play it at school, and gentlemen were expected to be able to
accompany themselves upon it at symposia. Its sounding-board was
made of the shell of a tortoise covered on one side with wood. The
upright pieces, curved outward and in again toward the top, were
sometimes made of the horns of animals. It had a yoke near the
ends of the uprights, and a bridge on the sounding-board. The
strings, of sheep’s guts or sinews, varied in number from three to
eleven at different periods, but seven was the usual number in the
fifth century. The plectron was generally used in playing both
instruments. Several good illustrations of the lyre may be seen in the
Museum collection. A satyr with a lyre decorates an amphora on the
shelf in Case J in the Fourth Room. On the bottom of Case O is an
amphora showing Kephalos with a lyre (fig. 88), and on the shelf
above a boy singing to the lyre will be seen in the interior of a kylix. A
man holding a lyre, probably a guest at a symposium, decorates the
inside of a kylix in Case E. An interesting little bronze figure in Case
C 2 in the Third Room represents a musician in festival dress with
the same instrument. The statuette was probably a votive offering for
success in a contest.

FIG. 88. YOUTH WITH A LYRE

FIG. 89. GIRL DANCING AND PLAYING THE


CASTANETS

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