Things to look for in plays: 

• Title
• Characters
• Setting/Time
• Theme
• Tone/Mood
• Message
• Genre
• Audience
• Style
• Nationality
• Time Written
• Religion

Why does the scene have to be in the play?

Short essay. Short intro, 2 body paragraphs, conclusion.

• Exposition: Something explained in words rather than action.
• Point of attack: Where the action starts.
• Complication: Something that hinders the end goal that lead to the crisis.
• Reversal: When we find out that something is the opposite, changes, from new information.
• Conflict: Stops you from getting what you want, usually direct opposition. (Man vs man, man vs nature, man vs himself.)
• Rising action: The events leading to the crisis.
• Crisis: Usually with the climax, boiling point, where everything comes together/falls apart.
• Falling action: Conclusion, loose ends being tied up, resolution.

Mini essay: Selection of scenes: 

1. Why does this scene have to be included in the play?
2. Include quotations in each paragraph.
3. Identify the play, contextualize the scene, thesis of why is the scene in the play, body supporting, balance between the scene and the play.

Scenes: 1.2, 1.7, 1.8, 2.3, 2.6

Intro, 2 body para, 2 sentence conclusion.

Keep reading

Answer the following questions in clearly written sentences, as a paragraph or series of paragraphs:

• What is the author’s thesis/main idea?
• How is the argument structured: what points are made to support thesis and in what order?
• How does the author support her opinion? What kind of evidence does she use?
• What conclusion does the article draw?

• Thesis: Theatre is dead.
• Argument: Very cyclical, propaganda-like statements that don’t actually say anything at all. The conclusions are decided and then minimal evidence is twisted to support them.
• No evidence. There’s just opinions mounted onto more opinions, supported by things that happened without mentioning the things that happened afterwards.

In the article “There is No Revolution, Televised or Otherwise”, Kristine Nutting argues that Theatre is dead, and that there is no room for post-revolution, or revolution at all, when it will be turned against the Theatre to kill it even more. Nutting expresses her opinion in this article with strong words and voice, leaving no room left for argument.

Theatre is dead, leaving behind no reason to revolutionize it. This is ideal for the industry, as “death is even more beautifully marketable than revolution because it can be modelled [sic] and posed” (86:2) for magazines. Gil Scott Heron is referenced, though the words being responded to aren’t quoted. It is stated that he is wrong and that the revolution wasn’t kept off of television, it simply never happened. People are too afraid to talk about ideas and the arts are dwindling and watered down. Nothing great moves on because mediocrity is what is rewarded. The shallow, forgettable empathy raised in simpler, safer plays is mocked and Nutting states that Theatre should be allowed to “die with the symptoms of late capitalism” (87:3) and “die with its white, upper middle-class audience–all over the age of 55.” (87:3) Anything that attempts to be more than safe is deemed offensive and having no worth. It calls the theatre out on producing play after play about “a white family and their dismal lives” (87:5). Theatre has become nothing more that “Art with a capital A, pretty art that means nothing” (87:5), and is something that nobody but the actors themselves enjoy for any reason deeper than how pretty everything was.

Nutting calls out our culture on reducing us to voyeurs at a peepshow, which is the only thing that is honest anymore. The article has several images and brief information from “Pig: A Peepshow of Forbidden Acts from the Farm” in sidebars.

The text is very cyclical but it always moves back to the primary conclusion of the article: Theatre is dead.

• http://ufv.ca/library/
• Use the main search box.
• Books and Video tab
• Might not come up right at the top.
• Course reserves tab
• Course number or prof’s last name
• Journals tab
• ONLY SEARCHES TITLES
• Reference tab
• Much more reliable
• Libguides tab
• Select theatre

1. http://libguides.ufv.ca/cat.php?cid=13402
2. Dive into the tabs again
3. Background tab, oxford search bar
4. Course help tab
5. Thea101
6. http://libguides.ufv.ca/content.php?pid=109694&sid=3216601

• Journals:
• Specific topics
• Assume you already know what you’re talking about
• Books: 
• Broader
• Explain more

1. Reference: Can’t take out
2. Stacks: Can take out

• Catalog record

1. http://libguides.ufv.ca/Theatre

Design Elements: 

Costume:

• Character: time place status
• concept
• cut
• drape
• silhouette
• pattern
• texture
• hair and wigs
• makeup
• millinery
• prostumes
• effects
• quick changes
• puppets/masks

SCENE, LIGHTING, SOUND, COSTUME

nevermore: dark mood and atmosphere, gothic costuming, low lighting, music, costume silhouette, dramatized costume, solo singing, limited colour palette, strange material/texture, wigs, makeup, masking, scrim, 

gandhi: live music, opera, chorus, puppetry, MASSIVE PUPPETS, manipulation of objects, common objects, relating to poverty, inspired by gandhi, nonlinear, larger scale, larger cast, texture and colour, set and light planning together, 

DESIGNER/SCENOGRAPHER:

useful scope of knowledge for stage design:

art and architecture, historical fashion and decor, drawing, panting, sculpture techniques, drafting and comp rendering, building materials, fabrics - fibers, patterns, dying and upholstery, craft, people and places, events current and historical, technology, colour theory, texture, aesthetic proportion, light and shadow

designers also draw on practical skills and knowlege, research skills, intuition, innovation and talent

designers are most most importantly collaborators, project coordinators and diplomats

Magic If - trying to under the character’s situation as the character in their situation with their objectives

if an actor finds the right action it will always generate the same physical action and generate the same reaction in yourself and others

emotional memory, sense memory - remembering something from your own past to imitate the emotion the character is feeling (stanis rejected this later to reject it with psychophysical action) danger of actor feeling too much - wanted to keep the focus on the character, not the actor

OTHER GROUP

post modern

presentational approaches to acting are overall more common in world theatre, non-western theatres

particularly common in the theatre where things are very stablized

understanding that a certain action means a certain thing

represents emotion in an openly artificial or stylized way

no trying to be emotionally truthful to the character

non-realistic plays

technique based more than inspiration based

brecht: overtly political type of theatre

gestus: a way for actors to point at the attitude/reveal motivations transactions behind the characters actions, narrate, may directly explain to the audience

trying to shed light on circumstance but not bring character to life

—-

heretical director: own perspective on a script, theoretical, may change given circumstances, become co-creator to meaning,

worshipful: the text is the bible, unlikely to crossgender/colorblind, 

oteur - radically changing the script/meaning, usually use something out of copyright law, 

• Virginia in Berlin (industrial workers beating her)
• Everard and Monica (him confronting her about her lie)
• Rhoda reading the letter

Alice: Dear Rhoda, I must inform you of a matter of a desperate and urgent nature.

[lighting cue, changes from Alice to Rhoda, who is holding the letter]

Rhoda: We do not believe that Everard is who we have been led to believe.

Rhoda: Monica has just returned from a visit to the physician and he has informed us that she is with child.

Rhoda: It has come to our attention that Everard and Monica were engaged in a relationship in which he used her to sate his desires while he waited for you to open yourself to the idea of his supposed love.

Rhoda: We have strong reason to believe that Everard Barfoot is the father of Monica’s child.

Rhoda: Mary is appalled in the light of her cousin’s infidelity and we urge you to return to the school with immediacy so that we can settle this matter.

Rhoda: We are worried for you. Sincerely, Alice Madden.

steps for a single playwright:

• genesis/idea (an event that happens, word or conversation, a message)
• character
• plot
• script > reading > workshop > performance > publish
• could be written collaboratively

(read 84-97)

1. amazing set
2. good levels
3. expected more comedy
4. not as edgy as expected
5. lots of real flame
6. darker than expected
7. irish comedy is not the same comedy we expect
8. monologues were too long
9. the toilet
10. nice that the stage could be abused/trashed
11. definitely enjoyable
12. wasn’t in the right head space
13. bbq didn’t burst into flame and was supposed to
14. quinn being murdered was great
15. *reminded of the merchant of venice?
16. odysseus and penelope were like gods
17. ‘suitably dingy’
18. balance of light and dark
19. monologues showed characters for who they were in a way
20. monologues were necessary
21. actors did a good job portraying characters
22. penelope was a very good actress - crying at the end
23. internal vs external struggle
24. changed between men focusing on penelope to men vs men
25. emotional rollercoaster
26. not expected
27. bad sight lines
28. couldn’t see penelope
29. amazing set design, but didn’t take the space into account
30. bad blocking
31. should ave been irish actors due to the manner of speaking
32. men are all bastards
33. quinn was most rounded
34. jfk bit
35. good acoustics
36. don’t know why penelope was drawn to the men
37. burns was in general really fucked up
38. very annoyed with the characters
39. expecting it to be a lot funnier
40. open to a lot of critical points - time period? why are they in a pool?
41. WANTED them to have the accents

1. overlooked that penelope was a person
2. trying to win the prize of Penelope
3. more about the competition
4. about how competition could break down a person
5. what the cost of a competition is
6. burns realizes too late what the cost was
7. realized that he could actually feel something for someone (murray)
8. driving factor was the impending doom of odysseus returning
9. deconstruction of four very evil/flawed people
10. four incorrect views of women
11. dunn: blaming problems on women, sex
12. fitz: need
13. quinn: invested in the idea of being evil
14. burns: invested in the idea of being good
15. distinguish between story plot and idea
16. question is how clear were those portrayed
17. real time on stage
18. very late point of attack
19. very little side story
20. central action is clear
21. human nature

1. need overlaid with selfish need and aggression
2. desperation
3. humour
4. irritating
5. displaced frantic energy
6. every character almost didn’t know what to do when the spotlight hit them
7. building tension
8. despair
9. why the fuck didn’t penelope know that odysseus was returning
10. dramatic/overdramatic
11. surreal
12. in limbo
13. study of the human condition
14. finally talking about what they actually feel rather than bullshit
15. psychological

1. no realistic relationship with time
2. relationship with the source text is more fluid and not realistic
3. there will be violence - the set tells us that
4. anachronisms
5. mix of genres

1. post modern
2. mixes high art with low art
3. she is a god to them
4. they’re trapped
5. food is all real food
6. spotlight
7. symbolic use of light on penelope
8. the sound is part of the world of the play
9. no power and yet everything works
10. where is the spotlight coming from?
11. how did they know when penelope was watching?
12. cheating a bit with the lights
13. things that appear on stage and what are they supposed to represent
14. hyper realism
15. metaphorical use of realism in a symbolic way
16. highly detailed set
17. less detailed gestures
18. elements of realism
19. elements of abstract/surreal
20. comedy spliced with philosophical/poetic pieces
21. absurdist

• what is the story that the play is telling?
• was the story told clearly?
• how clear is everything portrayed?
• what are the conventions?
• how do all these conventions go together?
• characters: were they interesting?
• were they believable?
• SHOULD they have been believable?
• what does the play want us to think?
• what are the rules?
• were they distinguishable?
• were each of them contributing something?
• think about the main idea of the play?
• acting?
• lighting design?
• set?
• ideas and the connections?
• how do you want to organize everything?

prelim before seeing a play:

• reviews of the play, either of the same showing or a previous one
• historical factors (setting/source text)
• the script
• the story
• the company putting on the performance
• advertising
• visual imagery
• style/genre (abstract/realistic, comedy/tragedy)
• casting

Penelope is a 2010 tragicomedy play written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The play concerns the attempts of four men seeking to win over Penelope in the absence of her warrior husband, Odysseus, who has been away for the previous twenty years fighting the Trojan wars.

The play opens with the four men, Fitz, Burns, Dunne and Quinn, in an empty swimming pool, going about their daily lives with only Burns seemingly at odds with his environment. There is a blood stain on the wall which we learn was caused by the suicide of a fifth man, Murray, only the day before. Burns attempts to scrub away the blood to no avail. A barbecue stands towards the rear of the pool, it has never been lit and is the source of great curiosity and some fear by the men. In a shared dream they see it lighting heralding their death at the hands of Odysseus. Penelope, separated from the men, stands on a platform above and unseen from the pool. A television screen relays the successive addresses by the men for her perusal in a contemporaneous nod to reality television formats. Each man hopes to win her affections through their monologues. But as the day wears on signs and premonitions of Odysseus’ return grow more ominous and they formulate a plan to work together in order that one of them may succeed in winning Penelope, thus saving the others from Odysseus’ revenge.

In a final sequence Quinn performs a quick-change cabaret routine to the music of ‘Spanish Flea’ and ‘A Taste of Honey’ by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass as the others aid his performance. Variously Quinn costumes himself as male and female lovers of exceptional note —such as Napoleon and Josephine and Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara— it is when he strips down to his toga, as Eros the Greek God of Love, that he is stabbed by Burns. Dunne and Fitz take part in the stabbing and Quinn is killed. Burns makes a final address to Penelope in which he argues for their collective redemption through love and human affection. Burns concludes his speech with the words “love is saved”^[1]and at this moment “the barbecue goes up in flames. As their dream predicted, it begins from its legs and quickly spreads to the rest of the frame and grill” thus signalling the deaths of the men as above them Penelope withdraws from the stage “and into her new future”.

As Stephen Drover(Artistic Director of Rumble Theatre) articulated in his interview last week, the play is an “exciting intersection of the work of Samuel Beckett, the narratives of Greek mythology, and reality TV tropes like The Bachelorette and Big Brother.”

Rumble Theatre

Penelope is a 2010 tragicomedy play written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The play concerns the attempts of four men seeking to win over Penelope in the absence of her warrior husband, Odysseus, who has been away for the previous twenty years fighting the Trojan wars.

Enda Walsh

-man
-irish, has an accent
-lots of awards incl. a tony

Four men: Fitz, Burns, Quinn, Dunne
+Penelope

Modern set/costumes

Possibility of near nudity

This show contains an open flame, gunshots, strong language, violence, and revealing swimwear.

Described as a Tragicomedy

Characters are ‘every day guys’

Odysseus’s wife (Based on the Odyssey)

-trying to get home after the trojan war

Rumble mandate - modern adaptations of classics

Written in 2010

**note canadian equiv types of theatre (as opposed to broadway)

biggest division - professional vs amateur

professional means that the people are paid

amateur means that most if not all people are not paid

professional:

• profit vs nonprofit (commercial/non promit)

• commercial usually funds through investment from companies
• mervish - biggest company in canada (toronto)
• commercial theatre is expensive - budgets in millions/tens of
• commercial only in a few cities (toronto, nyc, london, paris)

• nonprofit - theatre itself is making no money
• might have grants/private donations
• money coming in is usually public sector funding or from box office
• everyone is paid, nobody is making money beyond salary

2 types of nonprofit: regional vs ‘alternative’

capitals of each province have regional theatre centers - tend to have their own building attached to the company, tend to have broader types of plays

alternative is meant to be an alternative to regional, funded project to project rather than for years at a time, tend to have more specific mandates, more likely to have more risk taking/etc

alternative have two tiers: stable, supported, typically housed ones, and newer, unhoused ones

amateur companies: educational vs community

educational - high schools and college/universities, goal is usually to serve the students enrolled in that program, then to engage the community, might own a theatre space, usually get their money from the students/tuition, box office, gov’t funding, donations in kind (not money, given things), fundraising when needed, pvt donations

community - created to serve a particular community’s needs, goal is whatever that company decides, might own a theatre space, get their money from commissions, possibly grants from community, fundraising campaigns, box office usually pays for most of the costs