STUDY MATERIAL on Generic Elective (ENGLISH) Paper TEXT AND PERFORMANCE
Historical development of theatrical forms
There are four basic theatrical forms defined, implied, or derived by or from Aristotle: Tragedy; Comedy; Melodrama; and Drama. Any number of styles can be used to convey these forms.
A good working definition of “Style” is how something is done. Theatrical styles are influenced by their time and place, artistic and other social structures, as well as the individual style of the particular artist or artists. As theater is a mongrel art form, a production may or may not have stylistic integrity with regard to script, acting, direction, design, music, and venue.
tragedy
One of the most fundamental forms of western drama. Tragedy involves a serious action of universal significance and has important moral and philosophical implications. Following Aristotle, most critics agree that a tragic hero or heroine should be an essentially admirable person whose downfall elicits our sympathy while leaving us with a feeling that there has in some way been a triumph of the moral and cosmic order which transcends the fate of any individual. The disastrous outcome of a tragedy should be seen as the inevitable result of the character and his or her situation, including forces beyond the character’s control. Traditionally, tragedy was about the lives and fortunes of people of stature—kings, queens, and the nobility—and there has been a great deal of debate about whether or not modern tragedy, tragedy about ordinary people, is possible.
comedy
a play that is light in tone, is concerned with issues tending not to be serious, has a happy ending, and is designed to amuse and provoke laughter.
farce
One of the major genres of drama, sometimes regarded as a subclass of comedy. It aims to entertain and to provoke laughter, and its humor is a result primarily of physical activity and visual effects.
satire
In theater, drama that uses techniques of comedy—such as wit, irony, and exaggeration—to expose and attack folly and vice.
tragicomedy
In the Renaissance, plays that had tragic themes and noble characters yet ended happily. Modern tragicomedy combines serious and comic elements. Many plays of this type involve comic or ironic treatment of a serious theme.
commedia dell’arte
form of comic theatre originating in Italy in the 16th century, in which dialogue was improvised around a loose scenario calling for a set of stock characters, each with a distinctive costume and traditional name
classical
A type of theater which relies upon imagination (and therefore limited props) to convey the setting and atmosphere of the play. Classical theatre usually contains lofty, grand prose or free verse dialogue. Good examples are the Elizabethan dramatists such as William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
burlesque
Ludricous imitation of a dramatic form or a specific play. Closely related to satire but usually lacking the moral or intellectual purposes of reform typical of satire, burlesque is content to mock the excesses of other works.
kabuki
The most eclectic and theatrical of the major forms of Japanese theater. Roles of both sexes are performed by men in a highly theatrical, nonrealistic style. Kabuki combines music, dance, and dramatic scenes with an emphasis on color and movement. The plays are long and episodic, consisting of loosely connected dramatic scenes which are often performed independently.
musical theater
Broad category which includes opera, operetta, musical comedy, and other musical plays (the term lyric theater is sometimes used to distinguish it from pure dance). It includes any dramatic entertainment in which music and lyrics (and sometimes dance) are integral and necessary.
romanticism
Nineteenth-century literary and dramatic movement which developed as a reaction to the strictures of neoclassicism. Imitating the loose, episodic structure of Shakespeare’s plays, the romantics sought to free the writer from all rules and considered the unfettered inspiration of artistic genius the source of all creativity. They laid more stress on mood and atmosphere than on content, but one of their favorite themes was the gulf between human beings’ spiritual aspirations and physical limitations.
melodrama
Historically, a distinct form of drama popular throughout the nineteenth century which emphasized action, suspense, and spectacular effects; generally melodrama used music to heighten the dramatic mood. Melodrama had stock characters and clearly defined villains and heroes, and it presented unambiguous confrontations between good and evil.
domestic drama
Also known as bourgeois drama. Domestic drama deals with problems of the middle and lower classes, particularly problems of the family and home. Conflicts with society, struggles within a family, dashed hopes, and renewed determinations are characteristic of domestic drama.
avant-garde
French term that literally means the “advance guard” in a military formation. It has come to stand for an intellectual, literary, or artistic movement in any age that breaks with tradition and appears to be ahead of its time.
realism
Broadly speaking, the attempt to present onstage people and events corresponding to those observable in everyday life.
naturalism
Special form of realism. The theory of naturalism came to prominence in France and elsewhere in Europe in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The French playwright Émile Zola advocated theater that would follow the scientific principles of the age: drama should look for the causes of “disease” in society the way a doctor looks at disease in an individual, and theater should expose social “infection” in all its ugliness. Naturalism attempts to achieve the verisimilitude of a documentary film, conveying the impression that everything about the play—the setting and the way the characters dress, speak, and act—is exactly like everyday life.
nonrealism
also referred to as departures from realism or anti-realism. Nonrealism includes all forms of theater that depart from realism, such as symbolism and fantasy, and such elements of theatre as masks, poetry, and music. In short, nonrealism is the entire range of aural and visual devices that do not conform to observable reality.
impressionism
style of painting, developed in the late nineteenth centruy, which stressed immediate impressions created by objects-particularly impressions resulting from the effects of lights-and in which tended to ignore details.
symbolism
In drama, a movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which sought to replace realistic representation of life with the expression of inner truth. Symbolist drama used myths, legends, and symbols in an attempt to reach beyond everyday reality; it was closely linked to symbolist poetry.
allegory
Representation of an abstract theme or themes throughout the symbolic use of character action, and other concrete elements of a play.
expressionism
Movement which developed and flourished in Germany during the period immediately preceding and following World War I. Expressionism in drama was characterized by an attempt to depict subjective states through distortion; striking, often grotesque, images; and lyric, unrealistic dialogue.
modernism
A broad concept that sees art, including theater, as detached from life in a pure way and able to reflect on life critically.
postmodernism
There are multiple meanings, and meaning is what you create, not what is. This approach often uses other media and breaks accepted conventions and practices.
happenings
Form of theatrical event which was developed out of experimentation by certain American abstract artists in the 1960s. Happenings are nonliterary, replacing the script with a scenario which provides for chance occurrences, and are performed (often only once) in such places as parks and street corners.
epic theatre
As devised by Bertolt Brecht, epic theatre forces audience members to constantly return to rational observation, rather than emotional immersion. Sudden bursts of song, elements of absurdity and breaches of the fourth wall are all prime examples of how this rational observation is constantly revitalized; this idea is known as Verfremdung.
environmental theater
Among its aims are elimination of the distinction between audience space and acting space, a more flexible approach to interactions between performers and audience, and substitution of a multiple focus for the traditional single focus.
poor theater
Term coined by Jerzy Grotowski to describe his ideal of theater stripped to its barest essentials. According to Grotowski, the lavish sets, lights, and costumes usually associated with theater reflect only base, materialistic values and must be eliminated
absurdism
Theater of the Absurd-Term first used by Martin Esslin to describe the works of certain playwrights of the 1950s and 1960s who expressed a similar point of view regarding the absurdity of the human condition. In theater of the absurd, rational language is debased and replaced by clichés and trite or irrelevant remarks. Realistic psychological motivation is replaced by automatic behavior which is often absurdly inappropriate to the situation. Although the subject matter is serious, the tone of these plays is usually comic and ironic.