STUDY GUIDE
EXAM III
INTRODUCTION TO THEATRE

PLEASE BRING A #2 PENCIL AND EXTRA PAPER TO THE EXAM.

Commedia dell'Arte
    What, when
    Theatre troupes
    Scripts/scenarios
    Lazzi
    Zanni
    Stock Characters
        Three types: Master, Lovers, Servants
        Whose who?
    

Staging Formats
        Proscenium
        Thrust
        Arena
        Black Box

Scenery
Renaissance
Abstract and realistic

Designer's Media:
        Platforms - levels, raked stage
        Flats- canvas stretched or wooden
        Drapes - Legs, Borders, Show Curtain, 
                Cyclorama, Scrim

Stage Machinery - turntables, hoists, fly space


Designer at Work
Readings, research, drawings, ground plans, Drafting to shops, etc.

Computers - helped technical theatre in tremendous ways over the
last 30 years

French Theatre:
    Influences of Commedia dell'Arte
    King Louis XIV
    Cardinal Richelieu
    G. Cinthio
    J. Scaligero
    Neoclassicism:
        Three Unities of Time, Place and Action
        Rules
        Primary Concerns:
            Verisimilitude, Purity of Form, Fine Art, Decorum, 3 Unities
    P. Corneille
    J. Racine
    Moliere

Elements of French Lighting

Moliere and Tartuffe

Restoration: Know Plays and Playwrights

The Great Rebellion 1642-1660
King Charles restored from France
Plays called Comedy of Manners (Restoration Comedy) focused on:
    Amoral Behavior
    Witty verbal exchanges between rich 
    Sexual Conquest
    Advantageous Marriages
    Fashion
    No Moral Judgement

Character names: Sir Frederick Frolick, Lady Wishfort

Wm. Davenant and Thomas Kiligrew - Theatre patents

Three parts of the Period

Possessed Parts

1660 Woman begin to Act in England

Playwrights:  KNOW THESE!
    Aphra Behn: The Rover - first female playwright to make a living as one.
    Wm. Wycherly: The Country Wife
    Wm. Congreve: The Way of the World

1660-1700 - Time of Remarkable Change: KNOW THIS!
    Actresses fact of life
    All theatre in doors
    Scenery - painted drop and wings
    King and court going to public theatre
    Opera becoming fact of life
    Art vs. Management beginning to have problems

18th Cent comedy

Influence of the Puritans

1698 Pamphlet by Jeremy Colliers: "A Short View of the Immorality and Proffaness of the English Stage."

Broader base audience - lower and middle class

The Licensing Act of 1737 - more Gov't control

Actor-Manager returns with strong companys.
    David Garrick

18th Cent. "Golden Age of Acting".
    Garrick, Sara Siddons, Kemble family

Scenery continuing to get bigger and more elaborate.

Playwrights: KNOW THESE
    George Farquhar: The Beaux Strategem
    Oliver Goldsmith: She Stoops to Conquer
    Richard Brinsley Sheridan: School for Scandal

Costume Design:

Where does costume designer begin: script, concept, drawings, sketchs with swatches, building, etc.

What questions does the designer ask about character?

Costume design with regard to A Doll's House?

Aspects of Costume with regard to script and character as discussed in class.

Costume Designer at Work:
Read, meetings to collaborate, sketches with swatches, rendering,
make patterns, purchase fabric,
etc.

Melodrama:

Reaction to the ideas of Romanticism

Melodama playing to masses, Shakespeare to the Elite

Literally means, music drama

6 elements of Melodrama:

6 plot Devices

Spectacle essential to this form.  Technology was aiding in the increase in spectacle.

Industrial Revolution results in urbanization of London 1800-1850.

Augustin Daly first to tie woman to the train tracks.  Important aspect of Melodrama the dramatic rescue.

5 Aspects of Melodrama

Big acting style