Drama strategy where spectators are invited to enter and transform dramatic action; innovation used mainly for political purposes by Augusto Boal and others.
Members of the audience watch a scene - usually on a political or social theme - and are then invited to stop the action and to suggest alternative ways of playing the scene.
The audience become spect-actors, rather than passive spectators.
Theatrical swagger, arrogance and overstatement.
An elaborate, sophisticated drama with long traditions and origins in ritual and religion.
Silla period - 578 BC - 935 AD featured
Kommu: masked sword dance about the death of a young warrior.
Muaemu: dance without masks
Ch’oyongmu: grotesque masked dance drama
Koryo period - 918 - 1392 AD featured mainly puppet plays, acrobatic dances, but not a fully featured developed drama tradition.
Choson period - 1392 - 1910
P’ansori: one man operetta accompanied on the pug, double headed drum.
Kwangdae - actor - used three elements:
Sori - singing
Aniri - narration and dialogue
Ballim - acting restricted to emotional expression of joy.
Korean masked drama had two major forms
Purakje - village festival plays
Sanda-togam-g¨uk - court plays that later came to be performed in theatres, included dance, singing, music, mime and exchange of repartee; used elaborate and colourful masks made of dried gourds or paper which were traditionally burned at the end of each performance. Plays were collaboratively developed and transmitted by oral traditions.
Khoktu kaksi - traditional humorous Korean puppet theatre featuring animal and human characters.
Hahoe mask dance drama - originally had ritual significance but in recent times has mainly entertainment focus. Features various allegorical characters represented by masks not dissimilar to the commedia dell’arte use of stock characters and masks. Focused on class and social distinctions in humorous ways.
Divisions of dramatic texts into sections.
In traditional drama, dramatic action was divided into a succession of inter-related scenes, and further shaped into sections called acts. In Aristotelian drama, the action of the play was divided into five acts. Although these divisions have been applied to plays, it is not always possible to set such formal and formulaic limits to drama; frequently the structure of drama is more organic and less schematic.
Some directors and actors also further divided scenes into beats, naturally occuring sections which make a whole statement or point and which contribute to the overall impact of the scene.
Sanford Meisner (1905 - 1997) developed a form of actor training - Meisner Technique - derived from Method acting and the Stanislavski tradition. Meisner believed that the seeds of the craft of acting is the reality of doing. His approach focused on acting that is rooted in the body of the actor responding authentically to the specific moment of the play. The Meisner technique is often described as ‘living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. Influenced other acting teachers such as David Mamet.
Ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Key to acting and being an audience member in drama.
A temporary portable theatre used throughout Europe from about 15th Century; derived from rows of raised booths or pageants in with Biblical episodes were played. Punch and Judy puppet shows at the British seaside continue the booth tradition.
A movement technique developed by Australian actor, F.M. Alexander in the late 19th century. Alexander Technique is a method designed to educator, or re-educate, people on physical ‘habits’ which limit movement, and help correct these in order to help the body move with ease, freedom and balance.
An important element of the Alexander Technique is the way thoughts influence movement and how ideas can be expressed in movement, e.g. by thinking about loosening a muscle it will loosen.
Drama based on retribution and avenging wrongs. Derived from the Roman playwright Seneca and influential in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama (e.g. Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy); Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an example of revenge tragedy (though interestingly, it also challenges many of the conventions of this form).
Influential Australian born theatre and opera director. Eclectic in approach often borrowing from European Expressionism, Kosky works in a layered, excessive presentational style.
Our Latest Blog
This web site and all material included and linked is copyright StagePage 2022
All information correct at time of publication 2022.
Powered by Squarespace.
