THEATER APPRECIATION NOTES Playwrights: is the only word you many not misspell on exam

In order for theater to happen, it must include:
Actors
Stage managers/ stage crew
Playwrights
Audience
Directors
Producer
Major Design categories:
- Lighting
- Audio
- Set
- Costume

Essential to theater:
1. Actor
2. Audience

Two traits that actors need to be successful
- talent
- chutzpah (have balls, nerve, etc.) – only creates the opportunity

Two worlds
- Real world: successful actors are always employed for 4-8 weeks
- Training: essential for actors

Two tools actors must have for people to know they exist
- resume: role, play, theater (of previous plays); awards (for the production)
- headshot: photo of you

Theater= the connection and experience between actors and audience.

Actors ←→ Audience

TV—doesn’t exercise us. If we’re not engaged, we’ll only realize that its 2 people talking to each other. No Content, not engaging.

The more we learn about theater, the more compelling it is to watch. It becomes purposeful.
1. It takes a decision to be willing to take on the piece. Showing up late will cause you to miss a lot because the characters’ info will be explained in the first 10 minutes
2. Exposition- Plotting facts. Learning the relations between the characters,
3. Become an Active Listener means that you’re MAKING A DECISION. You’re getting the SUBTEXT (the underlying meaning—“nice shirt” v “Nice SHIRT!!!” You get a different context) A well told story BUILDS in momentum.
4. The Fourth Wall- the invisible barrier between the audience and actors. It can be broken when the actors get the audience involved. Be aware that the actors are ALIVE! They’re REAL! So noise may distract them—we are part of the play, too. Turn off phones because they affect the experience of both the actors and the audience.

Lecture 2
Discussing “As You Like It”
The actors take on a lot of pressure, taking turns being the same character.
Shakespearian’s language is not considered “old English”, but MODERN ENGLISH.

Lecture 3 TRAINING
There isn’t just one way to learn something. There are many techniques and we should learn them all.
Actors use both of these techniques, though they are opposite. This benefits them because this helps them to master the art.
Michael Chekhov: working from the outside in.
Meisner Technique —(Sanford Miser) “An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words”
Working from the inside out. Everything that you have developed internally/emotionally will affect all of your external expressions.
Typically 3 years of intensive training:
First Year: 2 Goals
1. To develop a sense of truthful doing
- genuine and honest behavior
- opposite of truthful doing is “indicating”
- there is an element of knowing what you’re doing right now
2. To follow impulses on a moment to moment basis
- opposite to moment to moment is “anticipating”
- important to have a vocabulary so you can access complex definitions with the simplest of words
Exercise:
“You have __” “I have __”
- must repeat, may not change a thing except pronoun
- repeating this allows for the use of different tones, yielding a different meaning that you intended on earlier
Independent Activity— A physical task that can be accomplished with the materials at hand. (Ex- to repair a coffee mug). There’s no faking that you have an object. Have a doing, and a reason for doing it.
Second Year: SCRIPT WORK:
- these early stage exercises are conversational reality exercises  Conversational Reality- acting a scene in public without drawing attention to you. Make it so real that people don’t think you’re acting.
- overlay of character
- actors have to go to an imaginary place where they can procure emotions