Theatre History Project instructions

THEATRE HISTORY PROJECT – THEATRE PRODUCTION 11/12

It is important for a theatre producer to be aware of theatrical styles from the past and from other cultures.  It provides the theatre artist a palette from which he or she can draw when creating the mis en scene for any production and helps communicate a variety of unspoken messages to one’s audience.

Here are a few types of theatre you might be interested in investigating: 

Greek theatre -  the origin of Western theatre

Kabuki theatre – classical Japanese dance-drama

Noh theatre – the oldest existing form of theatre – Japanese musical theatre

Shakespeare’s theatre – no explanation needed here!

Shadow puppetry – Pekingese or Cantonese or Wayang kulit (Indonesian)

Comedia del’Arte – Italian improvisational comedy of the Renaissance

Expressionism – a highly metaphorical form of theatre popular in the 1920’s (such playwrights as Eugene O’Neill and Elmer Rice)

First Nations theatre  - from “before contact” to the present day

Naturalism – the attempt to create “reality” on stage, most popular in the late 19^th and early 20^th century (playwrights like Ibsen, Checkov, George Bernard Shaw)

Poetic realism – popular in the 20^th century (and to this day), it is theatre that appears to be realistic, but that makes extensive use of poetic imagery (Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Lilian Hellman)

If you are interested in another form of theatre, let me know.

What am I supposed to do?

 1.Choose a type of theatre that interests you.  Find out all about it.  (Become an expert.)   Be ready to share at least ten “fun facts” about the form of theatre you chose.  (For example, that in Shakespeare’s theatre, no women were allowed to act, so all those great roles for women – like Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Titania, and Viola were played by teenage boys! . . . or in Greek theatre, all the actors wore masks which helped amplify their voices for the huge crowds that came out to watch.)

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2.  Create a model of the type of stage this theatre would use.  (A shoebox is a great start for something like this.)    The model should be a three dimensional picture of the type of stage on which performances would be presented. )

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3.  Create a representation of one actor dressed in a costume that would be used in your theatre style. (You can create a life-sized costume {which would be great!} or you can dress a cardboard or plastic doll.  Feel free to use costumes or fabric that we already have in the drama room.)

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For #2 and #3, you should be prepared to explain what your represenations show us.  You will want to label your model clearly.

4.  Find a play/playwright that makes use of your type of theatre.  (If it’s Shakespearean, you already know lots of plays that fit this description and you know the author – that’s why Shakespeare is so phenomenal – his name identified a whole genre!  If you choose a more traditional period, it might be harder to find an actual script or playwright, in which case, you can find out a plot or actor or even a modern play which exemplifies qualities of the theatrical style you choose, for example – Tomson Highway is a modern Canadian playwright who uses lots of First People’s imagery in his plays).  Find a passage from the play that tells us something about that style of theatre and explain why you chose it.  You can write this down, but be prepared to share it with the class.

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