The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting

The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting
Author: Tom Stern
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2017-11-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1783486236

The Philosophy of Theatre, Drama and Acting is the ideal collection for students and scholars of aesthetics, theatre studies and the philosophy of art. Ever since the Greeks, philosophy and theatre have always enjoyed a close and often antagonistic relationship. Yet until recently relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to the relationship between philosophy and theatre, drama or acting. This book offers a collection of new essays by renowned scholars on important topics. It includes a clear account of different contemporary debates and discussions from across the field, and includes coverage of significant figures in the history of philosophy (such as Schlegel, Hegel and Nietzsche) and contemporary philosophical analysis of the nature of theatre, drama and acting, as well as theatre’s relation to philosophy and other arts.

Staging Philosophy

Staging Philosophy
Author: David Krasner
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2010-02-11
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0472025147

The fifteen original essays in Staging Philosophy make useful connections between the discipline of philosophy and the fields of theater and performance and use these insights to develop new theories about theater. Each of the contributors—leading scholars in the fields of performance and philosophy—breaks new ground, presents new arguments, and offers new theories that will pave the way for future scholarship. Staging Philosophy raises issues of critical importance by providing case studies of various philosophical movements and schools of thought, including aesthetics, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, deconstruction, critical realism, and cognitive science. The essays, which are organized into three sections—history and method, presence, and reception—take up fundamental issues such as spectatorship, empathy, ethics, theater as literature, and the essence of live performance. While some essays challenge assertions made by critics and historians of theater and performance, others analyze the assumptions of manifestos that prescribe how practitioners should go about creating texts and performances. The first book to bridge the disciplines of theater and philosophy, Staging Philosophy will provoke, stimulate, engage, and ultimately bring theater to the foreground of intellectual inquiry while it inspires further philosophical investigation into theater and performance. David Krasner is Associate Professor of Theater Studies, African American Studies, and English at Yale University. His books include A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1920 and Renaissance, Parody, and Double Consciousness in African American Theatre, 1895-1910. He is co-editor of the series Theater: Theory/Text/Performance. David Z. Saltz is Professor of Theatre Studies and Head of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia. He is coeditor of Theater Journal and is the principal investigator of the innovative Virtual Vaudeville project at the University of Georgia.

Philosophy and Theatre

Philosophy and Theatre
Author: Tom Stern
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2013-10-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1134575912

The relationship between philosophy and theatre is a central theme in the writings of Plato and Aristotle and of dramatists from Aristophanes to Stoppard. Where Plato argued that playwrights and actors should be banished from the ideal city for their suspect imitations of reality, Aristotle argued that theatre, particularly tragedy, was vital for stimulating our emotions and helping us to understanding ourselves. Despite this rich history the study of philosophy and theatre has been largely overlooked in contemporary philosophy. This is the first book to introduce philosophy and theatre. It covers key topics and debates, presenting the contributions of major figures in the history of philosophy, including: what is theatre? How does theatre compare with other arts? theatre as imitation, including Plato on mimesis truth and illusion in the theatre, including Nietzsche on tragedy theatre as history theatre and morality, including Rousseau’s criticisms of theatre audience and emotion, including Aristotle on catharsis theatre and politics, including Brecht’s Epic Theatre. Including annotated further reading and summaries at the end of each chapter, Philosophy and Theatre is an ideal starting point for those studying philosophy, theatre studies and related subjects in the arts and humanities.

Phenomenology for Actors

Phenomenology for Actors
Author: Daniel Johnston
Publisher: Intellect (UK)
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-05-26
Genre:
ISBN: 9781789387599

A valuable new touchstone for phenomenology and performance as research. In this book, Daniel Johnston examines how phenomenology can describe, analyze, and inspire theater-making. Each chapter introduces themes to guide the creative process through objects, bodies, spaces, time, history, freedom, and authenticity. Key examples in the work are drawn from Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, Sophocles' Antigone, and Shakespeare's Hamlet. Practical tasks throughout explore how the theatrical event can offer unique insights into being and existence, as Johnston's philosophical perspective shines a light on broader existential issues of being. In this way, the book makes a bold contribution to the study of acting as an embodied form of philosophy and reveals how phenomenology can be a rich source of creativity for actors, directors, designers, and collaborators in the performance process. Brimming with insight into the practice and theory of acting, this original new work stimulates new approaches to rehearsal and sees theater-making as capable of speaking back to philosophical discourse.

The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy

The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy
Author: David Kornhaber
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Total Pages: 385
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0810132621

Nietzsche's love affair with the theater was among the most profound and prolonged intellectual engagements of his life, but his transformational role in the history of the modern stage has yet to be explored. In this pathbreaking account, David Kornhaber vividly shows how Nietzsche reimagined the theatrical event as a site of philosophical invention that is at once ancestor, antagonist, and handmaiden to the discipline of philosophy itself. August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, and Eugene O'Neill— seminal figures in the modern drama's evolution and avowed Nietzscheans all—came away from their encounters with Nietzsche's writings with an impassioned belief in the philosophical potential of the live theatrical event, coupled with a reestimation of the dramatist's power to shape that event in collaboration with the actor. In these playwrights' reactions to and adaptations of Nietzsche's radical rethinking of the stage lay the beginnings of a new direction in modern theater and dramatic literature.

Theatre Games

Theatre Games
Author: Clive Barker
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2010-05-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1408125196

A practical guide to using theatre games for actor training which includes a DVD with original footage of the author putting the techniques into action.

The Mind-Body Stage

The Mind-Body Stage
Author: R. Darren Gobert
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2013-08-21
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 080478826X

Descartes's notion of subjectivity changed the way characters would be written, performed by actors, and received by audiences. His coordinate system reshaped how theatrical space would be conceived and built. His theory of the passions revolutionized our understanding of the emotional exchange between spectacle and spectators. Yet theater scholars have not seen Descartes's transformational impact on theater history. Nor have philosophers looked to this history to understand his reception and impact. After Descartes, playwrights put Cartesian characters on the stage and thematized their rational workings. Actors adapted their performances to account for new models of subjectivity and physiology. Critics theorized the theater's emotional and ethical benefits in Cartesian terms. Architects fostered these benefits by altering their designs. The Mind-Body Stage provides a dazzlingly original picture of one of the most consequential and confusing periods in the histories of modern theater and philosophy. Interdisciplinary and comparatist in scope, it uses methodological techniques from literary study, philosophy, theater history, and performance studies and draws on scores of documents (including letters, libretti, religious jeremiads, aesthetic treatises, and architectural plans) from several countries.

The Necessity of Theater

The Necessity of Theater
Author: Paul Woodruff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2008-04-30
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0199715750

What is unique and essential about theater? What separates it from other arts? Do we need "theater" in some fundamental way? The art of theater, as Paul Woodruff says in this elegant and unique book, is as necessary - and as powerful - as language itself. Defining theater broadly, including sporting events and social rituals, he treats traditional theater as only one possibility in an art that - at its most powerful - can change lives and (as some peoples believe) bring a divine presence to earth. The Necessity of Theater analyzes the unique power of theater by separating it into the twin arts of watching and being watched, practiced together in harmony by watchers and the watched. Whereas performers practice the art of being watched - making their actions worth watching, and paying attention to action, choice, plot, character, mimesis, and the sacredness of performance space - audiences practice the art of watching: paying close attention. A good audience is emotionally engaged as spectators; their engagement takes a form of empathy that can lead to a special kind of human wisdom. As Plato implied, theater cannot teach us transcendent truths, but it can teach us about ourselves. Characteristically thoughtful, probing, and original, Paul Woodruff makes the case for theater as a unique form of expression connected to our most human instincts. The Necessity of Theater should appeal to anyone seriously interested or involved in theater or performance more broadly.

In Character

In Character
Author: Christopher Vened
Publisher: Drama
Total Pages: 142
Release: 2000
Genre: Education
ISBN:

In this concise manual, Vened describes the necessary methods, principles, directions, exercises, and examples needed for the mastery of the actor's craft and art of portraying character, and offers guidance on such topics as conflict, internal and external circumstances of a character, thought patterns, and character traits in the body.

Mysticism in the Theater

Mysticism in the Theater
Author: Tom Block
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2022-02-03
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1000543781

Mysticism in the Theater introduces theater makers to the power and possibility of using historical mystical ideas to influence all aspects of a production. Historical mysticism represents ideas developed by recognized spiritual thinkers in all religions and time periods: individuals who stilled their ego, and perceived the unity of all, hidden within the apparent multiplicity of existence. This unique manner of spiritual inlay allows theatrical presentations to find the height of artistic expression: art at the intersection of our historical moment and the eternal. This study introduces theater makers to the history of mystical inspiration within performance work and develops strategies for inserting mystical ideas into their productions. The book ties this model into theatre’s history, as mystical ideas and quotes have been inserted into productions from Greek theatre through Shakespeare and into the present day. This book explores how teachings and ideas of specific historical mystical thinkers might influence all aspects of contemporary theatrical productions including writing, directing, acting, stagecraft/set design, lighting design, costume design, sound design, and choreography.