The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being WatchedOxford University Press, 30.4.2008 - 272 sivua 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. |
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Tulokset 1 - 5 kokonaismäärästä 63
Sivu 4
... acting out is perfectly calibrated to seize the attention of their young audience. The grown-up actors on the official stage are not put off their stride. They are professionals, and the few adults in the audience (who had not been ...
... acting out is perfectly calibrated to seize the attention of their young audience. The grown-up actors on the official stage are not put off their stride. They are professionals, and the few adults in the audience (who had not been ...
Sivu 5
... actors know how to reach young teenagers, but they are not doing so now. The Lost Storyteller The lecture today is an introduction to genetic theory. It is the first lecture of the course, and the students are eager to find out how it ...
... actors know how to reach young teenagers, but they are not doing so now. The Lost Storyteller The lecture today is an introduction to genetic theory. It is the first lecture of the course, and the students are eager to find out how it ...
Sivu 6
... actor on a stage from which there is no exit, on which the light never dims. And he lives with an audience who will never be simply his parents. Thank goodness all the world is not a stage. It couldn't be. You would not want to be on ...
... actor on a stage from which there is no exit, on which the light never dims. And he lives with an audience who will never be simply his parents. Thank goodness all the world is not a stage. It couldn't be. You would not want to be on ...
Sivu 7
... actors free and, at the same time, free ourselves from the spell the actors have cast over us. But suppose we don't. Suppose we stay locked in our seats with our hands still. Like the figures on Keats's imaginary Grecian urn, the actors ...
... actors free and, at the same time, free ourselves from the spell the actors have cast over us. But suppose we don't. Suppose we stay locked in our seats with our hands still. Like the figures on Keats's imaginary Grecian urn, the actors ...
Sivu 9
... actor, his friend.They are chewing over unsatisfactory relationships in a subtle, delicate scene, touching—but perhaps too subtle. Suddenly, during a quiet moment in the script, a woman in the front row begins to have a heart attack ...
... actor, his friend.They are chewing over unsatisfactory relationships in a subtle, delicate scene, touching—but perhaps too subtle. Suddenly, during a quiet moment in the script, a woman in the front row begins to have a heart attack ...
Muita painoksia - Näytä kaikki
The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched Paul Woodruff Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2008 |
The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched Paul Woodruff Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2008 |
The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched Paul Woodruff Rajoitettu esikatselu - 2008 |
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action worth watching actors aims Alice Alice’s wedding altar call Antigone Aristotle art of theater art of watching art theater audience Bacchae believe belongs Brecht bride bring caring character choice Claudius comedy conflict courage Creon culture definition Dionysus effect emotions empathy Endgame engaged example Falstaff fantasy fear feel fiction film football game Hamlet happens Hecuba human action worth imagine justice kinds of theater King Lear Laramie Project laugh laughter lives make-believe mean measured mimesis mimetic theater mind never Oedipus Oedipus at Colonus Oedipus’s pay attention people’s performance philosophers Plato players playwright plot poetry poets quarterback reason response sacred space scene Shakespeare share simply Socrates Sophocles stage story Suppose tell theater piece theatrical theory things tion tonal sympathy tradition Trobriand cricket truth understand watchers wisdom wise Woodruff young