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. |
Kirjan sisältä
Tulokset 1 - 5 kokonaismäärästä 45
Sivu 8
... poetry, a banquet, and champagne. Now they are to be married for sure; the friends and relatives who will cherish this couple in future will see that this is so. Thao and Toan will speak their vows while the audience watches, and the ...
... poetry, a banquet, and champagne. Now they are to be married for sure; the friends and relatives who will cherish this couple in future will see that this is so. Thao and Toan will speak their vows while the audience watches, and the ...
Sivu 14
... poetry seemed necessary to culture; but after literacy, it appears that poetry is dispensable, and indeed poetry survives now mainly in the precious sphere of art poetry—poets writing for poets—and in the wider arena of self-expression ...
... poetry seemed necessary to culture; but after literacy, it appears that poetry is dispensable, and indeed poetry survives now mainly in the precious sphere of art poetry—poets writing for poets—and in the wider arena of self-expression ...
Sivu 15
... poetry. So we do need poetry, because we need it for music, and evidently we need music. And of course we hear lots of poetry, everywhere in the modern world, if we don't close our ears to rap lyrics or folk ballads. The moral of the ...
... poetry. So we do need poetry, because we need it for music, and evidently we need music. And of course we hear lots of poetry, everywhere in the modern world, if we don't close our ears to rap lyrics or folk ballads. The moral of the ...
Sivu 17
... poetry and painting seem to survive only in eccentric byways, what can I say of theater? Theater appears to be in such dark eclipse that it has no popular audience, except for the tourists who flock to musical productions that ape film ...
... poetry and painting seem to survive only in eccentric byways, what can I say of theater? Theater appears to be in such dark eclipse that it has no popular audience, except for the tourists who flock to musical productions that ape film ...
Sivu 20
... poem, W. H. Auden sees what Brueghel painted—a boy falling out of the sky while no one pays attention, and the work of the world goes on. How to notice, whom to notice, when to notice, why to notice other people—these are the really ...
... poem, W. H. Auden sees what Brueghel painted—a boy falling out of the sky while no one pays attention, and the work of the world goes on. How to notice, whom to notice, when to notice, why to notice other people—these are the really ...
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 |
Yleiset termit ja lausekkeet
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