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 29
Sivu 4
... story for the better. Her parents took her for a budding exhibitionist— for someone who repeatedly demands attention for a scene that is not worth watching or does not know how to set boundaries of time around her demands. They could ...
... story for the better. Her parents took her for a budding exhibitionist— for someone who repeatedly demands attention for a scene that is not worth watching or does not know how to set boundaries of time around her demands. They could ...
Sivu 6
... stories of their people. But electricity has come to the village. Now every home has an antenna, and the story circles have come apart, each child in his own home watching the flickering screen. Now the children do not know the stories ...
... stories of their people. But electricity has come to the village. Now every home has an antenna, and the story circles have come apart, each child in his own home watching the flickering screen. Now the children do not know the stories ...
Sivu 11
... stories in common, to share friends and enemies. They need to watch, together, something human. Without this...well, without this we would be a different sort of species. Theater is as distinctive of human beings, in my view, as ...
... stories in common, to share friends and enemies. They need to watch, together, something human. Without this...well, without this we would be a different sort of species. Theater is as distinctive of human beings, in my view, as ...
Sivu 14
... stories of that culture. Let's try some examples to illustrate cultural necessity, starting with the arts. Poetry Before literacy, poetry was the principal art of memory everywhere, and so poetry seemed necessary to culture; but after ...
... stories of that culture. Let's try some examples to illustrate cultural necessity, starting with the arts. Poetry Before literacy, poetry was the principal art of memory everywhere, and so poetry seemed necessary to culture; but after ...
Sivu 15
... story is to keep an open mind about what counts as poetry or theater. Only by narrowing my focus too far was I able to make poetry seem obsolete and therefore dispensable. Painting and drawing The need for the graphic arts—painting and ...
... story is to keep an open mind about what counts as poetry or theater. Only by narrowing my focus too far was I able to make poetry seem obsolete and therefore dispensable. Painting and drawing The need for the graphic arts—painting and ...
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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