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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Sivu vii
... telling me how to do it (Woodruff [2003]). C. D. C. Reeve made comments throughout and even went over subsequent drafts of bits on difficult topics. Edward Garris has also been helpful with suggestions. My colleague T. K. Seung has been ...
... telling me how to do it (Woodruff [2003]). C. D. C. Reeve made comments throughout and even went over subsequent drafts of bits on difficult topics. Edward Garris has also been helpful with suggestions. My colleague T. K. Seung has been ...
Sivu 6
... telling a story, but he does not know the art. Storytelling is part of the art of theater. Our lecturer should see ... tell the stories of their people. But electricity has come to the village. Now every home has an antenna, and the ...
... telling a story, but he does not know the art. Storytelling is part of the art of theater. Our lecturer should see ... tell the stories of their people. But electricity has come to the village. Now every home has an antenna, and the ...
Sivu 7
... tell them when to applaud, modern theater gives the cue with lights or curtain, and each tradition has its own way. But we must have permission to engage again with our lives. Watching Alone Olivia lives for opera. Every performance ...
... tell them when to applaud, modern theater gives the cue with lights or curtain, and each tradition has its own way. But we must have permission to engage again with our lives. Watching Alone Olivia lives for opera. Every performance ...
Sivu 14
... tell. But poetry is not so easily surrendered; poetry matters more to us than might appear from the scant space allowed to it in bookstores. There is much more to poetry than what I said at the outset—“poets writing for poets,” and ...
... tell. But poetry is not so easily surrendered; poetry matters more to us than might appear from the scant space allowed to it in bookstores. There is much more to poetry than what I said at the outset—“poets writing for poets,” and ...
Sivu 22
... tell ourselves stories about what we are doing as individuals, framing our actions all the while as deserving an audience. To imagine yourself totally without an audience would be painful and difficult. We are under a kind of ...
... tell ourselves stories about what we are doing as individuals, framing our actions all the while as deserving an audience. To imagine yourself totally without an audience would be painful and difficult. We are under a kind of ...
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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