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. |
Sisältö
What Theater Makes | |
Plot | |
Staging Choices | |
Characters | |
Sacred Space | |
THE ART OF WATCHING | |
Empathy | |
Laughter | |
Understanding Theater | |
The Mask of Wisdom | |
The Defense of Theater | |
Bibliography | |
Mimesis | |
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 Esikatselu ei käytettävissä - 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 courage Creon culture definition Dionysus effect emotions empathy Endgame engaged example Falstaff fantasy fear feel fiction film football game Haemon Hamlet happens Hecuba human action worth imagination justice kinds of theater Laramie Project laugh laughter lives make-believe mean measured mimesis mimetic theater mind never Oedipus Oedipus at Colonus Oedipus’s pay attention performance philosophers Plato players playwright pleasure plot poetry poets quarterback reason response roles sacred space scene Shakespeare share simply Socrates Sophocles stage story Suppose tell theater of presence theater piece theatrical theory things tonal sympathy tradition Trobriand cricket truth understand watchers wisdom wise Woodruff young