Theatre Evaluation

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- Hand movement/posture

- Conveys message with no words

Props

- Set or what actor carries

Costumes

- Time period, economic status, gender, interests, weather

Silence

- Lets you know something bad will take place

Lights

- Tell you where to look

- Lets you know where you are & conveys info

Music

Set

- Where things are placed tells a lot

Signs

Symbols

- Convey info with how you use symbols (ex: character stepping on American flag vs. waving it)

The Critic

- First hand perspective

- Audience oriented response

3 Questions to think about

- What is the playwright/director trying to do?

- How well did they do it?

- Was it worth doing?

Critical Perspective (Plays relation to _______ )

- Society

- Individual (should see a reflection of self based on general humanity)

- Art

- Theatre

- Entertainment

Critical Focus (Types of Critic)

Professional Critic

- Their job to go to a play and review that one night of a show

- Mainly written online/newspaper

- Reviews need to be timely written – deadlines

- Space Constraints – must be concise

- Articulate – limited # of Column Inches

- Hired based upon their writing skills

Scholarly Critic

- Trying to further the knowledge of theatre

- Mostly writing journal articles, textbooks

- Still opinion based, do not have hard deadlines

Qualities of a Critic

- Observant (not biased, ready to watch)

- Informed (learn about playwright, director etc.)

- Demanding (set the bar high)

Actors (focusing on stage actors)

Schedule/Life

- Must join actors equity association (AEA)

- Can join with points (earned by doing other shows)

- Get one point per week on payroll usually

- Need 50 points within 3 years AEA candidacy program

Contract – if you are very good and are offered an equity role, you must be a member so you get to become a member

- Even with this, at any given time, AEA only has a 12% employment rate

Most people give up within 2 years

Main 3 jobs for actors – bartender, waiting tables, temping

- Prep of monologue for audition is huge most actors only get a two-minute audition

Need one to focus on your range & talent

- Most actors work 6 days a week – usually get Mondays off b/c it does not really sell anyway (8 shows a week)

- Other days, mostly working 10-7 with one lunch break

Have to memorize lines & blocking on your own time

2 different notions of acting

- Method Acting (internal acting: representational acting)

- Technical Acting (external acting: presentational acting)

- Technical allows you to step into a role, method is about BECOMING the role

Actors Tools

Voice

- Dialect, accents, range, etc.

- Ability to sing open up many more roles

- Need to train voice for stamina, to project in a theatre

Body

- Body language to play different characters

- Ability to dance/fight makes you more castable

The more body/voice skills you have the better

Charisma

4 psychological approaches to a role

- Artifice – something that allows you to believe the false environment you are in

- Interpersonal Relationships – have to be able to create relationships with other characters on stage

- Making the Role your own

- Discipline – develop your character, allowing others to develop theirs etc.

The Director

- the director – producer are figureheads of a show

- director = creative, producer = financial

- any responsibilities of the director can be taken over the producer

Director first chooses a play

- 3 things to consider

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