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Tables of Contents for Theater
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
INTRODUCTION
Experiencing Theater
Theater as an Art Form
What is Art?/The Art of Theater
Summary
PART ONE: CREATING THEATER
CHAPTER 1 AUDIENCES AND CRITICS
The Theater Audience/How the Audience Participates/Diversity of Audiences/Play Synopses: Fences/The Theater Critic/What Is Criticism?/Critics and Reviewers/Getting Started in Theater—Mel Gussow: Critic/Preparing for Criticism/Criteria for Criticism/Descriptive versus Prescriptive Criticism/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 2 THE PLAYWRIGHT: CREATING THE SCRIPT
CHAPTER 2 THE PLAYWRIGHT: CREATING THE SCRIPT The Playwright’s Centrality/Getting Started in Theater: Suzan-Lori Parks/The Playwright’s TasksSubjectFocus and EmphasisDramatic PurposeMaking Connections: WritersStructure in DramaEssentials of Dramatic Structure/Creating a Dramatic StructureGetting Started in Theater—August Wilson: PlaywrightTwo Basic Structures: Climactic and EpisodicPlay Synopses: Mother Courage and Her ChildrenOther Dramatic StructuresCreating Dramatic CharactersTypes of Dramatic Characters/Juxtaposition of CharactersSummaryKey Terms
CHAPTER 3 TRAGEDY OR COMEDY? DRAMATIC GENRES
What is Genre?/Tragedy Conditions for Tragedy: Theater and Society/Traditional Tragedy/Modern Tragedy Comedy/Characteristics of Comedy/Forms of ComedyPlay Synopses: Tartuffe-Heroic Drama/Melodrama -Domestic of Bourgeois Drama/Tragicomedy - Shakespearian /Tragicomedy - Modern Tragicomedy/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 4 STAGE PERFORMERS
A Historical Perspective: Demands of Classical Acting/Three Challenges of Acting/Getting Started in Theater—James Earl Jones: Performer/Mastering the Craft of Acting/Making Characters Believable/Play Synopses: The Cherry Orchard/Synthesis and Integration/Making Connections: Acting/Judging Performances/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 5 THE DIRECTOR AND THE PRODUCER
The Director/Evolution of the Director/The Auteur Director/The Director at Work/Getting Started in Theater—Richard Foreman/Getting Started in Theater—Emily Mann/The Director’s Collaborators/The Producer or ManagerProducers in Commercial Theater/Noncommercial TheatersSummary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 6 THEATER SPACES
Proscenium or Picture-Frame Stage: History and Characteristics/Thrust Stage: History and Characteristics/Arena Stage: History and Characteristics/Making Connections: Popular Performance Spaces/Created or Found Spaces/Multifocus Environments/All-Purpose and Experimental Spaces/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 7 DESIGNERS: SCENERY AND COSTUMES
Scene Design/The Scene Designer’s Objectives/Getting Started in Theater—Robin Wagner/Elements of Scene Design/The Process of Scene Design: Steps in the Design Process/The Scene Designer’s Collaborators/Designing a Total Environment/Costume Design/The Costume Designer/The Costume Designer’s Objectives/Getting Started in Theater—Jess Goldstein/Elements of Costume Design/The Costume Designer’s Collaborators/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 8 DESIGNERS: LIGHTING AND SOUND
Stage Lighting/Lighting in Theater History/Getting Started in Theater—Peggy Eisenhauer/Objectives of Lighting Design/Elements of Stage Lighting/The Lighting Designer’s Resources/The Lighting Designer’s Collaborators/Sound Design/The Sound Designer/Objectives of Sound Design/Sound Reproduction and Sound Reinforcement/Elements of Sound: Sound Technology/The Sound Designer’s Collaborators/Special Effects in Lighting and Sound/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 9 PROFILE OF A PRODUCTION: Roundabout
Theatre’s Production of Big River
PART TWO THEATER TRADITION AND THEATER TODAY
CHAPTER 10 GREEK AND ROMAN THEATER
Origins of Theater/Greece/Background: The Golden Age of Greece/Theater and Culture: Greek Theater Emerges/Timeline: Greece/Greek Tragedy - Living History: Antigone/Play Synopses: King Oedipus/Greek Comedy/Theater Production in Greece/Dramatic Criticism in Greece: Aristotle/Later Greek Theater/Rome/Background: Rome and Its Civilization/Theater and Culture in Rome/Popular Entertainment in Rome/Timeline: Rome/Roman Comedy: Plautus and Terence/Living History: The Menaechmi/Roman Tragedy: Seneca/Dramatic Criticism in Rome: Horace/Theater Production in Rome/Decline of Roman TheaterSummary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 11 ASIAN AND MEDIEVAL THEATER
Asia Background: Asian Theater/Theater in IndiaTimeline: Asia/Theater in China/Theater in JapanLiving History: Sotoba Kamachi/Play Synopses: Sotoba Komahi The Middle Ages/Background: Medieval Europe/Theater and Culture in the Middle Ages/Timeline: Middle AgesMedieval Drama: Mystery, Miracle, and Morality PlaysLiving History: Noah’s Ark/Medieval Theater ProductionSummary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 12 RENAISSANCE THEATER
Italy/Background: The Renaissance Era/Italian Theater: Commedia dell’Arte/Timeline: Italian RenaissanceLiving History: Commedia dell’Arte/Italian Dramatic Rules: The Neoclassical Ideals/Theater Production in ItalyEngland/Background: Elizabethan England/Elizabethan DramaTimeline: English Renaissance/Elizabethan Theater ProductionLiving History: Hamlet/Making Connections: Popular Arts of Shakespeare’s Time/Theater After Elizabeth’s ReignSpain/Background: The Spanish Golden Age/Spanish DramaTimeline: Spanish Golden Age/Living History: The KingTheater Production in Spain/France/Background: France in the Seventeenth Century/French Drama: The Neoclassical EraTimeline: Neoclassical France/Living History: TartuffeTheater Production in France/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 13 FROM RESTORATION THROUGH ROMANTICISM
The English Restoration/Background: England in the Seventeenth Century/Restoration Drama: Comedies of Manners/Timeline: The English Restoration/Living History: The Country Wife/Theater Production in the Restoration/Play Synopses: The Way of the World/The Eighteenth Century/Background: A More Complex World/Timeline: The Eighteenth Century/Eighteenth-Century Drama: New Dramatic Forms/Theater Production in the Eighteenth Century/Living History: The Marriage of Figaro/The Nineteenth Century/Background: A Time of Social Change/Theater in Nineteenth-Century Life/Timeline: Nineteenth Century/Nineteenth-Century Dramatic FormsMaking Connections: Nineteenth-Century Popular Theatrical Arts/Theater Production in the Nineteenth Century/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 14 EARLY MODERN MOVEMENTS
The Birth of Realism/Background: The Modern Era/Timeline: 1875-1915/Theatrical Realism/Realistic Playwrights/Play Synopses: A Doll’s HouseRealism and Naturalism/Producers of Realism: Independent Theaters/Living History: The Sea Gull/Realistic Theater between 1915 and 1945/Timeline: 1915 to 1945/Departures from Realism/Antirealist Playwrights: Ibsen, Strindberg, and Wedekind/Symbolism/ Antirealist Designers: Appia and Craig/Russian Theatricalism: Meyerhold/Early Eclectics/Departure From Realism: 1915-1945Totalitarianism, the Second World War, and Theater/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 15 TWENTIETH CENTURY DIVERSITY
Postwar Realistic Theater/Background: The Postwar Era/Timeline: 1945-2000/American Selective RealismPlay Synopses: Death of a Salesman/The “Angry Young Men” in England and Documentary Drama in Germany/Experimentation and Departures from Realism: 1945 to 1980/Living History: Waiting for Godot/Existentialism and Theater of the Absurd/Experimental Theater/Play Synopses: Waiting for Godot/Postwar Eclectics/Developments in Postwar American TheaterAfrican American Theater/Musical Theater/Alternatives to Commercial Theater/Making Connections: Film and the Other Mass Media/Summary/Key Terms
CHAPTER 16 CONTEMPORARY TRENDS
The Beginning of a New Century/Today’s Theater: Diversity and Eclecticism/Asian American Theater/Hispanic Theater/Native American Theater/Feminist Theater/Play Synopses: Fefu and Her FriendsGay and Lesbian Theater/Performance Art/Postmodernism/International Trends/Two African Playwrights/Today and Tomorrow: A Look Ahead/Making Connections: The Digital Arts/Summary/Key Terms
Index
LIST OF BOXES
GETTING STARTED IN THEATER
Mel Gussow: Critic/Joan MacIntosh: Performer/Richard Foreman: Director, playwright, and designer/Zelda Fichlander: Director and artistic director/Robin Wagner: Scene designer/Jess Goldstein: Costume designer/Peggy Eisenhauer: Lighting designer/Emily Mann: Director-playwright/August Wilson: Playwright