Drama that works from a text written by a playwright through exploring and interpreting ideas and themes, solving practical problems of directing and staging including placing the text in contexts through dramaturgy.
The goal to which the dramatic action or character is headed in a particular scene or section of a scene; everything said or done contributes to the objective.
See also Stanislavski
Last Friday I attended a thought provoking day on music learning and brain development given by Dr Anita Collins, an Australian neuromusical educator from the ACT.
Anita is a passionate, practicing music teacher as well as researcher. Her three sessions focused on how learning music affects the brain and a child’s cognitive development. It was a discussion more about using music education as a powerful tool in building bigger better brains, than about the equally important function of music learning in an arts enriched education.
Here are a few points which resonated strongly with me:
Left brain / right brain is an outmoded way of thinking.
Hearing is our biggest information gathering sense.
The ages 0-7 are critical in the first wiring of the brain. Rhythm and beat form the basis of all brain development. ( Aside: any early- childhood classroom teacher is capable of simple beat and rhythm activities and is thereby enhancing the cognitive development of every child in the class)
In the ‘first wiring’ stage, significant results can be achieved by just 10 min of beat and rhythm activities per day.
After age 7 brain development is considered ‘rewiring’. It can be achieved but requires more minutes per day.
Singing and moving engages the whole sensory network.
That is just a taste of Dr Anita Collins’ work. To read more, check out ‘Bigger Better Brains’ on Facebook.
Highly symbolic, stylised and surreal film movement from Germany in the 1920s. The plots dealt with madness, despair, intellectual topics and weird characters.
The set designs used geometric shapes and shadowy lighting.
It was influenced by the Dadaist and Surrealist art movements at the time. Fritz Land and F.W. Murnau were two Expressionist directors.
The Cabinet of Dr Calligari (1920), Nosferatu (1922) and Metropolis (1927)
Sense of strain, excitement, anticipation or suspense used to animate and sustain interest and forward movement in drama.
Obstacle for a character to overcome.
A sense of ‘what’s at stake’ in a particular dramatic situation. Tension and dramatic tension are sometimes used interchangeably with conflict but the concept is more than simple arguments or differences of opinion.
A movement of Japanese filmmakers from the late 1950s to the early 1970s who brought a new creative burst in response to traditional Japanese cinema. They challenged traditional mainstream themes and values, and experimented with film styles and conventions to produce work that used sexual violence, radical politics and the aftermath of World War 2.
Examples are Crazed Fruit (1956), Black Sun (1964) and The Blind Beast (1969).
Brazilian director Augusto Boal (1931 - 2009) developed a method of forum theatre for, about and by the oppressed, who act as “spect-actors” (rather than spectators) to examine and change the existence in which they live, through drama.
Boal’s key practices:
Forum theatre
Image theatre: where the “spect-actors” are asked to sculpt their bodies and other participants’ bodies to create images (tableaux) representing particular situations, emotions or ideals. Boal encouraged the images to be created spontaneously so as to articulate raw emotions and ideas.
Invisible theatre: where a rehearsed play is performed in a public space without the public knowing that they are seeing a performance. This form was used to focus on social themes and to incite debate within society.
Legislative theatre: similar to forum theatre except the theme of the drama is based on local government.
Newspaper theatre
Today we look at the more classical shaping used in classical vocal music as well as legit music theatre styles.
i (think the vowel in ‘bee’): tip of the tongue rests gently on the back of the lower front teeth; the sides of the body of the tongue are higher and touching the upper back molars. This vowel has a bright, forward sound quality. The lips remain relaxed – not spread.
e (think the vowel in ‘egg’): tip of the tongue rests gently on the back of the lower front teeth; the sides of the body of the tongue are still high and resting on the upper back molars, though very slightly more relaxed away from the teeth than in the i vowel. This vowel has a bright, forward sound quality. The lips remain relaxed.
a (think the vowel in ‘bar’): tip of the tongue rests gently on the back of the lower front teeth; the tongue body relaxes gently down into the floor of the mouth (never press or push the tongue down). The soft palate rises, giving this vowel a rounded, spacious sound quality in classical and legit singing. The lips remain relaxed.
o (think the vowel in ‘lot’): the tip of the tongue moves very slightly away from the back of the lower front teeth and the lips pout forward, shaping the vowel.
u (think the vowel in ‘look’): the tip of the tongue very slightly away from touching the back of the lower front teeth and the lips pout forward into a pucker to shape the vowel.
A short film of video that accompanies a song.
Music video content varies and includes: the musicians performing (or lip synching) the song, live concert footage, animation or other imagery, a visual narrative.
Music videos are made as marketing devices to promote the sale of CDs.
Typical elements of music videos: usually three to five minutes long, use quick cuts, highly stylised, use spectacular imagery, sex appeal and lots of special effects.
Music videos are subject to censorship if their content is deemed too offensive. As censorship laws differ from country to country, record labels will often supply censored and uncensored versions of the video. It has been known for music videos to be banned in their entirety for being too offensive to broadcast.
A convention favoured by Brecht, which uses historical events to comment on events of the present.
The technique is used to alienate the audience from emotional identification and as such have a greater didactic impact.
See also A-Effect/Alientation, Brechtian Drama, Epic Drama
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