Drama Term Tuesday #12

Censorship

Censorship of Drama

Censorship sets out to define, control and restrict individual or group freedom and access to ideas or expression.

In the long history of drama there has been strong recognition of its power to influence thought and to change action amongst audiences. As such a powerful force in society, drama has attracted the attention of many who wanted to control it, curb its influence or to use it for their own purposes. Censorship has been undertaken on the basis of religious belief, political ideology and propaganda, sexual or personal morality. Censorship can be undertaken by individuals, groups, governments or religious groups.

Self censorship is another common example of how individual playwrights and actors limit ideas or dramatic action.

Optimistically, wherever there has existed censorship, there has been ingenuity and resilience in drama which questioned or countered the deadening influence of censorship and ensured the power of drama continued to have an impact on society.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #11

Text-based approaches

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.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #10

Objective

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

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #9

Tension

Dramatic Tension

Conflict

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.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #8

Theatre of the oppressed

T.O.

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

Extract from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #7

Historification

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

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #6

Victorian Drama

Notable for technical innovation but is tended to be dismissed for its approach and content. 

During the reign of Queen Victoria which covered most of the 19th century, English drama showed the ascendancy of actors and managers and the lowering of the status and importance of playwrights. There was a move to entertainments and popular theatre forms such as music hall and a preference for melodrama, domestic tragedy and sentimental comedy. 

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #5

Mark

Hitting the mark

Marking through a performance

Hitting the mark: when an actor moves to a prearranged place on the stage on given lines.

Marking through a performance: in rehearsal when an actor goes through the actions and lines but does not give a fully committed performance; most often used for technical rehearsals and to preserve the voice in opera rehearsals. 

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #4

Futurism

20th century theatre movement focusing on the “dynamism of the Machine Age”; rejected all former stage practice and argued for the inclusion of the dramatic energy of other forms such as circus, music hall and  cabaret; a compression of drama into brief situations.

Influenced many later 20th Century innovations such as the use of new technologies, multimedia approaches and environmental theatre.

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts

Drama Term Tuesday #3

Readers theatre

Staged reading

A performance where the dramatic script is read aloud rather than memorized; costumes and simple settings may or may not be used; focus and limited movement feature strongly; although the play has been rehearsed the actors are familiar with their lines but there is no attempt to pretend  that they are not reading.

See also chamber theatre

Excerpt from Drama Key Terms and Concepts