J a s e n B o k o

Theatrehow a play is made

Saznaj:

• како је настала позоришна уметност• ко све учествује у раду на представи• шта је то добра глума• какве све пробе постоје• шта је то мизансцен

Probaj:

• да напишеш драмску сцену• да научиш да глумиш• да организујеш аудицију• да направиш распоред проба• да изабереш декор и костиме

Ја

се

н Б

ок

оTh

eatr

e

Series Learn & Try

Theatre

idea: Ljiljana Marinkovićauthor: Jasen Boko • illustration and design: Dušan Pavlić • editor: Milena Trutinlecteur: Violeta Babić • editor in chief: Dejan Begović

publisher: КРЕАТИВНИ ЦЕНТАР, Градиштанска 8, Београдphone: +381 11 / 38 20 483, 38 20 464, 244 06 59www.kreаtivnicentаr.rs • info@kreаtivnicentаr.rs

Copyright©KREATIVNI CENTAR 2012

There is your girlfriend!

Oh, no!Tragedy!

J a s e n B o k o

Illustrated by

Dušan Pavlić

THEATREhow a play is made

You’re such a comic

character

Hey, who nibbled on the sword?

I can’t believe you opted for a real horse! Boo-hoo!

Hey, give me back the script!

Yet another moldy script... When will they do something

more up to date?

But he must feel it!

Hanging out with those actors again,

are you?!

CONTENTS

5 ......... What is theater 6 ......... How it all began 9 ......... How a play is made 14 ......... Theatrical forms and genres 16 ......... How drama is made 16 ......... Write a dramatic scene 19 ......... Write a comical scene 20 ......... Actor 21 ......... Acting exercises 22 ......... Speech 22 ......... Concentration 23 ......... Self-assurance 24 ......... Credibility 25 ......... How not to act 25 ......... Act in two different ways 26 ......... Casts and auditions 27 ......... Write an invitation to audition 27 ......... Set up an audition 28 ......... Rehearsal schedule 28 ......... Create weekly rehearsals schedule

29 ......... Who else is missing 29 ......... Producer and organizer 29 ......... Prop manager 29 ......... Prompter 30 ......... Costume designer 30 ......... Set designer 31 ......... What fits which play 32 ......... Finally rehearsals! 36 ......... Test the mise en scene 37 ......... On the eve of the opening night 37 ......... Advertise the opening night 37 ......... Create the playbill 38 ......... To be or not to be – OPENING NIGHT 40 ......... What next 42 ........ Glossary 44 ........ Index

WHAT IS THEATRE?

5

Imitation is the basic tool of a very small kid learning how to ac-complish the many tasks it comes across in everyday life. We learn by copying our mother’s and our father’s gestures, and those of other older people around us. Later on we imitate the games and situations we saw, and even later on as adults, we don’t re-frain from copying things other people do– both good and bad.

You must convince me!

Come on make it convincing!

Hey, we’re playing pirates today!

You're so wrong! Today we play the Wild West!

I refuse to be tied up to the totem again!

Voah!

And how about we play theater?

Oops, wrong day again..!

What did we do when we were kids? We played. Through play we learnt about the world around us, and the mo-

ment we got caught up in playing with a toy, or a friend or our moth-er, and started reenacting a particular situation we saw, we actually engaged in a theatrical play.

In theatre, puppets or actors imitate real-life situations, things that could or would happen somewhere sometimes. Once upon a time – the beginning of every tale – has never been uttered in the theatre because theatre is the story teller; it creates them, and it presents them by imitation, without any mediation of a narrator.

This book will take you through the most important things about theatre. We will look into its little secrets, find out about professions related to the theatre, and perhaps help you understand what it is that makes theatre so wonderful.

Once we have learnt a thing or two about theatre, we will try our hand at staging a theatrical play ourselves! This will require a great deal of love, along with understanding and passion.

All those involved in theatre know that it is an art form one can fall deeply in love with, and once that happens, as opposed to some other childhood loves and likes, falling out of love is ever so difficult…

And just as well!

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The earliest known theatre originated alongside first civiliza-tions, in the valleys of great Indian rivers over 3,000 years ago,

and puppets had been popular in India and across Asia long before western civilizations even discovered literacy. Ancient Egyptians also held games that involved stage elements.

It is the ancient Greeks that we have to thank for the birth of thea-tre as a fine art form we know and love today. The Greeks celebrated Dionysius, a god of fertility, grape and wine. Joyful processions extolled his glory, singing funny songs performed by a chorus in goat masks. Greek word for goat is tragos, and oda is a song, so the two words (tragos + oda) combined to form the term tragedy, ‘the goat-song’.

If we think about how the prehistoric people used to com-municate with each other, how they sought to explain the ever more complex word outside their shelter, we can only assume that they used voice and gestures. Most probably, just like indicated by the cave painting, they must have resorted to certain ritualis-tic scenes to tell their tribesmen about what happened in the hunt.

6

Right, you saw a bear?

BOO, BOOO…!

And maybe that would still be so to this day, had not coryphaeus, the leader of the chorus, stepped out one day, and started a dialogue, engaged in a conversation with the choir. And that is how sometime in the 6th century BC a joyous song broke ground for – the Greek tragedy.

7

Are you Christian?

No, an actor.

Whatever dialogue is this?! He’s been talking to himself for hours…

Names of these drama cham-pions are familiar to us to this day. The dramatic pieces by Ae-schylus, Sophocles, Euripides are still present on the stages all over the world.

In the ancient Greece, theatrical plays were held at festivities, with theatres as large as the football stadiums of today. The authors –winners of the theatrical contests – were awarded a divine status and celebrated. The people experienced those tragedies profoundly, being as troubled as the protagonists on the stage.

Unfortunately, already in the ancient Rome the events on the stage lost their artistic significance, and the theatre was trans-formed into a place of entertainment. Occasionally, plays were even used for brutal real-life enemy executions on the stage, the enemy being primarily the Christians. Actors ceased being reputa-ble. Most often, actors were criminals or slaves, never respectable citizens. In the medieval times, when the church took over signifi-cant control over the social life, theatre completely disappeared as an organized activity.

Theatre also has its unwrit-ten history, a story about small-time traveling actors. Mimes and puppeteers – often it was a family tradition, like a craft of some sort – existed as early as in the ancient Greece. They used mimes, short sketches and plays to attract the audiences traveling to see a big-time play.

There were no theatres in the middle ages. Instead there were histrions, traveling actors, who performed at fairs and public squares, wherever there was an audience willing to award them by slipping a few coins or a piece of bread into the hat. Today their descend-ents are the street artists we sometimes see performing in our streets.

However, later on church came to recognize an important ad-vantage of the theatre. In times of widespread illiteracy, with no newspapers or television, theatre represented an ideal platform to advertise religion. Medieval theatre dealt with stage presentations of Biblical themes and tales. Those theatre plays were often grand spectacles, pageants, with whole towns taking part in them.

The first ever theatrical building since the ancient times was built in Vicenza, the Renaissance Italy, in 1584. And through to the 20th century, theatre had remained the most popular form of art and everyone’s favorite pastime.

But throughout the long history of theatre, there was an ongoing debate as to whether theatre is mere entertainment or a sublime fine art form. Naturally, a quality stage performance need not be boring, same as piece of entertainment need not be void of art. Only with the appearance of the cinematic art, the television and the as-sorted light entertainment, has the theatre stopped being the most popular pastime – but it hasn’t stopped being an art form.

Look at him! He became an actor!

And just look at the coins trickling into the old hat there..!

Yup, they changed the actor. I thought the slave was better…

8

Poor bugger! Yet another supporting role…

The plays that make it into the regular repertoire include a deal more supporting roles than the leading ones, and those need to be performed as well. This is often the cause of great disappointment. 9

HOW A PLAY IS MADE

Where and when does the process of producing a play begin? Probably it’s the moment that the dramatist shows up at the

theatre manager’s office with the new script tucked under his arm.Once the decision is made about which script to produce for the

stage, the first step towards a new play is finding the director. The dramatist and the director will further polish the lines of the script, cutting something out, adding something in, and perhaps, as the author would absolutely insist later on at the opening night, completely ruining it!

Is this what you call a partner?

Uh! ^etvrta genijalna drama ove nedeqe!

Imam genijalan tekst! Doma}i autor, malo lica, savremeni problemi, suze, smeh,

strast, sve! Publika }e poludeti!

If Hamlet were to be played exactly how Shakespeare wrote it, the play would last six hours. This dramatic piece, arguably the most performed play in the world, has been staged in a myriad vari-ations - there is even a Hamlet with only two actors and neither of them has any lines!

And then one day the casting call will emerge on the theatre bul-letin board: a notice to the actors about who is playing which part. The casting call will cause both satisfaction and protests. Most actors are convinced that they are exceptional and placed on Earth for the sole purpose of playing lead roles.

Each theater has a good genie – albeit the hallways will sometimes lend the impression that devils themselves inhabit the place – and all the disputes are brought to resolution. Everybody is perfectly aware that leaving one’s ego at the door, the crucial thing about being involved in a team project, is often the most difficult.

10

The production begins by reading the script in the read through, the reading rehearsals. Their duration will depend on the director: there are those who spend only two days in the reading room, and then there are those who stay there for as long as three weeks.

Next, they will move to the rehearsal room, to have a walk-through and start exercising the mise en scène, the stage setting and movement. Rehearsal room sessions are scheduled by scenes, therefore all actors rarely meet at this stage.

Once the stage rehearsals finally start, the production is joined by the rest of the theatre crew, and the actor rehearsals are joined by the tech rehearsals: the lighting, sound and props used in the stage production are tested. The actors will slowly start getting their costumes, bits of scenery start appearing on the stage, and soon the first night is upon us.

It is only in the last few weeks of stage work that the scenes that had been rehearsed separately, slowly get glued together, and the whole cast would start appearing for the rehearsals.

What is he talking

about?

This conceptual model of interpretation shall facilitate a pseudo-modernistic

performance of…And here

I am..!

11

On the eve of the opening night, there is an air of insecurity, of anxiety, with everyone believing that all the hard work would end in some sort of disaster. Theatre assembles numerous artists, all prominent individualists, and each one of them has their own, the best and the most original vision of what exactly it’s all about. The director has the last word in a theatre, and in the end he gets almost everything his way.

On the opening night, the door of the theatre will open wide, and the opening night audience, all brimming with excitement, will stock-fill the house to the last seat.

And than the curtain will rise, the voices and noises will die down, lights will go out, and the grand premier will start, bringing about yet another theatrical miracle. All the first night fears and jitters that had accumulated right to the moment before the curtain-up, will transform into a surge of positive energy, and the artists will be receive a loud applause for yet another successful performance.

Never say GOOD LUCK to an actor, director, or any member of a theatre crew on the premiere night! There is a strange theater superstition that the best way to wish someone a successful open-ing night is to say, "Break a leg!" This expression is universal in all theaters – American or Chinese – and it suits all purposes: trag-edy and comedy, private or state owned theater.

1

1

10

18

13

14

17

15

2

6

22

3

4

4

5

9

1

1

12

Before we embark on making our own play, let’s briefly peek into a professional theater and see how a play is produced.

1 ACTOR 2 DIRECTOR 3 PROPS ASSISTANT 4 SET PAINTER 5 COSTUME DESIGNER 6 DRAMATIST 7 EXTRA 8 STAGEHAND 9 PROPERTY MAN 10 PROMPTER11 SET DESIGNER12 SOUND TECHNICIAN13 ONLOOKER14 HAIRDRESSER15 CARPENTER16 CHOREOGRAPHER17 DRESSER18 STAGE MANAGER19 PYROTECHNICIAN20 LIGHTING TECHNICIAN 21 THEATRE MANAGER22 MAKEUP ARTIST

16

20

21

19

12

118

77

13

14

THEATRICAL FORMS AND GENRES

Just as a writer tells a story using verse or fiction, so too a theatrical artist can tell the same story in several different ways,

thus creating different forms of theater.

Drama is one of these theatrical forms, and there the story is told in form of a dialogue. But since music and stage movement are also of vital importance for theatre, other theatrical forms have developed throughout history, primarily the opera and ballet.

All three theatrical forms are based on some sort of dramatic plot. They differ in the way the drama is presented in them.

When you start working on your own play, you will need to decide what it is you do best: talking, dancing or singing. I would not recommend opera; opera singers take years of hard work to train their voice and singing techniques. Truth be told, the arts of acting and dancing are hardly any easier to master. They too take years of studying and practice, besides talent, but still – speaking and a bit of acting all of us can muster. Therefore, in our theatrical exercise we will opt for a drama.

It’s the best to opt for a play about modern life, about something from your everyday experience. That would automatically take care of the problem of costumes and set design. Stories like those of Shakespeare's take place around us every day, fortunately with less tragic consequences, so a stage play using several scenes to tell us about love between Vlada from the class 8B and Ivana from the class 7C may be both interesting to an audience and doable for the stage. Especially if Marko from the class 8A thickens the plot...

Don’t play games, Romeo oh Romeo – act, oh act!

The families of two young lovers are in long-standing en-mity and oppose their love, so the young lovers of Verona chose death over separation. This legend became immortal owing to Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

The same story, only without a single word, is the subject of a successful ballet, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev.

If, however, music is com-posed and set to Shakespeare's verses so his lovers sing their sad story, we have the opera, a musical and theatrical form that requires a rich theater that can afford to produce it on the stage. The opera calls for an or-chestra, assorted historical cos-tumes, skilled singers and – a patient audience.

15

The outcome of Vladan’s and Ivana’s love and Marko’s interven-tion would determine the dramatic type of the play.

The dramatic types, which are sometimes also called the genres, stemming from the French word genre – gen-der, are tragedy, comedy and the drama (proper).

Tragedy is characterized by the unhappy ending, a sublime style and the sufferings of the hero who carries a tragic quilt. It was characteristic for the theatre of the antique times, the Shakespear-ean era and the French classicism. In the modern times it’s slowly disappearing and being replaced by drama.

Comedy is a humorous form which presents funny situations or people, has happy ending and a general style that is easily un-derstandable and - funny. If tears are a reaction to tragedy, then laughter is the reaction to comedy. And in the theatre of today laughing tears are far more frequent than those shed for tragic suf-

fering.

Drama has a serious style, it uses everyday language, it aims at neither tears nor laughter, and it deals with a serious subject. As opposed to tragedy, it does not necessarily end tragically, in the death of the hero – although that is also an option – but rather in a resolu-tion, denouement, of the situation which isn’t exactly tragic but still is dramatic enough. In fact, drama combines the el-ements of tragedy and comedy.

Is this supposed to be a tragedy..?

We are staging a drama! Why are you laughing?

A comedy, that’s it!

Oh you’re such a laugh…

There is also a non-verbal drama, which uses pantomime instead of words.

Therefore no speech whatsoever.

44

INDEX

Aeschylus 7academy of drama 40 41actor 13, 20, 24, 27, 32, 34, 41acting exercises 21-25, 32Agatha Christie 39applause 11, 39auditions 26 27audience 11, 14, 24, 34, 36, 39ballet 14casting call 9, 26Cats 38characterization 16, 19Chekhov 21choreographer 13collective direction 26Comedy 11, 15, 19, 38concentration 21, 22confidence 21, 23Costume 10, 14, 30, 32, 33,Costume Designer 13, 30, 31, 40credibility 21, 24dialogue 6, 18, 24, 27, 34Dionis 6director 9, 11, 13, 26, 30, 32, 34, 35, 41drama types of drama 15dress rehearsal 38dramatist 9, 13, 32Euripides 7genre, 15, 38Greece 7Hamlet 9, 18, 24, 26, 41

Handbook of Stage Poses, A 25histrion 8Ibsen, Henrik 31Improvisation 23, 24, 29stage manager 13, 33, 35Italy 8Iphigenia 20Les Misérables 38language 18, 19puppeteers 8Macbeth 18makeup artist 13Midsummer Night's Dream 18

mise en scene, stage setting 10, 34, 35, 36Mousetrap, The 39monologue 27opera 14opening night 9, 11.37, 38, 39organizer 29pantomime 15rehearsals 26, 27, 32, 36persecution 33Phantom of the Opera 38prompter 13, 29, 33 walk-through 10produced 29, 38property man 13, 29, 40props 33interpersonal relations 17reading rehearsal 10, 28, 32, 33,rehearsal room, see walk-through rehearsalRome 7rhythm 35Romeo and Juliet 14, 18, 20, 29, 31Sarah Bernhardt 24schedule 28Sergei Prokofiev 14set designer 13, 30, 31, 40set design 10, 14, 32, 33situation 17stage 10, 33, 34Stanislavsky, Konstantin Sergeyevich 21Sophocles 7speech, 21, 22stage directions 16St. Martin, the theater 39Stage 6 dollstraveling actors 8tempo 35theatrical marketing 37theatrical forms 14Tragedy 6, 11, 15tech rehearsal 10writing 16-19 theatrical form 14 walk-through rehearsal 10, 33