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 THEATRE AS
HUMAN ACTION
•
THEATRE IN AMERICA Anything can happen onstage in the theatre today. In the popular Broadway
musical Hamilton (2015), early American history is retold with rap music and racial diversity. Lin-Manuel
Miranda (center on table) not only played Alexander Hamilton but he also wrote the book, music, and
lyrics for the innovative musical. Director: Thomas Kail. Sara Krulwich/New York Times/Redux Pictures
 THEATRE AS
HUMAN ACTION
•
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THEATRE ARTS
SECOND EDITION

THOMAS S. HISCHAK

ROWM AN & L I T T L EFI EL D

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Copyright © 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage
and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hischak, Thomas S.
Title: Theatre as human action : an introduction to theatre arts / Thomas S.
Hischak.
Description: Second edition. | Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015040866 (print) | LCCN 2015045269 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442260993 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442261006 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781442261099 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Drama. | Theater.
Classification: LCC PN1655 .H57 2016 (print) | LCC PN1655 (ebook) | DDC
792—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040866

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
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Printed in the United States of America

For Brian O’Donnell, SJ
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments and Credits ix

Introduction xi

1 THE THEATRE 1
Theatre vs. Drama • The Theatre Experience • Theatre as
Change • Theatre Conventions • Theatre Is Plural • Four
Theatre Events

2 THE PLAY 27
The Script • About Four Scripts • The Elements of Drama •
Types of Drama • Dramatic Structure

3 THE PLAYWRIGHT 53
The Blueprint • Meet the Playwrights • The Germinal Idea
• The Playwright’s Process • Evaluating the Playwright’s
Work • The Business of Playwriting • Meet Fifteen American
Playwrights

4 THE PLAY PERFORMERS: THE ACTORS 91

Acting vs. Role-Playing • Acting as an Art and a Craft • A
Brief History of Acting • Theories of Acting • An Actor’s
Tools • The Actor’s Process • The Business of Acting •
Evaluating the Actor

vii
viii • CONTENTS

5 THE PLAY MAKERS: THE DIRECTOR

AND THE PRODUCER 117
Behind the Scenes • The Art of Directing • Theatre Styles
• A Brief History of Directing • The Directing Process •
The Business of Directing • Evaluating the Director and
Choreographer • The Producer • The Business of Producing

6 THE PLAY BUILDERS I: THEATRE ARCHITECTURE

AND SCENIC DESIGNERS 147
Theatre Architecture • Scenic Design • The Scenic Designer’s
Process

7 THE PLAY BUILDERS II: OTHER DESIGNERS 167

Costume Design • The Costume Designer’s Process • Lighting
Design • A Brief History of Theatre Lighting • The Function
and Elements of Theatre Lighting • The Lighting Designer’s
Process • Sound Design • Theatre Properties • Makeup in
the Theatre • New Technology • The Business of Theatre
Design • Evaluating Theatre Design

8 THE PLAYGOERS I: THE AUDIENCE 193

Theatre Today • Where Theatre Happens • Alternative
Theatre • Theatre of Diversity • Foreign Influences

9 THE PLAYGOERS II: THE CRITIC 223

Theatre Criticism • The Student as Critic

Parting Thoughts 233

Glossary 235
Websites to Visit 247
Film and Video Versions of the Plays 251
Index 255
About the Author 265
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AND CREDITS

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Joel Pape, Dawn Van Hall,
Myra Giorgi, Mark Reynolds, Ron Mandelbaum and the staff at Photofest,
and Stephen Ryan and Jessica McCleary at Rowman & Littlefield. A special
thanks to the late William Whiting and to Cathy Hischak for their help in
preparing the manuscript.

LYRICS CREDIT
Permission to quote lyrics from Jonathan Larson’s Rent, copyright 1997, by Al-
lan S. Larson, Nanette Larson, and Julie Larson McCollum, through Paradigm
Press. All rights reserved.

ix
 INTRODUCTION

It is an awkward thing to introduce something that everyone is already aware

of to some degree. Theatre is all around us, taking so many forms and assuming
so many shapes, that it needs pointing out more than it requires an introduction.
Theatre is the simplest kind of role playing we do every day. It is a small child
pretending to be something he or she is not. It is a group of students planning
and performing a skit or play in a school for a small community. It is also pro-
fessionals preparing and presenting a highly polished piece of entertainment for
a wide audience. All of these are theatre, and we are aware of them all directly
or indirectly through our past experiences.
Yet the art form known as theatre involves so much more than what we see
as an audience member or even as an amateur performer. Theatre is a combina-
tion of different arts, from writing and designing to performing and directing,
and to be truly introduced to the theatre, all of its components must be explored.
This book looks at the process of theatre, from the first idea a playwright has for
a script through the preparation and rehearsals involving various kinds of art-
ists to the final product presented before an audience. Theatre has been called
the culmination of all the arts because it can involve literature, music, visual art,
and dance. Theatre is so much more than what we may initially think.
In order to better explore the idea of the theatre, I have selected four plays
that will be our frame of reference throughout the book. Thousands of plays
and musicals have been written over the centuries, and for every concept
presented in the following chapters, there are dozens of plays I could use as
examples. But the chance of your being familiar with all or even half of these
examples is not likely. Your theatre experience, whether it is very limited or
very extensive, is bound to be quite different from mine and every other stu-
dent in your class. So we need some common points of reference in order to
make these ideas come alive.

xi
xii • INTRODUCTION

Four very different plays were chosen so that we can touch on different
types, styles, and periods of theatre. There is also a good chance that you are fa-
miliar with these works from studying them in school or seeing them performed
on the stage. But even if they are new to you, they will be introduced and then
explained throughout the book so that everyone will be able to use them as
references. The plays are William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, George S.
Kaufman and Moss Hart’s comedy You Can’t Take It with You, Lorraine Hans-
berry’s African American domestic melodrama A Raisin in the Sun, and Jonathan
Larson’s rock musical Rent. If you have the chance to read (or listen to) these
plays or view them onstage or on video, so much the better. (A list of video ver-
sions is given at the end of the book.) In any case, the plots and characters are
explained in chapter 2 so that the subsequent use of them in this book will be
useful to you. Within these four works are examples of all the areas that we wish
to explore, from playwriting to production to criticism. They are the four pillars
that the many aspects of theatre will rest on. Being solid and durable examples,
they will guide us through the fascinating world known as the theatre.
 1

THE THEATRE

THEATRE VS. DRAMA

As you read these words, this very night, hundreds of theatre events are taking
place across America. Let us look at four of them.
In a midsized liberal arts college, the theatre department is presenting Wil-
liam Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the campus performing arts center. The actors
and crew are students at the college; the director and some other staff are mem-
bers of the theatre faculty; and the audience is composed of students, faculty,
and people from the community. At the same time, far away in a high school in
another town, a production of the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart comedy
You Can’t Take It with You is opening in the school auditorium. The cast and crew
are high school students; the director is a teacher at the school; and the audience
is filled with fellow students, members of the faculty, friends, family, and others
from the community. Across the country in a major city, the region’s resident
theatre company is offering Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun as part of
its five-play season in its two-theatre building. The professional actors, crew,
director, and designers are members of the various theatre unions, and the au-
dience consists of a wide cross section of the local population, from students to
senior citizens. Finally, tonight in a different town, a community theatre group,
which puts on adventurous musicals in the town hall auditorium, is presenting
Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent. The performers are not professional ac-
tors but talented members of the community and the audience members are a
cross section of the community who enjoy musicals.
These four situations are examples of theatre. They are much more than
dramas; they are theatre events. The distinction is an important one. While
drama refers to the script, theatre is an event. It is the presentation of the script
performed on a stage by actors for an audience. Although Macbeth is studied and
read in thousands of schools each year, it only becomes theatre when it comes

1
OLD AND NEW THEATRES The Victory Theatre was built on Forty-Second Street in
Manhattan in 1900 as part of the thriving Broadway Theatre District, but by the Depression it
was turned into a movie house. In 1995 the old playhouse was restored and renamed the New
Victory Theatre and once again featured live theatre. Photofest
 THE THEATRE • 3

alive on the stage. The CD of Rent is one of Broadway’s more popular cast re-
cordings, but Rent is not a piece of pop music or a rock concert; it is a musical
drama meant to be performed in a theatre. The script, the literature of the stage,
is only one of the factors in a theatre performance, albeit a very important one.
But without all the other elements present, it is not a theatre event.

COLLEGE THEATRE Anton Chekhov’s comedy-drama The Cherry Orchard has been
produced on all kinds of stages around the world since it was first presented in
Moscow in 1903. This student production was presented by the State University of
New York College at Cortland. Dawn Vim Hall
4 • CHAPTER 1

What Is Theatre?
Consider this brief but thorough definition: theatre is a reenactment of human
action. It is a reenactment because it is not really happening for the first time.
Actors have rehearsed the play and are now pretending to be characters going
through certain situations. The audience knows and understands this. They
pretend along with the actors, letting the reenactment seem real. Theatre is ac-
tion because something must happen during the event. A painting of a sunset, a
poem about a lily, a concerto celebrating a river, and a dance about spring are all
examples of the arts. But they need not have a plot or characters to be successful
or fulfilling. Theatre needs human action. It is about people doing something,
whether it is a quiet conversation between two characters, a duel between two
rivals, or a vibrant song-and-dance number in a musical.
Theatre requires more factors than perhaps any of the other art forms.
Four basic elements must be present for a theatre event to occur: actors, script,
audience, and place. The actors are needed for the reenactment. They portray
characters, deliver dialogue, and perform the actions of the play. The script is the

HIGH SCHOOL THEATRE While musicals dominate high school theatre today, there
are still many productions of nonmusical plays, such as Thornton Wilder’s Our Town.
This student production was at Homer High School in Homer, New York. Director:
William Whiting. William Whiting
REGIONAL THEATRE One does not have to travel to New York City to see
professional theatre today. Most cities have a regional or resident theatre company that
offers quality productions locally. This revival of the Moss Hart comedy Light Up the Sky
was presented by the Pasadena Playhouse in California. Director: David Lee. Photofest

BROADWAY THEATRE Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical extravaganza The Phantom

of the Opera is Broadway’s longest-running musical, entertaining new and repeat
audiences since 1988. Although Broadway gets the most attention, it is only one
aspect of the American theatre. Director: Harold Prince. Photofest
6 • CHAPTER 1

blueprint they use, telling them what to say and do. But actors gathered together
and performing without an audience watching them is not theatre. Unlike film
and television, the audience must be in the same place as the actors. It need not
be a formal indoor theatre (for a thousand years, theatre was always performed
outdoors), but it must be a place in which performers and spectators are gath-
ered together in order for the theatre event to happen. If you take away any one
of these four factors, the result—a rehearsal, an improvisation, a play reading, a
broadcast, a film—is not theatre, as we will be discussing it throughout this book.

THE WORD THEATRE

T HE WORD theatre is used in so many ways in modern English that it can

cause confusion. There are even two accepted spellings of the word,
theatre and theater, which are often used interchangeably. (Many believe
that the place, a theater building, should be spelled with an er while the art
form should be re. We will consistently use the theatre spelling for all forms
of the word in this book.) The word theatre comes from Latin and Greek
words meaning “to view,” yet over the centuries it came to mean both the
place where a play is seen and the actual event of watching a play.
Today we talk about a movie theatre, an outdoor theatre, and a Broad-
way theatre, and we even use the expression “the Pacific theatre” to refer
to the location of a war or other notable event. A theatre is a place that may
take one of many different forms. Today most theatres are auditoriums or
other indoor places that seat spectators in front of some kind of stage. But
it is important to understand that in the past, the theatre event took place
outdoors, in churches, marketplaces, coaching inns, palaces and country
homes, and even on tennis courts. The important thing, according to our
definition of theatre, is that the actors and the audience are brought to-
gether in one place. Regardless of what form that place takes, it is a theatre.
Theatre is also much more than a place. It is the whole experience of
seeing a play performed. It is going to the place, watching the performance,
responding to the live actors, and acknowledging them with laughter, ap-
plause, or other signs of recognition. We sometimes call this whole experi-
ence theatregoing, yet it is more than just going to the performance place.
Theatre also refers to an art form, the dramatic arts. You can study theatre,
you can practice it, you can evaluate it, even criticize it. Finally, theatre
refers to a business or a profession. One can become a theatre director, a
theatre critic, a theatre designer, or a theatre manager or perform any of
the other jobs in the profession. When we refer to someone as being “in the
theatre,” much more is meant than his or her being in a theatre building.
Theatre or theater, the word encompasses many ideas. Throughout this
book we will explore all meanings of the word theatre, from the place to the
ideas to the people.
 THE THEATRE • 7

THE THEATRE EXPERIENCE

The American playwright Thornton Wilder once wrote that theatre is a unique
experience because it always takes place in the present tense. This does not
mean a play is always set in the present. Whether it takes place in ancient
Greece or in medieval England or contemporary America, the story unfolds now.
In a novel the events are in the past tense; the hero “said” something and “did”
something. In a play, the character Macbeth, for instance, “says” such and such
and “does” certain things. It happens live in front of the audience and each time
the play is performed the event is new. Theatre tells a story not by narrating
a tale (although some plays have narrators) but by reenacting it. Characters
speak in dialogue and perform certain actions. The audience observes, picks up
information about past events, witnesses new events, watches the characters in
action, and is hopefully involved with the play as it builds to a climax and all is
unfolded. Because theatre takes place in the present tense, there is much more
immediacy to watching a play than to reading a story in a book.
In fact, one does not have to know how to read at all to enjoy a play. The-
atre has been called “literature for the illiterate” because of this. One cannot
experience a piece of prose or poetry if one cannot read, unless the piece is read
aloud. But theatre is not meant to be read, either to oneself or aloud; it is meant
to be performed. The great dramas of the past and present can be enjoyed by

THE THEATRE EVENT Audiences flock to the Epidaurus Festival in modern Greece,
where plays are performed much as they were twenty-five hundred years ago. The
same basic elements are still there: actors, audience, script, and a place. Photofest
8 • CHAPTER 1

anyone, regardless of background or education. Most of the audience in Eliz-

abethan England was illiterate, yet Macbeth and other works by Shakespeare
were very popular. And while those plays are much studied today, someone
with no previous knowledge can see Macbeth and not only understand it but
be enthralled by the reenactment. For thousands of years theatre was the only
literature for the masses. Today television, movies, and the internet are the
most common forms of entertainment, yet none of them provides literature as
such. Television and film scripts, and websites are seldom published and rarely
studied as literature; however, theatre continues to provide a rich literary her-
itage. Some people today might consider theatre a highbrow form of art, such
as opera or classical music, but what has always made plays popular still makes
them popular: live actors performing an intriguing story in an interesting way.
The theatre experience has not changed.

MACBETH IN THE PRESENT TENSE The bloody ghost of Banquo enters the
banqueting hall of King and Lady Macbeth, and a scene written over four hundred
years ago happens in the present tense. This modern-dress production by the Acting
Company in 2000 may look different from a traditional staging, but it is still very
much Macbeth. Director: Anne Justine D’Zmura. Photofest
 THE THEATRE • 9

From Page to Stage

Prose fiction tells a story; theatre shows a story. Here is an episode from Macbeth
told as a piece of prose fiction. The narrator can describe events, relate dialogue,
even give us the characters’ thoughts. Notice how all of it is in the past tense.
Here is what has happened up to this point in the story: Macbeth became king
of Scotland by murdering old King Duncan. Although the crown was now
his, he feared a prophecy that said the nobleman Banquo would be the father
of future kings. So Macbeth hired some murderers to kill Banquo and his son
Fleance when they approached the castle late one night to attend a banquet.
This is how a prose version of the episode might be written:

With the moon hidden away behind the thick clouds, the three murderers
could barely see each other’s face as they crouched near the hedge some fifty
yards from the castle entrance. In order to surprise Banquo and the young
boy, they carried no torch and spoke in low whispers so that they might
hear anyone approaching. Those arriving at the castle on horseback usually
dismounted a good distance from the entrance and had their servants bring
the horses to the stables, leaving the visitors to walk the last section of road.
This is where the murderers waited, their hands tightly grasping the knives
hidden under their cloaks, though no one could possibly see them.
Suddenly the sounds of horses could be detected off in the distance. The
three murderers strained to listen, only hearing faraway murmurs as the
riders dismounted. Soon the horses were heard being led in the direction of
the stables, and a voice commanded, “Give a light there, ho!” Was it Ban-
quo? How was one to tell in this Godforsaken darkness! Yet all the other
invited guests were already inside the castle. Everyone on the list had been
accounted for except Banquo. This must be him. But was the boy with him?
The sound of footsteps approaching got louder, and as the two figures
came over the hill, the murderers saw that one of them had a torch. It was
a low-burning one but enough for them to make out a grown man and a
boy, who carried the fire with an outstretched hand. One of the murderers
grumbled, “A light, a light!” and seemed to curse this complication. The
element of surprise was essential, but that torch could ruin everything. The
murderers crouched lower behind the hedge, and one of them said “‘Tis
he,” as the voices of the two travelers came closer.
“It will be rain tonight,” the elder of the two arrivals said. It was clearly
Banquo. The leader of the three murderers took this as his cue, leapt up,
and shouted, “Let it come down!” With this the threesome attacked the two
travelers with their knives outstretched. The boy dropped the torch in the
confusion, and in the darkness only Banquo’s shouting “O treachery!” and
the fumbling of feet and arms could be heard.
10 • CHAPTER 1

“Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!” the father shouted as he vainly tried to
fight off the three murderers, his sword drawn too late to protect him from
the blows on all sides.
Banquo’s words reminded the threesome that the king was adamant
that the boy should die as well. Thinking the youth would be the easier
target, they had neglected to concentrate on Fleance. One of the murderers
headed to where the torch lay on the ground, raised it high, and searched
all around for the boy. Banquo had fallen to the ground and was no longer
fighting back. Failing to find the youth, the murderer returned to Banquo,
who was breathing heavily, his face in the dirt.
“Thou mayest revenge, O slave!” he gasped and then was silent.
The three murderers, able to speak freely for the first time, erupted in
argument.
“Who did strike out the light?”
“Was’t not the way?”
“There’s but one down; the son is fled.”
“We have lost best half of our affair.”
After searching the area once again with the fading torch and finding
no evidence of the boy, the three murderers reunited near the hedge.
“Well, let’s away,” the leader said, “and say how much is done.”
Then the three quietly turned toward the castle to report to the king.

Shakespeare’s version is shorter and more compact. It gives few details, the
script providing only the dialogue and major actions of the scene. The visual
elements, such as the setting, the look of the characters, and the way the fight
unfolds, are left up to those who produce the play. Shakespeare does not even
suggest how the lines should be spoken. What he has given us is a blueprint for
an exciting scene in the theatre. It is in some ways more difficult to read than
the prose version, but remember that this scene was never intended to be read.
Also, notice how the scene is now in the present tense.

3 MURDERER: Hark! I hear horses.

BANQUO (within): Give us a light there, ho!
2 MURDERER: Then ’tis he! The rest
That are within the note of expectation
Already are i’ the court.
1 MURDERER: His horses go about.
3 MURDERER: Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to the palace gate
Make it their walk.
(Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch.)
2 MURDERER: A light, a light!
3 MURDERER: ’Tis he!
1 MURDERER: Stand to’t.
 THE THEATRE • 11

BANQUO: It will rain tonight.

1 MURDERER: Let it come down! (They set upon Banquo)
BANQUO: O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
Thou mayst revenge, O slave! (Dies. Fleance escapes)
3 MURDERER: Who did strike out the light?
1 MURDERER: Was’t not the way?
3 MURDERER: There’s but one down; the son is fled.
2 MURDERER: We have lost
Best half of our affair.
1 MURDERER: Well, let’s away, and say how much is done. (Exeunt)

THE ORIGINS OF THEATRE

W HERE DID theatre come from? When did it first appear? Was it in-
vented, or did it develop over time? These questions have puzzled
theatre scholars for centuries, and no satisfactory answers will ever be dis-
covered. Because it is such an old art form, like dance and music, and goes
back to a time before writing and other documentation, theatre cannot be
clearly explained in terms of its origins. Yet there are various theories about
how theatre came about, and such theories help us define the art form
itself. Some critics believe that theatre was a natural progression from sto-
rytelling. In prehistoric societies, usually there were priests, shamans, tribal
leaders, or other figures of authority who told stories aloud at some sort of
gathering. To move from one person telling a story to a handful of actors
showing a story is a logical step and might have been the manner in which
theatre began. Other scholars argue that theatre grew out of ritual. A ritual
is a ceremony of sorts that is planned, performed, and repeated so that the
spectators or participants become familiar with its words and movements.
We still have rituals today, such as the format of a sporting event or the
celebration of a holiday such as Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. While
ritual is common to all peoples, the kinds of rituals a society embraces vary
greatly. It is believed that rituals led to theatre since both involve perform-
ers, audience, and story and occur in a specified place. Most rituals are con-
nected with religion, another possible origin of theatre, and most religions
require the reenactment of an event from the past or an illustration of a
belief. When this is done by performers before an audience, it is very close
to theatre. A primitive tribe may act out the coming of spring as part of
some kind of fertility rite, while more complex religions will have ceremonies
that parallel or even dramatize events that are essential to their belief. The
Roman Catholic Mass, for example, is a reenactment of the Last Supper,
with the priest as a representation of Jesus and the congregation as the
disciples. The Hebrew faith recalls and relives the Passover, with each family
becoming a modern equivalent to the Jewish people in Egypt who survived
12 • CHAPTER 1

their God’s vengeance against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Some religions
are more “theatrical” than others, with elaborate ceremonies that seem like
stage productions, while there can be simple rites that also echo the four
elements of theatre. Whether theatre developed from storytelling, ritual,
or religion, we know that the activity existed in various forms for hundreds
of years before the first well-documented Western theatre productions in
ancient Greece. Because theatre is such an instinctive human activity, its
origins are both mysterious and obvious. When and how did humans first
learn to wage war or discover love? Impossible to say. It might just as well
as to ask, when did these activities not exist?

THEATRE AS CHANGE
Another unique aspect of theatre, as opposed to other literary and performing
arts, is its ability to change. A Charles Dickens novel today is exactly as it was
150 years ago. A classic Hollywood film made in the 1930s has not changed
over the years. A van Gogh painting in a museum never alters itself. All three
of these art forms are frozen in time, maintaining the same properties over the
years regardless if anyone is reading or observing them. But theatre cannot ex-
ist without changing. The script may be frozen (though each production might
make alterations in the text), but the production is not. Classic plays from the
past, such as Macbeth, have been produced in different ways over the centuries.
A presentation in Shakespeare’s outdoor Globe Theatre was done in contempo-
rary costumes with teenage boys playing the female roles. The same play in the
eighteenth century was done inside an elaborate theatre with ornate costumes
and wigs that seemed to have little to do with the ancient Scottish setting of the
play. Macbeth is presented today in many different ways, from a historically ac-
curate piece to a romantic, poetic vehicle for actors to an avant-garde spectacle
that deconstructs the play by turning it into a psychological study of evil. There
is only one script but dozens of ways to perform that script.
Even modern plays go through such changes. Every new production of A
Raisin in the Sun, You Can’t Take It with You, and Rent is different. This is obvious
when one considers that the actors, the scenery and costumes, even the theatre
spaces, are different. Yet there are more subtle differences as well. The way that
an actor interprets a role and the approach a director takes in presenting the
play also change from production to production. No two productions of A Raisin
in the Sun can be exactly alike, even if they each tried to duplicate the other. It
is not in the nature of theatre to be set in stone. Even a touring company of a
Broadway hit like Rent, which might use the same scenery, costumes, and di-
rection as in New York, will not be able to replicate the original exactly. Two
actors given the same assignment will end up with different results. Each new
 THE THEATRE • 13

theatre space will alter the production. Even the different audiences will cause
the production to vary.
If theatre changes from decade to decade and production to production,
it also changes from night to night. Each reenactment of the same production
will vary slightly. Live actors cannot duplicate themselves exactly night after
night; they subtly change just as the audience does. Each performance is unique
because of the dynamics between the live actors and a live audience. One influ-
ences the other each time a new combination is tried. One night the audience
for A Raisin in the Sun may be quiet and reflective and greet certain scenes with
a hushed reaction. The next night the spectators may be livelier, laughing at the
humor in the script and reacting in a more vocal manner to the actors. On a
third night the audience may be more aggressive, expressing anger and frustra-
tion at the plight of the characters and revealing a bitterness about the situation.
Every time that the play is reenacted, the response can be different. This is one
of the reasons why theatre is among the oldest and most durable of art forms:
the experience is always changing, just as society and ideas change.

THEATRE CONVENTIONS
Although one does not need education or experience to appreciate a theatre
production, there are unwritten rules and an unspoken agreement between the
actors and the audience that are present in every theatre event. This ancient
custom of accepting and believing things onstage is called a theatre convention.
Different cultures have different conventions, but sometimes the unwritten
rules are universal. For example, the very idea of the actor is a convention. A
man comes onstage and says he is the king of Scotland. The audience knows
that he is not really a king but an actor portraying a king. When the king dies,
we know that the actor is pretending, but we accept the pretense all the same.
Theatre conventions allow the theatre event to take place. Without being
taught, the audience understands the concept of the reenactment. It is an in-
stinctive aspect of human nature to understand pretending. A child pretends to
be a dog, barking out loud and walking on all four “feet.” No one had to teach
the youth about pretending. Humans have always observed and imitated. The
first and most important theatre convention is already in place.

Place
Other conventions are quickly picked up by the audience. When the curtain rises
on the Chicago tenement apartment for a production of A Raisin in the Sun, we
know it is not a real apartment but a stage setting. It might be in a realistic style
or a suggested one, but the audience accepts the convention of scenery. When a
character exits through a door saying that she is going into the bedroom, the au-
dience pretends that there is another room offstage but knows that such a room
14 • CHAPTER 1

probably does not exist. The convention of place allows a play to take place any-
where because the audience accepts the locale. A table and two chairs are used to
denote the East Village apartment of young artists Mark and Roger in Rent. Yet
when that same table is moved a few feet away and ten more chairs are added,
the same stage area becomes the Life Cafe, where all the characters gather to
celebrate on Christmas Eve. Exterior scenes are difficult to re-create realistically
onstage, but the convention of place allows theatregoers to travel to smoky bat-
tlefields, as in Macbeth. Sometimes a fence, a park bench, a campfire, or a tree is
all that is needed to tell an audience that the location is outside.

Time
The convention of time is less concrete but easily accepted as well. When the
lights fade out or the curtain falls on a scene in You Can’t Take It with You, we
understand that the scene or act is over. If the lights or curtain rises a moment
later and the characters are having breakfast, we believe that time has passed
and that it is the next morning or one several days later. The dialogue in a play
usually sets the time of the action, although lighting and sound effects can also
indicate the passage of time. In Macbeth, two characters arriving at a castle
at dawn talk about the strange sounds they heard during the previous night.
Bright moonlight comes through the window of an apartment in Rent where the
power has been turned off. These are among the many ways the convention of
time can be utilized in the theatre.

Acting
There are also many acting conventions in theatre that audiences seem to un-
derstand without difficulty. Two people talking to each other on a street or in a
room would normally face each other. But onstage, two actors in conversation
may both face toward the audience or move away from each other or even po-
sition themselves so that one is behind the other, both facing the same direction.
What seems like a ridiculous pose in real life might make an effective picture on-
stage. If, during a scene between a man and a woman, the actress moves closer
to the audience and speaks her thoughts aloud before returning to the other
actor, we accept that this comment was not heard by the male character. This
convention is called an aside. It can be delivered directly to the audience to give
information or commentary, or it can be used to speak to a certain character
onstage without any of the other characters hearing. Since asides are delivered
aloud and at a volume that allows the whole audience to hear, we know that
the other actors must have heard it. Yet we accept the convention all the same,
knowing it is a pretense needed to tell the story. A similar convention is the so-
liloquy. An effective way for a character to express his thoughts is by speaking
them aloud when alone onstage. Such soliloquies can be highly poetic, as in one
 THE THEATRE • 15

THE CONVENTION OF ACTING The nature of theatre is such that audiences will
accept an actor as anyone or anything onstage. The cast of the musical Cats (1982),
which played on Broadway for eighteen years, had no trouble portraying “human
action,” even when they were not playing humans. Director: Trevor Nunn. Photofest

of Macbeth’s solo speeches, or more conversational, such as in Rent with Roger’s

thoughts in lyrical form about his desire to write one memorable song before he
dies. When realism was introduced to the theatre in the late nineteenth century,
soliloquies were often replaced by a confidant. This is a friend or companion to
the main character whom the hero talks to aloud, telling his or her thoughts.
What was once a soliloquy became a conversation, with the confidant listening
and occasionally adding comments or questions to the hero’s speeches. Confi-
dant characters go all the way back to the ancient Greek theatre. When it is im-
portant for a character’s thoughts to be related to the audience, the convention
of telling a confidant has always been a very useful theatre device.
There are many other acting conventions, from a stage whisper (which must
be much louder than a real whisper) to a death scene (be it bloody and realistic
or stylized and poetic). One actor can exit a scene, change costume, and reen-
ter as a different character, and the audience accepts the convention as long as
it is clear what is being done. A young female actress can play a character in
the early scenes of a play and then be replaced by an older actress later in the
play when that character has grown up. An actor can portray a lion onstage,
16 • CHAPTER 1

and, regardless if one wears a detailed lion costume or just a fur headpiece and
painted-on whiskers, the audiences accepts the convention.

The Mask
Perhaps the most ancient acting convention in theatre is the mask. Although we
use masks rarely in the modern theatre, the earliest theatre events were largely
dependent on masks. In the ancient Greek theatre, one actor would play an old
man, a beautiful queen, and a youthful shepherd all in the same play; each char-
acter was indicated by a different mask. Over the centuries the use of the mask
would never completely disappear. The stylized commedia dell’arte players of
Renaissance Italy, for example, used partial masks to indicate if the character
was a lover, a clown, or an old man. And masks are still used today on occasion.
Children’s theatre often relies on masks to portray animals and other nonhuman
creatures. Very sophisticated masks can be found in The Lion King and other
highly creative theatre productions that move away from literal realism. The
symbol of the mask has long represented the art of theatre itself, and the con-
trasting masks of comedy and tragedy are still a common sight.

ANCIENT MASKS Actors wore masks in the ancient Greek theatre to establish the
identity of a character. Today we expect to see the actor’s face and expressions in
order to understand the character. Yet sometimes masks can be as expressive as the
human face, as with these stylized masks from Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare Festival
production of Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus the King. Director: Tyrone Guthrie. Photofest
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