Supplementary material

PART TWO

Theatrical texts, often referred to as drama, usually provide the vital framework of a performance. Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing in the 4th century BC, thought of drama as the most direct response to humanity's need to imitate experience. The word drama has its source in the Greek verb dran, meaning “to do, ” “to act, ” or “to perform.” Aristotle further defined drama as " an imitation of an action." His concept of imitation (mimesis, in Greek) begins with the playwright's deliberate selection and arrangement of events, words, and images into a dramatic pattern that makes up a meaningful course of human events. In Aristotle's famous definition, drama is an imitation of an action that is whole, complete, and of a certain magnitude or scope.

The terms presentational theater and representational theater are often used to describe two different approaches to accomplishing the goals of a production. A presentational style offers a performance with full recognition that the actors are at work on a stage, speaking and acting out a script with music, under lights, and in costumes. There is no attempt to disguise the fact that a theatrical performance is taking place to entertain or instruct audiences. Plays from ancient Greece and from the time of English playwright William Shakespeare are produced in this forthright manner, as are many modern experimental plays. Musicals and traditional Asian theater also fall into this general category.

A representational style of production evolved in Europe in the mid-19th century as writers, directors, and designers set about to show candid truths about ordinary existence within recognizable environments. Two movements—realism in the 1850s and naturalism in the 1870s—presented familiar characters in specific environments, such as living rooms, kitchens, or flophouses. The purpose of the detailed environment was to show how a person’s character and life choices are determined in part by environmental or social forces and in part by gender or genetic forces. Visual elements—such as clothing, furnishings, and stage properties—became very specific to the environment. Actors worked within a picture-frame stage—a stage separated from the audience by an arch or rectangular frame—with the understanding that the imaginary fourth wall of their environment was removed to allow audiences to look into the lives of the characters. Dramatists who pioneered the writing of plays for the new realist production style include Henrik Ibsen of Norway, August Strindberg of Sweden, Йmile Zola of France, and Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov of Russia.

(REPERTOIR)

Resident theater companies, which typically are nonprofit organizations, produce a wide variety of works. Resident groups, composed of actors, directors, designers, craftspeople, and managers, are subsidized through the theater's box office, government grants, and contributions from businesses and individuals. Like commercial theaters, nonprofit companies are located all around the world. Some prominent examples are the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota; the Royal National Theatre in London; and the Moscow Art Theater in Russia. Unlike commercial theaters, which specialize in one production at a time, resident companies usually produce a season of plays in sequence, or several plays in repertory that are rotated week after week over a period of time. Some resident companies were built around the artistic vision of a director. Prominent examples include Trevor Nunn at the Royal National Theatre; Peter Brook at the International Center of Theatre Research in Paris, France; and Ariane Mnouchkine at the Thйвtre du Soleil in Paris. In the United States more than 60 professional resident theaters have artistic or producing directors as their leaders. The Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.; American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Seattle Repertory Theatre in Washington State; and the Old Globe in San Diego, California, are a few of the most distinguished professional, nonprofit theaters in the United States.[1]