A practitioner, in theatre terms, refers to a figure in the field of performing arts who has, in some was, redefined the area in which they work. You need to be aware of a whole series of practitioners in order to fully appreciate the development of the theory of the stage. During classes we will be exploring the work of Stanislavski; this study will be supported if you all have a basic understanding of the practitioners that came after him.
Each of you is to research one of the names on the list below and post a six bullet point overview of their life and work.
You are not to create the list from the first six things you find out. Visit a series of sources and decide what six key details you should include to well represent the figure.
Practitioners
Bertolt Brecht
Antonin Artaud
Edward Gordon Craig
Peter Brook
Lee Strasberg
Augusto Boal
Keith Johnstone
* born on the 10th February 1898 and died on the 14th August 1956
ReplyDelete* started of as a poet in germany and moved on to playwriting and theatre director later on
*alienation (not get the audience's emotional involvement because it would start politic and social issues that were going on at the time)
*One of his famous plays The Threepenny Opera was based on a ballad opera written 200 years earlier
*he used historicization which used events from the past to create parallels to contemporary issues
*some of his play's caused riots out side
-*Antonin Artaud born on september 4 1896 Mersille France
ReplyDelete_*he was a Poet,Actor play wright director and also a dramatic theorist
-*he was part of the surrealist movent but left due to to much involment with politics
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ReplyDeletePeter Brook
ReplyDeleteHe was born in London in March 1925.
He was educated at Gresham's School and Magdalen College, Oxford.
He directed Dr Faustus, his first production, in
1943 at the Torch Theatre in London.
In 1951, he married the actress Natasha Parry; the couple have a daughter.
In 1970, with Micheline Rozan, Brook founded the International Centre for Theatre Research, a multinational company of actors, dancers, musicians and others which travelled widely in the Middle East and Africa in the early 1970s.
He won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1971.
keith johnstone was born in February 1933 in Devon in england. he hated school as a child an went on to be a drama teacher , director and play reader in the 1950s at the royal court Theatre in London he was the first theatre professional to introduce the term "status transactions" into modern theatre. one of his favorite intrests was the use of masks an costumes. he also gets his actors to act there role infront of a mirror.
ReplyDeleteLee Strasberg
ReplyDeleteHe was born in Budanov, Ukraine, on 17th November, 1901. He emigrated to the United States in 1908. Strasberg studied in Moscow under the Russian director, Konstantin Stanislavsky. In 1931 he formed a Group Theatre with Harold Clurman. The Group Theatre ended in in 1941 and then returned to Manhatten where he formed the Actors Studio. Lee Strasberg died on 17th February, 1982.
Edward (Henry) Gordon Craig 1872-1966
ReplyDeleteHe was the son of actress Ellen Terry and Edward William Godwin, an architect, theatre director and stage director, so theatre was always part of his life.
In 1889 he joined Sir Henry Irving’s theatre company, but gave up acting in 1897 to work as a director and designer, but he also learned to carve wood.
He published a book called The Art of the Theatre in 1905 and he exhibited some of his designs. These created such controversy that he was well known around Europe.
He thought that realism in set design was too limiting, so turned to design to develop new theories. He strove to create symbolism and tried to capture the essential spirit of the play in his designs. His experimental theatre techniques have shaped live performance today, although many of his ideas were impractical in the execution.
e.g. He collaborated on a production of Hamlet with Stanislavsky.His design used tall screens, moved in full view of the audience to transform the stage without lengthy scene changes in blackout. Before the curtain rose on the first night, one of the screens fell and knocked down all of the others, but the production was still a success!
This practitioner changed the flat stage floor by using platforms, steps, and ramps. He also created original effects using coloured light projected through gauze onto cloths which were unprecedented in his times.
*Augusto Boal was born on 16th od March in 1931 in Rio de Janeiro(Brazil) and died on 2nd of May in 2009.
ReplyDelete*He was a theatre director, writer and politician.
*After graduating from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Boal went to New York, where he studied at the School of Dramatic Arts at Columbia University.
*Boal was asked to work with the Arena Theatre in Sao Paulo where he began to experiment with new forms of theatre such as Stanislavski's 'system'.
*In 1971, Boal was kidnapped off the street, arrested, tortured, and exiled to Argentina, where he stayed for 5 years-during those 5 years, he published two books: Torquemada (1971) and his much acclaimed Theatre of the Oppressed(1973).
*In 2008, Augusto Boal was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in March 2009, he received the title of "World Theatre Ambassador"
Edwards Gordon Craig, sometimes know as Gordon Craig. He was born on the 16th January 1872 and died on the 29th of July 1966.
ReplyDeleteHe worked at Henry Irving's "Lyceum Theatre" In London and began to design his own stage themes and figures.
Bertolt Brecht was involved with the literary arts from an early age, although his work was not always well received. an essay he did in school called "It's a sweet and honourable thing to die for one's country" almost got him expelled for being "anti-patriotic"
ReplyDeleteThe first play Brecht wrote was called "Baal" his inspiration for writing this was because he was unimpressed with his instructors favourite play and he believed he could create a better one himself about the same subject.
Antonin Artaud
ReplyDeleteHe was an actor, poet, playwright, director and dramatic theorist.
He believed that theatre should affect the the audience so he added sounds to add drama and effect
The word imagination to him meant reality with the effect that everytime when the audience came to see a play they saw the play to be real and not imagined.
Influenced by watching the Colonial Expostion Theatre in Marseille.
He thought of the concept of cruelty.
“No one has ever written, painted, sculpted, modeled, built, or invented except literally to get out of hell.” One of his i find o be very true.
Peter Brook.
ReplyDelete.Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE (born 21 March 1925)
.English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.
.His work is inspired by the theories of experimental theatre of Jerzy Grotowski Bertolt Brecht, Chris Covics, Meyerhold, G. I. Gurdjieff and the works of Edward Gordon Craig and Stuart Davis,as well as Matila Ghyka
.