What is Theatre?: Aristotle

1
What is Theatre? Aristotles Poetics (5th C.
BCE) the Aristotelian
Tradition

• Aristotles view of theatre rooted in Greek
  terms drama theatre
• drama lt Grk. dromenon, thing done
• drama an imitation of an action, says
  Aristotle
• theatre lt theatron, seeing place
• performance of the imitation for spectators

2
Aristotles 6 Elements of Tragedy (Drama)

• Plot
• the structure of events through which action is
  imitated/represented
• Character
• personof the drama or moral bent of the person
• Thought
• proof and refutation of moral choice
• Verbal Expression
• conveyance of thought through language
• Music Spectacle
• sensuous, less artistic elements

3
Key Dramaturgical Concepts

• dramatic situation or given circumstances
• including setting
• character objectives superobjective
• obstacles
• dramatic tension or conflict
• crisis
• climax
• reversal
• recognition

4
The Aristotelian Tradition founded in Theory
of Ritual Origin

• drama/theatre evolve from dithyramb,
  (ritual choruses performed in praise of
  Dionysos prior to 6th C. BCE )
• theatre began when some participants stepped out
  of chorus and became spectators of the ritual
• the first actor, Thespis, stepped out from chorus
  to perform individual role in dialogue with it
• ritual action gradually evolved into theatrical
  imitation of action
• purpose more aesthetic than religious

5

• Modern Dev. of Theory of Ritual Origin
• The Cambridge School of Anthropology
  (late 19th C.)
• The Cambridge Thesis
• primal ritual -gt various religious rites -gt
  dramatic genres
• certain Greek tragedies follow form of the primal
  ritual
• rise of Aesthetics as independent branch of
  philosophy (began Germany, late 18th C.)
• What makes a work of art a work of art and not
  something else?

6
Aesthetic(ist) Views of Theatre

• What makes a work of theatre essentially
  theatrical?
• imitation of human action live performance
  (social or communal, ephemeral)
• CP. other literary forms, the visual arts, music
• CP. other dramatic media (film, television etc.)
• theatre has the unique capacity to combine all of
  the arts in a single work
• Richard Wagner the Gesamtkunstwerk

7
Performance Studies

• Theoretical Foundations
• dramatism or dramaturgism
• Kenneth Burke, A Rhetoric of Motives
• analysis of human motives and actions in dramatic
  terms
• role theory
• Erving Goffman, Presentation of Self in Everyday
  Life
• theatrical analysis of social interaction re
  roles performed
• structuralist anthropology
  -gt Richard Schechner,
  Performance Theory (1976)
• refutes Cambridge Thesis
• replaces vertical view of ritual lt-gt theatre
  across time with horizontal view
  across society/societies

8
Schechners Dev. of Performance Studies

• recurrent performance genres
• Ritual, Play, Games, Sports, Dance, Music,
  Theatre
• Characteristics
• rules/conventions scripts
• special ordering of time and space
• objects have special value beyond an economic one
• form of event remains constant although rules may
  change
• dynamic of efficacy lt-gt entertainment

9
Performance Studies
- The Philosophical Problem

• To what activities may the basic principles of
  the performance genres not be applied?
• Is life inherently theatrical or performative, OR
  are performances specialized activites det apart
  from life?
• All the world is not a stage, but the ways in
  which it isnt are not always easy to specify.
  (Goffman)