Brittanie Trevarrow

Monday, December 8, 2014

Development of Theatre Art: Final Exam!
PART I: (20 minutes each) Dramaturgical Analysis
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- Three ways (for each play) how the DRAMATURGICAL ELEMENTS work together to
achieve the total impact intended by the playwrights.
- What is the playwrights intent?
- what are three elements
- how do they impact the audience?
- how do they SPECIFICALLY relay, strengthen, fulfill or clarify the playwrights intent?
- what is the relationship BETWEEN them?
- how do they help make the audience discover for themselves how the play works?
- assume any playwright could have written the same plot.
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HAMLETMACHINE
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The intent of HAMLETMACHINE is to infuriate the audience into starting a
revolution. Three tactics Mller uses to accomplish this includes the creation
contradictions within each role, emphasis on destruction of the old, and the complete
nonexistence of the fourth wall. The first line of the play, I was Hamlet sets up the
expectation and familiarity for the audience but also a clouding of previous knowledge;
he is not currently Hamlet, but was. A page later that actor states plainly that he is an
actor, and even further on he says Im not Hamlet. This shows that Mller both sets
up and destroys audience expectations and creates contradictions within the
characters. He continues with contradicting revolution vs. pacifism, to kill vs. not to kill,
live vs. not live, activist vs. system. These both infuriates the audience and makes them
view the speaking parts not as characters but rather as actors, and they start to
concentrate on the theme or message of the show rather than the plot. In this vein
Mller destroys the old, or the classics of shakespeare and attaches the new pop-
culture references that makes the audience apply the message to what is happening in
their life. After he has them connecting in this way, Mller starts talking introducing the
idea of a revolution, mostly in the second half of the play and most specifically in the
second large monologue by the actor playing Hamlet. This is Mllers best opportunity
to directly speak to the audience. It acts as a literal political platform and calls for the

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Brittanie Trevarrow
Monday, December 8, 2014
audience to start a revolution by painting the scene for a protest. Simultaneously,
Mller calls himself out and says he didnt finish the drama of Hamlet because he wants
it to happen during an uprising. When the three naked women come on Mller has
them literally address the audience and say The main point is to overthrow all existing
conditions. He makes the message of the show pretty clear that if there isnt a
revolution, nothing will change.

THE HOMECOMING
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The construction of The Homecoming makes the audience concentrate on the
role of Ruth and her relationship to the other characters and ultimately leads the
audience to discovering the subtextual themes of the play. Pinter accomplishes this by
setting up unfulfilled expectations, bastardizing societal norms, and lastly by confusing
the clarity of the givens within the play. The audience concentrates on the role of Ruth
because she is obviously the only female in the play, and the relationship between her
and the other characters becomes much more significant. Therefore, when the boys
treat Ruth as a whore, we expect her to retaliate in some sort of way. However when
she doesn't and instead embraces it and participates in a sort of incest with Lenny, it
infuriates the audience and makes them question her role. This norm that it is not
acceptable to sleep with your family becomes bastardized when her husband witnesses
the interaction and our expectation is broken that he would become jealous or fight for
his wife, and eventually just leaves the family with her. It makes us question her role and
creates more expectations that she will stay and take care of the boys and have sex
with them, which is another expectation that is broken because she never actually does
anything. Since everything is written in the conditional and she never actually sleeps
with anyone, the audience questions why she offers that proposition, what does it get
her? Another social norm would be that she may or may not have children at home,
which she leaves to stay with this new family, and that is apparently acceptable. Never
does Teddy say that she should come home and take care of her kids, offering the
audience the idea that maybe she is stepping in as the mother of this new house hold.
This expectation is eschewed when she ends the play not taking care of the boys, but
the boys taking care of her and waiting on her every need. All of these elements affect

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Brittanie Trevarrow
Monday, December 8, 2014
the audience by making the action on stage unfamiliar and untrustworthy and therefore
they examine the role of the main conflict: Ruth.

PART II: (20 minutes each) Compare/Contrast

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- the two terms must relate to each other

1. Theatre as a Psychological Force: GUERRILLA THEATRE vs. PERFORMANCE ART

METHOD: The style of the acting performance

sometimes makes the audience uncomfortable and puts
them in a position of vulnerability so that they may form
raw, visceral, opinions and reactions to the material.

METHOD: Performance art is often presented with the

actors in an exhibit style versus guerrilla theatre which
throws the actors into the streets - when an audience
doesnt know they are going to be experiencing theatre
nor is intending to see it. Therefore guerrilla theatre may
catch them at an unexpected time and therefore would
make them receive the experience on a more immediate
basis.

GOAL: They both often provide a commentary on

political/social issues and call for actors that have
passion charged by such. This creates a more personal
connection with the audience since the content deals
with relevant information.

METHOD: They both are performed by people vs. actors
or characters. Performance Art is created by that artist,
about that artist, and without character in generally a
one person show. Guerrilla theatre is composed of
people off the street who are also playing themselves
and therefore there is no front between them and the
audience. It is them and the audience doesnt have to
make believe there is a character.
GOALS: Performance art wants to make the
audience think and reflect on the piece by means
of acting and styling it in a surrealist/futuristic
methodology vs. Guerilla Theatre which is more
naturalistic/expressionistic and makes the
audience automatically feel a visceral impact.

METHODOLOGY: Performance art is generally created

by one actor vs. Guerrilla theatre which is created by a
small company of people. This creates a different impact
on the audience because performance art can be
successful with one person since the audience can
quietly reflect on the meaning of the piece versus
Guerilla theatre which if it were to occur in a metro train
station would not necessarily be successful with one or
two people. Works on the strength in numbers concept.

- what was the element, was it supposed to achieve what specific goal, and to what
extent was it successful?
- identify the goals of the artist/movement AS WELL AS relate them to the question

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Brittanie Trevarrow
Monday, December 8, 2014
2. Two Artists that Redefined the production of Theatre: FTP vs. T.4.Social Change
COMPARE
GOAL: Raise awareness of social discourse
though a medium which is theatre. FTP did this
through living newspapers which was a new
concept and TfSC did it by creating communication
about a specific issue through a theatrical project
birthed within that community.
GOAL: To Provide de-commercialized theatre
closer to your hometown. It broke away from
Bway but did not have the name to go on. Both
the FTP and T4SC succeeded however because
people could not travel to NYC all the time to see
theatre.
METHODOLOGY: Commercial theatre received
little funding from the government but since both
groups were promoting a platform for social
communication there were more monies available
to help produce that work.
3. Redefined the role of the theatre artist (actor): Expressionism vs. Absurdism
COMPARE
GOAL: Both make the audience think about the
meaning of existence and what affect their actions
will have on their future.
GOAL: Both ask the viewer to draw his/her own
conclusions.
METHODOLOGY: In both, the circumstances and
givens are often not relevant nor pertinent. Rather
the actor needs to focus on communicating the
theme/idea through interactions with each other on
stage or with the audience and incorporate non-
traditional acting techniques.
CONTRAST
METHODOLOGY: Commercial theatre had used
trained actors to produce theatre. T4SC used
people from the community (theatre made for,
with, by you). Federal Theatre Project used
contracted production troupes.
GOAL: Commercial theatre a the time was aimed
at middle class americans. FTP was intended to
be free so everyone could come. T4SC was meant
for a specific audience pertaining to that topic/
community.
METHODOLOGY: Scripts were given to actors on
the FTP. Scripts were CREATED by the actors in a
T4SC project. Both were not theatre that was
being produced on bway.
CONTRAST
METHODOLOGY: But in the same vein,
Expressionism offers the conditional of IF I dont
change this, THEN something bad will happen to
me. To achieve this, the theatre artist needs to
understand from what viewpoint the story is being
told and cannot be a selfish actor. In Absurdism,
the audience questions the meaning of life
because of the situation on stage and the actor
needs to heighten the stakes of the scene for that
to happen. These departed in different directions
from the previous naturalistic/realistic style of
acting.
METHODOLOGY: The actors in absurdism need
to play on the comedy vs. playing the drama in
expressionism.
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Brittanie Trevarrow
Monday, December 8, 2014
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PART II: (20 minutes each) Essay
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4. two sentences: how will your piece of theatre impact audiences?
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Using technology and improvisational actors, I want to create a magical,
immersive, theatrical world that acts as an escape for children of all ages, like a real life
Neverland. I would want the audience to leave believing that dreams can come true
and that your imagination can take you anywhere. In a giant white room with white
hallways, I would use digital projections on every space available to make it seem like
the world extended for miles, with birds flying in the sky and wind flowing through the
trees. You could see waterfalls from a distance. This would be a combination of an
immersive piece and magical realism. There would be giant creatures that walked
around and the kids could play with and interact with but did not speak, sort of in the
vein of Bread and Puppet theatre. However there would not be a script. Instead each
actor would be assigned a character (for example: tree bark fairy, tiger, elephant,
mermaid, protector of the forest, etc) and charged with the task of creating that
character, and creating dialogue and a devised script in collaboration with the other
actors. The characters would also help the audience create a character for themselves,
thus breaking down the fourth wall and including them on the adventure. There would
be a task or conflict or eventual battle between the actors that the audience will be
involved in and will need to help fulfill/solve.
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- digital projection
- immersive theatre
- bread and puppet theatre
- brecht
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5. two artists/movements that will influence my work in the world of theatre that have
NOT been discussed in class
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Monday, December 8, 2014
I think documentary drama will have a more prevalent influence in future
theatre due to the amount of upheaval surrounding current legislation and court cases.
Police brutality, marriage inequality, and political powerlessness are things that are
getting people angry and charged. In addition, it is difficult to form an opinion as a
college student because you have so much contradicting information and biased
information flying at you from different directions, so it is difficult to know fact from
fiction. It would be interesting to see how the transcripts of these court cases would
translate to the stage.
Secondly, I think that my work is going to be influence or impacted with the
evolution of the use of new technology in the theatre. We spoke about projections, but
there is way more being utilized such as movable platforms, hydraulics, and the use of
wind. I saw a production of Finding Neverland at the A.R.T. that was pretty mediocre,
as I had expected way more spectacle, but at the very end they symbolized Ms. Davies
passing by circling six fans pointed center-ward, and releasing gold confetti and her
shawl which floated up to the sealing as if flying to heaven. It was so simple, creative,
and beautiful and I would have loved to see more of that magic. Spectacle is going to
be a huge thing that brings in audiences and although I might not have the financial
means to produce that type of theatre myself, I may have my hands on it or working
around it as an actor.

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