Bringing your child to a theatre for the first time may be a challenging experience. Children may not realize how different live theatre is from sitting in front of a TV or even the movie screen. Watching television has become an extremely popular form of entertainment for children. Because of how frequently children watch TV, they are not used to focusing on one thing for an hour and a half.
Theatre helps children adjust to not seeing a new image every seconds, and to realize that something can be entertaining and engaging without a constant change of scenery. They will learn how to sit quietly, respect others, and pay attention. Plays and musicals illustrate many different lessons. Theatre is a safe way to expose kids to difficult situations and show them firsthand how to handle these situations.
Theatre exposes young people to new vocabulary and ways of communicating. Through the arts of dance, acting, and music, children learn how to communicate in a variety of unique ways. Jones The Musical, is a classic story that illustrates how to communicate in a school setting.
Learning how to communicate with new friends while watching performers express themselves through song and dance is a one-of-a-kind learning experience. Theatre is immediate, evolving and always different.
Although the script may be the same every night, the performance is unique, each and every time it happens. No two performances are ever the same. In this way, everyone involved has a distinct and unique experience that can never be replicated.
Live theatre helps to promote social discourse, dialogue and potential social change. Theatre is a cultural phenomenon that demands that society examines itself in the mirror. We can study societal problems and attempt to find solutions. Coming together as a community to listen to opposing points of view is necessary. Theatre promotes education and literacy. Studies have shown that students who participate in theatre do better in school.
Already know your password? Login now. Now, do I think all theatre has to be about thinking? A play can be successful and "good" based strictly on the merit of being highly entertaining, too. I'm reminded of something you taught me in my first directing class, actually - that saying tragedy is superior to comedy or vice versa is stupid; the piece should just be the best example of what it is. I still tell that to the kids in my composition classes now, actually.
So I suppose that's what I'd add: good theatre is as perfectly what it is as possible. Perhaps that fits with that idea of Unity? What makes theatre successful and what makes theatre good are two different animals. There is a plethora of horrible but very successful theatre out there today. There are plenty of bad plays which fill theaters to capacity.
So the question is what gives theater, or let's say a play, its lasting quality? What makes it art rather than just entertainment? First of all, the story has to keep the audience focused so there needs to be some kind of plot, even if the action is mostly relational.
So there is an entertainment factor - keep the audience engaged. Secondly, there must be great characters of depth. Even a farce, if it's a really good one has characters of depth. Thirdly, it has to touch the part of us that is foundational, not just cultural. For example, even though The Glass Menagerie is set in the 's, the overarching theme of being trapped in an unkind existence is a concept which transcends period.
Also, the concludtion that selfishness doesn't bring freedom, only guilt is an ethic most can understand. It needs to be truthful and skillfully performed. A goal for anyone involved in a production should be excellence in every area. Do the best with what you have.
I saw a production of Streetcar Named Desire performed by a local community theatre. Now I happen to think that Streetcar is one of the better plays written in the 20th century and I have seen it performed brilliantly. However,this cast and director completely butchered the production.
It was torture sitting there listening to great words being ham sandwiched. I've seen the same thing happen to Shakespeare on many occasions. No one seems to want to do Shakespeare in the period he wrote it for some reason. So the magnificent language of Shakespeare was spoken with a Bronx dialect Interestingly enough, this was a successful production - well attended, that is.
And I have seen a lot. The literature itself transcends the production. But to have a great theatre experience, one has to have both great literature and a skillful production. Next, and this is a bit old fashioned in this day of postmodern everything, I think great theatre needs a beginning, middle, and an end. There is nothing less satisfying than having no end. When a piece leaves the audience hanging, it may cause discussion but it's ultimately an aggravation. Of course, there will always be exceptions and hanging endings can be done with great success - just look at some of the stuff Chekhov did.
But for the most part, give me a decent denouement. Lastly, beautiful words, words, words and good construction of dialogue, relationships, plot, and tension.
You can have all the disgusting, vile verbage, and pornographic stories. Those won't last. They are fodder for the current low-brow culture of today-- Very popular but far from great theatre. There's more of course but I've blathered on long enough.
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