The history of theater is a long one. Theatre and the plays authored for her have gone through an evolution, made of many phases. The way theatre has been presented, the sort of theatre presented, and the conventions of theatre, have altered dramatically over the past 2,500 years in the west, and many times.
A “school” is a type of theatre that was used during a certain period of time.
Let me clarify what I mean by a “convention”. A convention is a rule, a standard, the agreed-upon way a thing will be done. An example can be offered from Japanese NOH theatre. In NOH theatre, if an actor is dressed in black, it is understood by the audience and all concerned that he is “invisible”. So when he moves a set piece around, the set is “moving by itself”. If he lifts an actor, that actor is miraculously “floating”. No, in real life, people in black are not invisible. But in NOH theatre, it’s accepted that they are, as a convention.
Another convention is the foundation for all opera and musical theatre. It is understood and accepted that in these works, people are going to sing and dance when they are moved. No, in real life, normally, people don’t invent songs and dance with dozens of others on the streets. In musicals, it is the accepted convention.
Theatre and film are actually nothing but conventions. The audience accepts that the actors BECOME the characters, that the story is really happening. But there are conventions with the big conventions, and every play, every musical, every movie or TV show develops its own set of rules which the actor must create within.
Every past and present school of theatre has its own rules and methods. As you read more plays, and study the history of theatre and film, you will discover how much these media have changed.
The Greeks wore heavy masks and declaimed their dialogue. They used a chorus of people for commentary and narration. They played outdoors, in an amphitheatre. These are part of the Greek school of theatre. It should be remembered that, before Aeschylus, the first great Greek playwright, no actor is thought to have spoken independently. The convention was that they spoke as a chorus. It is also believed that Greek dramas may have been sung through, like operas.
During the Medieval period in Europe, theatre was often performed on the steps of a church, and only biblical themes were acceptable for a very long time.
Shakespeare used an essentially bare stage. As he used no settings, he was forced to tell the audience in some way, at the start of each scene, where we are. This very much alters the writing. Women were not allowed to act in his day, so men played the female roles. Much of the audience, called the “groundlings”, would stand throughout a performance. Poetic language was not only accepted on stage, but it was understood that what happened on the stage was “heightened life”, so poetry was expected to some degree.
Moliere’s troop toured the country, and finally founded a theatre on a tennis court in Paris, before taking over a huge, indoor theatre which had been in the possession of a Catholic cardinal. He used women to play women (a novelty until that period of history). He borrowed heavily (as did Shakespeare in his comedies) from an Italian school of theatre called “Commedia”, in which there were certain “stock” characters used, like a miser, or a braggart general. (Commedia borrowed heavily from the Roman playwright, Plautus.) It was understood that a play would be populated with characters who were sort of “stereotypes”, not particularly original, but familiar and comfortable for an audience.
Realism came into the theatre in the mid 1800s, and with it the portrayal of the average or “common” man, and realistic sets and casting, a huge contradiction to the existing schools and conventions of the day.
Film has gone through many schools. The German Expressionistic school created films like M and The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. These found their influence in American and foreign films in a school (type of film) called “Film Noir. Such films as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon are examples. ”The “Spaghetti Western”, which borrowed from the conventions of Hollywood Westerns, had many unique conventions, which were in turn borrowed by great directors like Kurosawa to make masterworks like The Hidden Fortress, and The Seven Samurai, which eventually made their way back to the United States as Star Wars, and The Magnificent Seven!
An actor MUST understand the school and the conventions of the piece he’s working. These will directly alter the choices the actor must make. A performance in a film noir type of piece couldn’t be more different from a Shakespearian performance, which is wildly different from a Greek drama. Not only do the schools change, but the rules from show to show WITHIN A SCHOOL are different, as determined by the writers. Aeschylus does not write like Euripides, though they are contemporaries. Shakespeare does not write like Christopher Marlowe. Ibsen does not write like Chekhov. Each invents his own conventions within the school they are working, and those conventions can and do change from play to play, even with plays authored by the same man.
What do you need to understand about a piece. Here are a few basic questions;
-Does the piece tend to be REALISTIC, or NOT REALISTIC? This will obviously change your approach somewhat, though remember, audiences identify with Human Common Denominators and real emotion, even in a fantastic piece. We love Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz because she’s an innocent who finds herself in a strange and hostile world, as anyone who ever left home will understand. Her emotions are real, so we care. Still,if the piece is highly comic along certain lines, like a farce, demanding some “mugging” (over the top play for laughter), then that’s its rules.
-What were the rules when the piece was written? This may require a little study on your part. You’ll want to know, because those rules will largely explain why the piece is written as it is! Without this info, you may very well make outrageously wrong decisions! What school was the piece written in, and what are the rules of that school? Additionally, will your director be using those rules, and how, or will he be updating the the rules and the feel of the piece? You’ll definitely need answers to these questions!
I’m afraid that a truly good actor needs to be more than a little bit of a historian, as well as a detective. You can’t rely on directors to be able to answer all your questions. Too often today, directors take on older plays without any real knowledge of the manner the author wrote them to be done, and with the sort of foolishly arrogant assumption that the piece needs updating. A reminder… Shakespeare will survive us all. This is not to say shows should not be updated, but they should be with respect and an understanding of the original intent of the authors.
And if you’re cast in a new movie or play, you will find that it has tendencies to fit into one school of theatre or another. All writers write IN CONTEXT TO THEIR CIVILIZATION. Ours, today, is a product of all that has come before us, so many schools of art may influence a single work. I’ve described some schools above, such as the Greek and Shakespearian and Realism. There are many more, and you will need to read a lot of plays to understand them! The history of literature and mankind both influence every work written today! Plan on becoming very smart!!!
Here are a few more basic schools prevalent in the 21st century:
-Theatre of the Absurd: A European and American response to WWII and the existence of the Bomb. A type of theatre in which there is little or no hope, communication is seen to have failed, life is pointless outside of the act of living and dying itself, and these have little meaning. Tends to be motivated by the pain of mankind feeling “small” in the face of his own hostility, and that of the universe’s.
-Stream of Consciousness: An outgrowth of novelists in the 20th century such as Kafka and James Joyce, in which we enter a character’s rather rambling mind and are “entertained” by his rambling thoughts. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett have employed this as a device, as in his play “Krapp’s Last Tape”. It is the character’s thought process that IS the piece.
-Black Comedy: Very grim, but sometimes hysterically funny comedy, which grew out of Absurdism. Often intended to shock, and make people think and revise their opinions. This could be seen to be an outgrowth from Aristophanes, Moliere, and Chekhov, by the way, and not entirely the modern invention we often believe it to be. A BAD HEIR DAY is a black comedy. It was also adapted from a play by Euripides, a Greek, who wrote its original, Alcestis, some 2,500 years ago.
-Musical Theatre: A type of story telling where characters sing and dance when they are moved. These have a “book”, which is the script, and a “score”, the songs, made up of music and lyrics. Sometimes there is almost no spoken dialogue, sometimes, there’s a great deal.
-Musical Revue: A musical which does not tell a story, with songs tied together either by theme (political, social), or by the fact they were all written by a certain composer or lyricist. In this case, the actor is creating each song as if it were a play unto itself.
-Noir: Tough characters like detectives and their dames, in black and white, from the 40s.
-Epic Theatre: The invention of Bertolt Brecht, the great German playwright, director and theorist. A type of theatre intended to be intentionally artificial, not believable, so the audience is always aware they’re watching a show. The theatrical lighting is visible and exposed, the actors are “acting”, there are many conventions. Well worth studying, especially for a director!
When you read plays, try to also read about the authors. If they wrote articles or books about the theatre of their day, or their inventions of conventions, read them. Brecht wrote many hundreds of pages, as did Shaw, on their intentions. These can be truly educational, and open the actor’s mind to possibilities in theatre perhaps undreamed of before.
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