Performance, Theater, Acting, Audience, Directing and Design - Book Report/Review Example

1. What is Performance? Phelan notes that there is the element in performance of the non-reproducible and that of it being of the present moment, through people and consumed by people, moving forward in time and something that cannot be canned or recorded. In essence it goes against some fundamental tenets of modern economic structures, which are founded on artifacts of economics being able to be canned and produced in massive quantities for milions of people. These people can then consume these artifacts at any time they wish. This is not the essence of performance. It is of the now, in a certain time and place, and only expended once rather than saved for future replaying. Phelan notes therefore that performance is something that is unique in all the arts, and requires interaction with the audience in real time. In modern contexts, this can be the difference between Saturday Night Live, which is a performance, and the many other canned programs on television. The former is performance art, and the latter is anything but performance. Phelan notes brilliantly that performance has its place in the arts, a unique place, and something that is evident in examples that relate how pictures of stolen artwork together with anecdotes and impressions of those artworks by people who have seen them in the past constitute a kind of art form that is akin to performance and takes its place alongside the artworks themselves (Phelan). Meanwhile Huzuinga notes that there is in play an element of performance too, something vitally tied to performance, and something that is universal. There is a tie to this and to Phelan’s observations on how elemental performance is, tied to the present in the same way that play is (Huzuinga; Phelan). 2. What is Theater? It can be gleaned from Artaud that in the same way that athletes have their stadiums and their arenas where spectators can marvel at their physical feats and prowess and compete with each other, the theater can be construed as the arena of the artist. In the sports stadiums, the athletes perform, undertake the performance of their craft, and it is in the same way that in the theaters, the artists undertake the performance of the roles that they rehearsed. Artaud makes an insightful and brilliant parallel between the artist and the athlete, and extending that parallel observation further, the artist’s theater is the corresponding structure to the athlete’s stadium. In both cases the artists and the athletes perform before the crowds who are tuned in to their performance, and appreciate the excellence that they display while they perform. It is in this sense that one can make sense of the theater as a unique arena for the artist to also engage its audiences and to elicit the kinds of reactions that the actors and the directors hoped to get from their plays (Artaud) 3. What is Acting? Artaud makes a brilliant explanation of what acting is in terms of its being in essence a kind of sport, with the emotions being the underpinning of the whole discipline, and the actor making use of his face and his entire body in order to convey an internal reality and to elicit it, to portray it before an audience. The discussion implies acting as a kind of special faculty that is also a gift, that in essence imparts to the whole being of the actor what he fells from within. Artaud makes explicit mention of the soul in relation to acting too. Acting is a kind of soul work, something that entails bringing to the stage or to the performance the essence of a part, its soul, something altogether real and material. It is the special gift of the actor to be able to convey that soul and to embody it. The instrument, as in athletic sports is the body, though there are important distinctions too, relating to the way the artist makes use of the body in acting, to reflect a soulful, internal condition (Artaud). 4. What is Audience? Audience can be construed from the text as the other half of a dialogue that makes the whole enterprise of staging a play in a theater complete, for instance. The audience is not optional, but is rather a vital part of theater, without which there is no theater. The text goes so far as to say that without the audience, there are no actors and there are no plays. The actor exists because the audience exists. The audience is one of the key pillars of theater, the actors and the play forming with them a kind of unity. The text notes that with even the smallest audiences, a play can run for many years, even decades, and still be considered a success. On the other hand, those who say they can live without an audience are fooling themselves and consigning themselves to non-existence, or short production runs. What seems implied in the text is this sense of engagement and dialogue that must exist with the audience for the theater to come alive and gain its soul. The text puts this vital relationship in the context of how in earlier societies the members of the community were the original audience, and the plays organically grew out of those communities, sometimes with an explicit group of writers and artists, sometimes impromptu, in order to fulfill very vital needs for expression and communal celebration within the entire community (Clurman). This ties up with observations on how vital audiences are in the staging of live performances, without which such performances would be essentially absurd and devoid of all meaning and relevance (Dolan). 5. What is Directing? From Artaud, Appia and the others one can glean a vision of directing as orchestrating the different elements of a performance so that they all mesh together, and in keeping with the intentions and the soul of the original text. It is not an activity that is removed from all other aspects of the play, but is organic and tightly woven to all, from the acting to the stage design and the lighting. The key focus is to guide the actors in their performances, and in coordinating the different elements so that they are able to engage the audience fully through the staging of the performance (Artaud; Appia; Clurman). 6. What is Design? Design is bringing together, in a sense, all the varying element of space in the stage, where the actor undertakes the performance. There are various elements to design, and the overall take is that design must be able to make a projection unto the stage the intended or imagined spaces that the authors of the staged works had in mind when they wrote their pieces. Design is not something secondary, but is vital to the whole enterprise of the performance, because in an ideal setting design is a natural extension of the actor’s body and actions. Good design can enhance the acting, and make the play come out as close to the intention of the writer or playwright as possible. Lighting, the stage, creating the space within that stage and choosing the elements that go into the stage are all careful considerations in design. It is something that is very close in importance to the acting itself, and the play itself. In another text Appia is noted for saying moreover that good design relates very intimately to the actor and the spaces and dimensions of the actor, so that everything, including the measurements of props and spaces on the stage, should be to the measure of the actor and his movements and body, and not the other way around (Appia). 7. Blood Wedding, Act 1 There is something about the development of the story that intrigues. At the same time one sees that there are the elements of the tragedy being set in place. There is the very emotional reaction to knives, and the on-going feud between the Felix family and the family of the groom. There is also the element of Leonardo Felix’s seeming continuing obsession with the fiancee of the groom, and Leonardo Felix’s resentment towards the Groom and his wealth. The Bride herself seems to have hesitations, and seems to also still love Felix back. She seems trapped. These complications set the stage for tragedy because Felix doesn’t seem to have any choice in the matter relating to his strong feelings. His love for the Bride has been fixed since childhood, is something that has a strong element of Fate in it. His marriage does not seem to be a happy one. The stage is set for the unfolding of something tragic and altogether unavoidable. There are forces that seem to bring the different key players towards a head-on collision that cannot be stopped even if they wanted to (Lorca). 8. Blood Wedding, Act 2 What surprises is not that Felix and the Bride elope, but that the development of the Act leaves the audience engaged and at the edge of their seats. Something about the way Felix and the Bride left the house and the Groom, and the way strong feelings seemed to have overtaken their rational faculties, and the way Lorca develops it, is very bracing and exciting. One expects that this brazen act of defiance against conventions, this blow to the heart of the Groom and the devastation too that it brought to the Mother, would have tragic consequences. It brings to mind the premonitions of the Mother in the opening act, and the history of tragic interactions between the Felix family and the family of the Mother and Groom. The additional surprise is that this blow came in the middle rather than at the end of the play too (Lorca). 9. Blood Wedding, Act 3 The knife goes back to haunt the Mother in the end of the play, This is very interesting, because it ties back to the beginning of the play, where the Mother seemed to have a hazy premonition that the knife would be the death of the Groom. It turns out that this would also be the death of Leonardo Felix, both men ending up dead, while the Bride lives. This, and the element of the complex emotions and motivations of women that propel them to choose on impulse, to respond to the higher callings of love over and above what society expects of them. In a way this act emphasizes how love and the bonds between true lovers cannot be totally suppressed by conventions and by concerns about money, prestige, social station, and all the other attificialities of social life. The Bride’s nobility seems to come from her readiness to face the consequences of her actions, to embrace even death if necessary. She was ready to die in defiance of society, but in full integrity to her feelings towards Leonardo Felix. In turn, one can say the same of Felix, who chose to defy conventions too and run away with the Bride, even at the cost of his own life (Lorca). 10. On ‘Appalachian Spring’ The stage elements are sparse and minimalist, and to the measure of the actors in keeping with Appia’s mandate to keep things in scale with the actors. Slow start builds to a happy middle portion with lively dancing from women in elaborate flowing garb, and the music acts as a prompt to the changes in the pacing of the act’s unfolding and the changes in the emotions that the actors want to convey. The first four minutes seem to convey life bursting from nothing, from bareness to vitality The women seem like flowers springing out of the earth themselves. Altogether, the initial parts of the video come together to portray spring coming suddenly and without warning. It is joyous and suddenly full of life, bursting from nowhere (Graham; Appia). 11. On ‘String of Pearls’ A major action in the play is the initial search for the necklace of pearls by Beth from Amy, a seemingly trivial exercise that turned out to touch off an adventure that is the body of the entire work. Nostalgia and a sense of importance and significance attributed to the necklaces reels us in in this major action, and getting our interest, the play then goes on to situate the pearls in the lives of the different women who came into contact with them. This major action is really the underpinning of the whole series of events. Beth had ascribed enormous significance to the pearls, and came to look for it at a time of her life when she was in the midst of another life milestone, and that is the wedding of her granddaughter. The pearls after all were a gift from her husband, in itself very significant, and the significance is further magnified in its being given to her daughter, and now meant to be in the hands of her granddaughter. The action is in the placement of the significance of the pearls in this measure, necessitating the need to find it (Lowe). An overall theme through the lives of the women who possessed the pearls and the people who were affected by it is that of certain universal human inclinations that cut through social status and age. There is a drive in people to want to place significance to their lives and to imbue certain objects with emotional and psychological value. For Beth for instance, the drive is evident to want to preserve the pearls as an anchor to her past and to her sense of self and family. For others, the pearl has an appeal as an object of material value and beauty too. At the same time, it is evident in the play that the pearls also under gird soulful lives that are flawed but also full of humanity. People are flawed in their wanting to possess the pearl and to imbue it with so much value, but at the same time these flaws enrich us and make us who we are as human beings and as women too (Lowe). In terms of production elements, the costumes enhance the focus on the women, who are the primary caretakers/possessors of the pearls and the real focus of Lowe, the lives that they led, the inner workings of their minds and their stations on society. The pearls themselves can be construed as forming a device with which to lure the audience and to give an element of continuity to the whole undertaking. The pearls string along the lives of the women in the same way that they are strung together to form the necklace. From a feminist perspective, the highlighting of the women through various elements of production, including the costumes, is in keeping with an implied respect that Lowe gives to the complicated, soulful lives of the women portrayed (Lowe). Works Cited Appia, Adolph. “Actor, Space, Light, Painting”. Artaud, Antonin. “XII. An Affective Athleticism”. The Theater and Its Double. Clurman, Harold. “The Audience”. On Directing. Dolan, Jill. “Feeling the Potential of Elsewhere”. Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater. Graham, Martha. “Appalachian Spring Part 1/4". YouTube. 2010. Web. 10 October 2014. Huzuinga, Johan. “The Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon”. The Performance Studies Reader. Lorca, Federico Garcia. Blood Wedding. Lowe, Michelle. String of Pearls. Phelan, Peggy. “The ontology of performance: representation without reproduction” Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. State of California. “California Drought”. Ca.gov. 2014. Web. 10 October 2014. Read More