PROOF. Contents. List of Figures Acknowledgments

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1 Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments Preface x xi xiii Introduction 1 I Contemplation and Intuitive Response 3 Responding to art: an introduction 3 Intuitive response and theatre: seeing with an inner eye 5 Reflective learning and contemplative practice 6 EXERCISE: Reflective questions about the play 8 More contemplative practice: Zen as an interpretative lens 9 Zen and art 11 EXERCISE: Zen and art 15 Tapping into intuition: breathe, read, reflect 15 EXERCISE: Beginning meditation 17 Adjusting to meditation 18 EXERCISE: Breathe, read, reflect 19 Foregrounding the body as an interpretive tool 21 EXERCISE: Tableau vivant 24 Associational materials 25 EXERCISE: Associations and central images 27 Questions for application 28 Sources and further study 32 II Formalist Analysis 35 Formalist analysis: an introduction 35 Aristotle: then and now 35 Aristotle revealed: breaking down the Poetics 36 vii

2 viii Contents EXERCISE: Identifying Aristotelian elements 42 Application of formalist principles 43 Plot 45 EXERCISE: Questions about plot 50 Character 50 EXERCISE: Questions about character function 52 Character 52 EXERCISE: Questions about character analysis 53 Idea 54 EXERCISE: Questions about idea 55 Language 56 EXERCISE: Questions about language 56 Music 57 EXERCISE: Questions about music 58 Spectacle 59 EXERCISE: Questions about spectacle 59 Stanislavski and the actor s script 60 EXERCISE: Units, beats, and given circumstances 64 Action analysis 65 EXERCISE: Action analysis paper 70 Questions for application 70 Sources and further study 75 III Interpreting the Nonlinear Play 76 Nonlinear by any other name 76 Postmodernism 77 EXERCISE: The loss of the real 81 Form and content: the playwright s view 82 EXERCISE: Form and content 84 Visualizing structure: the landscape of a play and concept mapping 85 EXERCISE: Concept mapping 87 Vocality and the playwright s voice 87 EXERCISE: New language playwriting 92 Interpreting the de-centered script: Key moments, lateral thinking, and exquisite pressure 93 Key moments 93 Case study: Viewpoints 94

3 Contents ix Lateral thinking 95 Exquisite pressure 96 Questions for application 96 Sources and further study 98 IV Responding to the Script 101 On finding a path to understanding 101 Considering the audience and occasion 103 EXERCISE: Outlining your presentation 103 Style and critical lenses 107 Contextual considerations: global cultures 109 Allowing for change in rehearsal and production 111 Questions for application 112 Sources and further study 113 Index 115

4 Introduction The starting point for the vast majority of theatre productions is the study of the script, but what should such study include? Identifying the protagonist and antagonist? Finding the exposition, rising action, climax, and resolution? Deriving the central idea or spine of the play? Recording your own visceral impressions of the play? Researching the playwright and time period? Is there, in fact, one ideal approach, or are there a variety of utilitarian and artistic approaches? This book provides several lenses through which an artist can examine a script. Although formalist analysis has traditionally been the Western approach to scripts compliments of Aristotle, Stanislavski, and a few others it cannot and should not be the only lens. After several years of teaching a course in graduate script analysis, I asked myself: How can I open up the realm of examining scripts by incorporating alternative perspectives to counter and/or complement intellectual analysis? How might a focus on intuitive response and deep contemplation of the script transform students who are taught to categorize and analyze? English professor Mary Rose O Reilley reflects on the dichotomy of the two approaches in her book The Peaceable Classroom, writing, When I am in my critiquing mind, I am not as tranquil as when I am in my pondering mind. My claws are at the veins of life. When I am comparing, I am not contemplating essential beauty (92). Theatre practitioners interpreting a script need to understand and develop both minds in order to give themselves fully to the act of interpretation. With these concepts in mind, Interpreting the Play Script reveals that one type of analysis cannot do justice to a play, nor does one interpretive lens suit every theatre artist or collaborative team. 1

5 2 Interpreting the Play Script The book comprises four parts, which may be read separately or out of order: I. Contemplation and intuitive response, including Zen philosophy. II. Formalist analysis, via Aristotle, Freytag, and Stanislavski. III. Interpreting the non-linear play: frames of reference. IV. Responding to the script: choosing a path of interpretation. Each part includes practical exercises and questions for study and application, geared to students and artists in production. Examples are primarily from three different scripts: Sophocles Oedipus Rex, Ibsen s A Doll s House, and Mel Brooks s Broadway musical, The Producers. The brief concluding section helps the student/practitioner formulate a response to the script, while keeping an open mind about discoveries to be made in the production process. Ultimately, the reader will be able to answer two crucial questions: How do I bring both objective and subjective responses to my interpretation of the script? How can I create a personal response which best communicates my reaction to and understanding of this script? By advocating not one approach, but contemplating various approaches to the script, I hope this book will foster in readers a deeper understanding of their relationship with their art be it as directors, actors, designers or the myriad of others who work to produce theatre. Reference O Reilley, Mary Rose. The Peaceable Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1993.

6 Index action analysis, 65 73, 93, 104 actions (Aristotle), 37 see also dramatic action Actor Prepares, An, 60 1 Anderson, Laurie, 14 Angelo, Thomas A., 86 antagonist, 46, 51 Aristotle, see also individual terms defined by Aristotle Artaud, Antonin, 5 associational materials, 25 6 Attempts on Her Life (Crimp), 80 audience, 103, 106, 109, 111 see also cultural context aural elements, see music Baas, Jaquelynn, 11 background story, 67 see also exposition Barba, Eugenio, Barry, Peter, 79 Baudrillard, Jean, 79, 85 Bauhaus, 12 beats, 60 5 Benedetti, Jean, 60 1 Benedetti, Robert, 27 bits, 60 1 body, response, 21 5 Bogart, Anne, 81, 93 6 books, recommended, 108 breath, breathing see meditation Brook, Peter, 95 Brooks, Mel, 66 Buddhism, 9 15, 17, 19, 21 Cage, John, 14 captioning, 87 Carnicke, Sharon M., 60 carnivalesque, 88 Castagno, Paul C., 77, 87 8 catharsis, 39, 41 causal, see plot, causal character, 37, 38, 41 2, 105 analysis, 52 3 types, 50 2 see also individual character types climax, 46, 68 three major climaxes, 65, 93 collaboration, 4 comedy (Aristotle), 38 complication, see rising action concept maps, 85 7 confidante, 51 contemplation, 6, 7 9, 104 counter through-action, 65, Crespy, David, 81 2 Crimp, Martin, 80 crisis, 45, 46, 54 critical response, see intellectual response Cross, Patricia K., 86 crystallization, cultural context, de Heer, Rolf, 109 Death of A Salesman, 38 9, decorum,

7 116 dénouement, see falling action Dewey, John, 6 dialogue, see language Diamond, Liz, 91 Directing Postmodern Theater (Whitmore), 79 discovery (Aristotle), 40 1 Doll s House, A, 44 7, 51, 54 5, 63 4 dramatic action, 44, 45, 85 dreams, 14, 83 Else, Gerald F., 37 epic poetry (Aristotle), 38 episodic, see plot, episodic exposition, 45, 63 exquisite pressure, 96 external events, 65 8 falling action, 47 see also resolution Fefu and Her Friends, 76 foil, 51, 52 form and content, 81 4, 90 formalist analysis, Fornes, Maria Irene, 76, 81 framing, 85, 87 Freytag, Gustav, 43, 47 Freytag s Pyramid, 43 Futurism, Italian, 78 Gardner, Howard, xii, 29, 31 2 genre (Aristotle), 38 given circumstances, 63 5, 67 globalization, 109 hamartia, 41 Hanh, Thich Nhat, 9 Hapgood, Elizabeth Reynolds, 60 1 Herrigel, Eugen, 10 holistic, 4, 6, 7 Hwang, David Henry, 86 hybrid plays, 77, Ibsen, Henrik, 63 see also Doll s House, A Index idea, 54 6, 67, 105 ideograph, 22, 24 5 imitation (Aristotle), 37 inciting incident, 45 intellectual response, 4, 6, 7, 11 internal events, 65, 67 8 intuitive response, 3, 5, 7 8, 15 17, 22, 104 Itten, Johannes, 12 Kandinsky, Wassily, 12 key moments, 93 4 Landau, Tina, 81, 93 6 landscape of a play, 85 6 language, 56 7, 105 see also translation; vocality lateral thinking, 95 Leverage, Paula, 22 linear plots, see plot, causal/linear linear thinking, 6 logical response, see intellectual response Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), 22 3, 96 Loori, John Daido, 17 Machinal, Maeterlinck, Maurice, 5 McLeish, Kenneth, 37 meditation, 9 20, 83 4 Meehan, Tom, 66 MI, see Multiple Intelligences Miller, Arthur, mindfulness, 9 Mipham, Sakyong, 18 modern (modernism), 5, 76 Moon, Jennifer A., 7 Multiple Intelligences, 7, 23 music (Aristotle), 57, 105 see also language Nemirovich-Danchenko, Vladimir, 43, 67

8 Index 117 New Playwriting Strategies: A Language- Based Approach to Playwriting (Castagno), 77, 87 8 Noguchi, Isamu, 15 nonlinear, see plot, nonlinear normative (norm) character, 52 O Reilley, Mary Rose, 1, 81 objective (approach), 3, 4, 12 Oedipus the King, 37, 39, 40 1, 45 6 Olf, Julian M., 4 organization (structure), 83, 85 6 Parks, Suzan-Lori, peripety (peripeteia), 40 1, 46 Perloff, Carey, 7 playwright s approach, 82 84, 107 voice, 87 92, 107 plot, 45 50, causal/linear, 36, 40 7, 86 complex (Aristotle), 41 episodic, 36, 40, 42, 48 50, 86 multi-linear, 47 8 nonlinear, simple (Aristotle), 41 Poetics, polyvocal, 87 poster (design), 26 postmodern, Producers, The, Proehl, Geoffrey S., 4 protagonist, 46, 50 1, 69 raisonneur, 52 recognition (Aristotle), 40 1, 46, 54 reflective learning, 6, 7 8, 97 research, 106, 108 resolution, 47 see also falling action reversal (Aristotle), 40 1, 46, 54 Richardson, Laurel, 79 rising action, 45, 46 Rivera, José, 81 2 seed, 65, 67 8 Shakespeare, 47 8, 51 SITI Company, 93 somatic response, see body, response Sophocles, 37 see also Oedipus the King spectacle (Aristotle), 59 60, 106 Sperry, Roger, 7 spine, 44, 54 spirit/spiritual, 10, 18 stage directions, 63 4 Stanislavski, Konstantin, 6, 44, 60 70, 93 Stein, Gertrude, 85 story, 43 4 structure, 83, 85 6 see also plot style, 107 subjective, 3, 4, 5, 11 super-objective, 65, 69 Suzuki, D. T., 15 Suzuki, Shunryu, 11 tableau vivant, 22 4 tactic, 63 Taymor, Julie, 22, 24 5 theme, 54 6 in action analysis, 65, 68 9 Theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI), see Multiple Intelligences Thomas, James, 35, 43, 65 through-action, 44, 65, 69 through-line, see through-action tragedy (Aristotle), 38, 39, 41 six elements of, 39 tragic hero, see protagonist see also tragedy translation, Trousdel, Richard, 110 Trungpa, Chögyam, 19, 21 units, 60 3 Venus (Parks), Veselovsky, Alexander, 43

9 118 viewpoints, 93 Viewpoints Book, The (Bogart and Landau), 93 visceral reactions, 7, 9, 17, 76, 83 visual elements, see spectacle vocality, 87 92, 105 Whitmore, Jon, 79 Wilson, Robert, 6 world of the play, 16, 45, 104 Index yin-yang, 4 5 yoga, 6, 18, 82 Zarrilli, Phillip B., 18, 19 Zeder, Suzan, 21 Zen, 9 15, 17, 19, 21 Zen arts, 10, 15 Zen in the Art of Archery (Herrigel), 10, 19