Good Theater NEEDS
1. Technicians, preferably competent ones, and strong technical aspects.
2. Conversely, there can be little to no tech needed, besides a simple mic or three to four light cues.
3. Actors who inspire emotion, through movement or words. Choreographed or choreographed.
4. No set is required, however, if there is a set it better be used to it's full potential and make sense within the context of the play. For instance if the play is all about machines and so the set is full of crazy contraptions that don't actually work all the time and the actors must react to them. Most good plays can communicate enough without a set or by the use of simple pieces such as chairs and a table.
5. Direction, the play has to be going somewhere, even if you never get there, it has to have a momentum about it.
6. However, if the play is about a crazy person the play will probably stay within this persons head and therefore not have any momentum toward anything besides itself, which is fine really, because some of the best plays are about crazy people or people going crazy.
7. It has to be engaging, like a conversation with someone or emotional or, yeah, I don't really know, it has to be honest no matter what.
8. IT HAS TO BE HONEST
9. There has to be reactions.
10. There doesn't have to be dialogue. One of the best performances I ever saw was pre-recorded voices played through headphones the audience wore and the actors only had a beep from a boom-box to tell them their cues and they had to act the whole thing in the headphones without actually hearing it.
11. There can be choreography, dance is a medium that slips and spills easily and nicely into theater sometimes, however dancer should never be allowed to speak on stage (Misnomer Dance being an exception) and one should never cast dancers when they need actors.
12. The acting has to be good, believable and knowledgeable (of their characters).
13. The limit of time is 5 hrs, even if I love what I'm watching 5 hrs is too long, and it is especially too long if I hate what I'm watching (Lily's Revenge at Here).
14. It has to be good, smart or fun or intriguing or yeah, I'm back to it has to be stimulating.
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*****3. Choreographed or UN-choreographed.
ReplyDeleteVery different from mine! I think you make a lot of great points. I particularly like "Direction, the play has to be going somewhere, even if you never get there, it has to have a momentum about it." You mention afterwards though that this doesn't apply if the protagonist is a crazy person. I disagree; I think that if the protagonist is crazy, it doesn't mean that the play doesn't need momentum. To me, usually when the protag. is crazy it just means that we need to solve the puzzle of reality or something similar to that, and that on its own give the play momentum.
ReplyDeleteI really like number 7: "It has to be engaging, like a conversation with someone or emotional or, yeah, I don't really know, it has to be honest no matter what", and I agree with it, of course. My aunt runs a regional theatre in Ithaca and the theatre's motto for all the plays that are performed there are that: "They bust be INTIMATE, BOLD, and ENGAGING". Important conversations must happen. I think you hit those topics really well in this manifesto! I also really agree that dancers should never be cast as actors, but I think dance can certainly have speaking in it. The difference, to me, between a dance and play is that the primary use communication tool of a dance is, well, dance. For a play it is usually primarly words/dialogue. I think that your example of the show with the pre-recorded voices does have dialogue--it just isn't coming from the actors that you see.
ReplyDeleteI like your list a lot. I think you've made a lot of really good points.
ReplyDeleteI disagree #11 when you say that "one should never cast dancers when they need actors." To me, dancers are actors. I think anything that tells a story is a play, so if dancers are able to do this through their movement, then I think they have successfully put on a play and can be considered actors as well.
#8: Ok, I hear this a lot, but I'm still not completely sure what this exactly means when it refers to theater. Maybe you or someone else can explain it to me.