dramatics

1. dramatics • Let’s look at definitions: Dramatics: 1.the art of producing or acting dramas 2. dramatic productions, especially by amateurs. 3. dramatic, overly emotional or insincere. Think: does that fit what we are talking about in this class. Why? Let’s talk!!!

2. Drama • Definition: drama - a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character, especially one intended to be acted on the stage; a play - any situation or series of events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results: the drama of a murder trial.

3. Humanities • The study of enduring ideas and the philosophy and the critical process by which they can best be understood and communicated to others. Better!! The world has the humanities to broaden our perspective of the 21st century. It doesn’t matter what the economy is doing, the humanities has gifts no mater what.

4. Gifts from humanities: • Esthetic pleasure (we get a feeling of well being) • Critical thinking (you take delight in exercising your brain, looking beyond the meaning; to ponder ) • Myths (wherever people live in groups there are the exchange of tales, beliefs, folk lore • Sense of the past (to show us what we are today and what we will pass on) • Broader Understanding (widen our consciousness, we become more than ourselves if we are more aware of the thoughts/feelings . We become, in a sense, infinite)

5. So isn’t that more what we are looking at???? Goethe: (poet, philosopher, playwright, etc.) “One ought, everyday at least: to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

6. Once you let song and story, music and dance, and words and ideas…..once you let these things into your life, you can never live without them. • And you should never have to.

7. ART • Painting or sculpture -if it “doesn’t look like anything” the artist is making no attempt to imitate objects or persons in the real world. -if it “looks like something” the artist is imitating what he sees. Either way: the viewer is looking at a projection of the artist’s mind.

8. Art, cont. • But art is only realistic sometimes. Greek/Roman statues show the ideal man or woman ,when humans aren’t perfect. • Michelangelo’s males, are magnificent physical specimens .

9. Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) Many people still judge art by how real it looks. Have open-ended expectations to what may, at first, seem unfamiliar and in some cases , downright crazy. There are a variety of styles and approaches.

10. Music We live in an audio environment that is mostly unplanned – we hear what happens to be around. • Jet taking off • Hair dryer • Police car with it’s siren blaring • Children crying The majority of the world’s population still exists at the mercy of unwanted noise

11. Music, cont. • Without music we exist at the mercy of audio pollution as damaging to mental health as air and water pollution are damaging to physical health. Definition: Music: the shaped sounds between the silences: better the shape, the richer and more pleasing the sound.

12. Many sound in the natural world are like music : song of birds, a mountain stream, gentle falling rain, wind over the prairie. • Think: can you think of others? Do you know this piece of music? http://www.youtube.com/embed/t894eGoymio

13. Or this: • http://www.youtube.com/embed/ONXp-vpE9eU • Which is more beautiful?

14. Dance • Dance and theatre more often than not go hand in hand. • Theatre history extends back to the rituals and ceremonies of very early cultures, which combined some form of dance and some kind of rhythmic accompaniment. (theatre, dance, music) • Dance is the oldest of the three. The caveman danced. • Think: telling a story, before words, about his kill.

15. Dance, cont. • The Greeks carry this on with • Music • Song • Dance • Masques Plato wrote about this: in favor of music that aroused patriotic spirit but against music that existed solely to stir emotion.

16. Dance, cont. • They not only stirred emotion but drove some spectators into a frenzy. The Satir plays made fun of gods and goddesses and the audience could partake of this. • From Shakespeare to Native Americans to the ballet to ancient Noh dramas of Japan, dance and ritual are everywhere. Along with music, costumes, masques, and theatre they tell the story of the history of the world.

17. Native American dance to the moon. http://www.youtube.com/embed/h4u7GAQrogk

18. More dance examples • http://www.youtube.com/embed/p3YWWfnWBJM • http://www.youtube.com/embed/_7jj8McPlVY

19. Theatre • Theatre exists in every culture but it takes many different forms. • It is a way of clarifying experience, a way of making sense out of life by imitating it. • Drama has always been a natural activity. Without being told to do so, children playact, pretending to be people other than themselves.

20. Conventions • definition: willing suspension of disbelief • Ever since theatre began, audiences have had to accept certain conditions in the way a play is performed. Nothing about the theatre is real. But: audiences cannot become involved in the action unless they agree to accept the reality of what they are watching. (young boys playing girls in Shakespeare’s time)

21. Illusion • Knowing how illusions are achieved does not destroy pleasure in the eventual performance. • The knowledge that different interpretations are possible adds richly to the ability to analyze and make good critical observations, oral or written. • Seeing different productions of the same work offers the opportunity for enlightening comparisons similar to hearing the same piece of music performed by different singers or musicals groups.

22. Cinema • The motion picture, like other art forms, is a vehicle of creative expression. • Because it reaches more people in the modern world than theatre did /does– which was/is quite often tied to the culture of a people- film is also likely to inflame the passions of the public more than any other art form. • Like theatre it is a collaborative art.

23. Conventions • The same holds true as in theatre. - Background music to set the mood - The opening scene directed in such a way as to grab audience attention and start the director’s concept. -Time can be extended in both mediums but especially in film with the tracking shot, cut, dissolve, close up, lingering take (D. W. Griffith 9 1875-1948)

24. Ben Hur • http://www.youtube.com/embed/4hrbRDAOF4k

25. Television • It is really our newest art form. More so than any other. • Is more complex, because there are times we watch a filmed story and times when we watch events as they really happen. • Think: Are there two kinds of television reality? What- if anything- is “real” on television.

26. Television, cont. • During the protests of the ‘60’s people shouted “the whole world is watching.” What would people do if no one were watching? The television turns viewers into members of a jury, judging the sincerity, likeability, and attractiveness of the person on camera. Think: We become eves droppers. Sometimes we don’t hear because we judge. Discussion

27. Critical evaluation Discussion: based on our reading and our thoughts 1. attention span. 2. live coverage 3. understanding intentions 4. control over time and space 5. being affected 6. rapid viewing and quick cuts

28. Live Coverage • http://www.youtube.com/embed/0xU7Lhd7Wwo

29. Once we understand the pitfalls and the risks involved (once we control the medium) we can look for and often find the positive aspects of a medium with so much potential. • It can offer: live coverage, theatrical events, sport competitions in close up, sensational trials , children’s educational programming , etc, thus widening our range of experience and giving us the sophistication that was denied in the past to those whose only knowledge of the world came from non visual media.

30. “and in the end”…. • Leslie MarnonSilko Contemporary Native American writer “I decided the one way to seek justice was through the power of stories.” Nat King Cole, singer “I am an interpreter of stories”

31. Steven Spielberg: film maker “I dream for a living”