THTR 1020 : Pre Midterm
Document Summary
Catharsis: a release, cleansing, or purging of emotions. Bertolt brecht- art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it. Samuel taylor coleridge- the willing suspension of disbelief. Dramatic conventions-an unspoken agreement between actor and audience concerning a fictional reality. as long as this convenient is unbroken, other fictions can be built upon it. Aside: another type of convention. the actor will break away and talk to the audience or to himself. When a convention is broken, a new meaning is created. breaking convention is a "shortcut" to meaning often used in the theatre. Codes: systems of non verbal signs that carry meaning. Codes help to simplify phenomena in order to make it easier to communicate experiences. Character in a play are codes that represent a certain ideology. Ideology: the abstract social ideas, values, or belief systems that underpin our understanding of reality. Verbal language: including how language sounds, is arranged, and organized.
