Leach - Theatre Studies: The Basics

THEATRE STUDIES

THE BASICS

Now in a second edition, Theatre Studies: The Basics is an incisive guide to contemporary theatre studies. The practical and theoretical dimensions of theatre from acting to audience are woven together throughout to provide an integrated introduction to the study of drama, theatre and performance. Topics covered include:

• dramatic genres, from tragedy to political documentary
• theories of performance
• the history of the theatre in the West
• acting, directing and scenography.

With a glossary, chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading throughout, Theatre Studies: The Basics remains the ideal starting point for anyone new to the subject.

Robert Leach is a writer and theatre director who has taught drama at the Universities of Birmingham and Edinburgh. His books include Makers of Modern Theatre (Routledge, 2004) and Theatre Workshop: Joan Littlewood and The Making of Modern British Theatre (University of Exeter Press, 2006).

The Basics

ACTING

BELLA MERLIN

AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY

NANCY STANLICK

ANTHROPOLOGY

PETER METCALF

ARCHAEOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)

CLIVE GAMBLE

ART HISTORY

GRANT POOKE AND DIANA NEWALL

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

KEVIN WARWICK

THE BIBLE

JOHN BARTON

BUDDHISM

CATHY CANTWELL

THE CITY

KEVIN ARCHER

CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

SUMAN GUPTA

CRIMINAL LAW

JONATHAN HERRING

CRIMINOLOGY (SECOND EDITION)

SANDRA WALKLATE

DANCE STUDIES

JO BUTTERWORTH

EASTERN PHILOSOPHY

VICTORIA S. HARRISON

ECONOMICS (SECOND EDITION)

TONY CLEAVER

EDUCATION

KAY WOOD

EUROPEAN UNION (SECOND EDITION)

ALEX WARLEIGH-LACK

EVOLUTION

SHERRIE LYONS

FILM STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)

AMY VILLAREJO

FINANCE (SECOND EDITION)

ERIK BANKS

FREE WILL

MEGHAN GRIFFITH

HUMAN GENETICS

RICKI LEWIS

HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

ANDREW JONES

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

PETER SUTCH AND JUANITA ELIAS

ISLAM (SECOND EDITION)

COLIN TURNER

JOURNALISM STUDIES

MARTIN CONBOY

JUDAISM

JACOB NEUSNER

LANGUAGE (SECOND EDITION)

R.L. TRASK

LAW

GARY SLAPPER AND DAVID KELLY

LITERARY THEORY (SECOND EDITION)

HANS BERTENS

LOGIC

JC BEALL

MANAGEMENT

MORGEN WITZEL

MARKETING (SECOND EDITION)

KARL MOORE AND NIKETH PAREEK

MEDIA STUDIES

JULIAN MCDOUGALL

THE OLYMPICS

ANDY MIAH AND BEATRIZ GARCIA

PHILOSOPHY (FIFTH EDITION)

NIGEL WARBURTON

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

JOSEPH HOLDEN

POETRY (SECOND EDITION)

JEFFREY WAINWRIGHT

POLITICS (FOURTH EDITION)

STEPHEN TANSEY AND NIGEL JACKSON

THE QURAN

MASSIMO CAMPANINI

RACE AND ETHNICITY

PETER KIVISTO AND PAUL R. CROLL

RELIGION (SECOND EDITION)

MALORY NYE

RELIGION AND SCIENCE

PHILIP CLAYTON

RESEARCH METHODS

NICHOLAS WALLIMAN

ROMAN CATHOLICISM

MICHAEL WALSH

SEMIOTICS (SECOND EDITION)

DANIEL CHANDLER

SHAKESPEARE (THIRD EDITION)

SEAN MCEVOY

SOCIAL WORK

MARK DOEL

SOCIOLOGY

KEN PLUMMER

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

JANICE WEARMOUTH

TELEVISION STUDIES

TOBY MILLER

TERRORISM

JAMES LUTZ AND BRENDA LUTZ

THEATRE STUDIES (SECOND EDITION)

ROBERT LEACH

WOMENS STUDIES

BONNIE SMITH

WORLD HISTORY

PETER N. STEARNS

THEATRE STUDIES

THE BASICS

Second edition

Robert Leach

First edition published 2008, this edition published 2013

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2008, 2013 Robert Leach

The right of Robert Leach to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Page 26 excerpt from The Caretaker, copyright 1960, 1962 by Harold Pinter. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the publisher of any errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent editions.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Leach, Robert, 1942

Theatre studies : the basics / Robert Leach. -- Second edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Drama. 2. Theater. I. Title.

PN1655.L35 2013

792--dc23

2012051056

ISBN: 978-0-415-81167-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-81168-2 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-76667-5 (ebk)

CONTENTS

In the age of iPods and mobile phone cameras, downloads and broadband, when certainly cinema and perhaps even television are beginning to seem pass, what business has that old impostor, live theatre, got clamouring for our attention? Its alive, thats what! Perhaps the theatre has never been more necessary than today, when it stands so firmly against the rush into recorded media. It is true that more and more students want to study it, to do it, to present it. An informal festival like the Edinburgh Fringe exhibits many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of groups of people wanting to make live theatre. Which is justification enough for a book like this.

This book tries to treat the basics of modern theatre, to raise at least some contemporary ideas, problems, concerns, but the subject is so colossal it cannot claim the last word even on the basics. Some of its limitations are obvious. It only attempts to address issues in the theatre of the West. There is a vast theatre culture beyond the West, in India, China, Indonesia, all over Africa and among all sorts of people, which is not even mentioned in this book. A line had to be drawn somewhere.

The book aims to air ideas about Western modern theatre, to explain, to illustrate, to stimulate. Its basic premise is that theatre and drama offer a unique combination of thinking and doing, and that anybody who tries to practise it, at however simple a level, will gain by it. This book tries to suggest the links between theory and practice (which explains why some chapters move from the very theoretical suddenly into the absolutely hands-on practical). There is an implicit belief in the integration of theory and practice which underlies everything that is written here. Perhaps the link is in the explorations and references to theatre practitioners actors, playwrights, stage designers, directors from the past and the present, whose thoughts and achievements this book so frequently draws on.