Post-modern Theatre

VenusDeMilo · #1 11-26-2008, 09:59 AM

I have to present a seminar on post-modern theatre. The funny bit is that I know nothing about it. Luckily I don't have to do this until January 18th, but should anyone have any information, feel free to share.
This isn't procrastination half-assed LAST MINUTE omgs kind of thread, I just respect that we have a widely educated sort of folk around here.

Okay, SHARE.

(prediction: this thread will die very fast)

sssh · #2 11-26-2008, 02:06 PM

have they given you any detail about what theorists and writers to use? It seems incredibly broad. I mean, post-modern to me is at the earliest absurdist theatre, beckett, ionesco, leading up to weird stuff by feminists like helene cixous, and maybe performance art. Maybe it's not absurd stuff, that's perhaps too early. My advice is that all roads in theatre lead to Brecht. If you give me more detail I might be able to help more, but I'm only an undergrad with a particular interest in drama that will possibly lead to an MA in theatre research, can't really offer too much above my academic limits! I don't know what kind of depth you have to go into. How long is the seminar, for instance?

btw it sounds fun. I have to lead a seminar in January too, a performative one, on memory in drama. Anything to do with it. I'm working on some ideas at the moment for themes, not sure how I'll bring in performativity but I'm sure it'll become obvious once I have my ideas clear.

VenusDeMilo · #3 11-26-2008, 02:23 PM

My only directions were to be creative, & to express what post modern theatre has given/changed in the theatrical world/it's significance.

I planned on re-enacting a monologue & then pick the poster child of post modern theatre playwrights/significant individuals to talk about.

I think it's only supposed to be about 20 minutes long.

Also there are seminars going on specifically about Beckett & absurdness. I can give them a brief mention, but I assume they are not to be my main focus.

Sophia_ · #4 11-26-2008, 03:03 PM

"The Road to Santa Cruz(nirvana)"
~~by carefulcarpenter

I've missed your participation in my play. Was it too over the top for you to catch a glimpse of what was going on here at KR? This in itself reveals a Grand Narrative and shines a light on postmodernism itself and the people who style themselves as critics.

Begun in 2003, my project subtly revealed truths under the watchful eye of many, many, so-called postmodern students. Maybe because formality was shoved under the rug, players were not formally designated, and tickets were not sold; but this does not mean that something theatric was not transpiring. I was always hoping for that PM that would make claim as keen observer to reveal the project I have been doing. Many clues were laid out for people to find.

Premise: Would members notice and respond with a quality of awareness to a carpenter teaching love and seeking to uncover Grand Narratives? Would those who inadvertently become members of the audience catch on to what was transpiring right in front of their faces? Would people participate and play valuable self-defined roles?

Would unknown forces bring me to nirvana?

Quote:

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Postmodern Techniques

Despite its rejection of genre and style a Postmodern theatrical production might make use of some or all of the following techniques:
There is a deconstruction of Grand Narrative or Ultimate Truth. The accepted norms of seeing and representing the world are challenged and disregarded, while experimental theatrical perceptions and representations are created.

A diverse pastiche of different textualities and media forms are used, including the simultaneous use of multiple art or media forms, and there is the 'theft' of a heterogeneous group of artistic forms.

Narrative need not be complete but can be broken, paradoxical and imagistic. There is a movement away from linearity to multiplicity (to inter-related 'webs' of storying), where acts and scenes give way to a series of peripatetic dramatic moments.

Characters are fragmented, forming a collection of contrasting and parrallel shards stemming from a central idea, theme or traditional character.

Each new performance of a theatrical pieces is a new Gestalt, a unique spectacle, with no intent on methodically repeating a play.
The audience is integral to the shared meaning making of the performance process and are included in the dialogue of the play.
There is a rejection of the precepts of "High" and "Low" art. The production exists only in the viewers mind as what the viewer interperates, nothing more and nothing less.

The rehearsal process in a theatrical production is driven more by shared meaning-making and improvisation, rather than the scripted text.

The play steps back from reality to create its own self conscious atmosphere. This is sometimes reffered to as meta-theatre
While these techniques are often found in Postmodern productions they are never part of a centralised movement or style. Rather, they are tools for authentic introspection, questioning and representation of human experience.

Postmodern Theatre works tend to be challenging for an audience who are used to the time-honoured conventions of theatre and have expectations. The breaking of these expectations and the finding of new boundaries and sensibilities is the very point of this theatrical movement.

Quote:

To Elinor Fuchs, it is in the postmodern theatre that we witness the "death of the character" and the eradication of the plot. In this statement we are reminded of Barthes' announcement of the "death of the author", Foucault stating the "death of man" and Lyotard hailing the dissolution of metanarratives. As rigid categorization and structures of modernism collapse, eclecticism now characterizes postmodernism. But unlike Jameson's notion of pastiche and extreme consumerism of multi-national capitalism, critical postmodern theatre derives its theory from the post-structuralists' insight on semiotics. De Saussure laid bare the very construction of the human language exposing its structure of signs and codes. Taking off from this, Derrida's analysis of the subjectivity of man's meaning-making has furthered the invalidation of metanarratives. Now as the validity of the sign-signified and code-meaning constructs of languages are put into question, postmodernists are forced to investigate the language construction itself. Ultimately, we come to realize that meaning and signification is subjective and should be contextualized. With this, categorizing boundaries set by modernism collapse as well.

How do all these reflect in postmodern theatre?

Raymond Williams notion of the theatre convention explains this. Conventions in theatre according to Raymond Williams are methods such as figurative speech, stage blocking, songs or dance through which specific dramatic objectives are achieved. He pointed out how conventions in the theatre whether, performative techniques or literary devices, are characterized by its acceptability by the audience and its relations to the specific given standards. With this, he stressed the fact how dramatic conventions are maintained as "terms upon which author, performers and audience agree to meet, so that the performance may be carried on." Nicole Boireau expounded on the concept of dramatic conventions through the Hamletesque metaphor of the 'Mousetrap'. From this, he claims that the truth can be accessed through the world of illusion; that it is only through theatricality that truth can be revealed. Theatre expresses reality through the use of artificial conventions. He explained that only through the reflective nature of drama and the dramatic conventions that truths presented in drama are validated . It is then through the same dramatic and theatrical conventions set as the medium in expressing truths, that the expressed truths can be validated. It is through the limitations and self-confined means of definition can the expressed truths substantiate.

MY interest here is not to dominate your thread; I want you to do that. You can ignore my contribution and I will not be offended. I only offer this to you towards the means of learning and seeking truths. I think this is where formal education can launch on way beyond traditional forms of education and into a new dimension--a dimension that does exists in the minds of those who see beyond everyday reality and into the mystery of Grand Narrative and Beauty.

Sophia_

"A critic is a master of imperfection:
~~carefulcarpenter

sssh · #5 11-27-2008, 04:59 AM

Sophia was almost relevant, how unusual. Although anyone could post the wikipedia article on postmodern theatre - the more intelligent types would at least attempt to disguise it in their own words.

There's so much postmodern theatre though? maybe describe a bit about what postmodern theatre is and then define your theoretical approach. The name I was trying to think of when i posted in this thread yesterday was Caryl Churchill, if you don't know her I recommend you check her out for some good examples of postmodernism. Cloud 9's the particularly famous one.