Theatre Critical Analysis Outline

FORMAL AND TECHNICAL QUALITIES

Genre (opening paragraph) including the introduction of your critique:

Tragedy
Comedy
Tragicomedy
Melodrama
Performance Art
Musical Theatre – book musical or concept musical

ELEMENTS OF THE PRODUCTION

Script – make a new paragraph

Written document created by a playwright and contains the dialogue used by the actors
Playwright’s language tells us what we can expect from the play
Playwright writes the play
Other directors especially for musical theatre may need to be added

Plot – make a new paragraph

Structure of the play; skeleton that gives the play shape
Nature of the plot determines: 1) how a play works
2) how it moves from one moment to another
3) how conflicts are structured
4) how the experience comes to an end
Include everything below pertaining to the plot (required):
Exposition: characters introduced; necessary background information
Complication: middle of the play; series of conflicts & decisions at a specific moment,
an action someone takes or a decision someone makes upsets the current state of
affairs
Climax: ultimate crisis – turning point that changes the protagonist’s fate – end of the
complication
Foreshadowing: moves the play forward by pointing toward events that will occur later
Builds tension & suspense
Discovery: reveals information about characters, their personalities, relationships, and
feelings
Reversal: any turn of fortune
Dénouement: final resolution of the play
Character – make a new paragraph
Psychological motivation of the people in the play; major and minor characters
Audience focuses on: 1) why individuals do what they do
2) how they change
3) how they interact with other individuals
4) how they interact with other individuals

Protagonist – make a new paragraph

Protagonist - central person in a play
Foil – contrasting character that appears in order to accentuate or contrast qualities in
another character, especially the protagonist
Antagonist – opposes the protagonist Antagonist examples in theatre are:
Scar in “Lion King” – Javert in “Les Miserables” – Miss Hannigan in “Annie” -
Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire”

Themes – make a new paragraph

Intellectual content of a play – what the play is about

Visual Elements – make a new paragraph(s)

Physical relationship established between actors and audience
Includes stage settings, lighting, costumes, and properties (props) + actors and their
movement
3 types of Theatre Arrangements:
1) Arena – puts the audience around all 4 sides of the playing area -
“theatre-in-the-round”
2) Thrust – three-quarter theatre around the playing area on 3 sides
3) Proscenium – places the audience on only 1 side viewing the action through a
frame
Scene or Set Designers use: line, form, mass, color, repetition, and unity
Use three-dimensional space
Lighting Designers – ephemeral medium (lasts only a short time)
Face seen from 100 feet away? for example
What does the light do to an actor, a costume, or to a set or prop?
Selective visibility – Rhythm and structure – Mood – Illusion and motivation
Costume Designers – work with the entire body of the actor; design hairstyles & clothing
(sometimes makeup) to suit a specific person or occasion, a historical era, a
character, or a locale
Use elements from painters in Chapter 1
Properties or Props
Set props – part of scene (set) design: furniture, pictures, rugs & identify the
mood of the play and tastes of those who inhabit the play’s world
Hand props – used by the actors while they’re onstage – ex: papers, glasses,
book, magazine, etc.
Aural Elements – make a new paragraph
Actors’ voices; background music; production sounds like the clashing of swords e.g.
Sound designer – microphones and a mixer board

Dynamics – make a new paragraph

Director controls where & how high the peaks and valleys in a production occur by
controlling the dynamics of the actors – volume & intensity, both in body and
with their voices

Actors – make a new paragraph

Audience perceives the play through the actors’ movements and speech
Speech – manner in which the actor delivers the playwright’s words
Spine – single, basic motivation of a character in a play from which all decisions arise

Lifelikeness or Theatricality – make a new paragraph

Lifelikeness – deal in everyday life: language, movements, furniture, trees, for example
Everyday speech is high in lifelikeness
Theatricality – express less & less relationship to everyday life
Poetry is an example; larger than like or exaggerated detail

SENSE STIMULI – make a new paragraph

We respond to a play’s structure and how it works; respond to dynamics

We’re stimulated by theatricality or lifelikeness of the language of the playwright and the
movements and speech of the actors
Our response is shaped by the relationship of the stage space to the audience + by the sets,
lights, properties (props), and costumes

Required: Catharsis, Empathy, and 4 theatrical communication in your critique

Catharsis – purging of the emotions of pity and fear
Examples: fright releases us from fearfulness and laughing at a character’s misgivings,
can bring us release form anxiety and tension
Empathy – to describe our reaction to and involvement with what we experience in a production
Examples: wince when an actor slaps the face of someone;
causes someone to cry when characters become involved in tragic or
emotional situations

A production can appeal to our senses through theatrical communication: Include the 4 below
1. Language – act as an entire stimulant of our senses; we imagine what the playwright
tells us ought to be there
2. See – a sword fight performed with fast action, swift movements, and great intensity
and sets us on the edge of our seat
3. Movements – by the actors (bodily & vocally) – push us emotionally
4. Mood – use of colors for example help communicate the mood of the play through
rhythm and variation in the visual elements TURN OVER
 SENSE STIMULI (continued)

Lighting designer’s illumination of actors and set causes us to respond in many ways.
Play’s audience reacts to the mass of a setting – for example: scenery that towers over the actors
and appears heavy differs in effect from scenery that seems minuscule or light
Focus and line work upon our senses – careful composition can create sharp movement, outlines,
and shadows or it can create soft, or blurred images

CONCLUCING PARAGRAPH(S) – 1 or more new paragraph(s)

Follow the instructions from page 9 in Syllabus Part II.

FOR ALL CRITIQUES

Refer to pages 9 through 12 in Syllabus Part II

Major deductions will be done if detailed instructions are not followed.