Lecture 9 - The Play

The topic today is the play and the playwright who writes the play. The play is the starting point for all or most theatre artists. We start with what the playwright has created, the script. The script is our working document, which we use as the basis of the production created for the audience. Before we get to that point, let's spend some time talking about what the play is and what the playwright has created. To do that, we will look at some ideas that have been with us for a very long time, ideas first presented by the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle lived from 384 to 322 BC, and it is important to have at least some passing knowledge of who he is. In many ways, he may well be the most brilliant man who has ever lived. He encompassed a vast amount of knowledge in physics, politics, religion, art, mathematics, rhetoric, and more. Aristotle developed and thought about these things, presenting his ideas and thoughts in a logical fashion. We are specifically looking at Aristotle's ideas about the arts, particularly in a document called "Poetics". We are unsure when "Poetics" was put together, but it is usually dated around 335 BC. We must realize that Aristotle is not telling anyone how things should be done or how to write a play. His approach is quite different. He lived about a hundred years after the Greek theater's great flourishing. He looks at what the great playwrights of the classical Greek period did, what was successful, and what worked. From that, he deduces certain things that seem to be true of those plays. We are not entirely sure what "Poetics" is, as it is not a finished written document. It seems to be more like the notes Aristotle wrote down for his lectures. We only have a partial part of those notes, with most of them focusing on tragedy. There are references to comedy, suggesting there may be another document that addresses comedy, but we are unsure. However, we know that many of Aristotle's ideas about tragedy can be explored and understood as principles of the art of drama. Aristotle starts by telling us that drama is the imitation of action, not of men themselves, but of an action and life, which consists of action. The imitation implies that persons are acting. This is one of the distinctions Aristotle makes between drama and other forms of literature. Forms of drama, yes drama is a written form. Yes, drama can be read and Aristotle certainly indicates that one can gain a great deal from reading a play. But he also goes on to point out that drama is that which is going to be acted, it is that which is going to be performed in the theatre. So, therefore, what we should always understand is that what the playwright creates is an unfinished form. It's not greatly different from what the composer does in writing music. In that, again, music is written in notes and then at that point, those notes exist on the page for someone who knows how to read music, how to translate that music from the notes on the page to some kind of sound. The sound, perhaps from an instrument or perhaps the sound from the human voice. But whatever it is, those notes are there on the page waiting for their transfer, waiting for their translation into the sound which the audience is going to receive. In many ways, we should perhaps think of drama in the same way. And that is that drama, yes, those are words on a page, yes, they are words that anyone can read, they are words that anyone may understand. But we should also realize that those words are like notes. And just as one must have some special abilities to begin to know how to read the notes and to conjure the sound from them, so then again, we should think in the same way about the play, the script. It is a series of notes which exist there on the page which are waiting for then the theater people to come in and to transfer those from words on the page into an action or actions into the actions that one is going to see on stage. Aristotle indicated that within drama, then, that there are six parts, the parts in fact which determine the quality of the drama that you are going to see. There are a number of different ways in which these six parts can be translated, taking them from the Greek into English. One of the more common one goes this way: these six parts are plot, character, thought, diction, song, spectacle. Plot. Aristotle listed this one as first. It is the first and most important part, he said. Alright, let's at this point now make a difference between the words: the words "story" and the word "plot". These two are not synonymous, they are not the same, although we, in our casual everyday conversation, use them interchangeably. And we use one to refer to the other. But here, Aristotle is being very specific, he's being very definite, and he is using the word "plot". And he says, "This is the most important, most important of all, is the structure of the incidents". In other words, where the way those incidents come together, the way they are brought together, and the way the story is told, the sequence of the comings and goings, the timetable of the events, the arrangement of the action. That is what is important, and that is what is plot. So, therefore, we need to realize, as plot is being used by Aristotle, and as I will try to remember and to use throughout most of this series, when I am calling, when I'm referring, or using the word "plot", I'm going to be using it to refer to the structure of the incidents, the way the play is laid out. And at this point, if this seems to be splitting hairs, let me point out, and that is that story may encompass the totality of the events. A play does not necessarily encompass all of the events in a story. A play will begin at a certain point in the story, and there may be events in the story that have happened before the play begins. The play then will go through and... Develop a series of actions, a sequence of incidences, and then reach the conclusion of that particular series. At that point, we have reached the end of the play. The story may even continue on beyond that, but that is not what the play is concerned with. The play is concerned only with those particular incidents that occur from the beginning of the play to the end of the play. Therefore, only a certain part of the total story may be concerned here. This is the reason then that, for Aristotle, plot was the most important. In fact, usually and frequently, the stories that were told in the Greek theater were stories that the playgoers were quite familiar with. They were stories that they already knew. So, when they came to the Greek Theatre to see a play, what was important to them was how this particular playwright was going to treat this particular story. What part of this story is this playwright going to use? How is this particular playwright going to structure the action so that it constitutes the play that we are here to see? One of the most difficult tasks that any playwright faces is creating a compelling imitation of action, as Aristotle says. It is an imitation of action that is complete and whole, which, simplistic as it may sound, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. The play begins at a certain point, develops, and then concludes. All of this must have an arrangement, a logic that we can follow and find plausible and believable. In many cases, we find the playwright has created a sense of inevitability. We want to follow the logic that we find in the dramatic action. The playwright must write an action in which a particular incident begins to conclude, and within that incident, there must already be a kernel of the next incident. This creates suspense or dramatic tension. This is why Aristotle considers plot to be the most important and the first ingredient in looking at a play. Secondly, plot character character. The characters are the people who inhabit the action. Characters are human beings. We as human beings are possible characters within a play. It depends on what our lives are and perhaps many different things. It is quite surprising how a playwright can find a story and the people who inhabit that play are the characters in it. The playwright must find some way to interest us in those characters. We must care about them, identify ourselves in some way with them, or understand why they are the way they are. The character is doing what he or she may be doing now. Again, remember that all of this must be plausible in some way. What we must also understand here is that sometimes we can call this the fictive world. The fictive world creates its own plausibility. By that, I mean once we enter into that world in which these characters live, then we have entered their world, their plausibility. So we do not judge what's going on in their world by what might be plausible in our world. We do not judge their actions by saying, "Well, I wouldn't do that." Well, yes, maybe you wouldn't do that. But the question then is, within the fictive world that has been created here in the world of the play, is it plausible for this particular character, who has this particular set of feelings, emotions, and logic, to be carrying out these actions? In this particular world, certainly then, character is what we identify with. Character is what we look at and what interests us. In fact, that is frequently what has led some playwrights through time to scoff at this Aristotelian idea that character is second to plot. Remember, of course, we've said is plots first, character is second. And some playwrights have indeed attempted to write plays in which seemingly the plot is not the most important ingredient, but what we look at is the character and the various facets of this character. And this fascination that we have with the individual becomes the basis of the interest within the play. But even here, we are still going to come back to, in the end, that there is going to be some kind of story, some kind of imitation of action. Somewhere in here, this character has had to carry out certain actions which then allow us to explore the various facets of this particular character. And so then, therefore, we still find that even where character seems to be supreme, one cannot ignore the fact that there is a story. And obviously, the story has a structure. So therefore, the story is plotted, even though the character may seem to be supreme. Third, we come to thought. What do we mean by thought? It is frequently, in literary studies and perhaps studies that you have had earlier, the word which is frequently used here is what is the theme of the play? What is the topic? What is its central idea? The contemporary American director Anne Bogart has said that every play poses a question or questions. And so therefore, what the production is doing is exploring the way these questions are posed and how the play then proceeds to act out the question posed and what kind of resolution does it arrive at. But whatever it is, plays are going to have some kind of thought to them. Most plays are certainly going to have some kind of thought to them. Now, the better the play, and by better I mean the more fascinating we find the play, the more we are also going to understand this theme, if you want to use that particular word. That this theme is not going to appear in neon lights. It's not going to appear in a bright sign. It's not going to line up and say, "This is the theme. This is the thing of this play." The playwright is going to be more subtle than that. The playwright, in some way, is going to disguise it in such a way that what he or she may be developing in the play are going to be covered in the actions and the characters that are presented here in the play. In fact, there is no question that if it is too blatant, if it's too open, we perhaps cannot buy into the play and begin to think of it as being a piece of propaganda rather than it maybe being a world of a play. The famous Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn replied to a young author one time who handed him a script that he wanted filmed and said, "It has a great message to it." Samuel Goldwyn is supposed to have responded, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." So, therefore, Goldwyn did not want to think that play, that for him film scripts had messages in them, or if they did, then they certainly were going to be so disguised that they were not going to be immediately apparent. Now, at some point or the other as the play proceeds and develops, we, of course, in the audience, begin to be aware that there is something here within this particular play, that there is some way that this play is carrying a certain theme which we begin to be aware of, which begins to come into focus within us, that it begins to give us some kind of insight. For diction, we perhaps don't use the word diction the way it's being used here, and perhaps we could more easily understand it if we use the word language. But indeed, the language of any play is going to be far more complex than most people realize. First, the language chosen by the playwright must be appropriate to the character, to the story, to the theme, and to the incidents themselves. So, therefore, already a playwright must be very much aware of the words that he or she may be choosing here to use because they must be fitting. The words must also here are being used in such a way that there are tones, cadences, sound imagery, level, that is, the level of diction itself, all of which are carried in the language. The level of diction and the level of the language used will begin frequently for characters to reveal the level of their education, the level of the society to which they belong, may well indicate the geographic origin from which that particular character comes. Now, all of those things must be brought to bear, and all of those things are included by a playwright when he or she begins to give words to the character, begins to give words that the characters can speak. Then, this diction begins to tell us all kinds of things, whether we realize it or not. The American composer and lyric writer Stephen Sondheim has an interesting story about a song that he wrote for West Side Story. A song which he labored on for quite some time in terms of the lyrics, and one which he felt to be quite proud of. He tells us in an essay that he wrote, "I turned to Sheldon and I asked him, 'What do you think?' knowing at that point he was going to fall on his knees and lick the sidewalk." But he didn't, and I asked him what was wrong, and he said, "Well, there's that lyric, 'I feel pretty.' Now, I thought 'I feel pretty' was terrific. I had spent the previous year of my life rhyming day and way and me and be, and with 'I feel pretty,' I wanted to show that I could do inner rhymes, too, so I had this uneducated Puerto Rican girl singing, 'It's alarming how charming I feel.' Sheldon was very gentle about what he said, but oh, did it hurt! I immediately went back to the drawing board and wrote a simplified version of the lyric, which, in fact, at that point, nobody connected with the show would accept. So there it is, there it stands for all time, embarrassing me every time it's sung because it's full of mistakes like that when rhythm goes against character, when rhyme goes Against character, it should go, and rhyme always implies education and a working mind. The more rhymes one has, the sharper the mind. So, a lesson which Stephen Sondheim learned, and unfortunately, for him, still remains there forever to embarrass him in some way or another. Also, Sondheim goes on and talks about one of the other things that he had learned in writing lyrics. He learned that, just as a player must learn in writing dialogue for a scene, there comes a point at which words cannot go too far. Words must always leave room for an actor to act. Now, that may seem a little strange to you, but there are certain points where the words must be there. The words must give the actor something to act. They must allow the actor to bring something to the scene. If everything there is contained within the words, then there is nothing left for the actor to do. The actor must, and the word that is frequently used here is that there must be room left for the actor to construct a subtext. It is here that the art of acting enters. It is at this point that the actor takes over. In some ways, the actor becomes a playwright. Or maybe we should say the playwright and the actor construct the subtext. The subtext is what lies beneath those words. That's exactly the reason, then, that from one production to another, from one actor playing a role to another actor playing the same role at a different time, one can begin to hear those words differently from the way you might have heard them earlier. Because the actor now performing those words has constructed a different subtext from that which another actor using exactly those same words but at that point, an actor decided these words mean this and constructed the subtext. The words are used to do that. Another actor comes along, sees those words in a different light, sees it in a different set of circumstances, and at that point then gives a different meaning to it. Sondheim again points out that he learned this again when he was working on West Side Story. When he was working with the playwright Arthur, let's Arthur Lorentz, who was the writer of the story and the book and the director of the show. Arthur taught me mostly playwriting principles about lyrics. Arthur writes deep and subtle plays. The major thing I got from Arthur was the notion of subtext. Now, this is a word which I've heard tossed around by actor studio types for a long time, and quite frankly, I used to sneer at it. But what it means simply is, give the actor something to act. I think this is a real secret. If I had to sell secrets about lyric writing, then this is what I would sell. The secret about subtext. Watch how even some Broadway lyrics that you admire just sit there with nothing for an actor to play. They just play the song and then they move on. A playwright, when he writes a scene, always gives some subtext or allows for a subtext. Or it turns out to be a shallow scene. Well, that happens with lyrics also. They may be very good, but if they're just on the surface, if there's no pool, then there's a kind of deadness on the stage. Therefore, in diction and within language, there are many constraints. There are many things which a playwright, many items and ways of writing, that perhaps you were not aware of before. Now, these four items that we have gone through: plot, character, thought, and diction, these four all lie within what the playwright constructs. What the playwright does in putting a play together. Aristotle then, as indicates of course, then that what now happens is the play moves into another sphere. The play moves into the sphere of the production. It moves into the sphere of the theatre. And he indicates then that there are two parts, two principles here that he is talking about. The first song, and songs are certainly understood to mean music, and should certainly even be broadened to include sound. And maybe you've not ever thought about the fact that plays do indeed have sound. There are, of course, thus the sounds of the words themselves, but in addition to that, there are many other kinds of sounds. There may be music. Plays indeed frequently have music. There are playwrights who frequently indicate that there are kinds of music that they want played in their particular play. Tennessee Williams, in "A Streetcar Named Desire," a number of different times, has the characters refer to the sounds of a dance hall. This dance hall is offstage. The orchestra in the dance hall is not present, but the sound of that orchestra playing comes in at certain times. Now, it is not an accident at the point that that sound comes in. That's a very deliberate kind of sound which, at that point, the playwright is indicating that he or she wants brought into the play for some reason. There is a dramatic reason why at that point that particular sound is going to happen, why that particular music is heard there. But it is still a part of it. It is obviously not on the page. The sound is only indicated when one arrives at the production that one begins to find, that one begins to hear that particular sound. Once, I did a production of a play by William Shakespeare called "Measure for Measure." When the audience came into the theatre and when the play began, they discovered that the stage floor was completely covered in little pieces of paper that were wads of paper that had been lying around on the floor. The stage floor was just covered in all of these wads. In fact, any time a character moved on the stage floor, they either had to, there was, their foot would either sort of move aside some of these wads of paper. There'd be sort of a squishing sound there or they would step directly on those that wad of paper and there would be all these clean sounds that would be made. And as the character to walk, they would crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. And all of this was a very not very loud sound, but still a sound that was coming underneath the dialogue that was being said, the action of the play that was being played off. Now, the only way to escape that was to move up off the stage floor. If one moved up on steps, if one went up on the platform in some way or the other one then escaped that particular sound and through it. But throughout the play, anytime one moved around, this sound was very present and it became very audible to the audience. By the time we arrived at the last scene in the play and at that point, I literally had people come out and sweep the stage floor and sweep away the paper so that then as the last scene of the play continued and the play resolved itself, and we were in fact cleaning up the city, in this case, is late in the city of Vienna. So at this point, we have now cleaned up the sewer that Vienna had become and was present at the beginning of the play, and by the end of the play, we have now freshened the city. We have cleaned the city. And so quite literally then, the stage was cleaned. And by the time we arrived at the end of the production, as the characters moved around on stage, there were no longer any sounds. There was only silence. Now, that, of course, obviously is something which very much belongs to a production. No, Shakespeare did not in any way indicate that there were wads of paper on the floor. That is entirely any particular device that this one production used. But it was very intentional to make indications about the world in this of this particular. Play the fictive world in which this particular play was being played out. And we come then to the final element on Aristotle's list, and that is spectacle. Now, let me immediately say, don't confuse that word Aristotle's use of the word spectacle here with the spectacular. They are two different things. Spectacle here should be understood to mean all of the visual aspects of the production – that which we are seeing, everything which is enhancing the production visually. So, therefore, in the contemporary theatre, sets, costumes, lights – all of those things are a part of the spectacle. Therefore, we should understand that as to what we mean. In fact, the ancient Greeks very deliberately chose the place where they went to see plays performed. The place that they gathered in was called a theater, or "thEAtron". And obviously, it is from that word that we get our own modern-day word "theatre," which can be translated and mean a seeing place. And so, therefore, the Greeks came to the theatre, to the seeing place, to see the spectacle and to hear the sounds that had been created, and then to envision the play that the playwright had written. Here, the play which gave us plot, character, thought, and diction. Now, at this point then, as we have indicated that plot is by far the most important of the elements that Aristotle refers to, let's go and spend some time with plot. Let's look and see what a plot is. A plot is the ordering of the sequence of the events of the action. Plot is the structure of the play. So, we need to understand here how this play is developed. What is it that the playwright has done well? Let's just begin where the point where you begin when you come into the theatre. You come into the theatre and you sit down. And at that point, you now wait. You wait for the signal that the play is to begin. You wait to see what is going to happen. Now, there are many different ways in which the signal may be given. You may arrive in the theatre and you may find that there is a curtain, and that this curtain is shielding or not allowing you to see the stage itself. It is shielding you from the stage. And so, the signal that the play has begun, the house lights go down. There is darkness, and usually in the darkness, or as the stage lights come up, the curtain goes up. The signal has been given, the play is to begin. In other cases, maybe you arrive and for one reason or another, there isn't a curtain. Maybe the physical layout doesn't allow for one, or for whatever other reason. And then, at that point, you sit in your seat and you begin, and you look at the stage. But the stage is usually somewhat dark. And so, you wait until that moment, and again, the house lights go down, there is a moment of darkness. And at that point, the house lights, then, go up, and you know, you have a signal that the play has begun. Now, there are a number of things which immediately need to be done here in the opening moments of the play. One, of course, obviously, the first thing that needs to happen is that the attention of the audience must be secured. Yes, your attention has been focused because at this point, where you're sitting is now in darkness, and you are focusing on that place where light is – the stage itself. And so, you are now focused to watch it. But obviously, as soon as the characters begin to speak, you must begin to want to listen. You must begin to want to hear what is going on. Now, what also happens immediately here is the tone for the play must be set. We must begin here to let the audience know how is this play going to be played out, acted out, how is it going to be presented?