Stage Design Propaedeutic 1

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Learning outcomes of the course unit:

The goal of the class is conscious development (cultivation) of the stage sense of directors, dramaturges, theorists and critics with respect to discovering the (dramatic) potential of a text based on the example of a chosen scene/situation that they play out in time and space, with the use of the individual (basic) components of stage expression and their representatives in mutual dialogue.

Mode of study:

This course of combined exercises in classes provides directing, dramaturgy, stage design and theory and criticism students an introduction to the basic picturesqueness „from within“:induction is needed for this concept, that is, assistance in interpretation of a scene whose authors are themselves the audience in appropriate roles (such as, director, dramaturg, set designer, actors).

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

1) Knowledge of theatre history and types.

2) Mastery of basic theatrological concepts.

3) Overview of contemporary theatre.

Course contents:

This class combines exercises with a seminar that familiarizes students of directing, dramaturgy, stage design and theory and criticism with the basics of the stage „from the inside“. During the class, terms are arrived at through induction, i.e. with the help of interpretation of scenes created by the students themselves in the various roles (i.e. as directors, dramaturges, stage designers and actors).

The first semester proceeds from simple static scenes (tableaux) expressing a certain situation to their playing out in time and space. This playing out is for the development of the students' feel for staging, a decisive component of which is feeling for spatial solutions allowing appropriate movement within the given setting, relying on awareness of the relevant „energy“ properties of each (staging) space. This sense for staging is developed both with respect to visual (i.e. staging in the narrow sense), i.e. a kind of sense at the level where the view of the director and stage designer encounter the view of the audience, and with respect to „internal“ (i.e. dramatic) feel, which is decisive for real, conscious stage action (and for the audience's experience): one might speak of an actor's sense, if it were not necessary for the director and stage designer as well as the dramatist and dramaturge and to a certain extent even for the critic and theorist. Clearly, the playing out of given scenes is based foremost on developing the sense of staging at the level of directing and stage design or dramaturgy, and not specifically at the acting level, although the participation of students at all levels as actors is also important for real recognition of the foundations of staging (i.e. knowing from the inside). When conceiving and developing individual scenes, students alternating in various roles also learn team work, or in other words, the art of dialogue in a production.

Recommended or required reading:

Jaroslav Vostrý: Režie je umění, Praha (AMU) 2001

Otakar Zich: Estetika dramatického umění, Praha 1986

Michail Čechov: O herecké technice, Praha 1996

Also see literature for the Creative Writing course

Assessment methods and criteria:

Creative participation on the staging of at least one of the (developed) scenes, with dramaturgists, directors, set designers within the appropriate fields, with theorists, principally, dramaturgical.

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Further information:

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Directing and Dramaturgy for Dramatic Theatre (B.A.) (main subject)