Evaluación del Desempeño Docente

In the theatre, every form once born is mortal; every form must be reconceived, and its new conception will bear the marks of all the influences that surround it.”

!Peter Brook, TheEmpty Space1

Contextual theology is the attempt, as bold as it is humble, to understand and perform the theo-drama in terms of a particular context.”

!Kevin Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine2

8.1 THEATRICAL ENVIRONMENT AND PLACE

Underlying, surrounding, and permeating every personal dimension of theatrical formation and performance—relationships between actors and the director, others actors, and the audience—is the pervasive theatrical environment and place. Theatre as an art form is unique because the same word—theatre—also refers to the location where theatrical performance occurs. This is a fitting congruence, because theatre is a uniquely environmental, emplaced, embodied, and material art form. As Gay McAuley contends, theatre is communication between live actors and live spectators within a given space. Although it is true that theatre can take place anywhere, it always takes place somewhere.3

Attempting to define the “somewhere” of theatre, however, is a notoriously difficult task. McAuley discusses the “terminological minefield” in this regard, identifying the difference between theatre space, rehearsal space, stage space, presentational space, theatrical space, textual space, and thematic space, all of which attempt to distinguish between space that is real or fictional, physical or nonphysical, onstage or offstage.4 _{While these distinctions are}

important in the realm of theatrical semiotics, the most important distinction for the purpose of this project is between the theatrical environment, or the physical stage, set, scenery and props of any given performance, and the theatrical place, or the larger context in which theatrical

1 _{Peter Brook, The Empty Space (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972), 19.}

2 _{Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology} (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 314 [emphasis mine].

3 _{Gay McAuley, Space in Performance: Making Meaning in the Theatre (Ann Arbor: University of} Michigan Press, 1999), 3–4.

performance is situated, including the fictional world of the play, the real world of actors and

audience, and the local culture in which plays are written, produced and performed.5

Every theatrical performance occurs in particular environments, but these settings vary from the stages and buildings of traditional theatre to the amorphous environments of avant- garde theatre. Richard Schechner, for example, views the whole environment of the theatre, not just the stage, as the “living space” of performance ready to be “transformed, articulated,

and animated” by the actors and spectators.6 _{The same is true for interactive theatre, which}

Gary Izzo describes as “theatre without a stage,” at least not a traditional, fixed stage.7 _Even

when the theatrical environment occupies the same physical environment of everyday life, as in street theatre, there is a moment when that environment is transformed into a theatrical

stage, enabling spectators to realize a play is in process.8 _{These theatrical environments,}

whether traditional stages or theatricalized everyday settings, are not just “empty containers” waiting to be filled with theatrical action; every element of a theatrical environment is an “active agent” that “shapes what goes on within it.”9 _{A stage, for instance, is not a static}

environment; it is “an object in its own right.”10 _{Performing the same play in different}

physical environments can radically alter the way actors interact with one another and with

the audience. For example, the original set and stage directions for Sam Shepard’s Tooth of

Crime are quite minimal, suggesting only a “bare stage” and an “evil-looking” chair.11 _When

Schechner directed the play, however, he used a large structure that divided the performance space into “public” and “private” sides requiring the audience to move around and assume different positions as scenes shifted from side to side. This environmental rearrangement

5 _{I have chosen to refer to “environment” and “place” instead of “space” (as commonly used in} theatre studies) because of the more particular, contextual connotations of the former terms versus the abstract, theoretical connotations of “space,” plus the fact that place is phenomenologically prior to space. See Yi-fu Tuan, Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (London: Edward Arnold, 1977), 6.

6 _{Richard Schechner, Environmental Theater (New York: Applause, 1994), 1–2.}

7 _{Gary Izzo, The Art of Play: New Genre of Interactive Theatre (Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press, 1997),} 30. Stanley Longman explains three different kinds of theatrical stages on a spectrum from fixed to floating to fluid. As such, environmental theatre and interactive theatre have floating or fixed stages. “Fixed, Floating, and Fluid Stages,” in Theatrical Space, ed. James Redmond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 151–60.

8 _{Cf. Hanna Scolnicov, “Theatre Space, Theatrical Space, and the Theatrical Space Without,” in}

Theatrical Space, ed. James Redmond (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 12–14. Prime examples are the performances of Improv Everywhere, who transform everyday spaces like Grand Central Station into theatrical stages for the duration of their performances.

9 _{McAuley, Space in Performance, 41.} 10 _{Scolnicov, “Theatre Space,” 25.}

greatly influenced the actors’ performance of each scene as well as the audience’s attitude toward and engagement with these scenes, which in turn impacted performance.12

Spolin recognizes that a key element in avoiding stale acting is developing attentiveness to the theatrical environment, not losing focus on the details or generalizing objects.13 _Seasoned

actors have developed a “penetrating eye” and an “open consciousness” to the stage and props, giving them the ability and freedom to respond appropriately at any given moment.14

For this reason, McAuley discourages referring to stage objects as “props,” since this connotes that they only exist to serve actors, rather than possessing independent value and meaning.15

Once actors realize that their interaction with objects can radically change the meaning of a scene, they will appreciate these objects not as mere decorative background, but as necessary elements of the play.16 _{Developing disponibility to the stage and objects in the theatre}

environment, therefore, is integral to fitting performance.17 _{This process begins with the very}

first rehearsal and the technicalities of blocking scenes and continues throughout each performance.18 _{When actors are receptive and available to the whole theatrical}

environment—the stage, set, and stage objects—the play will be demonstrated, not just told, in the most fitting ways.

In addition to the physical context of theatrical performance, another critical context is the particular place and culture of the play, actors, and audience. Theatre is “at the crossroads of culture” because actors in traditional theatre often perform texts from one culture to an audience of a different culture.19 _{Even improvisational theatre, which does not}

feature translation from page to stage, is an experiment in cultural exchange, since improvisers need to be attentive to and aware of audience expectations, cultural conventions, popular stereotypes, unacceptable gestures, and familiar stories in order to be most effective. Traveling theatre companies face greater challenges in this regard than repertory or community theatre companies, since the latter perform for relatively consistent audiences in the same location. To take a performance from place to place, however, requires great

12 _{Schechner, Performance Studies, 78–86.}

13 _{Viola Spolin, Improvisation for Theater, 3rd ed. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1999).} 14 _{Ibid., 44, 85.}

15 _{McAuley, Space in Performance, 175–76.} 16 _{Ibid., 186, 205.}

17 _{Frost and Yarrow describe this kind of disponibility as “total awareness, a sense of being at one}

with the…theatre space” (Improvisation in Drama, 52).

18 _{Blocking scenes is the action of director in designating the position and action of actors on stage}

and in relation to stage objects.