Introduction to physical theatre

Common elements[ edit ] Certain institutions suggest that all physical theatre genres share common characteristics, although individual performances do not need to exhibit all such characteristics to be defined as physical theatre.

Theatre and History, An Introduction The study of classical drama is a sub-field of theatre history which is, in turn, a branch of history. As such, it is best to begin any exploration of classical drama by examining the nature of history and theatre, how they are defined, and the methodologies most profitably employed to gain a better understanding of both.

The technical term for the study of historical methods is historiography. The word "history" has several connotations in English. Historia and the Definition of History If history is messy by definition, the origin of the word itself is not.

What it meant originally and how it came to be a technical term for a type of scholarship is well known.

Theatre Course Learning Outcomes – Community College of Rhode Island

Furthermore, in investigating the origin of this term, it is possible to gain insight into the nature of history itself. This so-called Ionian Revolution caught fire when philosophers began debating the nature of what they perceived Introduction to physical theatre be the primordial "elements" underlying and constituting all matter water, air, earth, firein particular, how these elements make up the world.

Herodotus later extended their study of the physical origins of the universe to what he saw as "inquiries" into the "elements" of human life, the historical events that predicated the world in his time.

His premise that through the investigation of former times it was possible to see the origins of current events still grounds much of the study of history today.

In any case, "history" originally meant "questioning," and only later by implication "questioning about the past.

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Besides being so complicated in origin and definition, the word "history" is also used in several different senses today.

It can also connote a method of inquiry aimed at comprehending the past "One way to look at World War II is through economic history. Theatre history is an example of the last and entails viewing the past through the lens of drama and theatrical production. With so much indefiniteness surrounding the term "history" along with so many interpretations of what historians do—or ought to do—it seems unlikely any consensus will emerge about what history is, or should be.

Perhaps, then, it is better to begin not with the rules but the game itself and look at what historians actually do and how they work.

If not, we can at least publish a better job description. Historians as Scientists Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor To be a historian is to do not just a single job.

From one vantage point, historians operate much like scientists. They dig into the past through various means, just as archaeologists investigate ancient buildings or epigraphers study ancient inscriptions or papyrologists read the ancient writings preserved on papyrus—papyrus is a form of "paper" used in antiquity—or, for that matter, in much the same way paleontologists hunt for dinosaur fossils.

The work entailed in professions like these, in fact, can be seen as overlapping with that of historians, but being a historian is not limited to any particular technical enterprise such as DNA analysis, excavation or studying particular sorts of remains.

Nevertheless, historians in some ways function as scientists making deductions based on the gathering of evidence. But in at least one important way the equation of history and science is invalid.

While historians may look like and act like and even sometimes refer to themselves as "scientists," they are not really scientists because they cannot do something essential to all good science, at least in the modern sense.

What underlies the work of all modern chemists, physicists, biologists and their fellow scientists is the formulation of testable hypotheses borne out through the replication of data.

That is, modern science rests principally on the ability of scientists to set up criteria which can be tested in laboratories of some sort and confirmed in other laboratories time after time. Historians, on the other hand, cannot replicate their data—as the maxim goes, history cannot be repeated!

This means that it is fundamentally impossible to know exactly how important Pericles was to his age, whether he controlled his times more than his times controlled him. Human history happens only once, and the relationship of cause and effect can be deduced only by assembling and comparing unique, one-sided, and invariably skewed observations from and about the past.Subject Catalog.

Humanities & Social Sciences. Anthropology; Art; Communication, Film & Theatre Catalog. Mass Communication / Public Relations / Film; Speech Communication. An Introduction to Viewpoints—Interpretation & Movement.

Objective: Tell the students that they will learn more about creating physical theatre choices using the viewpoints. Tomorrow’s lesson will introduce the four viewpoints of time.

Step 7: Exit Card. Home; Gallery. Basic Foundations of Movement in the Physical Theatre Easter term Photos from ‘Foundations’ course; Photos from April-June Course; Photos from Jan-Fe. Physical theatre may utilize text or dialogue, but the primary focus is on the physical work of the actors, expressed through the use of their bodies.

It is a highly visual form of theatre. •Work has inter-disciplinary origins - it crosses between music, dance, and visual art as well as theatre. Synopsis "Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction" is the first account to provide a comprehensive overview of non text-based theatre, from experimental dance to traditional mime.

This book synthesizes the history, theory and practice of physical theatres for students and performers, in Reviews: 3. The Department of Theatre offers four minors: Arts Administration, Physical Theatre, Dance and Theatre.

Arts Administration 18 credit hours including Introduction to Arts Management THTR , Marketing the Arts THTR , Fundraising for the Arts THTR , Advanced Arts Management THTR , and Special Topics in Arts .