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TS1101e Lecture 2.1 Text and Stage Directions

The document discusses the concept of text in theatre, distinguishing between the dramatic text (or play-text) and the theatrical text (or performance text). The dramatic text provides a template and implies a theatrical production, but creative choices in staging result in the actual theatrical text. Stage directions are as important as dialogue in scripting what happens on stage, either working with or against the dialogue. The dramatic text determines but does not fully prescribe the theatrical text produced.

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Kiara Tong
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84 views17 pages

TS1101e Lecture 2.1 Text and Stage Directions

The document discusses the concept of text in theatre, distinguishing between the dramatic text (or play-text) and the theatrical text (or performance text). The dramatic text provides a template and implies a theatrical production, but creative choices in staging result in the actual theatrical text. Stage directions are as important as dialogue in scripting what happens on stage, either working with or against the dialogue. The dramatic text determines but does not fully prescribe the theatrical text produced.

Uploaded by

Kiara Tong
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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TS1101e 

Introduction to Theatre 
& Performance
LECTURE 2 TEXT AND PERFORMANCE
2.1 Text and Stage Directions
What is text?

• A text is something that invites 
itself to be read
• Text = Script?
–Inscribed & Read / Enacted & Read
Greek Theatre Favours Poetry & the 
Written Text
• Aristotle’s components of dramatic poetry: 
(ranked in order of importance)
– (1) plot (mythos)
– (2) character (ethe)
– (3) message or thought (dianoia)
– (4) diction (lexis)
– (5) melody (melos)
– (6) spectacle (opsis)
Greek Theatre Favours Poetry & the 
Written Text
• Even though theatre is a visual medium ‐ we 
still refer to the people watching a theatre 
performance as an audience ‐ we hear text 
audio
being recited
– The spectacle is secondary to the poetry
Reading Texts in Theatre
• Read – ‘decoding symbols in order to 
construct or derive meaning’
• Reading is a complex interaction between the 
text and the reader which is shaped by the 
reader’s prior knowledge (& resultant 
expectations), experiences, attitudes and 
socio‐cultural context/environment.
Texts In The Theatre
• In theatre there are two kinds of text:
– The play‐text (or dramatic text) AND 
– the theatrical text (or performance text)
Texts In The Theatre
• Consider the dramatic text as a 
pretext – something that comes 
‘before’ the thing audience actually 
‘reads’ in performance – the 
dramatic text is ‘previous’ to the 
theatrical text
Texts In The Theatre
• When we read a realist novel, we 
‘stage’ them in our heads – but the 
play has a ‘real stage’ in mind, not 
just private imagination.  The play is 
designed to function as a basic 
template
Texts In The Theatre
• Most of the time, we read a play like 
we read a novel – we focus on the 
dialogue and exchanges between the 
characters to figure out what the 
plot is – but if we do so, we lose the 
design and the complexities of the 
play‐text
Texts In The Theatre
• The play‐text is a unique genre of 
literature – it has two texts working 
simultaneously 
• Haupttext and Nebentext ‐ Primary 
versus ancillary ‐ Dialogue of the 
characters vs stage directions
Texts In The Theatre
• The dialogue does a lot more than 
telling a story – it creates images, 
movement, a stage world.  
• The stage direction is just as 
important in scripting what is to 
happen on stage. 
Texts In The Theatre
• Even in the absence of an actual stage 
production, the dramatic text produces the sense 
of one – the dramatic text scripts what might 
actually happen on stage.  Each dramatic text 
contains an implied theatrical production
• The actual content of the theatrical text – what 
actually happens on stage – depends on the 
creative choices of the theatre makers and 
designers.
Texts In The Theatre
• The dramatic text provides one of the ‘frames’ 
for making a show – the dramatic text is one 
of the determinations on the theatrical text –
all sorts of different interpretations in 
different societies can happen.  
• But the dramatic text offers something to 
determine each – through its inscription of an 
implied production
STAGE DIRECTIONS
• Stage directions offer a view of the production 
• it provides information on the conditions of the 
stage world in terms of the environment, 
• psychical states & behaviours of the character(s) 
inhabiting this world:  
• time‐space‐players
STAGE DIRECTIONS
• In many cases, stage directions work 
in conjunction with dialogue, 
explaining it – such stage directions 
may be called conjunctive stage 
directions
STAGE DIRECTIONS
• Stage directions can also act in 
tension with or against dialogue –
these sorts of stage directions may 
be called disjunctive stage directions.

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