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 THEATRE AS
HUMAN ACTION
•
THEATRE IN AMERICA Anything can happen onstage in the theatre today. In the popular Broadway
musical Hamilton (2015), early American history is retold with rap music and racial diversity. Lin-Manuel
Miranda (center on table) not only played Alexander Hamilton but he also wrote the book, music, and
lyrics for the innovative musical. Director: Thomas Kail. Sara Krulwich/New York Times/Redux Pictures
 THEATRE AS
HUMAN ACTION
•
AN INTRODUCTION
TO THEATRE ARTS
SECOND EDITION

THOMAS S. HISCHAK

ROWM AN & L I T T L EFI EL D

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Rowman & Littlefield
A wholly owned subsidiary of
The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB

Copyright © 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form
or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage
and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hischak, Thomas S.
Title: Theatre as human action : an introduction to theatre arts / Thomas S.
Hischak.
Description: Second edition. | Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015040866 (print) | LCCN 2015045269 (ebook) | ISBN
9781442260993 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781442261006 (pbk. : alk.
paper) | ISBN 9781442261099 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Drama. | Theater.
Classification: LCC PN1655 .H57 2016 (print) | LCC PN1655 (ebook) | DDC
792—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015040866

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of

American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

For Brian O’Donnell, SJ
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments and Credits ix

Introduction xi

1 THE THEATRE 1
Theatre vs. Drama • The Theatre Experience • Theatre as
Change • Theatre Conventions • Theatre Is Plural • Four
Theatre Events

2 THE PLAY 27
The Script • About Four Scripts • The Elements of Drama •
Types of Drama • Dramatic Structure

3 THE PLAYWRIGHT 53
The Blueprint • Meet the Playwrights • The Germinal Idea
• The Playwright’s Process • Evaluating the Playwright’s
Work • The Business of Playwriting • Meet Fifteen American
Playwrights

4 THE PLAY PERFORMERS: THE ACTORS 91

Acting vs. Role-Playing • Acting as an Art and a Craft • A
Brief History of Acting • Theories of Acting • An Actor’s
Tools • The Actor’s Process • The Business of Acting •
Evaluating the Actor

vii
viii • CONTENTS

5 THE PLAY MAKERS: THE DIRECTOR

AND THE PRODUCER 117
Behind the Scenes • The Art of Directing • Theatre Styles
• A Brief History of Directing • The Directing Process •
The Business of Directing • Evaluating the Director and
Choreographer • The Producer • The Business of Producing

6 THE PLAY BUILDERS I: THEATRE ARCHITECTURE

AND SCENIC DESIGNERS 147
Theatre Architecture • Scenic Design • The Scenic Designer’s
Process

7 THE PLAY BUILDERS II: OTHER DESIGNERS 167

Costume Design • The Costume Designer’s Process • Lighting
Design • A Brief History of Theatre Lighting • The Function
and Elements of Theatre Lighting • The Lighting Designer’s
Process • Sound Design • Theatre Properties • Makeup in
the Theatre • New Technology • The Business of Theatre
Design • Evaluating Theatre Design

8 THE PLAYGOERS I: THE AUDIENCE 193

Theatre Today • Where Theatre Happens • Alternative
Theatre • Theatre of Diversity • Foreign Influences

9 THE PLAYGOERS II: THE CRITIC 223

Theatre Criticism • The Student as Critic

Parting Thoughts 233

Glossary 235
Websites to Visit 247
Film and Video Versions of the Plays 251
Index 255
About the Author 265
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AND CREDITS

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Joel Pape, Dawn Van Hall,
Myra Giorgi, Mark Reynolds, Ron Mandelbaum and the staff at Photofest,
and Stephen Ryan and Jessica McCleary at Rowman & Littlefield. A special
thanks to the late William Whiting and to Cathy Hischak for their help in
preparing the manuscript.

LYRICS CREDIT
Permission to quote lyrics from Jonathan Larson’s Rent, copyright 1997, by Al-
lan S. Larson, Nanette Larson, and Julie Larson McCollum, through Paradigm
Press. All rights reserved.

ix
 INTRODUCTION

It is an awkward thing to introduce something that everyone is already aware

of to some degree. Theatre is all around us, taking so many forms and assuming
so many shapes, that it needs pointing out more than it requires an introduction.
Theatre is the simplest kind of role playing we do every day. It is a small child
pretending to be something he or she is not. It is a group of students planning
and performing a skit or play in a school for a small community. It is also pro-
fessionals preparing and presenting a highly polished piece of entertainment for
a wide audience. All of these are theatre, and we are aware of them all directly
or indirectly through our past experiences.
Yet the art form known as theatre involves so much more than what we see
as an audience member or even as an amateur performer. Theatre is a combina-
tion of different arts, from writing and designing to performing and directing,
and to be truly introduced to the theatre, all of its components must be explored.
This book looks at the process of theatre, from the first idea a playwright has for
a script through the preparation and rehearsals involving various kinds of art-
ists to the final product presented before an audience. Theatre has been called
the culmination of all the arts because it can involve literature, music, visual art,
and dance. Theatre is so much more than what we may initially think.
In order to better explore the idea of the theatre, I have selected four plays
that will be our frame of reference throughout the book. Thousands of plays
and musicals have been written over the centuries, and for every concept
presented in the following chapters, there are dozens of plays I could use as
examples. But the chance of your being familiar with all or even half of these
examples is not likely. Your theatre experience, whether it is very limited or
very extensive, is bound to be quite different from mine and every other stu-
dent in your class. So we need some common points of reference in order to
make these ideas come alive.

xi
xii • INTRODUCTION

Four very different plays were chosen so that we can touch on different
types, styles, and periods of theatre. There is also a good chance that you are fa-
miliar with these works from studying them in school or seeing them performed
on the stage. But even if they are new to you, they will be introduced and then
explained throughout the book so that everyone will be able to use them as
references. The plays are William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, George S.
Kaufman and Moss Hart’s comedy You Can’t Take It with You, Lorraine Hans-
berry’s African American domestic melodrama A Raisin in the Sun, and Jonathan
Larson’s rock musical Rent. If you have the chance to read (or listen to) these
plays or view them onstage or on video, so much the better. (A list of video ver-
sions is given at the end of the book.) In any case, the plots and characters are
explained in chapter 2 so that the subsequent use of them in this book will be
useful to you. Within these four works are examples of all the areas that we wish
to explore, from playwriting to production to criticism. They are the four pillars
that the many aspects of theatre will rest on. Being solid and durable examples,
they will guide us through the fascinating world known as the theatre.
 1

THE THEATRE

THEATRE VS. DRAMA

As you read these words, this very night, hundreds of theatre events are taking
place across America. Let us look at four of them.
In a midsized liberal arts college, the theatre department is presenting Wil-
liam Shakespeare’s Macbeth in the campus performing arts center. The actors
and crew are students at the college; the director and some other staff are mem-
bers of the theatre faculty; and the audience is composed of students, faculty,
and people from the community. At the same time, far away in a high school in
another town, a production of the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart comedy
You Can’t Take It with You is opening in the school auditorium. The cast and crew
are high school students; the director is a teacher at the school; and the audience
is filled with fellow students, members of the faculty, friends, family, and others
from the community. Across the country in a major city, the region’s resident
theatre company is offering Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun as part of
its five-play season in its two-theatre building. The professional actors, crew,
director, and designers are members of the various theatre unions, and the au-
dience consists of a wide cross section of the local population, from students to
senior citizens. Finally, tonight in a different town, a community theatre group,
which puts on adventurous musicals in the town hall auditorium, is presenting
Jonathan Larson’s rock musical Rent. The performers are not professional ac-
tors but talented members of the community and the audience members are a
cross section of the community who enjoy musicals.
These four situations are examples of theatre. They are much more than
dramas; they are theatre events. The distinction is an important one. While
drama refers to the script, theatre is an event. It is the presentation of the script
performed on a stage by actors for an audience. Although Macbeth is studied and
read in thousands of schools each year, it only becomes theatre when it comes

1
OLD AND NEW THEATRES The Victory Theatre was built on Forty-Second Street in
Manhattan in 1900 as part of the thriving Broadway Theatre District, but by the Depression it
was turned into a movie house. In 1995 the old playhouse was restored and renamed the New
Victory Theatre and once again featured live theatre. Photofest
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