Towards creating theatre
 CINEMA: Let's glean some interesting matter from a book I read and
benefited more than 30 years ago. The book is on Theatrical Directing by
August W. Staub.
I like books, films and theatre in that order. I have not directed a
play but reviewed some particularly in Thamil and English, and even
acted in school plays. I used to go for plays in all languages
particularly in the 1960s and '70s, but of late seldom do I go for
plays.
It is the time factor and the distance to travel. I had also been on
the panel of judges for the State drama Festivals and one time a
Chairman of Thamil Drama Panel of the Ministry of Culture. Be that as it
may.
However, I enjoy reading Henry Jayasena's Personal Accounts in his
theatrical career. He used to write to the Culture page which yours
truly edited for The Island on similar themes way back in the 1980s.
Coming back to the book mentioned, we find that it has sections on
The Nature of Theatre, The Function of the Director, Selecting the
Script, Initial Decisions in the Theatre - Auditioning, Critical
Evaluation of: Dramatic Agents, Visual, and the like.
Readers would have noted from the above what the book is all about.
Concept of drama
What is Theatrical Art? It comprises three features: Theatre,
Auditorium and Players. As we all know the word 'Theatre' means not only
the place where plays or films are produced and exhibited, but also the
concept of Drama in Toto.
The Theatre Visual, Theatre Auditory and the Theatre Kinetic is how
the author classifies Theatre. He says that "It is the spectacle that
gives a name to the entire art form.
Theatre is a place for seeing" Theatre also project words for the
auditorium and the audience. Theatre also makes its appeal to our sense
of motion. This means it is an art of space and time. art, actors and
action is kinetic, he explains.
August W Staub sums up saying: the total theatrical metaphor is the
judicious blending of all three constituents mentioned above.
Although the theatre is often described 'as an actor's art', yet the
Director plays an important art in the whole play, you would agree. The
metaphor mentioned above is what the audience receives and consequently,
it is the director's vision that makes the ultimate statement of the
play.
As the author says ' The Director's function is to blend the efforts
of all contributing artistes and to focus their effort. In this way his
contribution is disguised beneath the contributions of others.
How about the script of the play?
The writer points out that all good drama is also good literature;
but dramatic literature is literature with a difference and the director
should educate himself to that difference. True.
Dramatic elements
Dramatic elements should be identified For instance, language,
character, point of view exposition, story and action. and there is
dramatic composition and design like unity, proportion, emphasis,
variety, theme and rhythm. This gives each play its style.
The author elucidates: Style may be defined as the total effect
produced by a given work of art - in this case the dramatic art. He
distinguishes two aspects: an individual style and a group character
style.
The writer is quick to warn that originality in style of acting is
exciting, but it must be judged in terms of whether it is merely a break
with a perfectly workable traditional technique, or whether it offers a
new method what the old could not accomplish.
It is obvious that plays contain events. And the author elaborates on
this aspect: " Since dramas are designed for human conception, the most
common dramatic agents are human beings, or, more preciously dramatic
imitations of human beings, usually called characters. Dramatic agents
are not limited to characters.
Essence of drama
Speaking on the term 'point of view', the author explains that
although the term has various meanings in general parlance but in a
literary context, it may be taken to mean the perspective from which the
author tells his story.
As we all know conflict is the essence of drama. Acton in drama is
the series of conflicts, crises and resolutions contained within a play.
It should be interesting, clear, consistent, economical and appropriate
to the play.
That the theatre is a visual presentation, we all agree. The author
underlines six elements of visual composition. according to him these
are those: line, form, space, colour, texture and players.
Explaining the 'kinetic theatre', the writer adds that motion is any
progression that happens simultaneously in space and time. " There are
six elements of kinetic art: body in space, motion, rate, direction,
energy and control.
You might find this book interesting if you are interested in theatre
and drama. I do not know whether this book is available in the
bookstores. Perhaps, some of the libraries might store them. There are
at present scores and scores of books on theatre and drama.
Some of the finest theatre people have come from Theatre Academies
and Film Schools.
Let me conclude this segment of the column with this quotation from
Bernard Shaw. Ironically, his plays are essentially for intellectual
reading rather than absorbing in performance. Shaw in his typical
satirical manner said: An all-night sitting in a theatre would be at
least as enjoyable as an all-night sitting in the House of Commons, and
much more useful.
Plays
There is a book available published by Vijitha Yapa Publishers. It's
called Jaffna and Colombo. It consists of three plays by E F C Ludowyk
and Ernest Macintyre.
It is described as 'a century of relationships in three plays'. The
late EFCL was Professor in English at the University of Peradeniya and
belonged to the Burgher community. He wrote He comes From Jaffna.
I wonder why he did not call Jaffna as Yaalpaanam as the Thamilians
use E Macintyre, I believe, is of mixed parentage - Thamilian and
Burgher. His two plays included in this book are Rasanayagam's Last Riot
and He Still Comes From Jaffna. The book has 340 pages and a few black
and white photographs from some scenes in the plays.
Shelagh Goonewardenea, a well known theatre personality and drama
critic in Colombo some decades ago has written an eight page
introduction to this book, justifying the changes made in performance
especially by Macintyre.
As she correctly points out, 'it is no longer possible to view the
play (EFCL's) as benign comedy when the tragic problems of
discrimination, war and the desire for a separate State have become the
contemporary reality' Whether this desire is feasible or not in the
present context is questionable.
Pages 13 to 16 give adequate description of the two playwrights to
those of the present generation who have not heard of them.
Ludowyck's play is in three Acts and it runs from page 39 to 134.
Political fiction
Ernest Macintyre's play Rasanyagam's Last Riot is described as ' a
Political Fiction for the Theatre'. This play also has two Acts and an
Epilogue. The script is from page 155 to 238.
There is also an Introduction by the playwright. He writes: The three
characters in this drama react to actual events in Sri Lanka during the
last days of July and the first days of August 1983. The connected
history of the thirty years preceding is also used. There is also a Note
on Production that will help potential producers in the future.
The other play by EM, again two Acts occupy pages 263 to 30.
Suvendrini Perera has written the Introduction to this play. Like for
the earlier plays, excerpts from reviews of the plays concerned are also
added.
You have to read the scripts and see the plays in performance to
consume various moods and nuances. As a Thamilian , I have some
reservations on the plays themselves although my respects and admiration
for both the playwrights remain same.
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