7 Chapter 7: An Introduction to the Theater and Its Elements
7 Chapter 7: An Introduction to the Theater and Its Elements
Introduction
“All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare
(from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
See how this passage is translated into performance by Sophie Stone for the Shakespearean Globe Theatre:
And now, watch actor Benedict Cumberbatch (et al.) perform Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” for film in this BBC montage:
Do you perceive the words differently when they are performed versus when read on paper? Today, we often read dramas as fiction or poetry, but the original intent of a play (or screenplay) is for performance.
In watching a play, or virtually any other type of dramatic or theatrical event, we are taking part in an activity that has been occurring without much significant change for nearly 2,600 years. Sitting in a seat in a theater today, an audience member goes through the same experience that humans have been having for hundreds of generations. Walking into the theater, finding a seat, sitting down, waiting for the performance to begin, watching the actors, listening to the lines they speak, and reacting to them with laughter, emotions, and applause are all things that those great-great-great-great-great-ancestors of ours did too. The Western tradition of viewing plays goes back to the ancient Greek world. However, it also ties us into a very human urge—the desire to communicate. We are social creatures by nature. That is, we instinctively gather together and try to share our individual experiences with those around us—to fit in, to share information or ideas, to participate in the larger life and experience of the group, or just to be entertained as we live our lives in this world. The people of ancient Greece were just like us in that regard. They didn’t have all of the technology that we do today, but they did some very impressive things with what they had, and many of the techniques they developed for their theaters are still used today. The tools may have modernized, but the purpose is the same—to make the experience