Page and Stage : An Approach to Script Analysis » (1st Edition)

Page to Stage narrows the gulf between printed page and performance to make script analysis for production or academic study more effective, efficient, and insightful. It examines the many forms of tension in plays — between actor and character, between the stage and the world of the play, between the present and the past, and between characters— by looking at stage space and time and a wide range of plays from Greek times to the present.

Introduction

I. THE DRAMATIC MODE.

1. The Nature of Drama: What Is a Play.

The Art of Dramatic Art.

The Dramatic in Dramatic Art.

Mode vs. Medium.

The Double-Edge of Drama: Actual Performance vs. Pretense.

A Play Finally Defined.

Tension as the Essence of the Dramatic.

Script, Play and Audience.

Four Guidelines for Analysis.

2. Dramatist and Audience.

Shared Tone.

Drama and the Crowd.

Drama as Both Aesthetic and Social Event.

Drama's Dependence Upon Polarity.

The Opacity-Transparency Principle.

Histrionic Sensibility.

Internal Probability.

The Play as a Game.

Progression of Audience Involvement.

II. THE STAGE MEDIUM.

3. The Contextual Dimension of Drama: Spatial and Temporal Isolation.

The Stage as Confined Space.

Presentationalism vs. Representationalism.

Fixed, Fluid and Floating Stages.

Concentrated vs. Comprehensive Dramaturgy.

Theatre of Illusion vs. Theatre of Communion.

Fundamental Sources of Tension in Space.

Further Sources of Tension.

Tensions Deriving from Temporal Isolation.

Tensions Among Characters.

The Full Array of Potential Tensions.

4. The Temporal Dimension of Drama.

Progression in Time.

Segmentation of Time: Formal and Organic.

Shifting Tensions: Examples of Organic Segments.

Phases of Dramatic Action.

III. FORM, STYLE AND MEANING IN DRAMA.

5. Form and Style in the Drama.

The Difference Between Form and Style.

Structural Form vs. Tonal Form.

Linear, Montage, and Circular Structures.

Traditional Tonal Forms.

Style and the World of the Play.

Personal vs. Established Styles.

6. Steps in Analysis.

Vertical vs. Horizontal Analysis.

Three Fundamental Questions.

The Three Readings.

The Final Analysis.

Analysis for Directors and Actors.

Analysis for Designers.

A Few Last Words.

Appendix A: Sample Analysis.

“The Harmfulness of Tobacco” by Anton Chekhov.

Appendix B: Sample Analysis.

“Tartuffe” by Molière.

Appendix C: Sample Analysis.

“Conduct of Life” by Maria Irene Fornes.

Appendix D: Bibliography.

A list of books on script analysis.