Discussion Questions

The discussion questions supporting each case study will assist teachers in the classroom or in seminars to examine the themes and processes in the textbook and help students studying alone to focus on the case study and the theoretical or practical questions arising from them.

To access questions to the relevant parts of the books, please click on the following links:

Part 1 - Introduction: Performance and Theatre In Oral and Written Cultures before 1600

Part 2 - Introduction: Theatre and Print Cultures, 1500-1900

Part 3 - Introduction, Theatre in Modern Media Cultures, 1850 - 1970

Part 4 - Theatre and Performance in the Age of Global Communications, 1950-2005

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CASE STUDIES

Part 1: Performance and theatre in oral and written cultures before 1600

CHAPTER 1: Oral, ritual, and shamanic performance

First case study

Yoruba ritual as “play,” and “contingency” in ritual process.
Interpretive approach: Theories of play and improvisation.

Discussion questions:

1. How might an “actor-centered” approach be applied to a specific genre of theatre from another culture in a different era?
2. Do historical studies of theatre examine how the cultural actor “experiences” performance within a specific context? If not, why not?

Second case study

Korean shamanism and the power of speech.
Interpretive approach: Speech act theory.

Discussion questions:

1. Remembering that the possible relationship between the shaman and the actor has been hotly debated by scholars, as noted in the case study, discuss some of the key differences and similarities between these two types of performers. Consider the purpose of the performance, the use of language, impersonation, costume, sets, properties, lighting, scripts, improvisation, and the role of the audience. Now look at a specific ritual. In your opinion, is the “performance” of a shaman, priest, rabbi or other religious leader the same as the “performance” of an actor? Why or why not? Finally, discuss those aspects of “dramatic structure” and the various “dramatic elements” (such as language, costume, music, location, etc.) that are common to both theatrical performances and rituals such as Korean kut, the Roman Catholic Mass, the Jewish Passover seder, or any other religious or communal ritual that you are familiar with. Are there any differences between a ritual performance and a dramatic performance?
2. Many contemporary solo performers such as Anna Devere Smith impersonate multiple characters as they tell a story. Sometimes, they also depict themselves, and sometimes two or more characters seem to carry on a dialogue. Often, they seem to “become” or “embody” each of these absent people. How does such a performance differ from the work of the mudang or shaman? Consider such aspects as the purpose of the event, the preparations for the event, the time and place of the event, the actor’s or mudang’s relationship with the audience/participants, and the experience of the actor or mudang before, during and after the performance.

CHAPTER 2: Religious and civic festivals: early drama and theatre in context

First case study

Classical Greek theatre: Looking at Oedipus the King
Interpretive approach: Cognitive studies

Discussion questions:

• A sense of place is important in Oedipus the King. What are the significant places mentioned in the tragedy? Look on a map to see where they are in relation to Thebes and Athens. How does Oedipus gain self-knowledge by mapping his journeys among these places?
• Pretend you are Sophocles working with three actors and fifteen chorus members on the first production of Oedipus. Using the diagram of the performing area and auditorium in the case study, imaginatively stage a production that would appeal to an audience Athenians in the fifth century B.C.E.
• Oedipus and Jocasta enter from and exit to their palace, represented by the skene building, several times during the tragedy. Relate each of these entrances and exits to the on-stage action of the play. What social, political, and sexual meanings might these entrances and exits have suggested for fifth century BCE audiences?
• The production of Oedipus the King was a part of a religious ritual to honor the god Dionysus. How did the general use of space and some of the on-stage action reflect and/or embody the worship of Dionysus?

Second case study

Christians and Moors: Medieval performance in Spain and the new world
Interpretive approach: Cultural hierarchy

Discussion questions:

• Performances of moros y cristianos in medieval Spanish towns typically occurred in the midst of festivities that combined secular and religious traditions. What other kinds of European medieval pageants and tournaments mixed religious and secular symbols and activities? What does this mix indicate about medieval life?
• Moors as “low others” were common features of moros y cristianos performances. Investigate late medieval Spanish literature, art, and drama for other examples of “low others” in that historical culture.
• The desire among Spanish aristocrats for a “pure” Spanish culture, “untainted” by Islamic or Jewish influences, has been a dominant theme in Spanish history. Trace the results of this desire in the historical cultures of the Spanish New World. How did this desire help to determine relations between the Spanish conquerers and the indigenous peoples they ruled? How did it shape class relations in the history of Latin America?
• Watch a present-day performance of moros y cristianos on a website, video, or DVD. What performance traditions continue from medieval
  Spain? What has changed?

CHAPTER 3: Imperial theatre: Pleasure, power and aesthetics

First case study

Plautus’s plays: what’s so funny?
Interpretive approach: Henri Bergson’s theory of laughter

Discussion questions:

1. Apply Bergson’s principle of comically mechanized human behavior to the character of Harpagon in Molière’s The Miser.
2. Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors was derived from Plautus’s The Menaechmi. Are Bergson’s mechanics of comedy operating in Shakespeare’s play? If so, how?

Second case study

Kutiyattam Sanskrit theatre of India: Rasa-bhava aesthetic theory and the question of taste
Interpretive approach: Reception theory

Discussion questions:

1. How might the notion of “interpretive communities” be utilized to analyse one of Shakespeare’s plays in performance in different historical periods?
2. What primary sources might the historian use to discover how audiences responded to a specific performance?
3. How are notions of reception and appreciation shaped within a specific historical period and genre?

Third case study

The Silent Bell: The Japanese noh play, Dôjôji
Interpretive approach: Feminist and gender theory, modified for medieval Japan

Discussion questions:

1. What social and historical conditions help us to understand how male playwrights and actors represent females in medieval Japan?
2. How does the action of Dôjôji symbolically represent the battle of genders and religions?
3. Which sequences or actions of Dôjôji emphasize dualism, and which emphasize non-dualism?
4. In looking at systems of acting and playwriting, what are some of the main philosophical and aesthetic factors that determine a preference for realism? For non-realism?

© Discussion questions: Phillip B. Zarrilli, Bruce McConachie, Gary Jay Williams, Carol Fisher Sorgenfrei, 2006