Spain 1º Bachillerato Performing Arts I
Chapters: 5
1. Performing arts heritage
Concept of performing arts · History of performing arts · Drama, theatricality and performativity · Intangible heritage
- Performing Arts: Music, Dance and Theatre, Live – The performing arts are arts that happen live, in time, through the performer's body and voice: music, dance and theatre (and mixes like opera, musicals and street plays). Every performance needs a performer, an audience and a space. A show grows from an idea through rehearsal to performance and reflection.
- History of Theatre: From Greek Festivals to the Black Box – Theatre began in ritual, song and storytelling. In ancient Greece (about 500 BCE) plays were part of religious festivals in open-air theatres with a theatron, orchestra and skene, and with masks and a chorus. Classical Asia built its own forms: Sanskrit drama guided by the Natyashastra and its idea of rasa, Japanese Noh and later Kabuki, Chinese opera. Medieval Europe staged religious plays on wagons; Renaissance Italy had commedia dell'arte; Elizabethan London had round playhouses with thrust stages (Shakespeare). From the 1600s the proscenium arch framed painted scenery, and in the late 1800s realism (Ibsen, Chekhov) brought everyday rooms and the 'fourth wall'. The 1900s added Stanislavski's truthful acting, Brecht's epic theatre, physical and experimental theatre and flexible black-box spaces. The shape of the stage, the society and the audience always shape how plays are written and acted.
- Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.
- Cultural Heritage – Cultural heritage is everything a community receives from the past, values today and wants to pass on: buildings and monuments, objects in museums, languages, music, dance, festivals, crafts, food and knowledge. Tangible heritage can be touched (immovable like temples and bridges, movable like coins and manuscripts); intangible heritage is lived and practised; natural heritage covers special landscapes and wildlife. Heritage gives identity, teaches history, brings income through tourism and links people across cultures. It is threatened by weathering, pollution, crowds, careless development, neglect and conflict, and is protected by conservation, laws, museums, heritage lists, education and local communities.
2. Stage expression and communication
Stage sign codes · Stage space and theatrical convention · Visual stage resources · Dramatic text · Dramatic conflict · Building a character · Improvisation and collective creation
- Semiotics: How Signs Make Meaning – Semiotics is the study of signs. A sign = signifier (the form: a picture, word, sound, colour) + signified (the idea it brings). Denotation is the plain meaning; connotation is the extra cultural meaning. Signs can be icons, indexes or symbols. Codes are shared rules for reading signs, and a caption can anchor one meaning. Barthes called connotations that feel "natural" myths.
- Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.
- Acting: Bringing a Character to Life – Acting means showing a character truthfully to an audience. An actor first studies the given circumstances (who, where, when) and the character's objective (what they want). Then the actor uses the body (posture, gesture, levels, status) and the voice (volume, pace, pitch, pause) to show it. On stage, acting is action and reaction: you listen and answer your partner. Timing, pauses and tension shape a scene, and theatre can also explore real social issues.
- Devising Drama: Creating an Original Piece as a Group – Devising means a group creates an original piece of theatre without starting from a written script. You begin with a stimulus, brainstorm ideas, research and improvise, shape the best material into a structure, then rehearse and refine it using feedback. A working notebook records each choice and why it was made.
3. Acting
Physical preparation for acting · Acting methods · The performer's instruments · Character representation · Performance score
- Acting: Bringing a Character to Life – Acting means showing a character truthfully to an audience. An actor first studies the given circumstances (who, where, when) and the character's objective (what they want). Then the actor uses the body (posture, gesture, levels, status) and the voice (volume, pace, pitch, pause) to show it. On stage, acting is action and reaction: you listen and answer your partner. Timing, pauses and tension shape a scene, and theatre can also explore real social issues.
- Theatre Practitioners: The People Who Changed How We Act – A theatre practitioner is someone who created a clear method for acting, directing or making theatre, which others now learn and use. For each practitioner, study four things: context (when and where they worked), aims (the effect they wanted on the audience), working methods (rehearsal and training exercises) and style (what the result looks like on stage). Stanislavski built realistic acting behind a 'fourth wall'. Brecht broke that wall so audiences would think critically about society. Artaud wanted to shock the senses; Grotowski stripped theatre down to the actor's body; Boal turned spectators into 'spect-actors' who change the story. Modern companies such as Frantic Assembly, Complicité, Kneehigh and Punchdrunk build on these ideas with physical and immersive theatre.
4. Staging and performance
The stage show · Types of stage shows · Other stage forms · Designing a show · Rehearsals · Staging performances · Teamwork in theatre
- Performing Arts: Music, Dance and Theatre, Live – The performing arts are arts that happen live, in time, through the performer's body and voice: music, dance and theatre (and mixes like opera, musicals and street plays). Every performance needs a performer, an audience and a space. A show grows from an idea through rehearsal to performance and reflection.
- Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.
- Acting: Bringing a Character to Life – Acting means showing a character truthfully to an audience. An actor first studies the given circumstances (who, where, when) and the character's objective (what they want). Then the actor uses the body (posture, gesture, levels, status) and the voice (volume, pace, pitch, pause) to show it. On stage, acting is action and reaction: you listen and answer your partner. Timing, pauses and tension shape a scene, and theatre can also explore real social issues.
- Groups: How They Form and How They Change Us – A group is two or more people who interact, share a goal, follow norms and feel 'we'. People join groups for security, status, self-esteem, needs and goals. Groups grow through stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. Their structure has roles, norms, status and cohesiveness. Types: primary/secondary, formal/informal, in-group/out-group. Groups also change our behaviour: in social loafing each person tries less in a shared task; in group polarisation the group's view becomes more extreme after discussion.
5. Reception of performing arts
The audience · Theatrical reception · Analysing stage works · Intellectual property in theatre
- Spectatorship: How We Watch Films and Plays – Spectatorship is the study of how audiences watch, feel and make meaning from films and performances. Early ideas saw viewers as passive, simply absorbing the message. Later ideas see them as active: they predict, judge, feel and bring their own lives to what they watch. Films position spectators through camera, editing, sound and point of view, but different people can still read the same film in different ways. Live theatre adds a two-way link between performers and audience.
- Data Protection and Intellectual Property Rights – Intellectual property (IP) is a creation of the mind, such as a story, song, program, invention or logo. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) give the creator control over its use. Copyright protects creative works (text, music, art, software code) automatically once created; a patent protects a new, useful invention for about 20 years and must be applied for; a trademark protects brand names, logos and slogans. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without credit. Infringement is using protected IP without permission (copyright, patent or trademark infringement). Public licences let creators share on their own terms: Creative Commons (BY, SA, NC, ND) for creative works, and software licences such as GPL (copyleft: modified versions must stay open) and Apache (permissive: can be used in closed products with notices).