Spain 2º Bachillerato Performing Arts II
Chapters: 5
1. Performing arts heritage
History of performing arts · Social meaning of performing arts · Rituals and popular festivities · Current trends in performance · Non-verbal performance
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Modern Drama: From Realism to Today's Stage – Modern drama begins around 1880 with the 'new drama' of Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and Shaw, who replaced melodrama with realism: ordinary people, social problems and natural speech behind a fourth wall. In the 20th century, writers broke that wall (Brecht's epic theatre), showed inner feelings (expressionism), and questioned meaning itself (the Absurd). Later plays brought working-class, women's and migrant voices, and today's theatre mixes forms: in-the-round staging, physical and verbatim theatre and media. To study a modern play, look at structure, character, stage directions, language, themes and context.
2. Stage expression and communication
Performative acts · Contemporary stage space · Non-theatre spaces · Current dramatic structures · Character in contemporary work · Improvisation and collective creation
- 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.
- Modern Drama: From Realism to Today's Stage – Modern drama begins around 1880 with the 'new drama' of Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov and Shaw, who replaced melodrama with realism: ordinary people, social problems and natural speech behind a fourth wall. In the 20th century, writers broke that wall (Brecht's epic theatre), showed inner feelings (expressionism), and questioned meaning itself (the Absurd). Later plays brought working-class, women's and migrant voices, and today's theatre mixes forms: in-the-round staging, physical and verbatim theatre and media. To study a modern play, look at structure, character, stage directions, language, themes and context.
- 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
Current acting methods · Deepening performer's instruments · Contemporary character building · Performative creation
- 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.
- 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.
4. Staging and stage performance
Designing a show · Dramaturgy in stage projects · Producing a stage project · Artistic direction · Rehearsals and stage management · Staging performances · Exhibiting and distributing shows · Teamwork in theatre · Careers in performing arts
- 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.
- Project Management – A project is a one-time piece of work with a clear goal, a start and an end. Project management means planning and controlling it so it meets its scope on time and within cost. The life cycle runs initiate, plan, execute, monitor and close. Planners break the work into tasks (WBS), place them on a Gantt chart, find the critical path, manage risks and review lessons learned at the end.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Career Planning: From Knowing Yourself to Your First Job – Career planning has five steps. 1) Know yourself: interests, skills and values. 2) Explore career families and find out the work, study needed, pay and demand. 3) Plan a pathway with SMART goals and a plan B. 4) Search for jobs with a CV, cover letter, digital portfolio and interview practice. 5) Make the move from school to work and keep learning, because careers change over a lifetime.
5. Reception of performing arts
Analysing stage works · Theatre criticism · Intellectual property in theatre
- 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).