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Example research essay topic: Set Design In Modern Theatre - 1,182 words

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The Importance of Set Design in Shaping and Effecting Realism and Modern Drama Throughout history there has been a call for entertainment. This entertainment has seen many changes from jesters to hangings to orgies to finally the combination of all of these into a stage performance known to the masses as theatre or performance art. The theatre has seen many changes itself from the tragedies and comedies of old to theatre of the current day. Two of the major movements within contemporary theatre that have revolutionized thinking and portrayed some of the better philosophies and ideals of life surrounding the audience in that era were the realism movement and the absurdist movement within modern drama. Realism was known for the masking of all theatre machinery from the audience while the absurdist movement was the anti-thesis of realism and explored the minimal ization of set and language. The physical setting in realistic theatre was completely focused on trying to make the stage look as real as life.

The physical setting of the majority of modern theatre is less about making the set look real but rather exploration of location without time or specificity of actual place. The two sets for the two movements made the audience focus on different points of view. Realism was inherently more limited as to what it could make the audience feel and think while modern theatre pulls the audience into a more thought provoking process. Within realism there was the Moscow Art Theatre, under Stanislavskys tutelage and leadership, which made huge strides towards perfecting the way that acting was thought of.

Other renown play writes of the realistic persuasion were Chekhov, Pinter, Mamet, and Ibsen. Ibsen's career as a playwright started with a play entitled Brand. Brand is an exploration of mans relationship to God and a commentary on the life of complete devotion. The setting is in a small village for the first part of the play and a mountain later in the play.

The poverty stricken setting sets up the belief system of Brand while the mountain would make the audience think of Moses. Eventually, Brand and his rigid belief structure are wiped clean from the earth in an avalanche, part of the set design that needs to be built or implied presents to the audience the fact that even a man of God cannot withstand nature. Contrary to Brand was Peer Gynt in which the protagonist believes in nothing except the carnal pleasures of life; in fact, Ibsen once wrote Peer Gynt is the antithesis of Brand. Peer Gynt, however, also has a strong mountain focus in that the mountain is his escape from problems and in the end the source of his redemption. Brand as a set was cold and snow driven bringing tension to the audience in a very visible way while Peer Gynt lives his life mostly in a lushly vegetated mountainside bringing a sense of earthliness as opposed to the godliness of Brand. Ibsen's next notable work was known as Doll House.

This play is about two people who are married and therefore the set focuses on the home. However, this play was exalted as a piece of pro-feminist literature when it first appeared. (Valency, 150) The main action of the play, occurring within the household, automatically puts the audience in the mode of thinking that eliminates contemplation of universal questions. Realistic plays and the sets that go along with them are a misconception of reality and therefore the audience is less challenged and already put into a certain mind frame upon seeing the set without the benefit of script or action. The unconscious manipulation of audience sympathies and feelings is obvious in Ibsen's later work entitled The Wild Duck. The first part of the play takes place in an upscale home. The set is dimly lit in the foreground and well lit where the dinner party is going on in the background.

The set implies a well to do family through the use of decoration but the layout is simply an office with doors open at the back of the set which frame a well lit dining room. Later the audience learns that the two settings in the play show a high degree of the mentality and disposition of the family that lives within each respective household. For all intents and purposes the set is the same shape throughout the entirety of the play. However, the lighting and decoration reveal more about the people than some of the actual dialogue as well as delineate between the two social castes within the play. The second set is seen at first with just a room that is a living, dining, work room, all in one. The doors previously open in the first part of the play, located at the back, are closed in the beginning of the Ekdal house scene.

This arouses curiosity for what is behind the doors and also foreshadows that the Ekdal family has a lot to hide. The doors hide the forest that young Ekdal has fashioned for his slightly defunct father and his daughter. The forest is houseplants and caged animals hunted by old Ekdal. This is a shortcoming of realism, for the person who notices something like the doors will not be surprised when they are used later as an integral part of the story and the play write is forced to invent cheesy representations of false realities so that symbolism can be used without hitting the audience over the head with the message. Although some of Ibsen's work has questions that relate to the world-view of human interaction and the relationship of man to god or nature, the audience does not empathize with the character and therefore does not supplant the image of themselves into the play. Realism allowed the audience to view an event without asking the audience to do little more than enjoy the story and forget the play.

In order to challenge and provoke thought something else was needed to keep theatre interesting. This brought out great modern authors who changed the way plays and sets were presented and written. The general trend within the modern drama movement was reduction and twisting of reality, which included language and set. This allowed for the foregrounding of the mechanics and decisions inherent in a production pulling forth the idea that theatre is not real and should not be viewed as a slice of reality. In short people are not fooled by realism because they paid for the ticket.

Absurdism, one of the most exciting and creative movements in the modern theater, is a term applied to a particular type of realistic drama which has absorbed theater audiences and critics for the past three decades. Inching ever closer to a realistic representation of life, the evolution of absurdist drama from Samuel Beckett to Tom Stoppard brings a new focus to absurdism and expands the role of philosophy and metaphor in theatrical drama. Before discussing the ways in which the Theatre of the Absurd has evolved, it is beneficial to understand where and how it dev...


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Research essay sample on Set Design In Modern Theatre

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