Vocabulary Words

Leg? Quick-rig? Downstage? Green Room? DMX? Shank Button?

Vocabulary words in theatre can be weird. There are lots of slang terms, technical terms, and typical vocabulary words. Theatre has many visual, hands on components, as well as textual, analysis components. It is interesting because often times, these two types of vocabulary words are presented in different ways.

A typical lesson having to do with script analysis often looks like a list of vocab words and definitions. What is plot? Where is the climax? Who is the antagonist? Very boring and typical. I have seen this happen in both my high school and college experiences. I think because this is the typical way these words are taught, this is just how teachers do it. However, I would love to learn and experiment with different methods to presenting this information to students. I would love to see them identify these words in connection with something.

The visual, hands-on vocab words are often presented in a much different way. To be honest, I think there are flaws with this method as well. For example, when teaching parts of a lighting instument, I was taught in this manner, "This is the shutter. This is the bulb. This is the tail. This is where you put the gobo." Seeing the working parts and putting a name with them does help you remember, however we never wrote them down. What was missing here was often the clarification method as talked about in the Harmon, Wood and Hendricks article. So if a student is a visual learner, this might be an excellent method. But if they need to see the words on a paper, or look at a diagram in a book, this needs to be added to the instruction.

My ideal method would be a blending of these two ideas. I think students need to connect visually, kinesthetically, and intellectually.  From the reading I really liked the list-group-label-and write method. The idea behind this was to have students brainstorm words that might belong in a certian group. Since theatre deals with many "groups" (costumes, props, lighting, playscripts) and each group has distinct vocab words, this method made a lot of sense to me.


P.S. If you want a definition  of those fancy words above, keep reading. They might surprise you.




Leg: The long curtains on a stage that touch the floor. NOT the front curtains.




Quick-rig: When an actor needs to make a quick costume change, a costume may have alterations to make it easier to get out of. For example a button
up shirt would have the buttons taken off, sewn on top
 of the button hole, and velcro added to the placket.




Downstage: The portion of the stage closest to the audience.

Green Room: A room near the stage where actors wait in between scenes or before a show begins. Not actually colored green. (Fun fact: They
used to be painted green because before modern
technology the type of lighting instruments were
amber colored and actors needed to give their eyes
a break so they didn't go blind.)




DMX: A cable used in lighting.









Shank Button: A button with no holes in it. Rather it is
attached to things through a small loop attached to the back of it.

Blog Post 2: Typical Texts in Theatre

For this blog post, I chose to answer question number 2 about the types of texts that are used in Theatre. The first thought that many might have about texts in theatre are playscripts. This is our number 1 text!So much of our work comes from these small pages, so it is imperative that students understand them.However, there are other important texts that students must be able to glean information from. Research is a big part of theatre as well, so being able to read anything from internet articles, to history books, is also very important. Theatre also has documents that go in the "bible" or production notebook. These types of documents might include costume fitting notes, rehearsal reports, budget and spending reports, prop lists, etc. Being able to not only read and interpret these, but also fill them out properly is so important in theatre. Those documents help the show run smoothly!

I have had both good and bad examples of teachers explaining how these texts are to be interpreted. When I first came to college, I took a class called Playscript Analysis. A whole class about how to read this type of text! The teacher taught us the basic principles, and then guided us as we read plays together. I remember thinking "Hamlet! I've already read that!" But he showed us a whole new way to look at the text and analyze what was going on. As a class, I think we were much more engaged, and I understood the text so much better than the previous time I had read it. A bad example also comes from my experience at Utah State.

Unfortunately those important documents that I mentioned before, weren't explained as well as they could have been. Instead of instruction, we were left to figure them out for ourselves, and hope that we understood them well enough to get the show running on time! This was a horrible way to learn these texts, as I basically had no help along the way. 

Unfortunately, I think the 2nd example is something that happens quite often in theatre. This type of instruction is so minimal, I'm sure Buehl would not approve! However, the 1st example uses some of Buehl's principles, especially the Gradual Release of Responsibility model on page 31. The professor used this model in that we began each play with explicit instructions and teacher modeling of how to approach the text. Secondly, we used interactive reading guides, (worksheets) and structured note taking while reading the text on our own. Once we had finished the text, we were in the "student regulated" zone in which we were able to make important connections and inferences on our own. It was only then that we were ever tested on the subject.

I would definitely replicate the way I was taught how to interpret playscripts. The teacher was engaged in the text, and helped us learn along the way. We actively participated in the before, during, after principle, with instruction happening at all points along the way. I would want to change the way the important documents were taught, by actually having an active discussion about them. These texts are just as important to theatre as the playscripts, but unfortunately they don't receive that much credit.








Here is an example of a play script... and one of my favorite plays. :) Read it! It is absolutely fabulous!

Introduction

January 13, 2015

To the world Out There...

My name is Sarah Lee (Luthy) Butterfield. Legally, my name is still Luthy even though I was married to my wonderful husband last March. I found out that changing your name is a lot of paperwork, and I am working on getting that done soon! But for now I just live in this awkward space where sometimes I forget my name completely...

My story goes like this... I went to a very small, very conservative high school in Sugar City, Idaho. When I was a freshman, we were all required to take Speech, and it just so happened that the Speech teacher and the Drama teacher was the same person. I loved Speech and found that I had a natural talent for it, so my teacher recommended I try entering the district drama competition the following fall. So I did. And all throughout high school I continued participating in Speech and Drama competitions, even competing (and winning 1st place as an ensemble) at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City. I did technical jobs like assistant directing and stage managing and my senior year I was in Julius Caesar and a farce (a type of comedy) called Accident, West Virginia, where I got to be a crazy hippie. These experiences were so much fun and I loved being involved, but at the time that's all they were to me. When I started school here at USU, I actually wanted to major in Biology. But after about a half a semester, I realized that I LOVED theatre, and that I BELONGED there. I knew I didn't want to be an actor, so the idea of being a teacher just fell into place. Now it is truly my passion, and I LOVE it.

Upon graduating I will be K-12 certified, and although I would like to teach high school, I have recently discovered a passion in children's theatre and working with younger kids. I recently assistant directed a TYA (Theatre for Young Audience) production called Still Life with Iris. That play got me so interested in TYA, that I have even begun working on a research project with my professor on writing for TYA.

I define literacy as so much more than being able to read and write. Its about knowledge, putting the power behind your knowledge and true understanding and comprehension. Theatre definitely involves literacy. Although many people have the misconception that theatre is just a bunch of plays and fun and an "easy class", there are a lot of elements that involve literacy and using texts. From scripts to theatre history to philosophy, theatre is just like any other subject, where comprehension and application is a must. I really hope to incorporate literacy into my teaching, especially to drive away the false ideas that people have about theatre being an "easy subject".

But for now...
"Do you mind? Let's talk about it later. Right now I'd rather be left alone. With my dreams."
-The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov