Andalusia PAU Performing Arts II cheat sheet
Andalusia PAU Performing Arts II · Keep the key ideas within reach.
Theory and History of Performing Arts: Dramatic Text and Performance
Aristotle's Poetics establishes the primacy of mythos (plot) over opsis (spectacle) and defines peripeteia (reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition) as the engines of tragic effect.
Classical unity of action (single plot line) is distinct from the later neoclassical unities of time and place, codified by Castelvetro in 1570 from Aristotelian fragments.
Theatre semiotics (Honzl, Bogatyrev, Ubersfeld) treats every stage element as a sign: the Prague School's 1940 'signs on the stage' essay distinguishes icon, index and symbol on stage.
Roman Ingarden's phenomenology of the literary work separates the 'schematic structure' of the dramatic text from its 'concretization' in performance.
Deconstruction on stage (Müller, Wilson) dissolves the hierarchy of text over performance; the 'postdramatic theatre' (Lehmann, 1999) shifts emphasis from dramatic representation to presence.
The dramatic text's 'secondary text' (didascalias, stage directions) is a performance instruction, not part of the spoken dialogue; its status varies from prescriptive to open.
Spanish 'comedia' theory (Lope de Vega, Arte nuevo de hacer comedias, 1609) codifies the three-act form, the mixing of tragic and comic, and the 'decoro' matching speech to character.
The 'fourth wall' convention is a naturalist inheritance; Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt explicitly breaks it to make the spectator an active analyst rather than an empathetic participant.
Analysis and Commentary of Dramatic Texts and Theatrical Works
A commentary follows a structured protocol: situating the fragment (author, date, movement), formal analysis (structure, language, versification), dramatic function, and interpretive thesis.
For classical Spanish verse, identify the arte mayor/minor distinction, the romance (octosyllabic assonant even lines), and the silva or lira forms before discussing meaning.
Character analysis distinguishes the dramatis persona (textual construct) from the actor's embodiment; the 'character' is a function of dialogue, stage direction and reception.
Dialogue analysis tracks turn-taking, interruption, aside (apart), and monologue; the apart creates a split between the fictional world and the audience's knowledge.
Thematic reading must be anchored to textual evidence: quote, then interpret; avoid plot summary in place of analysis.
Context markers to check: date of premiere, censorship history, and the work's position within its author's trajectory; Spanish post-1939 theatre is often read through censorship and exile.
For staging analysis, note the spatial regime (frontal, arena, promenade), the visible apparatus, and the relation between the fictional and the real space.
Theatrical Genres, Styles and Movements in the Western Tradition
Tragedy, comedy and satyr play are the three Attic genres; the satyr play is the lost fourth element of the tetralogy, comic in tone but mythological in subject.
Commedia dell'arte (16th c., Italy) is defined by the mask (lazzi, canovaccio, fixed types: Arlecchino, Pantalone, Colombina) and improvisation over a scenario.
Neoclassicism (17th-18th c.) enforces the three unities and bienséance; Romanticism (Sturm und Drang, Hugo's Préface de Cromwell, 1827) rejects them in favour of the grotesque and local colour.
Naturalism (Zola, Antoine) aims at environmental determinism and the 'slice of life'; Symbolism (Maeterlinck) replaces action with atmosphere and suggestion.
Expressionism (Toller, Kaiser, early Brecht) distorts space and language to project subjective states; Epic theatre (Brecht) uses episodic structure, placards and songs to historicise.
Absurdism (Beckett, Ionesco, Pinter) dissolves causal plot and logical dialogue; the term comes from Esslin's 1961 study, not from the playwrights themselves.
Postdramatic theatre (Lehmann) and performance art (from the 1960s Happenings) shift the object from the dramatic fiction to the event and the body.
Scenography, Staging and Production: Space, Lighting, Costume and Sound
Scenography is the design of the performance environment: set, costume, light and sound integrated as a single visual-dramatic system (Svoboda's 'psychoplastic space').
Stage types: proscenium (frontal, framed), thrust (three-sided), arena (in-the-round), black box (flexible); each changes sightlines and actor-audience relation.
Lighting functions: visibility, focus, mood, and time; key terms include key light, fill, backlight, gel, gobo, and the cue-to-cue technical rehearsal.
Sound design covers reinforcement, effect (diegetic vs non-diegetic) and composition; a diegetic sound source is visible or motivated within the fiction.
Costume semiotics: silhouette, fabric, colour and wear signal class, period and character state; costume is worn, not displayed, so movement must be designed in.
The production hierarchy runs from producer through director, designer, technical director and stage manager; the stage manager owns the prompt book and calls cues.
Raked stages and wing-and-shutter systems (Baroque) gave way to the box set (naturalism) and then to open, non-illusionistic staging (20th c.).
Performance: Acting, Direction and the Actor's Craft
Stanislavski's system: given circumstances, objective, super-objective, through-line of action, emotion memory (later revised toward the method of physical actions).
The 'magic if' and 'as if' allow the actor to justify action within the fiction; the 'circle of attention' regulates focus.
Meyerhold's biomechanics replaces psychological interiority with precise, rhythmic, acrobatic movement; the actor is a 'worker' in the theatre-machine.
Brecht's Gestus makes social relations visible through posture, gesture and tone; the actor 'shows' rather than 'becomes'.
Grotowski's 'poor theatre' strips spectacle to the actor-audience encounter; 'via negativa' removes blocks rather than adding technique.
Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed uses the 'spect-actor' and forum theatre to rehearse social change; the joker facilitates the scene.
Direction: the director's 'concept' (Konzept) governs interpretation; rehearsal phases run from table work (read-through) through blocking to technical and dress rehearsals.
Actor training lineages: Lecoq (physical theatre, neutral mask), Decroux (corporeal mime), Laban (effort qualities: weight, time, space, flow).
Dance and Movement in the Performing Arts
Laban Movement Analysis describes movement through Body, Effort (weight, time, space, flow), Shape and Space; effort combinations produce the eight basic actions (punch, slash, press, wring, flick, dab, glide, float).
Classical ballet: the five positions (Beauchamp), turnout, and the codified vocabulary (plié, tendu, arabesque, pirouette); the danse d'école codified under Louis XIV.
Modern dance lineage: Duncan (free movement, barefoot), Graham (contraction and release, spiral), Humphrey-Weidman (fall and recovery), Cunningham (chance procedures, non-narrative).
Postmodern dance (Judson Church, 1960s) uses pedestrian movement, task, and site; contact improvisation (Paxton, 1972) shares weight between bodies.
Flamenco: cante, toque and baile; compás cycles include soleá (12-count), alegrías, bulerías; palos are the families of forms.
Spanish dance and Escuela Bolera draw on the eighteenth-century bolero school; flamenco was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010.
Choreographic tools: canon, retrograde, accumulation, motif development, and spatial floor patterns (lines, diagonals, circles).
Spanish and Andalusian Theatre Heritage and Contemporary Creation
The Spanish Golden Age (siglo de oro) spans roughly 1580-1680; key playwrights: Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca, and the actress-manager context of the corral de comedias.
The corral de comedias is an open-air courtyard theatre with a stage (tablado), awnings, the cazuela (women's gallery), and the alojero; surviving examples include Almagro (Ciudad Real).
Calderón's auto sacramental is a one-act allegorical Eucharistic play; La vida es sueño is a comedia with philosophical themes.
Andalusian heritage: the Teatro Romano de Málaga, the Teatro Romano de Itálica (Santiponce), and the Corral de Comedias tradition; Seville's theatres shaped the comedia circuit.
Twentieth-century Andalusian theatre: the Hermanos Álvarez Quintero (Sevillian costumbrismo), and later the independent theatre movement of the 1970s (teatro independiente).
Contemporary Andalusian creation includes companies and festivals such as the Festival Internacional de Teatro de Almada (Portugal) and the Andalusian network of provincial theatres; the Junta de Andalucía supports the Red Andaluza de Teatros Públicos.
Flamenco's Andalusian roots: Jerez de la Frontera, Seville and Cádiz are the cradles of the cante; the Bienal de Flamenco de Sevilla is a major festival.
Dramatic Text, Staging and Performance Integration
The 'performance text' (Elam, Pavis) is the total signifying system produced in performance, distinct from the written dramatic text.
Adaptation decisions: cutting, reordering, updating setting, and changing the narrator's position; each shifts the work's ideological frame.
The rehearsal process: read-through, blocking, working runs, technical rehearsal, dress rehearsal, preview, opening; the prompt book records blocking and cues.
The 'mise en scène' is the director's total arrangement of space, time, movement and sign; it is an interpretation, not a neutral transmission.
Audience reception: the 'theatrical frame' (Goffman) separates the fictional from the real; applause, laughter and silence are feedback signals.
Documentation of a performance: production photographs, reviews, programmes, and video recordings; a commentary must distinguish what is in the text from what is in the production.
Ethical and legal frame: copyright in the dramatic text, performing rights, and the requirement of authorisation for adaptation in Spain (Ley de Propiedad Intelectual).