Whats Happening Richard Schechner
What's Happening Richard Schechner?:A Look at Schechner's Ideas of the "New" TheatreRichard Schechner envisions a "new theatre" in three of his major essays, "Happenings" (1966), "Six Axioms for Environmental Theatre" (1968), and "Negotiations with the Environment" (1968). He does not spend time discussing his famed "not not themselves" ideology of the performer or ritual ecstasy; instead he discusses a new genealogical hybrid termed the "new theatre" by Allan Kaprow. Schechner uses the traditional theatre as a comparison and first comments in "Happenings" "because it is unlike traditional theatre, the familiar locutions of these arts, e.g., dance, music, sculpture, painting cannot describe what's going on or provide criteria for which to evaluate it" (145). Still, Schechner does provide many a comparison between the traditional theatre and this new form. Schechner recognizes that the "theatrical event is a complex social interweave, a network of expectation and obligation. The exchange of stimuli-either sensory or ideational or both-is the root of theatre" (158). Knowing this, the author claims all theatre, both traditional and new, is a set of related "transactions" (changes in outlook and situation). How these
Lastly, the spectator may suddenly create new special possibilities (172-3). The theatre world is enhanced and enriched by new developments like the "new" theatre. Likewise, the traditional theatre revolves around themes/thesis, however in new theatre there is no pre-set meaning. Allan Kaprow is quoted in "Negotiations with the Environment as saying, "it doesn't make any difference how large the space is, it's still a stage. transactions occur is what defines the art form. and come out with your own thing" (180). " It involves a series of understandable transactions. "Once one gives up fixed seating and the bifurcation of space, entirely new relationships are possible" (167) fostering a sense of shared experience among the group This experience can be achieved through transformed space in which the participants, using whatever materials are available and placing them wherever form the unplanned set (171) where the action will take place or something called found space. The last comparison Schechner makes between the two forms of theatre involves the audience. The performers are then free to be treated "as mass and volume, color and texture, and movement-not as 'actors' but as parts of the environment" (178). The traditional theatre is oriented around roles; the actor is the most important figure. Whereas the traditional theatre places emphasis on flow and clarity, the new theatre can be tangential and, somewhat chaotic, exploring many facets at once, creating something entirely "new". There are the ritual elements that comprise Schechner's work in Between Theatre and Anthropology. Schechner points out that the traditional theatre is action whereas the new theatre is about activity.
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Acceptance Essays
