The 10 most important elements of theater

The elements of the theater are components of this scenic art that, when analyzed, help us understand the meaning of the stories represented by the actors, or allow a narrated story to exist in the first place.

In this article we will see what these elements of the theater are, how they are involved in the narratives, and what characterizes them.

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What is a play?

Theater is one of the main performing arts, and has been developing as a form of cultural expression over thousands of years. For this reason, there are many factors involved in it that converge in the work that is represented, to weave stories. A play is the result of this combination of elements, and consists of the representation of a story made up of acts in which actors embody characters in front of an audience.

In the beginning, the forms of scenic representation that were the seed of the theater were linked to mystical-religious traditions, and by means of the symbolic recreation of myths and legends, they tried to bring order to reality, applying narrative fictions that tried to explain what was happening in the world.

For this reason, no importance was given to the author, the playwright or the main person responsible for the creation of the ritual (the creation of these was, surely, the product of several generations working during decades). Later, with the appearance of the theater proper, the religious purpose was lost, and the ability to use elements of the theater in a creative and varied way, depending on what you want express.

These elements of the theater can be of various types: material, symbolic, human... They all bring new layers of meaning as they appear on stage..

Elements of the theater: what are they?

Below you will find a summary about the main elements of the theater, with explanations about the role that each one of them plays in the representation.

1. Actors

The actors are the professionals in charge of interpreting the characters, embodying their personality, their motivations and the concepts they symbolize. The actions of the actors define what happens in the fictional world in which the story takes place, they advance the development of the plot, and also express the emotions that accompany the work through their non-verbal language, using the whole body and the qualities of her voice.

The actors of the plays work in a different way from those of artistic media of an audiovisual type such as the cinema, among other things due to the material characteristics of their work: no there are many attempts, you have to make whatever you do is understandable by the part of the public that is farthest away, and you have to deal with the space limitations that are linked to the stage.

2. Scenography

The scenography is one of the elements of the theater that are most integrated into the stage, and in fact, the stage can be understood as part of the scenography. It is the set of objects and decorations that are used to represent the space in which the acts take place, and they can change as one moves from one place to another (the substitution of part or all of the objects of the scenography usually occur in the "dark", when the public cannot see well what happens).

3. Audience

The audience is one of the elements of the theater that go unnoticed because they are taken for granted, but the truth is that the audience of the play never becomes a totally passive agent; participates in the creation of the work, even if the individual people who comprise it are not aware of it.

In fact, the conception of a play is carried out keeping in mind the characteristics cultural, social and psychological aspects of the audience, so that everything that happens can be understood. This is one of the differences between a play and a representation of a ritual-religious type, in which it is not essential that the public understand what is happening.

On the other hand, there are also cases in which the actors interact with the audience verbally or physically, to develop the narrative together in a more or less improvised way.

4. Script

The script is the text in which everything important that happens in the play is described, paying special attention to the lines of dialogue. It is the element of the play that expresses in writing the ideas and themes that are worked on in the representation, and its author is the playwright.

Furthermore, the script or text of a play follows a development in which the dramatic charge of the play rises from the first minutes to the moments near the end; This structure is divided into the phases known as approach, knot (with point of no return) and outcome.

On the other hand, each of these parts is in turn divided into acts, which are differentiated by their space-time context, the time and place in which the story takes place, and are separated by "dark" (a general shutdown of lights). Acts are units into which the plot is divided, and they appear in all performing arts in general.

5. illumination

Although in many plays the lighting is only intended to make it possible to see well what is happening on stage and, at most, to mark what are the moments of transition from one scene to another (by turning off the lights), there are many possibilities to use it in a way that gives meaning to the scene. construction site.

For example, Spotlights can be articulated to direct the audience's attention to a specific point on the stage while hiding certain objects, several of them can be used in a coordinated way to create a sensation concrete through their movement patterns, and they can also fill the stage with different colors, depending on what what happens.

The possibilities with this element of the theater are multiple, since you can play with the movement of the light beam and the colors it projects. In fact, a spotlight can be another character in the work, dialoguing with the rest of the characters despite not having a voice, by creating the appropriate contexts.

6. Makeup

Makeup is one of the elements of the theater that is cosmetic in nature, although that does not mean that its main objective is to beautify the characters: in fact, In many cases, the effect it produces is the opposite, since with current techniques it is possible to modify the relief of the actors' faces so that they adopt expressions grotesque.

In fact, offering the audience attractive characters does not have to be among the priorities of the play. Makeup is used for a wide variety of purposes, among which we find several technical purposes, and others that are content..

The technical purposes of makeup include counteracting the effects of distance and artificial lighting so that the public has a clearer and more faithful image of how the characters. In this way, even being in the furthest areas of the stage it is possible to see the lines of expression of who is acting, and the spotlights do not burn the image you have of the faces of the actors.

On the other hand, the content purposes that are reached using makeup are those that have to do with the type of ideas and symbologies that are intended to be expressed through the appearance of characters. In this aspect the theory of color comes into play, and his way of giving us indirect information about what is happening thanks to the use of colors, which are associated with certain concepts and sensations.

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7. Locker room

As a constitutive element of a play, the costumes are very similar to makeup, since it also consists of applying products to the actors so that they express sensations and ideas through their simple presence, and also in this case, color palettes are played to convey concepts immediately, without the need for speak.

However, a characteristic of the wardrobe is that ** the clothes can be changed or eliminated quickly, even as part of the narrative course ** that is included in the story, something that does not happen with the makeup.

For example, if at a certain point the protagonist loses his hat, this simple fact can express loss of control, loss of authority conferred by his membership in a certain institution, submission to others, etc.

8. Sound

The sound of a play it is composed of music and complementary sound effects that help to understand what happens in the story. Music can be diegetic or extradiegetic, that is, it can be part of history and be heard by the characters, or it can accompany the story, without being part of what happens in it in a literal.

9. Voice over

The voice over (or voice over, in English) is a series of sentences that are emitted by someone who does not belongs to what is happening in the act of the play, and which is not in view of the public, usually to give information that narrates or that accompanies the development of the plot giving added information. Many times it is a voice recording that is complemented by sound effects.

10. director

The director of the play is the person in charge of coordinating the rest of the elements of the theater, both the materials (sets, lighting, etc.) and those referring to the actions that the actors must perform to interpret their characters, at all times.

On the other hand, the director's work becomes more noticeable before the performance of the work in front of the public, than during it; in fact, it is not located on the stage, but outside it, to have a more general and panoramic vision of everything that happens at the same time.

Bibliographic references:

• Counsell, C. (1996). Signs of Performance: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Theater. New York: Routledge.
• Pavis, P. (1998). Dictionary of the Theater: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Kuritz, P. (1988). The Making of Theater History. Englewood Cliffs, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
• Trancón, S. (2006). Theater Theory. Madrid: Foundation