Who are the key Theatre Theorists? – The Solo Theatre Piece

When you start looking for different theatre theorists to study as part of your course, and then to eventually choose one for your Solo Theatre piece, it is usually hard to know where to start. This blog will look at what sources you can go to that will help you see who the key theorists are. Links to resources will then help you start to research your theorist referring to primary and secondary sources.

One of the most comprehensive lists I have come across to help you was produced by Kate Dunigan-Atlee. This site (http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=671683)

lists the theorists in the Table of Contents and then when you click on the Theorists tab at the top you can then click on the name of the theorist and then see some key sources (a range of primary and secondary) to get you started with your research.

Below are some screen shots so you can see what this site contains:

Table of contents:

Theorists tab:

Key sources for Eugenio Barba:

https://odinteatret.dk/about-us/eugenio-barba

Another wonderful resource you can turn to, to find out about Theorists is TED talks. A couple that I would strongly recommend, to get you started, are:

Julie Taymor – Spiderman, The Lion King and life on the creative edge

Anna Deavere Smith – Four American Characters

Other invaluable resources are the following:

National Theatre Five Truths – Theatre Practitioners

These films look at the following theorists work in performance: Stanislavsky, Grotowski, Brook, Brecht and Artaud.

National Theatre Education Resources

Here you will find a range of resource packs on performances. They look at performance and production techniques and also include information on themes, with some activities and exercises on how to approach character, creation and process.

Finally, here is a fantastic table, produced by the IB to help teachers plan their courses and students choose their theorist. This comes from the TSM (Teacher Support Materials):

(Source: https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/server2/rest/app/tsm.xql?doc=d_6_theat_tsm_1702_1_e&part=4&chapter=2 accessed on 22/03/2020)

I hope that you find these links and information will help during the course and when you work on your assessment tasks.