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The Necessity of TheaterThe Art of Watching and Being Watched$
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The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching and Being Watched

Paul Woodruff

Print publication date: 2008

Print ISBN-13: 9780195332001

Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: May 2008

DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332001.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (oxford.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Oxford University Press, 2021. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in OSO for personal use. date: 19 April 2021

Defining the Art

Defining the Art

Chapter:
(p.31) ONE Defining the Art
Source:
The Necessity of Theater
Author(s):

Paul Woodruff (Contributor Webpage)

Publisher:
Oxford University Press
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332001.003.0003

The first chapter proposes the hypothesis of the book: that the arts of theater are the art of making human action worth watching and the art of finding human action worth watching. Chapter 1 examines the purpose of definition in philosophy and explores the consequences of the definition of theater that it proposes, which includes a wide range of human endeavors, but excludes film and literature. The art of theater requires the presence of human action, but does not necessarily involve fiction or mimesis. Extreme theater and theater of presence can effect real changes in the lives of those involved. Theater need not be a fine art; that is, it can allow pedantry, utility, and other factors often thought inconsistent with the fine arts.

Keywords:   definition, philosophy, fiction, literature, film, theater, fine art

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