theatre

=**Theatre: A Mini Society**= Caitlin Chu

Rationale
Theatre can be seen as a small society, where actions produce an exchange of messages, stories, and emotions. Every action made by any single individual in a society will affect another person in some way, and in turn, that affected person will carry on to act upon another. This ongoing interactive process eventually does lead to a gigantic, continuous cycle of giving and receiving, benefiting society as a whole or taking away from it. Having noticed this trait in theatre, I came to see it as the perfect choice for an interactive medium, to be used for my very first project.

I focused more specifically on **Theatre Production**, since the entertainment form is insanely broad. This was also the area that could best represent the interactions and communications that take place between people, as well as the unity you would find in a community or society. For example, theatre depends a great deal on the production team, in order to promote a theatrical event, generate scripts, assign roles, and design the appropriate costumes. In turn, the audience receives the necessary messages to attend the show, the actors have scripts to act for, certain qualities are developed for each character in the script, and the effect of the spectacle becomes greatly enhanced. In the end, the audience also feels more emotionally moved, and the performers feel rewarded for their hard work and effort. Inside the entire process of theatre production, it is evident that interaction and community is present.

**Research Summary**
When you translate "theatron," the initial Greek word that sprouted today's well-known "theatre," you will get "a place of seeing." (The Greek word derives itself from the verb "To gaze, to observe, and to contemplate.") Theatre had first developed because of the human tendency to gather and share stories, especially back in history. One particular person would present themselves and share whichever tales the mood had been fit for, and that person would tell it in a way that would intrigue his or her listeners. Eventually, over time, designated places developed and became known as "theatres," locations where one or more presenters (or performers) entertained a crowd of people, aka the audience. History gradually developed theatre as the huge entertainment form it is today because of all the great poets and playwrights of our past, such as Shakespeare. Today, not only is theatre recognized as a place, but it is also known as an expressive, fun art form that collaborates nearly all the arts into one, such as acting, music, dance, design, visual arts, etc.

Process Work
(Please click for full view. Corresponding photos above each step.) 1) First, I started working out concepts for 5 different mediums, which were: the cafe, concerts, photography, museum, and theatre, roughly, by hand. I eventually found myself developing a greater interest for theatre, since there was a better deal of information to work with and more connections between the whole production unit. You'll notice these maps have a lot of information, particularly the jobs involved in the production process. This made it clear that theatre involves a lot of people and a lot of interaction among the team members.
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/1multiconcepts.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/1multiconcepts.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/2conceptblown.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/2conceptblown.jpg"]] ||

2) At this point, for 2nd critique, I elaborated on the manual maps and tried to restructure a little using CmapTools. They became too confusing, which I jot down about in the corner. During critique, I also realized that the four branches I used to attempt categorizing theatre weren't quite right. The 4 were: art, subject, medium, and activity, the four things I thought theatre could be interpreted as. More connections and duplicate items appeared at this stage too so I had to narrow down my focus.
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Theatre1.jpg width="153" height="135" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/Theatre1-1.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Theatre2.jpg width="209" height="135" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/Theatre2-1.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/3cmap.jpg width="180" height="135" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/3cmap.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/5cmapmarkedup.jpg width="153" height="135" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/5cmapmarkedup.jpg"]] ||

3) The result of simplifying the previous maps. At this point, the connections were starting to be clearer, and a cycle grew evident. The audience continuously received emotions from people, and those people consisted of the production team members. ie: production team > responsible for set up > consisting of the performers and backstage writers > > form scripts > form stories > received by audience through emotions.
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Theatre3.jpg width="453" height="270" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/Theatre3.jpg"]] ||

4) Along with the previous comps, at that point I also started sketching some ideas for the typography of my concept map and how it could look like. If you look closer, you'll notice that I was trying to go for a handwritten look, to imitate the idea of scripts and the manual labour that people had to go through just to make up scripts, etc. LtoR: Theatre house look, using the type 2) grid-like look, a "center of attention" idea & 3) a staged look.
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/6visualideas.jpg width="184" height="246" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/6visualideas.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/7visualideas.jpg width="183" height="246" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/7visualideas.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/8visuals.jpg width="184" height="246" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/8visualideas.jpg"]] ||


 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/10branches9.jpg width="179" height="120" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/10branches9.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/12branches.jpg width="189" height="120" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/12branches.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/9branches.jpg width="175" height="120" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/9branches.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/11mediums.jpg width="96" height="120" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/11mediums.jpg"]] ||


 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Theatre4.jpg width="139" height="144" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/Theatre4.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/13.jpg width="112" height="150" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/13.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/14swirls.jpg width="129" height="150" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/14swirls.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/conceptmap.jpg width="109" height="150" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/conceptmap.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/brown.jpg width="120" height="149" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/conceptmapcopy.jpg"]] ||

5) Left img: To keep a long process short: after rearranging the map once more to resemble a cycle, I ended up developing the two major dividing categories: the Givers and the Receivers. Visually, the map resembled a circular cycle. The left half was intentionally for the "Givers" and the right side for "Receivers." Right img: originally the lines weren't smooth enough to fit the curves of the circular background, so I popped the original into Photoshop and rounded it up roughly by hand, guided by a sketch.

6) Midway through doing the circular map, I wanted to see what it would be like if the map structure was more rigid, so that there would be a cleaner, staged look with differing levels. The thing I noticed with a circular representation of the cycle is that hierarchy was very hard to organize and the swirling, curling map lines were growing visually too much. There would be imbalances in different sections of the page. As a result, I briefly tried to do something more geometrical in CmapTools, which I ended up applying into the actual concept map. Other choices included the colours: I wanted to choose royal, elegant colours because **theatre was valued in earlier European communities as performances of honour for the Queen.**
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Theatre5.jpg width="262" height="237" link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/Theatre5.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/circular.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/circular.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/squares.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/squares.jpg"]] ||

The Finals
Gradually, after constant refining, I began playing with the lines in order to illustrate differing levels of importance. After a few variations, I found that using staircase, soft white lines to lead the eye up and down the concept map into different categories achieved this. Over time, the map also began to resemble the interior diagram for a theatre, and so, I decided to structure the map into sections seemingly reserved for the "backstage," "onstage," and "offstage" parties, since I had organized the production team into those three major categories. By gradual tweaking up, I made use of the "Theatre" title (resembling a crown) as the beginning point, leading upwards to the Givers & Receivers. In the end, I selected the portrait final, simply because it was compositionally voted better by majority.
 * [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/portrait.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/portrait.jpg"]] || [[image:http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/landscape.jpg link="http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg183/lolschooldotdot/Full%20Scales/landscape.jpg"]] ||