2. Work in pairs.

1) Discuss different ways of getting tickets.

2) Ask each other where you like to sit in the auditorium and why.

3) Make up a dialogue between an ardent theatre-goer and a box-office clerk. It is the first night.

II. In the Interval

1. Learn these dialogues by heart.

1

– It's an intermission, Lily. Shall we go to the refreshment room for a bite?

– Do you really feel like having a bite?

– Not very much. Though I wouldn't refuse a sandwich and some drink.

– There must be a terrific rush in the buffet now. I'd rather prefer to walk about in the foyer and look at the pictures of actors and scale models of the scenery for the productions.

2

– Well, how do you find the play?

– The play is interesting, but I don't like the way it is produced.

– Why, what's wrong about it?

– Everything. Scenery, for example. There isn’t any scenery worth mentioning. The fist scene was laid in the garden. But there wasn't any garden on the stage, was there?

– There was a bench and a green branch fastened above it as a symbolic representation of a garden. The rest is left to our imagination.

– Perhaps something is wrong with my imagination, but I didn't like to look at the empty stage.

– But don't you think that in the theatre the actor and the word are things that matter? To my mind the setting of the scene was beautiful. It's true there was no scenery to stare at, but the costumes and make–up, the light and sound effects helped the audience to concentrate on the dialogue and the acting.

– Well, I don't believe good scenery could spoil anything, it might only make the whole thing more impressive.

– By the way, do you know that in Shakespeare's theatre there wasn't any kind of scenery?

– Really? I didn't know. But the imagination of my ancestors was richer than mine, I believe.

– (Takes a book out of the pocket) Right you are. Here are some words just to the point (reads): “With our forefathers theatre–going was an exercise in the lovely art of “make–believe”. They were told that it was night and they forgot the sunlight... and while they looked upon a platform of bare boards, they breathed the sweet air of the Forest of Arden.”¹

– Well, the trouble is that people have become older and wiser since that time. A grown–up person can't feel the way a child does.

– And here is what the author says on just that point: “The theatre has grown older, but I am not entirely sure that it has grown wiser. No longer do we dream ourselves in a garden of springtide blossom; we can only look upon canvas trees and paper flowers. No longer are we charmed away to that imagined spot where “journeys end in lovers' meeting”, we can only look upon love in a parlour and notice that the furniture is natural.”² Now what do you say to that?

– Hush! The lights are going down. Let's listen to the play.”

2. Refute the arguments of a traditionalist who thinks that all manner of effects are to be used on the stage to create the atmosphere of real life.

a) Representation without any scenery is too symbolic. A branch of a green tree and a bench on the stage are not enough to represent a garden.

b) The acting should be emphasized at certain phases of the performance and this can be done with the help of skilful scenery.

c) The impression is much stronger when the performance is done on the background of picturesque scenery.

d) Without realistic details a lot of general theatre-goers will fail to understand the message and sometimes even the plot of the play.

e) The level of imagination is not equal in all the people and the theatre is hardly the place to begin to develop it.

f) Theatre-goers are much more ready to believe the actors if they see real life on the stage.

g) If it is necessary to change various scenes one can always pull down the curtain.

i) Sound and light effects are always put to advantage against the background of impressive scenery.