Creativity

What is atmosphere or mood?

What is the emotional affect of the product on the audience? How does it make the audience feel?

In what way does the product tap into cultural myths, symbols, or archetypes?

How does the product offer enlightenment or meaning?

How does the product artistically tie to the rest of the production?

In What Way Does the Product Tap into Cultural Myths, Symbols, or Archetypes?

One of the more effective ways to generate emotion in an audience member is by tying the product to myths, symbols, or archetypes. In his A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Wilfred L. Guerin explains the mythological and archetypal approaches when analyzing literature. In this essay, I will offer excerpts of Guerin's writing (1) and then attempt to relate his writings to theatre.

The relationship between myth, symbol, or archetype and mise-en-scène has to do with a common response not only to a common experience, but to the artistic representation of that same common experience. The bottom line is that on a very substantive and deep level, we all respond to common experiences because we are all human beings. And when a common experience is represented in the theatre, we respond similarly to the experience, even when the common experience is not real but representation or symbol. In The Masks of God:Primitive Mythology, Joseph Campbell tells of the phenomenon that newborn chicks will see a hawk fly overhead and run for cover. The chicks do not respond the same way when they see other birds. But not only that, a wooden image of a hawk drawn overhead on a wire will elicit the same response. The wooden hawk run backwards does not elicit a response. Campbell points out that the work of art, the wooden hawk, strikes some very deep chord.(2) When confronting an mythic or archetypal work of art, it strikes some very deep chord within us. Guerin writes that:

myth is, in the general sense, universal. Furthermore, similar motifs or themes may be found among many different mythologies, and certain images that recur in the myths of peoples widely separated in time and place tend to have a common meaning or, more accurately, tend to elicit comparable psychological responses and to serve similar cultural functions. Such motifs and images are called archetypes. Stated simply, archetypes are universal symbols.

The theatrical artist/engineer does not have to "make" these connections happen or "make" the patron respond. They simply do. The goal here is to know what archetypes are and how they work in order to make choices appropriate for the production. The theatrical artist/engineer would NOT choose a number of universal symbols in order to make the most connections, but simply see if the engineering product falls into universal symbol, and tap into it to help create an experience for the audience.

Guerin offers some examples of archetypes and their symbolic meanings with which they tend to be associated.

Not all playwrights include water in their plays, but some do. Synge's Riders to the Sea does not ask the scene designer to include the sea as a design element. The sea is not onstage. But the sound of the sea elicits an image of the sea that is archetypal and appropriate for this production. The sound of the sea and the sound of a river are two different sounds, and two different experiences. The sound of a river would not help the production of Riders to the Sea because people have a common experience with sound and the response it creates.

Early theatre and outdoor daylight theatre literally connect to this archetypal image. The artistic representation, of course, has to do with lighting.

Not only painting but light offers color. Of color, though, Guerin is writing about cultural symbol or motif rather than universal archetypes. For instance, people of the Egyptian culture respond to black as life, not evil or darkness, because of their ancient association with the black life-giving soil when the Nile floods.

Again, Guerin writes of not universal archetypes, but cultural symbols and motifs. A set designer would consider these motifs.

Joseph Campbell wrote about just how universal the snake is and how much people of various cultures have blamed the snake.

Numbers are associated with both shape and rhythm, so it is often used in set design and sound design.

This, of course, connects to the play itself and depiction of characters.

Again, this is in the realm of the drama.

Some plays literally call for a garden scene, like My Fair Lady. But turn this around and think in terms of its meaning when designing and the connection could happen.

A. Images
	10. Tree	"In its most general sense, the symbolism of the tree denotes life of the cosmos: its consistence, growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is therefore equivalent to a symbol of immortality." (J.E. Cirlot, A Dictionary of Symbols, trans. Jack Sage (New York: Philosophical Library, 1962) p. 328.

Modern video and computer games seem to use the tree as a combination of the Wise Old Man and archetype.

Australian film tends to use the Desert archetype to indicate a change in a character.

And entire operas, plays, and musical compositions have dealt with this motif.

A rather clear way to see a part of Escape from Time is to think about the movement downward and the movement upward. Because of a universal feeling that downward is descent of self and upward is ascent of self, we have movement of downward into hell or the demon ascent from the depths of hell as well as ascent into heaven and angels descending from heaven. It would not make sense to us if the movement related to its opposite meaning. So we have traps in the stage floor and the deus ex machina in ancient Greek theatre. Mystical submersion into Cyclical Time reminds me of the ancient Egyptian drama, the Abydos Passion Play.

This connects to plot as well as to character type.

1. All quotes from Guerin will be from his book: Wilfred L. Guerin, Earle Labor, Lee Morgan, and John R. Willingham, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 2nd ed. (New York: Harper & Row, 1979) 154 - 162.
   
   
2. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology (New York: Viking Press, 1959) 31.