"The World on Stage" States

• “All that is on the stage is a sign”
• Theater is made up of things that are what they seem to be.
o Ex: a chair on stage is a chair pretending to be another chair
• There is a meaning to everything on stage.
• Definition of art used in the article: “[Art] exists to make one feel things…to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known….Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important.” (Shklovsky)
• Art is meant for us to look at something in a new light and take away all previously existing thoughts about it.
• Art gives the world meaning, and it allows the world to express itself.
• “Phenomenological philosophy is a continual desymbolization of the world.”
• Distinction between image and sign:
o “the term sign is a sign of the semiotic attitude, which is heavily dialectical”
o “the sign is of no value unless if repeats itself”
o Signs can be read easily and is straight to the point, not extravagant.
o “Image (the more aesthetic term) is any likeness made out of the materials of the medium”
o “the image is unique and unreproducible”
• We can’t reduce plays down to their signs, otherwise Macbeth would be “the sign of a dagger with a diagonal red line across it.” There are lessons and purposes to plays; signs simply help get the message across.
• When we read, words are signs.
• Seeing Macbeth is more powerful than reading it because the actors portray emotions that simple words on a page may not be able to portray.
• Things that resist being either signs or images:
o A working clock on stage is a disturbance because time in the play could clash with real time. It also makes us aware that “theatrical time is being measured by a real clock.”
o Fire and running water work the same way as a clock.
o Child actors also distract the audience. The audience begins thinking about the child actor, as opposed to the child in the play.
o Stage animals can be trained or tranquilized, but they cannot comprehend that they are in a play, thus they are unpredictable. A stage animal’s own personality and actions can be used for an effect on the stage.
• Art uses signs to represent something the object is not and forces us to view things anew.