NYTimes.com: Generally speaking, we don’t go to the theater to listen to conversations that we might just as easily hear while waiting in line at the grocery store or commuting on the subway. Among the essential gifts most great playwrights possess is an ability to take the dross of humble human speech and give it a silvering polish.
2 comments:
I find modern speech patterns quite annoying at times, as the author the article said, "after 8 hours, hearing someone talk about themselves" is really boring and tiring. BUT, when put into a theatrical context, it magically changes this. Instead of the language choices being an annoying tick a 30-something year old woman uses, it's a character choice that tells us about who this character is. And, maybe, by this speech, we know that this character is a 30 year old woman. Somehow, theatre takes the language of everyday into a heightened place, where it isn't just tuned out with all the extra "um"s people use, but instead highlighted positively. It drives character and dialogue, where in real life, it just makes someone sound unintelligent.
I am actually really interested in language and how we currently craft speech. I agree with Kelly's thoughts that modern speech patterns can be quite annoying, but I love analyzing the ways in which modern speech patterns work. There are bits and pieces of past speech patterns that still exist, but much of the speech style has changed. When thinking of theatre, speech patterns do add a lot to a character. Speech patterns tell us a lot about the background of a character. It tells us about where they are from, who they are, and what their objectives are. Agreeing with Kelly, I love that theatre takes everyday language to a heightened place. Analyzing speech through theatre is one of my favorite things to do when watching theatre.
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