Theatre on Poster:A Study on Theatrical Poster Design For Shakespeare’s Plays / 紙上劇場:莎士比亞戲劇海報創作論述

碩士 / 國立臺灣師範大學 / 美術學系 / 99 / A theatrical poster is the face of performance. An outstanding theatrical poster not only conveys the essence of a play but also displays the individual interpretation and the unique taste of the designer. Based on the play analysis and theatrical semiology, this study integrates Aristotle’s six elements of drama and proposes three main categories: “theme”, “character”, and “scene”. According to the research of a French theatrical semiologist, Anne Ubersfeld, this study also establishes the meaning triangle and creative conception. Moreover, by probing into the connection between drama/theatre and visual arts, several findings are presented in this study.

First of all, visual arts in theatre being highly respected are due to the visualization of Realism and Naturalism plays, the development of non-realism theatre, and the formulation of directors in the theatre. Second, from seventeenth century, Shakespearean plays became the theme of the paintings. At early times, the styles of paintings were affected by actors and acting techniques which were constrained by the ‘symbol of the emotion’. Later, some of the artists began to read the playscript, by which they were inspired, and thus they expressed their individual perspectives toward the play. At last, by the advance of chromolithography, modern posters have displayed diverse possibilities since nineteenth century. There are two main streams. The first one is the French Art Nouveau and the Polish Conceptual Image Style; their composition and skills are inherited from modern art, such as Surrealism, Futurism, and Expressionism. The second is the German Bauhaus and the Swiss International style; they present the spirit of Modernism──‘form follows function’. Meanwhile, the individuality of the poster designer is enhanced as well.

According to the case analysis, the name of the main character is always used as the title of tragedy and the thought of the play is quite obvious. Therefore, the “character” and “theme” are utilized as the strategies for the theatrical poster design. On the contrary, the title of comedy has already reveals the whole theatrical action, and the meaning of the scene has changed into the theme of the script. The poster design for comedy is thus developed. From the study of theatrical posters of Shakespearean dramas in Taiwan, the design of posters is affected by different productions and the form of theatre.

To conclude, by the aid of play analysis, the connection between images of posters and texts of plays could be precisely investigated. Additionally, the graphs of the theatrical posters can be traced back thorough the history of art and graphic design. Furthermore, the “theme”, “character”, and “scene” form a triangle structure, in which the “theme” commands the other two elements. Finally, due to the application of play analysis and designers’ personal interpretations of the plays, the theatrical posters display wide variety.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:TW/099NTNU5233087
Date January 2011
CreatorsJia Chi, Wu, 吳家祺
ContributorsLing-hung, Shih, 施令紅
Source SetsNational Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan
Languagezh-TW
Detected LanguageEnglish
Type學位論文 ; thesis
Format143

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