"Behind the Screen Door"

“Behind The Screen Door” Notes

Aronson

Notes by Jeremy Helgeson

 

“The door is a barrier: a bulwark against the chaos that lurks just beyond. But it is an easily transgressed border, and the forces of disorder slip in with ease to disrupt the illusory status quo.”

-The door closes off the scene to show what exactly we are to observe, as well as to give a depth beyond the scene that we see. It is a point of entry and exit, and with each it improves the scene with more depth as the audience must wonder what lies beyond, or better, to forget what lies beyond, and what may be happening with the character once he traverses the threshold.

 

“What is theater, after all, if not a series of exits and entrances?”

-And indeed, what is life without exits and entrances? These fundamental beginnings and endings take place in all things, including computers (Binary code is 1 or 0, open or closed)

 

-Doors set up the scene, and can cause rhythms for comedy or drama.

 

-When doors were first put on stage, it changed the face of theatrical design forever:

-In Ancient Greek theatre, there were no doors, and actors would traverse a long path to get to the stage, remaining visible while they did so. This meant they would have to be announced by other actors on stage as they came “But lo! She comes!” etc etc. This left room for the audience to feel almost every emotion except for Surprise.

-When the door did come along, a whole slew of possibilities opened. One example used is that Murders could be shown quickly on stage without having to show the violence leading to it. (As it was impractical at the time) If there were no doors for the surprise of entry, “the cries of murder would have to have come from somewhere down the hillside and the bodies carried up the long pathway to reveal their deaths.”

 

-Now we have shows like Seinfeld that focus almost entirely on the doorway to apartments opening and closing, introducing and disposing of characters.

 

-The door separates “the world seen” from “the world unseen” The tangible and the implied. Negative space behind the door is very powerful in what it hides and shows.

-This hidden aspect of the door is important. A scream of terror from behind a door can be far more effective than a scream of a visible actor on stage. This is again the idea of the visible and invisible.

 

What is also important is the imagination that tells the audience what is behind the door. If I enter the scene from the door, it is easy to imagine that when I leave, I have my car parked just outside, or whatnot.

 

“The powerful symbolism [of the door] implies a world beyond – unseen, yet present.” Rather than the chaotic backstage world “with virtually no relation to the illusion the audience sees onstage.”

 

A door marks the boundary between to spaces, yet belongs to neither. These boundaries can represent many things:

-Thresholds to new beginnings (carrying the bride through the door)

-Thresholds against evil (spirits)

- A passage of character (the door to the afterlife)

- Creation of a character (backstage to onstage)

 

The door also calls attention to whomever should use it. It is hard (especially on stage) to avoid drawing attention when using a door (Just think of using doors backstage even!)

 

Recently, the live stage has moved away from the use of doors. Because of this, some plays have become locked into a rhythm that can only repeat until it ends, and can have no definite end with a door (even the metaphorical door of the story) shutting behind it.

 

“If a door is opened in the first act, it must be closed by the last”

-This idea guarantees a beginning and an end, clear-cut for the audience to observe. It brings a definite close to the story and the characters transformations, instead of just leaving the audience hanging waiting for what could or won’t happen next.

 

“Comedy cannot exist without doors” They need them for their comic rhythms (timed entrances, breaks in comedic scenes, etc) this same explanation is used to say why farce must also have doors.

 

Television mediums break down the symbolism and importance of doors because the perspective can change (unlike in live theatre). Also, the camera can traverse the door to the beyond, shattering the illusion of something or nothing to be described by the audience that it is capable of creating.

 

“On the stage, a door is a sign of the liminal, the unknown, the potential, the terrifying, the endless. On the screen, the door is a sign of a door.”