Abstract
The cross-informing relevancy of the theatrical arts and the art of legal advocacy are identified and illustrated through a pedagogical comparative analysis of the two disciplines. This chapter (1) identifies fundamental theatrical theories and practices relevant to communicating facts and influencing perceptions; (2) describes the theatrical dimensions (and constraints) of the courtroom as a stage, as well as analyzes the component parts of a jury trial illustrating its parallel structure to the theatrical arts; (3) demonstrates the reciprocating value-added to both arts and their respective actors and litigators through cross-disciplinary study and application; (4) proposes an integrated course model that crosses the disciplines of both theater and law, as well as crosses undergraduate and graduate student populations and experiences; and (5) provides an illustrative, robust conclusion that the integration of the theater arts and the law provides undergraduate and graduate educational experience that prepares both populations for adaptability in their careers and engaged citizenship.
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- 1.
“What Are the Humanities?” Stanford Humanities Center, accessed July 28, 2016, http://shc.stanford.edu/what-are-the-humanities.
- 2.
Karl Nickerson Llewellyn , The Bramble Bush: Some Lectures on Law and Its Study (New York, 1930), reprinted in Karl Nickerson Llewellyn on Legal Realism (Birmingham: Legal Classics Library, 1986), 2.
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“Peter Brook Quotes,” AZ Quotes, accessed July 28, 2016, http://www.azquotes.com/quote/781082. Peter Brook is “an English theatre and film director who has been based in France since the early 1970s. He has won multiple Tony and Emmy Awards, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Praemium Imperiale, and the Prix Italia,” Wikipedia, s.v. “Peter Brook ,” last modified June 18, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Brook.
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Michael Frost, “Ethos, Pathos and Legal Audience,” Dickinson Law Review 99 (Fall 1994): 86–87.
- 5.
Ibid., at 86. Aristotle , among other ancients such as Cicero, recognized that the presentation of a legal case would often be made toward an “audience” that was neither legally trained nor particularly inclined toward justice. Krista C. McCormack, “Ethos, Pathos and Logos: The Benefits of Aristotelian Rhetoric,” Washington University Jurisprudence Review 7, no. 1 (2014): 132–133.
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Aristotle , Poetics, part 6. Clarence Darrow, one of America’s most famous trial lawyers, placed a high premium on the lawyer’s ability to make the jury accept or like the defendant’s character. Darrow is reported to have said, “Jurymen seldom convict a person they like, or acquit one that they dislike. The main work of a trial lawyer is to make a jury like his client, or, at least to feel sympathy for him; facts regarding the crime are relatively unimportant.” Laurie L. Levenson, “Courtroom Demeanor: The Theater of the Courtroom,” Minnesota Law Review 92 (2008): 575.
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For a good discussion of the role of spectacle in political trials, see Ronald P. Sokol, “The Political Trial: Courtroom as Stage, History as Critic,” New Literary History 2, no. 3 (1971): 495–516.
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While governments seek to convey messages in highly publicized “show trials,” the defense lawyers can use the spotlight directed on such trials for their own ends. Abbie Hoffman, one of the Chicago Seven, tried for conspiracy following the 1968 Democratic National Convention, famously described the defendants’ disruption of proceedings as “an example of guerrilla theater.” Pnina Lahav, “Theater in the Courtroom the Chicago Conspiracy Trial,” Law and Literature 16, no. 3 (2004): 381, 386.
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“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury.” US Constitution, Amendment VI.
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Some of what is demonstrated, however, is not particularly flattering about our society. “Research suggests that people viewed as facially unattractive are more likely to be perceived as criminal than are facially attractive persons,” David L. Wiley, “Beauty and the Beast: Physical Appearance Discrimination in American Criminal Trials,” St. Mary’s Law Journal 27 (1995): 211–212.
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The 1995 prosecution of O.J. Simpson for the deaths of his wife and her friend, the live-streamed trial has become an Emmy Award-nominated television series. See Emily Yahr, “Complete List of Emmy Nominations 2016: ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘People v. O. J. Simpson’ Lead the Pack,” Washington Post, July 14, 2016, accessed August 9, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/07/14/emmy-nominations-2016-complete-coverage/.
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See, for example, the website Famous American Trials: The O. J. Simpson Trial, 1995 (University of Missouri –Kansas City), accessed August 9, 2016, http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/Simpson/simpson.htm.
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For a discussion about the impact of the O.J. Simpson trial ten years after the verdict, see “The O. J. Verdict: The Trial’s Significance and Lasting Impact,” Frontline, October 4, 2005, accessed August 9, 2016, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/oj/view/.
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Ibid.
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See Stephen Labaton, “Lessons of Simpson Case Are Reshaping the Law,” New York Times, October 6, 1995, http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/06/us/lessons-of-simpson-case-are-reshaping-the-law.html.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 9.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 18.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 19.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 15.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 6.
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Aristotle , Poetics, chap. 6.
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William Shakespeare, As You Like It, act 2, sc. 7, lines 139–166, accessed July 28, 2016, https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/you-it-act-ii-scene-vii-all-worlds-stage.
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Marshall, K.S., Dillon, S., O’Connor, M., Gomez, P. (2018). Theater and the Law: The Cross-Disciplinary Integration of Theory and Practice in the Theatrical Arts and the Art of Advocacy. In: Hensel, N. (eds) Exploring, Experiencing, and Envisioning Integration in US Arts Education. The Arts in Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71051-8_11
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