THAR 281 1st Edition Lecture 2 Outline of Last Lecture I Imitation II Ceremony vs Ritual III Popular Entertainment IV Theater The Basics V Stage Types and Their Components VI Technical Theater aka Stage Craft Outline of Current Lecture I City Dionysia What is it II Aristotle III Aeschylus IV Sophocles V Euripides VI Aristophanes VII Myths to Know VII The Chorus and Messenger in Theater VII Catharsis VIII Climatic Form Current Lecture I City Dionysia What is it a City Dionysia is a huge festival held in Athens in the Spring b It is held in Spring because that s when land becomes fertile again and the days are longer c Businesses stop war stops political discussion stops everything stops so that people can go watch the play II Aristotle a Primarily interested in the sciences b Wrote one piece of drama called The Poetics c He named 6 characters of theater listed by in order of importance 1 Plot 2 Character 3 Theme 4 Language 5 Music 6 Spectacle d He tries to define tragedy as sad complete and of certain magnitude e Sais tragedy was written in climatic form III IV V VI VII Aeschylus a Oldest surviving dramatist represents Western drama as a whole b First person who said to have 2 characters in front of the chorus instead of just 1 i Did this in order to create dialogue c Said to reduce the size of the chorus from 50 to 15 people i Smaller group creates more clarity in language d Wrote about 90 plays 7 of them we still have and can use today i Ex Supplints and Oresta Sophocles a Said to have 3 people on stage instead of 2 like Aeschylus had suggested b Won first prize at the City Dionysia festival c Wrote about 100 plays only 7 still exist today i Ex Oedipus Trilogy Antigone and Elektra Euripides a Most modern of Greek playwrights i Because he portrays women with pity ii Mixed comedy with tragedy iii Questioned the gods and heroes b Least awarded of major Greek playwrights because of his controversial writing c Wrote 90 plays 18 are still used today i Ex Medea and Bacchae Aristophanes a Best known comic playwright of Greeks b Very specific to the times so it is hard to translate c Wrote about 40 plays 11 are still used today i Ex The Birds and The Clouds and The Frogs Myths to Know a Medea is left by Jason and she extracts revenge on him She kills the new wife of Jason kills the kids she had with Jason and kills the father of Jason s new wife She sends a robe to Jason s new wife that is poisoned and eventually the poison reaches everybody leading to their death b Oedipus parents are warned that if they have a son their son will kill the dad and marry the mother his own mother The king and queen have a son and abandon him in fear that the prediction will come true Oedipus returns not knowing who his father or mother is and kills the king and marries the queen VII The Chorus and Messenger in Theater a The Chorus provides background information at the beginning b The Chorus comments on the action c The Chorus provides crowds for crowd scenes d Messenger comes in to give news on what happens offstage VIII Catharsis a Catharsis is a purging cleansing of emotion b By watching tragic events like Medea s story then the audience experiences same emotions as the scene portrays and the learns from them VIII Climatic Form a Tends to emphasize plot over character b Action of the play begins near the climax this requiring good amount of background information to occur offstage c Violence tends to occur offstage d Heavily influences Italian Renaissance and the well made play of the 18 th century
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