Lecture 2Outline of Last Lecture I. ImitationII. Ceremony vs. RitualIII. Popular Entertainment IV. Theater: The Basics V. Stage Types and Their ComponentsVI. Technical Theater (aka Stage Craft)Outline of Current Lecture I. City Dionysia: What is it?II. AristotleIII. AeschylusIV. SophoclesV. EuripidesVI. AristophanesVII. Myths to KnowVII. The Chorus and Messenger in TheaterVII. CatharsisVIII. Climatic Form Current LectureI. 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 longerc. Businesses stop; war stops; political discussion stops; everything stops so that people can go watch the playII. Aristotlea. Primarily interested in the sciencesb. Wrote one piece of drama called “The Poetics” c. He named 6 characters of theater (listed by in order of importance):1. Plot2. Character3. Theme4. Language5. Music6. Spectacled. He tries to define tragedy as sad, complete, and of certain magnitudee. Sais tragedy was written in climatic form THAR 281 1st EditionIII. Aeschylusa. Oldest surviving dramatist; represents Western drama as a wholeb. First person who said to have 2 characters in front of the chorus instead of just 1i. Did this in order to create dialoguec. Said to reduce the size of the chorus (from 50 to 15 people) i. Smaller group creates more clarity in languaged. Wrote about 90 plays; 7 of them we still have and can use todayi. Ex: Supplints and OrestaIV. Sophoclesa. Said to have 3 people on stage instead of 2 like Aeschylus had suggestedb. 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 V. Euripidesa. Most “modern: of Greek playwrightsi. Because he portrays women with pityii. Mixed comedy with tragedyiii. Questioned the gods and heroesb. Least awarded of major Greek playwrights because of his controversial writingc. Wrote 90 plays; 18 are still used todayi. Ex: Medea and Bacchae VI. Aristophanesa. Best known comic playwright of Greeksb. Very specific to the times so it is hard to translatec. Wrote about 40 plays; 11 are still used todayi. Ex: The Birds and The Clouds and The Frogs VII. 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 newwife 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 beginningb. The Chorus comments on the actionc. The Chorus provides crowds for crowd scenesd. Messenger comes in to give news on what happens offstageVIII.Catharsisa. Catharsis is a purging/cleansing of emotionb. 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 Forma. Tends to emphasize plot over characterb. Action of the play begins near the climax, this requiring good amount of background information to occur offstage c. Violence tends to occur offstaged. Heavily influences Italian Renaissance and the “well-made play” of the 18th
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