Theatre History Extant still in existence Sources about Greek theatre Greece o Extant plays o Archeological remains o Visual art primarily vase painting o Firsthand accounts o Competition religious ritual o Sparta war fighting o Athens philosophy art literature o Delphi magic oracles religious o Shared characteristics Language Greek Competition Polytheistic Humanism o Men Hold political office o Women Valued control of a trained mind and fit body Snobs Citizen adult free native born male land owner Best love is brotherly love between soldiers Away at war Promiscuous and passionate Produce children and run the household Supposed to stay home Poor women worked the market wealthy women shopped Participated in some religious festivals Courtesans attended man parties Could not be a citizen but could pass on citizenship to her son s Religious festival Every March in Athens Celebrates God Dionysia wine parties ferity theatre Featured dithyramb contests troop of 50 music chanting dancing All extant plays were meant for the City of Dionysia contest Archon o City of Dionysia Government official Hands out awards Selects plays sponsors and judges Choregous Wealthy citzen Trains chorus Civic duty Theatreones Physical Shape More rectangular Wooden benches Hillside Skene Special Affects deus ex machina Costumes Managed the physical theatre In charge of tickets enforcing seating rules Theatron Orchestra Parados Parados o Structure backstage skene Ekkylema hidden platform Mechane crane standing behind the skene gave us the concept Incorporates body language Shoes soft boots for dancing and platform sandals nobility tragedy Masks actors playing multiple characters gender races o Dithyrambs Coral hymns with dancing and chanting Performed by troops of 50 men or boys Early Dionysia contests o Thespis o Plays Tragedy A dithyramb singer steps out of chorus First actor Kings queens warriors Historical mythic or heroic stories Hero tragic flaw leads to downfall Katharsis teach audience a lesson tragodos goat song 1 3 actors 12 50 chorus 5 parts o Prologus prologue o Parados parade chorus o Epeisodic episode talk to each other o Stasima choral performance o Exodes exit 4Clothing robes Go back and forth time to change Everyday people Komodia revel song Arstospannes only example of Comedy Clothing padded body suits males wore phallus birds Comedy Happy idea Humor from sex jokes scatological potty jokes Satyr play Written to accompany tragedies same playwright Parodied mythical stories One extant satyr play Cyclops Part man part goat Attendant to Pionysus loves wine Clothing padded body suits males wore phallus birds o Playwrights Upper class men Well educated Not making money Tragic authors submitted three tragedies plus one comedy 3 playwrights Aeschylus 1st tragedy 2nd actor Sophocles hired someone else to act less formal language hubris pride 3rd actor Euripides become disillusioned violent plots believed man is in control of his own destiny o Actors Always men Played multiple characters Chorus Rome o Philosophy rhetoric o Entertainment o Para Theatricals Always amateurs Clothing All costumed alike may be human or mythical animal Mimes gladiatorial combats Bestiarii Naumachia o Christians fed to the lions Had unmasked and women actors in public sphere women played prostitutes Anti theatrical prejudice in Rome Writings encouraging people not go Tertullians De Spactaculis read bible if want blood 196 212 AD o Medieval Period Approx 500 years without record of theater CC said no dominant rule Middle ages or medieval Power of church Spiritual world was dominant After 10th century AD church uses theatre to teach illiterate pop Hell mouth Anonymous most common playwright about the glory of God o English Renaissance Queen Elizabeth was patron of arts Playwrights Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare would reference each other James former king of Scotland Playwrights Shakespeare Beaumont and Fletcher Who Made Theatre in ER Theatre companies Shareholders gave money hired men boys played women o Lord Chamberlain s Men Richard Burbage leading actor William Shakespeare wrote and acted Later King s men when James becomes King Played in London or went touring o Plague meant no theatre Where was theatre Public playhouses o Outside the city o Outdoor theatres o South bank Private playhouses o Within the city o Indoor theatres At court o Indoor o Royalty and upper crust What was theatre like Stages o Three levels of seating o Thrust stage o Overhang o Balcony lord s room so they could be seen o Columns o Tiring house where they put costumes on o Two entrances shown but most likely three discovery space dramatic reveal cause it has a curtain In the elements in the afternoon Not a lot of scenery wasn t needed Script tells us what we need to know about where we are Speak quickly not too much hands mirror up to nature act like real people Costumes o Wore clothing of their own time no matter where play was set would throw sheet on for Julius Caesar over clothes Audience o Very poor couldn t afford very rich didn t attend would go to court and cock fights o Other popular entertainments bear baiting bull baiting dog o Had an active interactive relationship with actors Daylight meant audience was fully visible not quiet can t ignore Eating drinking prostitution pick pockets The audience and the soliloquy asides Would suffer with characters in tragedy dance at end to lighten mood every play Theatres The Theatre o One of first public playhouses The Globe o South bank o Shakespeare s theatre o Built in 1599 burnt in 1613 second one built in 1614 o Close by puritans and the English civil war in 1642 o Rebuilt in London in 1977 Blackfriars o Indoor private theatre o Resembled the Globe stage o Closed in 1642 o Shakespeare Actor shareholder resident playwright in the Lord Chamberlain s men businessman Householder in the Globe and Blackfriars in charge of building profit Histories Richard money tragedies R J comedies comedy of erros Later work were likely collaborations Transition to Romanticism Naturalism Realism o Neoclassicism Rigid rule based Revival of the classics Greek and roman Unities time place and action o Romanticism Tragedy about nobility Comedy about middle lower class Five acts Problem boring all the same because so rule based Nature over civilization Love Idealized artist truer connection to nature Richard Wagner unified production gesamkunstuerk master artist Star system wants to see specific actor that is in touch
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