Challenges of Theatre History making generalizations Challenge to cover 3 4 thousand years of theatre history across the globe in 3 4 weeks We will be We will be focusing on western theatre there is a lot of theatre going on all over world We don t know a lot about theatre history because theatre is ephemeral Sources of information about Greek theatre Extant text inexistent texts Not many Only 45 out of 1000 They are translations of translations Only 4 confirmed playwrights Limited evidence Archeological remains of theatre Plays from 5th century BC but ruins of theatre from 4th century Visual art primarily vase painting used masks fallow leather penis replicas used in comedies Visual evidence is in the eye of the creator So we have to piece info together and make a BC Written account NONE of these provide accurate account of what went on behind stage Greek Theatre Based on Greek mythology The Greek world lots of mountains not so big a lot of water Fairly isolated cities seafaring people with navy People from Greece visited all over Africa Each place developed its own local flavor The Spartans valued warfare physical fitness The Athenians were known as politicians scholars thinkers Delphi mystical orical Characteristics Greeks Shared language Greek competition polytheistic many different gods but shared same set of gods humanism humans are at top of pyramid of everything Can train human body and mind to become perfect trained mind and fit body snobs believed they were the best To be civilized you had to speak Greece and believe in their gods First time in history of western theatre that we have proof they had all of things to make theater Across Greece they had specific roles for men and women To vote and be a citizen you have to be native male To hold political office you have to be male Men were away at war a lot Women were believed to be promiscuous and ruled by passion Greatest kind of love was brotherly love between solders Women were supposed to stay home produce children and run household not everyone lived their lives like this Men and women are not equals in society Chronology Trojan war 1200 BCE Thespis 545 BCE Playwrights 525 385 BCE Surrender of Athens 404 BCE Rome came well after poetics Dionysia Dithyrambs and Thespis City Dionysia Religious festival turns into 5 day play competition every march in Athens 1 welcoming ceremonies 2 3 4 day the playwrites submitted their plays Day 5 winner was determined Celebrates Dionysus god of wine First Dithyrambs Later theatre Dithyrambs Hymns Dancing singing Troupes of 50 Thespis A dithyramb singer He had brilliant idea to step out of chorus with a dialogue the first actor 536 533 BCE He was huge success eventually Dithyrambs died out Three types of plays Comedy Featured everyday people Started with crazy happy idea Had sex jokes scatological potty jokes lampooning famous people Term comedy is from komodia revel song Satyr play kind of like comedy Satyrs are part man part goat Satyrs attend Dionysus they love wine Parodied mythical stories One extant satyr play Cyclops Tragedy Features mythic or heroic figures gods kings heroes Kings queens warriors The hero has a character flaw that will ultimately bring him down usually Katharsis the audiences response is to cry and purge and then get on with life The audience comes to a great realization an epiphany From tragodos goat song because the winner would win a goat for sacrifice Aristotle and The Poetics Wrote the poetics in 335 BCE give or take because it looks like a first draft He was a philosopher The tragic effect katharsis is quite possible without a public performance or actors This tells us he s not talking about theatre the poetics is designed to figure out how dramatic construction works what makes tragedy effective He liked to find out how things worked The one he liked best was Oedipus 6 Elements of Tragedy Plot most important the order of the actions activities of the play Character Thought Idea where characters express their viewpoints Verbal language Music song Spectacle Aristotle believes a tragedy doesn t need a lot of special effects These 6 ideas are useful when analyzing a play Other terms from the Poetics The moment of Recognition when the character realizes things are about to go badly Peripety the reversal of fortune rich loses wealth famous loses status Usually happens at same time as moment of recognition Pathos Simple plot Episodic plot easy to write not well constructed Complex plot well constructed plot beginning middle and end makes sense everything is working together Katharsis Playwrights Aristotle is writing about the plays that we are reading The plays were being changed by actors that s why Lycurgus law was passed Upper class men Well educated Not making money doing it for recognition and pride celebraty Actor and coach Tragic authors Submit 3 trageties 1 satyr play tetralogy Comic authors submit 1 comedy Aeschylus 525 456 BC First playwright Introduced the idea of the 2nd actor Sophocles 496 406 BC Introduced the 3rd actor Wrote Antigone and Oedipus Euripides 485 406 Wrote violent sensational plays we have more of his plays than any other playwright Wrote Media Aristophanes Our only comedy writer that we have play from Wrote lyssestrata Behind the scenes City Dionysia Archon selects plays sponsors and judges Choregos One of richest men Paid to house feed and train the chorus Theatrones Building manager Tickets enforcing rules It was a Civic duty Theater Practice Monday October 26 2009 2 26 PM Thorikos Epidarus Athens These cities had theaters Circle reactangle theaters with great acoustics Thorikos is oldest example of theater rectangle Not all from same time period Physical space of theater Theatron where audience is sitting Orchestra dancing place where chorus was in center The stage Skene a structure built behind playing area used for scenery and actors changing room Also changed first was temporary structure then was built on Parados how chorus gets on and off stage Thymele means alter In those days all the theaters had an alter because they were during religious ceremonies But this faded away over time Ekkyklema hidden platform rolls out on wheels Dying people came out on it Mechane crane a quick way to tie up an ending by dropping in a god from the sky Mechanical crane lowered an actor playing god onto the scene Special effects Greek actors All men Chorus always amateurs also all men Allowed to travel exempt from military service Became
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