Theatre History Extant still in existence Sources about Greek theatre Greece Extant plays Archeological remains Visual art primarily vase painting Firsthand accounts Competition religious ritual Sparta war fighting Athens philosophy art literature Delphi magic oracles religious Shared characteristics Language Greek Competition Polytheistic Humanism Valued control of a trained mind and fit body Snobs Men Women Citizen adult free native born male land owner Hold political office 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 City of Dionysia 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 Government official Selects plays sponsors and judges Hands out awards Choregous Wealthy citzen Trains chorus Civic duty Theatreones Managed the physical theatre In charge of tickets enforcing seating rules Physical Shape More rectangular Wooden benches Hillside Skene Structure backstage Special Affects Ekkylema hidden platform Mechane crane standing behind the skene gave us the concept deus ex machina Costumes Masks actors playing multiple characters gender races Incorporates body language Shoes soft boots for dancing and platform sandals Dithyrambs nobility tragedy Coral hymns with dancing and chanting Performed by troops of 50 men or boys Early Dionysia contests A dithyramb singer steps out of chorus First actor Thespis Plays Tskene Go back and forth time to change Parados Parados Orchestra Theatron ragedy Historical mythic or heroic stories Kings queens warriors Hero tragic flaw leads to downfall Katharsis teach audience a lesson tragodos goat song 1 3 actors 12 50 chorus 5 parts Prologus prologue Parados parade chorus Epeisodic episode talk to each other Stasima choral performance Exodes exit 4Clothing robes Comedy Satyr play Everyday people Happy idea Humor from sex jokes scatological potty jokes Komodia revel song Arstospannes only example of Comedy Clothing padded body suits males wore phallus birds Part man part goat Attendant to Pionysus loves wine Written to accompany tragedies same playwright Parodied mythical stories One extant satyr play Cyclops Clothing padded body suits males wore phallus birds 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 Playwrights Actors Always men Played multiple characters Chorus Always amateurs Clothing All costumed alike may be human or mythical animal Rome Philosophy rhetoric Entertainment Para Theatricals Mimes gladiatorial combats Bestiarii Naumachia 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 Medieval Period 212 AD 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 English Renaissance God 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 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 Plague meant no theatre Where was theatre Public playhouses Outside the city Outdoor theatres South bank Private playhouses Within the city Indoor theatres At court Indoor Royalty and upper crust What was theatre like Stages Three levels of seating Thrust stage Overhang Balcony lord s room so they could be seen Columns Tiring house where they put costumes on 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 Audience Wore clothing of their own time no matter where play was set would throw sheet on for Julius Caesar over clothes Very poor couldn t afford very rich didn t attend would go to court Other popular entertainments bear baiting bull baiting dog and cock fights 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 The Globe One of first public playhouses South bank Shakespeare s theatre Built in 1599 burnt in 1613 second one built in 1614 Close by puritans and the English civil war in 1642 Rebuilt in London in 1977 Blackfriars Indoor private theatre Resembled the Globe stage Closed in 1642 Shakespeare Actor shareholder resident playwright in the Lord Chamberlain s men businessman Householder in the Globe and Blackfriars in charge of building Histories Richard money tragedies R J comedies comedy profit of erros Later work were likely collaborations Transition to Romanticism Naturalism Realism Neoclassicism Rigid rule based Revival of the classics Greek and roman Unities time place and action Tragedy about nobility Comedy about middle lower class Five acts Problem boring all the same because so rule based Romanticism Nature over civilization Love Idealized artist truer connection to nature Richard Wagner unified production gesamkunstuerk master Star system wants to see specific actor that is in touch with artist nature Influences of Realism and Naturalism 1850 s and industrial revolution More people move to the city Matthew Brady
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