What are the Difficulties in Studying Theatre History We are focusing on Western Theatre We must make large generalizations about time periods and geographies Theatre is ephemeral Theatre is limited extant material Sources of Information about Greek Theatre Extant texts texts that have survived from the past and exist in the present Archaeological remains Commentaries such as Aristotle Visual art in Greece primarily statues and vase painting Origins of Western Theatre Ritual Theories o Origin of tragedy from Dithyramb choral odes to honor God o Origin of comedy Phallic processions Gerald Else s Great Man Theory o Actor Thespis stepped out of dithyramb chorus to enact role of God Dionysus Thespians o Playwright Aeschylus introduced second actor The Greek World 534 BC 476 AD Ancient Greece Political Structure o Democratic o City states or polis i e Athens artistic center Sparta military Delphi magic Religion o Polytheistic o Gods interacted with humans Cultural Values o Competition origins of Olympics o Wisdom and Reason o Rhetoric and Oratory o Male dominated Dionysus God of Wine Fertility Revelry Theatre Dithyrambs odes to the god Dionysus Theatre Practice in Ancient Greece Occasional and Competitive o Tragedy means goat song best play one a goat Festivals o 534 BC first festival specifically devoted to theatre o Three major festivals in Ancient Greece 5 day festivals package of plays three plays trilogy and a Satyr play last day comedy play Audience o Whole polis not sure about women and slaves though o Civic duty to go to theatre Types of Plays at Theatre Festivals Tragedy Comedy Satyr plays a satyr o Short comic play that made fun of tragedies or politics o Performed by people who dressed like half man half goat also called Tragedy Based on Oedipus what are the qualities of tragedy Based on historical or mythic stories Features kings queens gods describes fall of these people Hero has a flaw hamartia that leads to his her downfall Teaches the audience a lesson and allows them to release their emotions catharsis Comedy Everyday people Main character faces a difficult situation happy idea o In Lysistrata the happy idea is to deny sex to men which would in turn end the Peloponnesian War Humor comes from sex jokes scatological potty jokes and satires of famous people survive from four playwrights There were thousands of plays written but only 33 tragedies and 11 comedies Aeschylus earliest extant plays introduced second actors shrank the chorus Satyr Play Features the satyr Written to accompany tragedies Parodied mythical stories Only one extant satyr play Cyclops Agamemnon Sophocles died by falling turtle hitting head Euripides Aristophanes comic playwright Greek Actors All men Max of 3 actors played multiple parts Backed by the chorus however The Chorus Between 50 14 men What was the role of the chorus o Characters townspeople o Source of discussion with protagonist o Spectacle Strophe Antistrophe Both of these were dances in plays Provided message of play Just below Acropolis Theatre of Dionysus Location Circular stage Audience is looking down at stage Thrust stage Huge area Physical theatre parts of the theatre o Theatron seeing place Up to 15 000 seats o Orchestra dancing place Held the chorus o Skene fa ade stage look at tiring house on pg 4 Behind the orchestra Storage for everything involved with the play Clothes Props Backgrounds o Parados Entries for going on and off the stage o Thymele Altar Special Effects No props or set Ekkyklema evolving or rolling platform hidden behind skene doors Mechane crane standing behind the skene no violence on stage o Used for appearance of goads for fantastical flights on birds o Deus ex Machina god from the machine Costumes Tragedy o Robes o Accessories Comedy Satyr o Paddled body suits o Phallus Chorus o All costumed alike o May be human or animal Masks and Shoes o Masks Actors could play multiple characters Emblems to communicate gender race job class Later developed built in megaphone Size make actors larger Display emotions of characters o Shoes Platform shoes thought it was used to make actors bigger Could have been part of statue though Rome 240 BC 476 AD Mimes men and women were unmasked Gladiatorial combats Bestiarii beast fights Naumachia sea battles o They would flood the Coliseum and have sea battles Fall of Rome 476 AD leads to Medieval Era Medieval Theatre o Theatre in church o Tried to scare people into what they believed Elizabethan England r 1558 1603 Queen Elizabeth was a patron of the arts 1588 English defeated Spanish Armada religious stability secured Anglican power Every year she would go around kingdom and visit the people o During Renaissance used classics as a pedestal Locations of the Theatres o Not within the city limits o On the south bank of the Teems River Theatre began to become popular entertainment o Bear baiting bestiarii type of entertainment o Public executions Elizabethan Staging Practice Public theatres o The Globe Theatre Private theatres o Ex Blackfriars theatre Characteristics of the Theatre Polygon Partial roof open air theatre Many level auditorium o Help approx 2500 Yard groundlings Characteristics of the Stage Raised thrust stage o Fa ade stage stage that doesn t change and just represents a single Traps Backed by Tiring House location or face Heavens Discovery space 1564 1616 born in Stanford upon Avon William Shakespeare wrote about 38 plays o history plays o tragedies o comedies The First Folio 1623 had Shakespeare s plays in it Other Playwrights in England at the Time Christopher Marlowe Ben Jonson Performance Practices All male companies Shareholding Sifting the Text for Acting Clues Prose and verse Iambic pentameter o Scansion Rhetorical devices o Alliteration o Consonance o Couplets o Antithesis o Lists o Imagery Transition to Realism The Renaissance or Rebirth 14th 17th Century Rebirth from Middle Ages Return to Classics of Greece and Rome Neoclassicism Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation 1517 and Henry VIII 1540 and Anglican Church Gutenberg and Printing Press 1454 Bibles printed in vernacular Transition to Romanticism and Realism England they shut down the theatre o 1660 The Restoration o 1642 Charles I beheaded by Puritans who establish commonwealth Charles II returns to England from France Brings with him women on stage Neoclassicism rigid and rule based unities time place and action Romanticism Roughly 1750 1850 Social context Rousseau 1712 1778 o Nature over
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