Theater 109 Introduction to Theater Final Study Guide Scenic Design Architecture Terms o Theatre Storytelling Theatron meaning seeing place o Play purpose expression of playwright s themes Plays can combine Didactic means that teaches offering instructions Cautionary Tale warns you of wicked ways Call to Action causes to rally or make you feel proactive Amusement to divert give good time o Orchestra dancing place reserved for performers known as the o chorus Singers Dancers o Skene o hut little house booth shed o Performers used to prepare a k a dressing room o 3 doors o Pro skene Wide shallow wooden platform o Wing and drop set wings are legs painted like drops to change the scene Many sets o Box Set has a proscenium arch stage and three walls Opening is the fourth wall o Unit Set structurally doesn t change much o Flexible Black Box Theater simple unadorned design that makes an extremely flexible space Stage and seating not fixed o Found Theater theaters made by other converted places o Proscenium Arch like a picture frame stage No proskene Skene is pushed back o Courtyard Three Quarter Round Thrust Theatre of ShakespeareL 1580 1640 Elizabethean o Arena In The Round used all in Europe Used by Professional theater companies not writers religious during the renaissance Types of Drama Comedy Funny Song Happy Endings Tragedy Goat song o Based on Legends Myths or Historic Events o Ex Oedipus the King o 3 actors can play multiple char o 15 chorus Romance romance is the overriding theme with conflicts involving relationships Domestic Drama serious play not kings gods social It s about everyday people Problem Play ex A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen Comedy of Manners flipside of domestic drama Gives rise to Melodrama moral ethical exaggerated situations Pokes fun at upper class leisure class o 1 Coincidence o 2 Secret o 3 Letter Document o 4 Long lost friend o 5 Threat Psychological Realism Emphasis on interior of characters and their motives Poetic Realism emerged in france 1930 Depicts society going through disappointment regret Social Realism the realistic depiction of contemporary life while commenting on society and and estrangement politics Magic Realism where the fantastic is a reality like fantasy fiction or science fiction Theatre of The Absurd or Theatre of Despair Used as a political tool Very unconventional and odd Used to express human struggle in a senseless world Plays were during the 20th century philosophy of Existensialism Spectacle Theater play memorable for the appearance it creates Mystery play Cycle Play Sanskrit Drama during Gupta Empire India 1st 8th CE Lots of dance music spokenword elaborate costumes Noh Theatre late 1300 1600 Japan Means accomplishment performance Always has the same house design with three pine trees to position the actors for speeches Kabuki Theatre early 1600 Had mechanical props for special effects Muscle powered Classical Japanese dance drama Means singing dancing art Focuses on the visual aspects of theatre Bunraku Theatre Late 1600 traditional Japanese puppet theater 3 kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance A puppet drama The puppets are extremely complex Yuan Theater during Yuan Dynasty China 1279 1368 Dynasty of the Khans Theatre was for the royals nobles the court 550 playwrights known Died out with the following dynasty Knowledge of these plays flourished in Europe like how Marco Polo brought back noodles Peking Opera during Ching Dynasty 1644 1912 PROSE Elaborate musical performance Elite entertainment popularity spread available to public and eventually became popular Includes acrobatics and martial arts Most popular was Monkey King Puppetry Wayang Kulit Shadow Stick rod Hand Marionette Doll Climactic most common cause effect Row of dominoes One event after the other Compound multiple plots Cyclical the plot begins and ends in the same or similar place Episodic things are parallel to each other Ex Lysistrata by Aristophanes or Angels in America by Types of Plot Tony Kushner Historic Eras BCE vs CE Before Common Era Before Christ vs Common Era Antiquity Greek and Roman o 500 300 BCE Golden Age of Greek Culture o Roman Empire was heavily influenced with Rein of Gods Hundreds of Greek Theatres Knowledge o Greeks had large open air theatres located on hillsides Also understood acoustics well Medieval Middle Ages Dark Ages church was the only stable government Church had increasing influence Little known about theater during this time o Mystery plays based on holy scriptures o Renaissance ReBirth during 533 CE roman theatre completely stopped because of the growth of the Christian church Theater doesn t get rediscovered for a thousand years in the renaissance era o 300 year span of learning Banking Printing European explores new world due to the crusades o 1300 1600 o Across Europe from Italy to North Teatro Olimpico 1585 first new theater in Europe Roman theater Teatro Farnese 1616 mixed buildings in Parme Italy Elizabethan England included the Globe theatre in london Victorian Europe and America historic era Queen Victoria was the fashion icon She influenced the costumes for Hamlet The women s costumes are identical or similar to Queen Victoria s style Modern more of a static term Contemporary modern but is a more dynamic changing term Pre Realism 500 BCE 1880 CE Realism works to reflect real human actions in culture o Writing plays about social problems Questions institutions and focuses on middle class o was a scientific way of dealing with the Industrial Revolution in an artistic way Misc Aristotle s Fundamental Elements of Theatre 355 BCE 1 Plot when the story 2 Character who 3 Language 4 Spectacle lighting scenery choreo music stage combat 5 Music 6 Theme main idea Intellectual purpose what the playwright wants you to understand misery Dionysus barrier Blackface Brownface yelloface etc Catastrophe turning point action or decision by the hero ignorance to wisdom happiness to Chorus group of singers and dancers Dionysus God of Theatre As well as God of Wine and Fertility There is a Great Theatre of Dramatic Conflict essential to a play 2 or more characters with different goals objectives Exposition expository information it exposes reveals to the audience Conveys information Dialogue that gives facts about characters Fourth Wall space that separate a performer or performance from an audience Conceptual Minstrel show minstrelsy a form of American entertainment performed by whites in blackface Developed in US in mid