534 BCE the golden Age of ancient Greek theatre Era where theatre was born Abydos Passion Play One of the earliest records of and performance comes from Africa Performed as early as 2500 BCE It focused on the myths of Egyptian culture the story of the life death and resurrection of god Osiris It is performed in the most sacred place of Egypt The burial site of Osiris Abydos Came to us on a tablet created by Ikhernoret Aesthetic Distance Allows the audience to separate themselves from the events on stage and to recognize that these are not a part of their objective reality Children don t have this ability EX Doctor Osborne s son thinking fire on TV is real Athens Famous for the cultural stronghold for Greece Artist or philosopher or theatre per son you wanted to reside in Athens Bunraku Japanese puppet theatre Began in 1734 Each puppet required 3 puppeteers One person moves legs another left hand another right hand and head 10 years of training for each Most experienced puppeteer trains 30 years and moves head and right arm Puppets are about 3 feet tall Catharsis Greek Theatre It is an emotional purging Audience members go into a theatre and the process of watching a tragedy helps them purge negative emotions Particularly pity and fear Get rid of negative emotions Chitlin Circuit A popular form of entertainment that started in the 1920s but has had a popular resurgence again It consists of shows that advertise there shows as black theatre A lot of them are over the top comedies that deal with real life issues EX Beauty Shop Choregos Behind the scenes of Greek Tragedy the producer the citizen in charge of pay ing for everything and making stuff happen City Dionysia Festival of Theatre Oldest theatre that has been recorded of Athens was linked to this and theatre tragedies Thespis won the competition on acting and it was recorded on the Parian Marble this documents theatre definitely happening Festival lasted 7 days in honor of Greek god Dionysis Days 1 3 Parades rituals Days 4 6 3 tragedies everyday and a satyr play Day 7 5 Comedies was a nice way to end competition Colonialism With Colonialism you have some kind of power that will send people to colo nize in an uncolinized land The Europeans continue to explore and colonize Africa The Europeans divided the land up in Africa into different countries there were a bunch of tribes that ended up being separated Africa is primarily unstable because of this Color blind Casting The equal opportunity act which is designed to give people opportu nities not based on looks but based on acting and talent Regardless of race religion or creed you can be cast in whatever role your talent suits Wilson came out really strongly about this He didn t like it Content Form What story is being told Content How is the story being told Form Deus ex machina Special effects in Greek Theatre It is a big crane that would allow someone to be launched up into the air so that they would fly into the stage Euripides was fond of this device and he would fly in a god in his play Didaskalos Behind the scenes of Greek Tragedy Playwrights were also called Didaskalos They were teacher s There was no director at this time so the playwright was every thing They teach the audience and the folks involved in acting The playwright taught the actors and everyone how they wanted things done They were in essence duel teachers Ekkyklema Special effects in Greek Theatre A Big cart that you would pile the bodies onto and the door would open and you would wheel the Ekkyklema out with the bodies on This is good to see the results of the violence but not the actual violence happening Gesamtkunstwerk Griot African story teller they remember and pass down history Hamartia Greek Theatre Would be a good tragic hero Missing the mark someone that makes a choice or has something off of what it should be and its that choice or person ality trait that leads to their downfall Kabuki Most popular and youngest form of Japanese theatre Women were first banned because of prostitution then young men were banned Replaced by middle aged men whose foreheads were plucked to make them less attractive There are no women in Kabuki theatre It is a stylized performance with dance and music narrator actors speak and dance Ludi Romani ludis Romans had theatre festivals called Ludis The very first theatre festival of Romans and the one that continued was the Ludi Romani Mahabharata Indian theatre This is a text that is a huge epic poem the longest in the world People who write Indian theatre always go to for inspiration It is a seminal text that provides the base for all of the stuff that comes after it Mimesis Imitation mimic humans like to imitate and act what other people do EX Bob the cave man acts out the killing of wolly mamouth show people mimesis Minstrel Shows African American Theatre Very popular light hearted performances that relied on stereotypes They were the precursor to the American Musical The problem with them is that they were a racist institution White people acted in them white peo ple took burnt cork and smeared it on their face blacking out They portrayed typical black stereotypes National Endowment for the Arts NEA Natyasastra Indian Theatre it is a text that parallels poetics It is translated to mean the science of theatre It is supposedly inspired by Brahma It is a sacred text written in sanscript Sacred text to be brought down from heaven for the people Noh Oldest form of Japanese Theatre Began in the 14th century Theatrical conventions and the stage Very little props or scenery Accomplishment or art play based on precision Peking Beijing Opera Chinese theatre The use of color is huge Color can tell you all about the characters The masks with different colors tell you traits of a character White treachery black courage red loyalty gold gods green demons The sound and rhythm and intense acrobatics is very evident The acrobatics tell the story and make it interesting to watch EX They jump through hula hoops and do back flips Poetics Aristotle s major dramatic treatise in 355 BCE Went on to become the founda tional text for all western theatrical criticism and analysis for 2500 years Rasa Indian theatre rasa means emotional flavors Bharata pulled these out of the Natyasastra 8 different flavors erotic comic furious heroic terrible odious mar velous tranquility that you want to incite in the audience All Indian plays will have all the Rasa s in it Rendering Design Lecture When you would