Introduction to Theatre Midterm Review Introductions Aristotle Poetics 35 BCE Scientific dissection of theatre written by Characteristics of Theatre Actor or Performer Audience Text Willing Suspension of Disbelief The willingness of an audience to Liveness sacrifice realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment allows the audience to believe the unbelievable Theatre entertains and educates society Aesthetic Distance The gab between a viewer s conscious reality and the fictional reality presented in a play or work of art Children do not have this ability Theatre allows the audience to experience things from a distance Conventions of Theatre The rules of the game The systems of techniques that have meaning the audience understands Color Puppets Lights Set Drama Blueprint or text Theatre Actual production of a play Play Drama Written words Production Set lighting costumes Performance Theatre One time event of the production Theatre s Function is For entertainment To educate the audience To serve as a form of therapy To evoke social change To experiment with different ideas and concepts Origins of Western Theater Theatre probably began with rituals Dithyramb Greek ritual in honor of Dionysus the god of wine and fertility usually a tragedy Phallic Procession Dionysiac ritual involving the display of fetishized phalluses Aristotle believed that the earliest forms of comedy had its origins in these processions Great Man Theory Theory by Gerald Else that there were one or two people ultimately responsible for the creation of theatre Thespis The original actor The word Thespian comes from him Aeschylus Great playwright from Ancient Greece known for his tragedies We have no idea when or how theatre originally evolved in Greece but it was probably sometime between 543 BCE 146 BCE Greek Theatre Sources of Information about Ancient Greece Artifacts Ruins Primary Sources Play Texts only 37 have survived Cultural Values of Ancient Greece Polytheism Patriarchal Competition Symmetry Beauty and Harmony Humanism Debate Politics Ancient Greece had a democratic government with city states Athens Cultural Stronghold city state of Ancient Greece Sparta Soldiers of Greece city state of Ancient Greece Greek Theatre Out door and circular typically carved from stone out of a hillside Theatrical performances would last an entire day Dancing Place where the actors Orchestra Orkestra would perform Theatron Parados audience or leaving Skene Viewing Place where the audience would watch Passageway or isle way for the actors and Tent used for costume changes and actors entering The creation of theatre is thought to be in 534 BCE The Parian Marble Greek history recorded on a slab of marble that recorded the first actor Thespis as winning an acting competition in 534 BCE Festival of Dionysia Week long festival at the city Dionysia in honor of the god Dionysus Days 1 3 Days 4 6 Day 7 Five comedies Parades and processions Three tragedies and one satyr play each day The Golden Age of Ancient Greek Theatre was from 534 BCE to 404 BCE actor actor Aeschylus 523 456 BCE Greek playwright that added the 2nd Wrote The Oresteia which is the only remaining trilogy of Greek tragedies Sophocles 495 406 BCE Greek playwright that added the 3rd Wrote Oedipus Rex and Antigone Euripides 480 406 BCE Greek playwright known for his tragic plays that involved sex and cannibalism Wrote Medea and The Bacchae Playwrights Didaskalos essentially the teacher In Greek theatre the playwright was the director and everything Playwrights would give ideas to a committee and would have 11 months to make a play to perform Choregos Basically the producer of a play Chorus 12 50 Men that acted as a collective voice during a Actor 1 2 or 3 performers Actors only needed a pleasant and dramatic performance loud voice Special Effects Ekkykelma that occurred off stage launched into the air Mechane Machina Big cart piled with dead bodies after a battle Big crane that would allow actors to be Being apart of making plays counted as part of a Greek s Civic Duty for their community Conventions of Greek Theatre Masks The Importance of the Voice Not Realism Non violent only the results of violence Aristotle the Poetics The Poetics Scientific analysis of theatre written by Aristotle Six Elements of Tragedy Plays are about events and what has happened Plot Character The people the play is about o Tragic Hero tragic flaw o Hamartia choice that that tragic hero makes Missing the Mark the tragic flaw or bad Protagonist that is mostly good but has a Ideas of theme Language Thought Diction Melody Song Spectacle Music and singing Special effects on stage Aristophanes Old Comedy Comedic playwright known for being fantastical and gaudy Wrote Lysistrata and The Birds The decline of comedy shows the decline of Greece Mime Any play that was not old or new comedy Peloponnesian War War between Athens and Sparta that lead to the fall of Athens Roman Theatre The Roman Empire Founded in 753 BCE Became a republic in 509 BCE Fall of Rome in 476 BCE Beginning of Roman Theatre in 240 BCE By 146 BCE Rome has assimilated Greek Culture Ludis Roman religious Festival Ludi Romani Roman Theatre Festival Types of Roman Theatre Tragedy Bloody and Gory Comedy Super popular form of theatre that was Seneca Plautus very slapstick battles beast wars and chariot races Terence Paratheatrical More classy with an actual plot and characters Coliseum fights with gladiators naval African Theatre Early African Theatre began with Egyptian rituals Adydos Passion play depicting the life death and resurrection of Osiris after being cut into pieces by Set Ikhernofret Made a stone tablet that details the Abydos Passion play Theatrical Conventions of African Theatre Music Voice and Rhythm Dance and Movement Masks and Vibrant Colors No Pretense of Realism Griot The Storyteller that remembers history and passes it on Egungan Festival Ritualized enactment in Nigeria that shows a group of warriors as they dance and beat drums There are three major categories of African Theatre Theatre that fully emulates European theatre in theme and form Theatre that completely rejects all European models And Theatre that combines African and European theatre Athol Fugard White South African playwright that exemplifies theatre that emulates European theatre He co founded the Space Theatre Wrote Master Harold and the Boys Wole Soyinka Nigerian Playwright that exemplifies the combination of European and African Theatre He was a