Terms for THE2000 midterm 534 BCE When Greek Theatre began Abydos Passion Play Earliest record of any performance from an African focus on major myths of Egyptian culture life death resurrection of god Osiris Performed at the Abydos burial site Osiris s burial site Aesthetic Distance Allows the audience to separate themselves from the events on stage and to recognize that these things are not part of their objective reality Alienation Effect German expressionism developed by Bertold Brechts audience is alternately distanced from and then drawn into the world of the play in order to combat passivity and cultivate a more critical spectator meant for intellectually active audiences that were spurred on to change the world via the theatre they saw Athens Where Lysistrata takes place Blocking When directors guide actors on how to move about space interact with props and set up Catharsis Purges an audience of pity and fear Century Cycle August Wilson s epic dramatization of African American heritage in the 20th century Every decade has a play Usually set in Hill District of Pittsburgh Chitlin Circuit the collective name given to the string of performance venues throughout the eastern southern and upper mid west areas of the United States that were safe and acceptable for African American musicians comedians and other entertainers to perform in during the age of racial segregation in the United States from at least the early 19th century through the 1960s Choregos The producer paid for everything sometimes went bankrupt 11 months to make a play Ancient Greek Theatre Athens City Dionysia ancient dramatic festival in which tragedy comedy and satyric drama originated it was held in Athens in March in honor of Dionysus the god of wine Colonialism the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically Color blind Casting Not paying attention to race when casting 1 Content and Form The two aspects a playwright must think about before writing a play What is the play about Content How will I tell the story form Deus ex machina an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel Didaskalos playwrights greek teachers directors Ekkylema seeing the result of the violence but not the actual violence taking place Fourth Wall audience views the action of the play through the invisible wall in front of the stage Gesamtkunstwerk Complete or total art work developed by Richard Wagner combines lit music color light dance movement etc is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so Given Imagined Circumstances Given information given to build character Imagined information surrounded given circumstances to add realism to character Global Theatre Reconstruction Shakespeare s plays were performed here Took 30 years to rebuild with period construction techniques no nails or any modern technology Great Man Theory The Great Man theory is a 19th century idea according to which history can be largely explained by the impact of great men or heroes highly in uential individuals who due to either their personal charisma intelligence wisdom or political skill utilized their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact Griot 1 african american performance tradition 2 a member of a class of traveling poets musicians and storytellers who maintain a tradition of oral history in parts of West Africa Hamartia a fatal aw leading to the tragic downfall of a hero heroine Humours a genre of dramatic comedy that focuses on a character or range of characters each of whom exhibits two or more overriding traits or humours that dominates their personality desires and conduct Ludi Romani The rst Roman theatre festival Lysistrata Comedy by Aristophanes Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC it is a comic account of one woman s extraordinary mission to end the 2 Peloponnesian War Lysistrata persuades women to withhold sex and take over the Acroplis to end the war Mahabharata the longest text in the world a base for all text in India One of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India Epic narrative of the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pandava princes Melodrama musical drama developed as a form of escapism from social ills that came from Industrial revolution Two dimensional stock characters such as villan hero poetic justice good triumphs over evil Melting Pot a place where different peoples styles theories etc are mixed together Mimesis imitation Humans have an innate mimetic desire to tell and act stories out NEA National Endowment for the Arts Funds museums folk arts theatre etc 160 million budget Natyasastra the Science of Theatre written by Bharata Indian God of creation A sacred text supposedly brought from the heavens to the people and describes theatre as a distraction from sins of the esh gluttony lust pride etc Pacing director is held responsible for pacing of show What happens between the lines is important pacing can be intuitive although certain styles of theatre dictate it ex comedy compared to drama Poetics scienti c approach to dissecting theatre written by Aristotle Six elements of tragedy Plot character thought diction Melody song spectacle Production concept foundation for rest of production Makes up interpretation goal of contemporary directing Involves Director s approach to the play Execution of the central theme idea used push central concept forward Rabinal Achi a Maya theatrical play written in the K iche language and performed annually in Rabinal Baja Verapaz Guatemala Original name is Xajoj Tun meaning Trumpet Dance A dynastic Maya drama from the fteenth century and the only example of pre Columbian Maya theatre known to have survived to the present day Social Drama a drama about people and they place where they live a drama that deals with the way people get along with others 10 of 12 Tech Technical Rehearsals for every 12 hours of technical rehearsal actors can only rehearse for 10 Put together by The Actors Union Technical rehearsals 3 refer to integrating the acting and technical side of the play they take the show from the beginning and apply adjustments so things can run smoother Theatrical Convention rules of the game audience accepts the conventions mutual agreement about what words gestures images ad actions mean Uncle Tom s Cabin a play based on the novel by