THAR 281 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 9 Lecture 1 Why do we imitate others 1 Instruction 2 Entertainment 3 Connection Ceremony vs Ritual Ceremony formal religious of social performance Ritual acting out of a specific established procedure What are the characteristics of theater 1 Has to be LIVE 2 Needs to have a LIVE audience 3 Has to be in a specific place 4 Collaborative 5 Present the experience 6 Real imagined event Important Theater Terms House where audience gathers Apron an extension of the stage closer to the audience Pit space usually between audience and stage where musicians play music What are the various types of stages 1 Proscenium Stage like a picture frame a Small space between audience and performers 2 Thrust Stage like fashion show runway a Stage surrounded on 3 sides 3 Arena Stage like Kyle Field a Performers completely surrounded by audience 4 Found Stage like at a park or like a flash mob a Random place where they perform Lecture 2 What is City Dionysian A huge festival held in Athens during the spring where everybody drops everything to attend this Who was Aristotle a Primarily interested in science b c Wrote one piece of drama called The Poetics He named 6 characters of theater listed by in order of importance 1 Plot 2 Character 3 Theme 4 Language 5 Music 6 Spectacle b He tries to define tragedy as sad complete and of certain magnitude Who was Aeschylus a First person who said to have 2 characters in front of the chorus instead of just 1 i Did this in order to create dialogue b Said to reduce the size of the chorus from 50 to 15 people i Smaller group creates more clarity in language c Wrote about 90 plays 7 of them we still have and can use today i Ex Supplints and Oresta Who was Sophocles a Said to have 3 people on stage instead of 2 like Aeschylus had suggested b Won first prize at the City Dionysia festival c Wrote about 100 plays only 7 still exist today ii Ex Oedipus Trilogy Antigone and Elektra Who was Euripides a Most modern of Greek playwrights i Because he portrays women with pity ii Mixed comedy with tragedy iii Questioned the gods and heroes b Wrote 90 plays 18 are still used today i Ex Medea and Bacchae Important Myths a Medea and Jason Jason leaves Medea so she goes mad and kills Jason and his new wife and their children and the wife s father b Oedipus story What is catharsis a Catharsis is a purging cleansing of emotion b By watching tragic events like Medea s story then the audience experiences same emotions as the scene portrays and the learns from them Lecture 3 What changes did the Romans make to theater a Cut out the chorus that Greek comedy had b Added musical company to the dialogue c Emphasis on eves dropping mishearing d Generally the main setting was in the streets while Greeks had it in theaters What is a stock character a character that has a type they don t care about individuality Who was Plautus a wrote 20 plays that we still have today i New playwrights took some of his plots structure to use in modern times Who was Terence a more subtle he wrote 6 plays which survive today ii Often combined 2 plots together or used 2 characters to describe both plots differently Who was Seneca a Wrote based on Greek myths violence accepted now b Chorus is of reduced importance it is still present though Who is Horace a b c Wrote work about theater called Art of Poetry Ars Poetica Concerned with making rules and making sure there was a moral for audience to learn Chorum said how a person should behave according to their given social status age etc What are the popular forms of entertainment Gladiator fights chariot races executions mime uggling gymnastics song etc executions What caused the decline of Roman Comedy People move out of the country Smaller group of people performing now Christianity rising ad authority Lecture 4 What language were classical Indian plays written in Why San skrit so that only refined people understood appreciated it Classical Indian Theater Terms a Cannon is a collection of works san skrit drama there is about 50 60 plays b Natyasastra work that describes origin of theater tradition in India c Shakuntala seven act work that tells story of a king and orphan that fall in love d Total Theater all aspects working together to overwhelm audience Yuan s Ming Dynasty Yuan Dynasty has form of drama called Zazu has a four act work 68 of the work survived Ming Dynasty popular culture falls out more academic ornate aimed more to the upper class What is Noh Theater Japanese theater where performers are trained at a young age has some mask work to help define what character is Composed of 2 type of text phantasmal and present experience What is Bunraku Theater Japanese theater form where puppets are used similar to Noh puppets are 2 3 of actual persons size handlers mostly dress in black for disguise What is Kabuki Theater Most popular Japanese theater form that has elaborate costumes and very similar to Noh in tone structure Dances are symbolic structured in similar way costumes are in veil Lecture 5 What are the characteristics of the Early Middle Ages 500 1000 Source of stability was the Catholic church Have feudalism as type of government Increase in technology mostly agricultural lifestyle though What are the characteristics of the High Middle Ages 1000 1500 Increase in commerce Knowledge spreads more education 1450 Gutenberg s printing press What are the characteristics of liturgical drama Evolved from liturgical music Eventually they re short call and responses through singing called tropes What are tropes exactly They re spoken in Latin and then in the language of the people First produced in monasteries then in larger spaces Eventually become religious vernacular drama What are mystery cycle plays They are biblically based but independent from church Filled with anachronisms an object or event outside of its proper historical context There was an introduction to comedy What was the Second Shepard s Play about One of most famous mystery plays based on birth of Jesus and has a comedic side to it What are morality plays Secular did not mention Jesus or Bible explicitly presented similar to a mystery play Are about good vs evil in most cases What are the main elements of production In France women are allowed on stage but on in England Mostly produced with amateur actors Typecasting was a big deal Had to be loud because no microphones and because of the audience Secrets what they called special effects Pageant