Theater History“Possibly more true to history than history itself”

Introduction• Why should you bother to study theater history?• How is it going to help you today, tomorrow, or next year?• Who owns a camera/uses their phones to take pictures, snapchat,

etc?

Why should you bother to study theater history?• People like to take snapshots of their friends, family members, where they live, places they

visit, etc.• People enjoy looking at those photos later in life.• People have albums of old pictures that they sit down with family members to look at.• Isn’t it fun to see how you looked/dressed when you were younger? How your parents looked

when they were kids? Your grandparents? What did their hairstyles look like? Their clothes?• We find out a great deal about ourselves when we look at old pictures. Where we came from,

who we are, and how we got to be that way.• Looking at those pictures help us establish a connection to our history, that even though we’re

unique, we’re also still part of a unique group.• Theater History is a lot like a family album. We have to see where we’ve been in order to find

who we are and where we’re going.

Theater History time periods• Ancient Theater – The earliest origins to the Egyptians• Greek Theater• Roman Theater• Medieval Theater• Renaissance Theater• Elizabethan Theater• French Neoclassic Theater• Japanese Theater• Romanticism• Realism

Ancient Theater• The most commonly held opinion is that early man engaged in camp-

fire enactments of scenes from the hunt. Possibly even before the development of language.• These scenes possibly served in the beginning to show “What

happened today, or in previous hunts”. For example: The big hunt when Oog fell down and was eaten by a giant bear.• Later these scenes took on a ritualistic nature, becoming a part of the

religion. They would have added music, dancing, chanting, and rudimentary costumes, makeup or masks. Acting out a successful hunt was possibly expected to bring about success on the next one.

Ancient Theater• Nobody is really sure what happened what long ago. All we can do is

examine what records we do have and investigate modern primitive cultures and peoples to make informed guesses.

Ancient Theater - Egypt• In ancient Egypt we find the first evidence of regular religious and civil drama. • Plays were performed:• 1. To honor the pharaoh at his coronation• 2. To cure the sick• 3. Celebrate Egyptian religious beliefs.• No actual plays have survived. Evidence comes from wall paintings and other artifacts. The

most famous play we know of is Abydos Passion Play.• It tells the story of the battle between the gods Set and Osiris.• According to the historical legend, Osiris ruled wisely. He was treacherously murdered and

his body was cut in pieces and scattered. His wife, Isis, and his son, avenged his murder, gathered up the pieces of his body for pilgrimage relics, won back his throne and established the cult of Osiris-worship.

Greek Theater• In Greece we have the first substantial surviving evidence of theater. We have the

names of real actors and playwrights, and some of the scripts still survive today.• Greek drama had its roots in Greek religion. Primitive celebrations honored the god

of wine and fertility, Dionysus. The celebration included a group of chanting dancers around an altar. The chant was known as the dithyramb.• This chant, the dithyramb, is what evolved into Greek tragedy, and the dancers

became known as the chorus. Tragedy, (which translates literally into ‘goat song’), became the focus of the City Dionysia festival.• The festival would end with a competition between playwrights. Each competitor

would present a tragic trilogy (3 plays with the same theme), and a satyr play (a comic version of theme). The winning playwright was awarded a coveted laurel wreath.

Greek Theater• In the 5th century BC (534), also known as the Golden Age of Greece, a

man by the name of Thespis of Attica is considered to have “invited” acting, by having one member of the chorus stand apart and respond to what they were saying.• This is why actors today are called Thespians.

Greek Theater• Theaters of the time period started out as a cleared out space at the

foot of a hill. This changed over time into grand, open-air amphitheaters.•

Greek Theater• The theater would be carved from a hillside, providing bench style

seating for large crowds. • The chorus would enter the orchestra (the dancing place), through a

paradoi. Actors would change costumes in a building called the “skene”, in front of which was a raised platform called the “proskenion”

Greek Theater - Videos• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRLK7SogvE&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs

59hmAjlAsX_vh0vGYv_3Jm• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSr6mP-zxUc&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs

59hmAjlAsX_vh0vGYv_3Jm• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-BvMbfkxcc&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs

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Greek Theater - Staging• In each period of theater history, theatrical practice has developed certain ways of doing things.

These practices are known as “conventions”, and are dictated by the traditions and circumstances at that particular time.

• Greek Theater Conventions:• 1. The chorus was a strong presence in the play.• 2. Plays had up to three actors.• 3. Actors might have worn elevated shoes, tall headpieces, and large masks so they could be seen

in the back rows.• 4. Plays and performances were more declamatory, with speeches delivered to audience and not

other actors.• 5. Scenery was limited, and they used “periaktoi”• 6. All violence had to take place off stage.7. Use of the Dues ex machine (large crane like device)

Periaktoi

Greek Theater - Playwrights• Most of what we know about Greek theater comes from the surviving

plays of three great tragedy playwrights, and two comic playwrights.• Tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes• Comic: Aristophanes, Menander

Greek Theater - Aeschylus• Aeschylus is known as the “Father of Tragedy”.• His plays dealt with the interaction between gods and men, and how men are

always going to suffer.• He wrote the Orestia, a trilogy of 3 plays.• 1. Agamemnon – Agamemnon returns home after 10 years. He acts with hubris

(pride) and is killed by his wife for killing their daughter as a sacrifice to the gods.• 2. The Libation Bearers – The remaining daughter of Agamemnon talks her

brother Orestes into killing her mother.• 3. The Furies – Orestes is chased by spirits around the world for the crime of

killing his mother. He gets pardoned at the last minute.

Greek Theater - Sophocles• The second great writer of tragedies. He was responsible for adding a 3rd actor to the

stage. He won the city Dionysia completion 18 times.• He wrote the Edipus Trilogy:• 1. Edipus Rex – Edipus saves the city of Thebes at the cost of finding out he murdered his

father and married his mother in an effort to avoid that fate. His mother/wife kills herself, and he puts out his eyes and condemns himself to exile.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4

• Edipus at Colonius – Edipus’s life, and death after his exile.• Antigone – Edipus’s daughter Antigone sacrifices her own life in a futile attempt to fulfill

a religious obligation. The king kills her, but the choice also costs him his own wife and son.

Greek Theater - Euripides• The youngest, most modern, and least popular of the three great tragic playwrights. His plays

emphasized psychological motivation (what makes people tick), and social issues • He wrote several plays:• 1. Medea – The story of the woman who helped Jason with the golden fleece and married him.

When he later abandons her for another woman, she goes mad with jealousy and gruesomely murders their two children.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zInoTXKyOvI

• 2. The Trojan Woman – A powerful antiwar play. It tells about what happens after the defeat of Hector of Troy. His daughter is sacrificed and his son thrown from the walls. His other daughter, Helen, woo’s Menelaus into saving her life.

• 3. Alcestis – A play that attacked the idea that women are subservient to men.• 4. Hippolytus – A play that attacked the unjust treatment of illegitimate children.

Greek Theater – Aristophanes• His plays are the only surviving remainder of what is called “Old

Comedy”. He wrote funny and popular social satire for his time. He also wasn’t afraid of having the gods come in second in his plays.• His plays aren’t considered as funny today because they were so

closely tied to the current events of his time. • Lysistrata – The story of a wife who decides to put an end to the 21

year long Peloponnesian War. She calls all the other wives to a meeting, and they all agree to shut out their husbands until the war is ended.

Greek Theater - Menander• Wrote what we call “New Comedy” for Greeks.• The Curmudgeon – Only surviving play we have a copy of. Was

discovered in the 1950’s.• Wrote comedies that dealt with daily life and situations They featured

clever servants, protective fathers, young lovers, types we still see today.

Ancient/Greek Theater - Assignment• Design a mask similar to one that would be used in Greek theater.

Roman Theater• After the golden age of Greek Drama, the Romans came to power and

theater flourished in their empire. Many new theaters were built. The Romans theaters followed the tradition of the Greek theaters in construction. • The biggest difference was in construction. Roman theaters were

built to be free standing instead of on a hillside.

Roman Theater - Playwrights• Plautus – Wrote roman comedies, building on the traditions of Old

Comedy from Greek playwrights. His plays feature complicated plots with disguises, mistaken identities, and other such elements.• Terence – Another playwright who wrote in a more refined style, with

less of the buffoonery of Plautus.• Seneca – The chief Roman writer of tragedies. (Other tragic Roman

playwrights worked on adapting Greek tragedies). His plays were not intended for public performance, but for private reading.

Roman Theater - Other• Popular theater flourished in the marketplace and on public squares.

Small portable stages would be used to present popular farces and satires.• These plays used stocked characters, such as the braggart soldier, the

clever servant, foolish old man, and young lovers.• The structure of these plays would lead to their later use in

Commedia Del’ Arte during the Renaissance and even to the present.

Roman Theater – The End• When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it

effectively put a stop to all theater. The church did not like theater and considered it to be a sinful activity. • When Rome was sacked and the empire ended, it was the end of

almost all cultural, intellectual and artistic activities.

Medieval Theater• This period is also known as the “Dark Ages”, and was a time of intellectual

and cultural stagnation. There was no centralized system such as the Roman Empire had provided and areas became isolated and independent of each other. • The feudal system became the main form of government. Serfs lived on and

worked the land of a powerful ruler in return for protection from raiders.• The Catholic church became the primary unifying force of the time. It’s

bishops and priests were trained and controlled by a central command. They exercised great power over the people because only the men of church could read the bible, or much of anything else.• For Europeans, the only path to salvation lay in following what the church said.

Medieval Theater• The church was also responsible for the rebirth of theater. (Funny, because

it had been the one to stamp it out.)• Around the 9th century AD (900s), the church began using elements of drama

and theater for its celebrations of mass. These small playets were known as tropes, and were likely used to make it easier for the people to learn and enjoy the message the church was preaching.• One of the first tropes was Quaem queritas trope, used during the Easter

season. Instead of the priest telling the story of Mary finding an empty tomb, it was acted out instead by members of the clergy.• It was so effective and popular the more scenes were then produced and

developed.

Medieval Theater• Mystery plays – Stories from the bible• Miracle plays – Stories of the saints.• Morality plays – Allegories with character that represented values like

greed, beauty, strength, etc, that would teach right from wrong.• Separate areas of the church would be set up into small stages,

known as mansions. The responsibility for each mansion would be taken up by a guild – something like a modern day union or trade group. Ex: Bakers would do the Hell’s Mouth because they were used to working in heat, or the Fisherman’s guild might do the story of Jonah and the whale.

Medieval Theater• Plays increased in popularity as their creators built mansions in more

creative ways and acted them out better. This forced them to move outside the churches and into public squares. • Mansions became pageant wagons, a moving stage on a wagon,

where the audience could remain in place while various scenes moved around them.• Passion plays evolved during this period, depicting scenes from the

life of Christ. These are popular today, the oldest have run for over 300 years, and is performed every 10 years.

Medieval Theater• As plays became more popular, the church started to like them less.

This was due in part to the humorous depictions of Satan and other biblical villians. As a result the church disassociated themselves from the plays. • It’s ironic then, that the church reinvented theater for its own uses,

but abandoned it when it became secular and popular.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ02QYh6Ppk• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA3n7G6djDI• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNYssOXybz4