Theatre History Review

Until the 16th century, Western Theatre: Performed primarily at festivals

Financed by community

Performed by community

Occurred for brief periods each year

Presented as offering to a god

Presented for enjoyment of general public

Flourished in Greece, Rome, medieval Europe

The Theatre of Ancient Greece

Origins of Western Theatre traced to Ancient Greece

Ancient Greek Beliefs:• Humans can make significant decisions• Not all people are equal: Greeks kept slaves and

denied women any public role in society• Happiness depends upon harmony between human

and supernatural forces• Numerous gods: conceived of as immortal human

beings with flaws

The Theatre of Ancient Greece

Greek Drama:• Emphasizes attempts of humans to control own

destinies• Tragedies often focus on results of attempting to

escape fate• Presented exclusively at festivals honoring the god

Dionysus = god of wine and fertility

Festivals:• By 5th century, Athens held 4 festivals per year in honor

of Dionysus, god of fertility and wine—the ONLY Greek God for whom plays were presented

City Dionysia

Religious and Civic celebration

Tragedy Competition • 3 dramatists competed• Each presents 3 tragedies and 1 satyr play

• satyr play = short, comic play poking fun at a Greek• myth using a chorus of satyrs (half-man/half-goat characters)

Plays open to everyone, but primary audience - men and boys

• All 32 plays that have survived written by 3 dramatists:• Aeschylus (523-456 B.C.)• Sophocles (496-406 B.C.)• Euripides (480-406 B.C.)

• Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex often considered the best

The Performers

Actors:

• All performers were male

• By 430 B.C., only 3 speaking actors allowed in competition

• Actors played multiple roles

• Each playwright was assigned a Principal Actor

• Principal Actor eligible to win “Best Tragic Actor”

The Performers

The Chorus

• Composed of 15 men• Playwright was assigned a choregus

• choregus = wealthy citizen who paid for training and costuming; high civic honor; wealthy citizens required to take turns serving as choregus

• Chorus assigned approximately 11 months prior to festival• Trained like athletes

The Performers

Choral Conventions:

• Chorus as one of the distinctive features of Greek Theatre• Usually performed in unison• Sometimes broke into 2 subgroups that responded to each

other• Chorus leader sometimes had solo lines• Chorus members were all costumed and masked alike• Chorus would act as the ideal spectator—reacting the way

the playwright wanted the audience to react• The chorus would sometimes threaten to intervene in the

action

The Performers

Functions of the Chorus:

• Formed a collective character who expressed opinions, gave advice, and occasionally threatened to interfere in the action

• Often seemed to express the author’s point of view• Served as the ideal spectator, reacting as the author

wanted the audience to react• Helped to establish mood and to heighten dramatic

effects• Added color, movement and spectacle through singing

and dancing

The Performers

Masks:• All performers except musicians wore masks• Distinctive convention of Greek Theatre• Masks covered entire head and included hair/headdress• Function of Masks:

• Facilitated rapid change of roles• Enabled male performers to embody female characters

more easily• Helped actors to assume different types of roles• Assisted communication by capturing and emphasizing

essential character qualities

Formalized Conventions of Greek Theatre

• Group of performers formed chorus

• One actor often played multiple roles within same play

• Men played both male and female roles

• Performers wore masks and character appropriate dress

• Performers sang, chanted and danced much of the text

• Theatre’s scale prevented small details from being seen

Greek Comedy

• Became official part of festivals about 50 years after tragedy

• Performed at 2 festivals: City Dionysia and Lenaia

• 5 playwrights competed annually at Lenaia, each presenting 1 play

Greek Comedy

Conventions:• Usually concerned with current issues• Sometimes used mythological material• Chorus size = 24

• Not always identical in appearance• Sometimes depicted as citizens, sometimes as

nonhumans• Male characters made to appear ridiculous

• Costume suggested partial nakedness• Wore large phallus• Wore masks

Greek Comedy

Plays:• Only 11 Old Comedy plays have survived• All surviving plays by Aristophanes• Old Comedy plots revolve around a “happy idea”• Time and place may change frequently• Unity through idea rather than through causally related

events• Characters may speak to or about the audience

The Roman Theatre Experience

Ludi = “games”• Religious festivals that included theatrical performances

• Theatrical performances honored several gods• Theatrical performances considered diversions, like sports• Borrowed from Greek drama, but adapted it to Roman tastes• Romans preferred variety entertainments

• short comic plays• dancing, singing• juggling, acrobatics• gladiatorial contests

The Roman Theatrical Context

Production Expenses: paid by state Performance Spaces:

• Tiered seating, capacity of several thousand• Semicircular orchestra, not used by performers• Stage enclosed by scaenae frons = façade

• 3 doors on back wall; 1 door at either end• Open seating, free admission• Costumes: Greek costumes and masks; color symbolism• Performers: all male

Roman Comedy

Plays:• Surviving comedies = 26

• All surviving plays by Plautus and Terence

• Deal with everyday domestic affairs

• Plots turn on misunderstandings

• Most famous character = “clever slave”

• Include music; some characters sing

Other Roman Drama and Theatre

Roman Tragedy:• Surviving tragedies = 9• All surviving plays by Seneca

Mime:• Favorite form of entertainment• First time women were permitted to perform• No masks• Dramatic action centered on sexual encounters

Blood Sports:• Gladiatorial contests

The Revival of Drama in the Middle Ages

Liturgical Drama (Church Drama)• 2 Types:

Performed primarily in churches or monasteries• Dramatizes Biblical episodes• Text sung in Latin• Financed by church

Religious plays performed outside of church = A.D. 1200

The Revival of Drama in the Middle Ages

Vernacular Drama • Religious drama independent of church = A.D.

1375• Written in vernacular language• (language of the common people)• Text spoken• Financed by community

Trade Guilds and the Corpus Christi Festival

• Outdoor religious dramas connected to Trade Guilds

• Church created new feast day in 1311: Corpus Christi

• All Biblical events could be connected with this festival

Trade Guilds and the Corpus Christi Festival

• Central feature: procession through town, like parade= Processional Staging was most common in England

• People of all ranks and professions involved

• Plays dramatizing the Bible from creation to doomsday = Cycle Plays

Conventions of Medieval Theatre

Time:• Contrast of eternal versus

earthly time Stage:

• Depicts heaven at one end and hell at the other end

• Scenic structures to indicate place = mansion

• Undifferentiated space = platea

Conventions of Medieval Theatre

Costumes:• Distinguish inhabitants of Earth, Heaven, Hell• Earthly characters = contemporary clothes• Heavenly characters = church garments

Special Effects:• Gruesome hell mouth• Realistically staged miracles

Other Medieval Theatre and Drama

Morality Plays:• Allegories of moral temptations• Most famous play: Everyman• Served as transition between medieval religious drama and

secular drama of Shakespeare’s time Farces:

• Secular comic drama: emerged 13th century• Not encouraged officially• Emphasized ridiculous aspects or human behavior • Example: Pierre Patelin

Interludes:• Nonreligious, serious or comic; performed between parts of

celebration

Elizabethan England, Italian Commedia dell’Arte, and Seventeenth-Century France

Renaissance: revived interest in classical theatre of Greece and Rome

English Decree of 1558: plays on religious and political subjects banned

New subjects: classical literature, historical chronicles, legend

Patronage: church and state withdraw support; theatre becomes commercial enterprise

Elizabethan Theatre

Professional Groups: Had to perform often

Had to have a large stock of plays to sustain audience interest

Had to play in space large enough to accommodate sizeable paying audience; had to be able to control access to space

Had to control all production elements

Had to assemble company that could work full time

Elizabethan Theatre

Professional Groups: Acting was not considered an acceptable profession

Because acting did not fit into the guild system, actors were considered masterless men

Companies petitioned noblemen to serve as patrons

Patronage legitimized companies to an extent

Patrons provided little financial support

Companies had to be licensed and Plays approved

Elizabethan Theatre

Companies: Always 2 to 4 active companies in/around London

(1580s-1642)

Performed 6 days per week in the afternoon

Usually changed bill every day

Average life of play = 10 performances over a season or two

Writers sold plays to companies for one-time fee

The Globe Theatre

Used by Shakespeare’s company after 1599

3 levels of roofed galleries enclosing open space

The yard = open space enclosed by galleries

The stage = extended to middle of yard; viewed from 3 sides

Roof sheltered stage = the heavens or the shadows

Back of stage platform = multilevel façade with 2 doors

The Globe Theatre

Theatrical Conventions: Properties brought onto stage when needed (throne, bed)

Façade served as backdrop for all performances; location clarified by dialogue: spoken décor

Most characters were costumed in contemporary Elizabethan dress

The Globe Theatre

Theatrical Conventions: All roles played by men Performance style somewhat realistic No use of masks, except as disguises All lines spoken

The Globe Theatre

Theatrical Conventions: Admission fee determined viewing location

Cheapest = yard

Moderate = galleries

Expensive = boxes, “lord’s rooms”

No intermissions

Circulating vendors sold wine, beer, ale, nuts, playing cards

Atmosphere similar to modern sports event

English Theatre

English public theatres were closed in 1642 due to civil war, and did not reopen until 1660

The Theatre Experience in Renaissance Italy• The Renaissance, begun in the 14th century, revived interest in

classical theatre of Greece and Rome

• Early 16th century, plays imitating classical forms were written in Italian

• Performed at court festivals—in honor of a king or ruler

Principles of perspective drawing (developed in 15th century) added to scenery (in 16th century)• Signaled movement away from formal, architectural stage to

representational, pictorial stage• Picture painted on 3 separate scenic elements: side wings,

backdrops, overhead borders• Floor of stage raked upwards towards back• Introduction of proscenium arch, which framed the painted

elements • Resulted in need for mechanisms to shift scenery

The Theatre Experience in Renaissance Italy

Opera = combined drama, music, dance, spectacle, special effects

• Originated in the 1590s

Structured from the interludes performed between the acts of regular plays

• Suggested parallels between a mythological figure and the person being honored at the festival

• Major features = music and dance

• Elaborate special effects

Commedia dell’Arte

• Commedia dell’Arte = comedy of professional artists

• Actor as most essential element of form

• Adaptability: could perform in virtually any space, with or without scenery

• Scenario = summary of situations, complications, outcome; functioned as script

• Improvisation: distinguishing feature of commedia

• Lazzi: bits of comic business

Commedia dell’Arte

Stock Characters1. Lovers:

• Most realistic roles• Only characters that did not wear masks• Dressed fashionably

2. Masters: 3 recurred most often• Pantalone: elderly Venetian merchant• Dottore: lawyer or doctor• Capitano: braggart and coward

3. Servants = zanni• Minimum of 1 clever and 1 stupid• Most popular = Arlecchino (Harlequin)

• Acrobat, dancer, and used slapstick• Wore black mask and hat

Commedia dell’Arte

• Troupes averaged 10-12 members• Performers were both male and female• Troupes traveled frequently• Most popular from 1575 to 1650, but continued

into late 18th century• Numerous scenarios have survived

The French Neoclassical Ideal

• Firm genre restrictions: tragedy and comedy should not mix• Tragedy must be about royalty and nobles• Comedy should deal with middle and lower classes• Characters should exhibit decorum—character “types”

always behaved in certain “absolute” truthful ways• Neoclassical Unities:

Time: all play’s action should occur within 24 hour period

Place: all play’s action should occur in one location Action: there should be only one plot

• Ending of play should uphold poetic justice• Purpose of drama = to teach and to please

Molière and Seventeenth-Century French Theatre Practice

• Unlike Elizabethan Theatre, French companies included both male and female actors

• Each actor played a limited range of roles, eventually organized into lines of business

• Plays were set in one place; no scene changes; generalized scenery

• Plays performed indoors, using candles and oil lamps for lighting

• Moliere’s plays were written in verse, with each pair of adjacent lines rhyming

• Neoclassical unities of time and place are observed

Romanticism to Realism

Attitudes toward Neoclassicism began changing toward the end of the 18th century

Writers of the Sturm and Drang (Storm and Stress) school in Germany began writing serious plays that experimented both with bold subjects and dramatic form.

Neoclassical ideals reversed almost completely by early 19th century, resulting in the development of Romanticism

Romanticism

The less a thing deviates from its natural state the more truthful it is

Shakespeare’s plays became an argument for ignoring the rules of neoclassicism

Mysterious and supernatural became common occurrences

Historical accuracy in settings and costumes was favored

Melodrama The popular-culture manifestation of Romanticism

• Melodrama = “music drama”

• Action accompanied by musical score that enhanced emotional tone

• Emphasized clear moral tone and suspenseful plots

• Set pattern of action: Good are rewarded and Evil are punished = poetic justice

• Characters were stereotypes (Good, Evil)

• Elaborately staged spectacle

Melodrama

Created variety through use of:• Exotic locales• Special effects• Latest inventions• Dramatizations of popular novels and

notorious crimes• Horses for “equestrian melodramas”• Water tanks for “aquatic melodramas”

Melodrama

• With advent of electricity (1880s), electric motors were used with treadmills to stage horse or chariot races

• Panoramas were rigged on spools and moved in time with the treadmills; panoramas = long cloths on which continuous scenes were painted

• Efforts to make action as realistic as possible by using machinery and special effects

The Advent of Realism

Darwin’s theories (1859)

1. All forms of life have developed gradually from a common ancestry

2. Evolution of species explained by “survival of the fittest”

Implications of Darwin’s theories1. Heredity and environment as primary causes for everything

humans are or do2. People cannot be held fully responsible for their actions since

heredity and environment cannot be fully controlled3. Progress4. Humans are like other animals; not separate from nature5. Change, rather than fixity, as the norm

The Advent of Realism

Freud’s theories

1. Basic human instincts = aggression and sexuality

2. Without intervention, humans would seek to satisfy own instincts without regard for others

3. Need for socialization: rewards and punishments teach acceptable behavior and develop a superego

• Superego = an interior, subconscious censor or judge

4. Right and wrong are not absolute; relative to individual, family, society

Realism and Naturalism

• Grounded in the need to understand human behavior in terms of natural cause and effect

• Pursuit of truth: knowledge that can be verified through the 5 senses

• The highest form of morality = truth

• Playwrights wrote primarily about contemporary subjects

• Introduced topics such as unsavory social conditions

Naturalism

• Unlike Realism, Naturalism was not successful in the theatre, possibly due to its extreme demands

• Naturalists believed that the dramatist should expose social ills so that their causes could be corrected

• Play as a slice of life = a segment of reality transferred to the stage

• Naturalism as short-lived movement that produced few plays of significance

The Independent Theatre Movement

• Throughout most of Europe, plays had to be approved by a censor prior to performance for public audiences

• Performances done by a group for its members only were considered private performances; not subject to censorship

The Independent Theatre Movement

By the late 1880s, a number of small independent theatres exploited this loophole

Products of the Independent Theatre Movement

• Playwright George Bernard Shaw (in England

• The Moscow Art Theatre (In Russia)

• Playwright Anton Chekhov

• Konstantin Stanislavsky and

• The Stanislavsky System of acting

Konstantin Stanislavsky and The Stanislavsky System

The most pervasive influence on acting during the 20th century

Contains basic premises of what is necessary for effective acting:• Body and voice must be trained and flexible• Be a skilled observer of human behavior• The “Magic If”• Understand each character’s motivations and

relationships• Concentrate moment by moment