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Egyptian Roots

Egyptian Roots. c.2500 bce Ritual Enactment Abydos Passion Play re-enacted the story of the death and resurrection of Osiris . Greek Festivals. Festivals honored Olympian gods Ritual Competitions Olympics: Apollo Athletics Lyric Poetry Drama: Dionysos Dithyrambic Choruses

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Egyptian Roots

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  1. Egyptian Roots • c.2500 bce • Ritual Enactment • Abydos Passion Play re-enacted the story of the death and resurrection of Osiris

  2. Greek Festivals • Festivals honored Olympian gods • Ritual Competitions • Olympics: Apollo • Athletics • Lyric Poetry • Drama: Dionysos • Dithyrambic Choruses • Tragedy • Comedy

  3. Greek Theatre • 6th - 4th century bce • Originated in festivals honoring Dionysos • Thespis (6th c. bce) • Tragedy: • Aeschylus (524-456 bce) • Sophocles (496-406 bce) • Euripides (480-406 bce) • Comedy: • Aristophanes (c. 485- c.385 bce) • Old Comedy: bawdy and satiric • New Comedy: social situations

  4. Roman Theatre • 2nd c. bce - 4th c. ce • Origins in Greek drama and Roman festivals • Tragedy: Seneca • 5 act structure • Revenge motif -- sensationalistic • Ghosts and supernatural • Comedy:Terence and Plautus • Boy meets girl, complications, boy gets girl: marriage • Bawdy • Stock characters

  5. Roman Spectacle • Gladiatorial combats • Naval battles in a flooded Coliseum • “Real-life” theatricals • Decadent, violent and immoral • All theatrical events banned by Church when Rome became Christianized

  6. Medieval Drama: 13th-15th C. • Arose from need to educate converted, illiterate Christians about Christianity • Hrotsvita (10th c.), German nun, wrote plays about Christian matyrs using structure based on Terence’s Roman comedies • Liturgical drama • Mystery plays: Biblical tales • Miracle plays: Saints’ lives • Morality plays: Allegories

  7. Italian Commedia dell’ Arte • La Commedia dell'Arte, "Artistic Comedy,” began in the second half of the 16th century • Based on set pieces, lazzi, that are improvised with stock characters • A distinct group of actors gave birth to the first nucleus of companies, and started doing their acts on simple stages set outdoors • The mix of popular themes, complex stories, acrobatic jumps and mellow love scenes made it highly influential throughout Europe Harlequino

  8. Elizabethan Theatre: 16th-17th C. • Protestant Reformation closed down religious drama • Tudor love of spectacle and patronage of drama • Elizabethan poetry -- love of language • Influenced by Roman theatre, Renaissance ideas, medieval stagecraft and pagan remnants • Important theatrical period even if Shakespeare had never lived

  9. French Neoclassical Theatre, 17th-18th C. • Modelled theatre on Greek and Roman examples • Disdained English Elizabethan theatre’s “messiness” and eclecticism • Neoclassical Conventions • Decorum • Verisimilitude • Universal truths • Poetic: Alexandrines • 5 act structure • 3 unities: time, place action

  10. Rulers/nobility Affairs of state Unhappy ending Lofty poetic style Revealed the horrible results of mistakes and misdeeds committed from passion Racine Middle class/bourgeosie Domestic/private affairs Happy ending – often deus ex machina Ordinary speech Ridicules behavior that should be avoided Moliere Tragedy and Comedy

  11. German Romantic Theater: 18th-19th C. • “Stürm und Drang” • Looked to Shakespeare for models • Sweeping historical and tragic dramas • Johann Goethe and Friedrich Schiller • Began to emphasize historical accuracy in costumes and settings • Improved theatrical effects -- footlights, revolving stages, theatrical machinery

  12. Melodrama: 19th Century • Theatre of sentimentality -- emotional appeal • Heroes and villains -- and lily-white heroines • Wide popular appeal • Sensationalistic • Most widely performed play of the 19th C: Uncle Tom’s Cabin based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel

  13. Realism and Naturalism19th-20th C. • Intellectual reaction against popular theatre • Theatre of social problems • Influenced by emerging disciplines of psychology and sociology • Emerging importance of director • Realistic stage conventions: • Proscenium stage • Audience as “fourth wall” • Change in acting conventions • Continued developments in stagecraft

  14. Middle class Psychological How can the individual live within and influence society? “Well-made play” Henrik Ibsen, George Bernard Shaw Middle and Lower classes Sociological How does society/the environment impact individuals? “Slice of life” August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, John Synge, Sean O’Casey Realism and Naturalism

  15. 20th Century Theatre:a hundred years of isms • Symbolism • Expressionism • Futurism • Surrealism • Social Realism • Epic Theatre • Existentialism • Absurdism • Magic Realism • Hyper-Realism • Not to mention musicals, films, street theatre, etc., etc.

  16. And so… into the 21st Century Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz Winner of 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

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