Ancha, Rodelyn E.

May 22, 2021

BSE - English 201 - Irregular Monday

STARTS: A BRIEF BACKGROUND ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE THEATER

WEEK 13: FINAL PERIOD TASK 1
Prof. Joy B. Badilla

DIRECTION: Make a photo collage of each type of theater and the different types of playhouse
mentioned in the lecture (3 pics per type). Label them and give a 10-sentence description for each.

A. THE ATHENIAN THEATER

Theses theaters in the pictures are
the theaters of the ancient Athens. This is
where the art of theater first shown in the
6th-5th century BC. Their performances
usually made a tribute to their gods and
goddesses, especially Dionysus. There are a
lot of architecture designs in the Ancient
Greek theaters, most commons lay-out was
semi-circular. The seating arrangement was
multiple rows and elevated from the center
or stage. Normally, there are altar on the
stage where sacrifices were made to their
god and the main stage where the orchestra
and performers performing. The seats are
usually made of woods, stones, and marbles,
and the seats near the orchestra were
reserved for officials or for those very
important audiences.

B. MEDIEVAL THEATER
 The third image is the Boonen sketch of a play in the market of Leuven in 1954, more
likely a fixed stage. On the first picture, in Brueghel’s Village Festival in 1672, there is an
elevated stage where the man was dressed as a monk.
On the second picture shows the epic torture scene of
dummy as a replacement to the real actors or actress
where the teeth and hair pulling. The stage was made
off wood with elevated place for the audiences to fully
watch the performances.

C. ELIZABETHAN THEATER
 When Elizabeth came to the throne, most of the plays offer the public were Miracle
Plays, presenting the stories in the Bible and the lives of saints, moral plays by the Moralities to
teach lessons for the guidance of life. The theater of Elizabethan were usually three levels for the
audiences and there’s a place on the ground for the prominent person in their era. After the reign
of Queen Elizabeth, there were huge transformation of the drama plays in Elizabethan Theater,
from the Bible and Moral focus of the play to people centered where the writers were being paid
for a huge amount to write a good drama for the people who wants to cry, laugh, and move, not
to watch moral lessons. For example, the Shakespear’s poems and epics, Romeo and Juliet,
Hamlet, Macbeth, etc,.