HISTORY OF THEATRICAL FORMS

AND THEIR EVOLUTION

 What is theater?

◦“A place for seeing”

 What is theatre?
◦Theatre is a collaborative form of performing
art that uses live performers, typically actors or
actresses, to present the experience of a real or
imagined event before a live audience in a
specific place, often a stage.
IMPORTANT PERIODS AND EVENTS IN
THEATERE HISTORY
GREEK THEATRE
700 B.C.
Theatre started…
◦Used in festivals to
honor their Gods.
Theatre started…
 Three Types of Drama
◦What are the three types of drama?
◦T RAGEDY
◦C OMEDY
◦S ATYR
TRAGEDY…
◦“tragos”meaning “goat”and “won” (ode)
meaning song.
◦that presents a serious subject matter about
human suffering and corresponding terrible
events in a dignified manner.
TRAGEDY PLAYWRIGHTS…
 GREEK THEATRE
◦Actors=Directors=dramatists
COMEDY…
◦The motif of this dramatic work is triumph
over unpleasant circumstance by creating
comic effects, resulting in a happy or
successful conclusion.
SATYR…
◦ancient Greek drama that preserves the
structure and characters of tragedy while
adopting a happy atmosphere and a
rural background.
◦a kind of “joking tragedy.”
ROMAN THEATRE
3rd Century B.C.
ROMAN THEATRE
◦ETRUSCANS are the first actors in
theaters.
◦In 240 B.C.,
THE TRIUMVIR POMPEY/
THEATER OF POMPEY
ROMAN THEATRE
◦Usual themes: Chariot races,
galdiators, and public executions.
◦Romans love to watch combat and
admired blood sports and gladiator
competitions.
350-250 b.c.
MEDIEVA
L
THEATRE
500 C.E. -
1400
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
◦MINSTRELS- any type of entertainer
such as a musician, juggler, acrobat,
singer or fool, the term later, came to
mean a specialist entertainer who sang
songs and played musical instruments.
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
◦Started staging their own theater
performances during Easter Sundays. –
biblical stories and events.
◦Some plays brought outside the Church
due to portrayal of the Devil and Hell.
MEDIEVAL THEATRE
◦Over the centuries, the plays revolved
around biblical themes.
RENAISSANCE THEATRE
1400 - 1600
RENAISSANCE THEATRE
◦Mystery plays – based on the Old and New
Testament
• Miracle plays – based on the lives of the
saints
• Morality plays – taught a lesson through
symbolic characters representing virtues or
faults.
◦Public theatres were developed like the
Commedia dell’arte – Italian comedy
presentation performed by professionals who
traveled in troupes.
◦Elaborate Masques – a dramatic entertainment
with pantomime, dancing, dialogue, song, with
players who wore masks.
 ◦Queen
Elizabeth I
◦William Shakespeare
◦English poet, playwright, and actor
◦“Greatest writer and dramatist in the whole world
◦“National poet of England”
◦Considered as the “Bard of Avon”
◦Wrote 38 plays
◦Works: Romero and Juliet, Hamlet, Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Cleopatra
◦ballet was first time to
performed in public
◦Ballet- formalized dance
originated in Italian
Renaissance Courts.
◦Ballet des polonaise in 1573
– first formal court ballet
ever recognized
◦Proscenium
Stage was
developed.
◦Backdrops for
scenery were
popularized by
the art of
painting clothes.
BAROQUE THEATRE
1600 - 1750
BAROQUE THEATRE
◦Marked by the use of technology in current
Broadways or Commercial plays.
◦Deus ex machina – “God From the Machine”
BAROQUE THEATRE
◦Theater was richly decorated, multiplicity of
plot turns, and variety of situations
◦Ex. Vatel, Farinelli, and Orpheus (Claudio
Monteverdi)
TEATRO REGIO IN TURIN
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE
1800 - 1900
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE
◦Movement where the styles of Roman and
Greek societies influenced the theatre arts.
◦Description: Grandiosity
◦Costumes and sceneries were highly
elaborated
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE
◦Concepts: “To entertain and to give lessons”
◦Lightings and sound effects intensified the
mood and message
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE
◦The Concept of Decorum
◦Right and proper audience behavior
Appropriate social behavior must be observed
NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE
◦Establishment of two plays : Tragedy and
Comedy
◦They never mixed these together because…
TRIVIA….
◦Limelight- the first ever spotlight in the field
of theatre