Theater Studies Exam 2 Review - Key Terms and Definitions

First recorded performance and how do we know about it?

Egyptian: Abydos Passion Play, Ikhernofret Stela

City Dionysia

Ancient Greek Religious Festival to honor the god of fertility, ecstasy, wine, and theatre

Major parts of a classical Greek amphitheater

large, outdoor theatres, usually carved into a hillside

Who are three playwrights Classical Greek?

Aeschylus (Oldest), Sophocles ( The Best), Euripides ( The Youngest)

Ludi Romani?

Festival dedicated to god Jupiter, incorporated theatre; started 240 BCE

Who are three playwrights Roman?

Plautus (Domestic Comedy), Terence (More Verbal Wit), Seneca (Tragedy, meant to be read)

mystery play

AKA cycle dramas, short plays based on Bible stories

Morality play

Medieval drama designed to teach a lesson. The characters were often allegorical and represented virtues or faults.

Hrosvitha

A German nun, female playwright.

mansion

Individual scenic units used for religious drama, in churches and outside

Draw Ancient Greek Theatre Layout

What three 3 civilizations are covered?

India, China, Japan

Natyasastra

contains plays, staging and philosophy of Sanskrit drama?

Nanxi, Chinese Opera

southern drama with Sheng: Male characters, Dan: Female characters Jing: Painted faces, demons, and gods Chou: Clowns

Noh theatre

Rigidly traditional form of Japanese drama combining music, dance, and lyrics

Bunraku

Japanese puppet theatre, popular entertainment for the merchant class, had plays about domestic life, love, and business

Kabuki

Popular 17th Cent. Japanese theatre, combines music, dance and dramatic scenes

Commedia dell'arte

an Italian Renaissance form of popular theatre that was highly improvisational, used stock characters, and masks, and was staged by traveling professional performers

Lazzi

Repeated comic stage bits or gags. Roles were for set Zanni

neoclassical ideals

- Teach moral lessons- No violence on stage- No chorus, ghosts

dramatic unities

unity of time, unity of setting, and unity of story

iambic pentameter

5 beats made of 10 syllables in unaccented-accented order

public theatre

were outdoor theatres in London

private theatre

indoor theatre spaces

Christopher Marlowe

English dramatic poet/playwright during the English Renaissance

Wrote "The Mighty Line" (Iambic pentameter)

William Shakespeare

English poet and playwright wrote 2 plays a year for 20 years

comedy of manners

Comic drama satirizes social conventions; emphasizes sophisticated atmosphere and witty dialogue; audience is aristocrats

well-made play

tightly constructed with exposition and the obligatory scene, cause-and-effect plots, secret at heart of plot, climatic endings to acts, all is resolved

sturm und drang

(storm and stress) episodic, mixes genres, bloody violence, great passions

box set

flats form 3 walls and it looks like a room

romanticism

reject artistic rules, celebrate genius and more mood and atmosphere. (The dramatic hero is an outcast seeking justice, knowledge and truth)

melodrama

drama using background music to set the mood

realism

everything onstage resembles observable, everyday life to promote a strong sense of audience recognition and identification

What are the two styles of theatre identified with modernism?

Expressionism and the Theatre of Absurd

What are two types of antirealism?

Futurism

Surrealism

Who are the Big three European playwrights who established realism?

Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov

unit set

a single setting that can represent a variety of locales

book musical

they had spoken parts as well as music

three descriptions of today's theatre

Global, Diverse, Eclectic

Performance art

Experimental theatre that initially incorporated elements of dance and the visual arts.

Postmodernism

a contemporary concept suggesting that artists and audiences have gone beyond the modernist movement of realism and departures from realism

3 examples of diverse theatre in USA today

African American Theatre, Latino and Latina Theatre, Asian American Theatre

Thespis

First actor to step away from the chorus and speak individually.

Chorus

Group of performers who chanted, danced, narrated, and represented community voice.

Old Comedy

Satirical Greek comedy that mocked public figures and politics.

Roman Theatre

Freestanding stone structures with semicircular orchestra, raised stage, scaena.

Liturgical Drama

Religious plays performed in Latin inside churches.

Vernacular Drama

Plays performed in everyday language outside the church.

Theatre Revived

Western Europe, 900 CE, the Catholic Church

Dance Drama

Theatre using dance, movement, and gesture to tell story.

Total Drama

Theatre combining music, dance, drama, and spectacle.

Sanskrit Drama

Early Indian drama written in Sanskrit.

Origin of Theatre (Natya Sastra)

Created by Brahma as entertainment and moral instruction for humanity.

Rasa

Emotional flavor or mood produced in the audience.

Zaju

The Yuan Dynasty Theatre had four song sequences

Zeami

Great Noh playwright, actor, and theorist.

Yugen

Deep, mysterious beauty and elegance in Noh.

Four Noh Character Types

Main actor (shite), secondary actor (waki), accompanying role (tsure), and comic character (kyogen)

Joruri

Bunraku narrative chanting accompanied by music.

Onnagata

Male actors who play female roles.

Hanamachi

Raised walkway extending through audience.

Renaissance drama was based on

Rediscovery of Greek and Roman classical models.

Intermezzi

short pieces depicting mythological tales presented between acts.

Pastoral

Plays about romance that mimic Satyr plays

Opera

Invented in Italy; drama set entirely to music.

Humanism

Renaissance belief focused on humans rather than gods

Commedia dell’arte

Improvised comedy with stock characters and masks.

Zanni

Comic servant characters in commedia.

Groove System

Early method of sliding scenery in floor grooves.

Public Theatre

Outdoor theatres open to common public (Globe).

Tiring House

Backstage building for costumes, entrances, and storage.

Sharing Plan

Actors received shares of company profits.

Comedia (Spanish)

Spanish Renaissance three-act play.

Corral

Spanish public theatre courtyard.

Moliere

Great French comedy playwright who improved Comedia Dell’arte

Two London Patented Theatres

Drury Lane and Covent Garden.

Three Restoration Theatre Characteristics

Indoor theatres, proscenium arch, moveable scenery, and actresses on stage.

Angle Perspective

Scenery painted in angled lines for depth.

Two American Realist Playwrights

Eugene O’Neill and Susan Gaspell

Theatre that rejects commercialism

non-profit

Improv Theatre

Unscripted, spontaneous performance.

Devised Theatre

Ensemble created script through rehearsal and collaboration.

Postmodernism

Mixes styles, challenges truth, borrows, questions reality.

Five Strands of Modern Theatre

Realism, antirealism, Eclecticism, Traditional forms, Globalism