Humanities Honors * Theatre

Greek Theatre:

• theatron

seating for audience

Greek Theatre:

• Orchestra

“Dancing Place” where chorus sang/performed to the audience

Greek Theatre:

• Parados

where the chorus entered (hallways)

Greek Theatre:

• Skene

the stage where the actors performed

Identify how the Greek god, Dionysus is related to Greek theatre.

• God of wine, fertility, grapes, ecstasy, madness, pleasure, festivity, etc.

• Responsible for human impulses

• Divine mission: eradicate all care and worry

• Honored him through theatre festivals

How/why did the costumes and masks of Greek theatre add to the performance?

• a mask with exaggerated features and wide mouths so that their voices projected to the entire audience

• long, trailing robes with elaborate designs

Who is credited with being the “first actor”?

Thespis

Identify the role (purpose, belief) of the chorus in Greek theatre.

• means “dance”

blended music, dance, song

• to create foreshadowing and suspense

• helps the audience feel more involved/connected and come to their own conclusions about the events unfolding in front of them

Types of theater spaces in Middle Ages

• Church

Roman Catholic Church:

With absence of a government, Church filled void

• Bishop, members of hierarchy of the Church were the same social status of Lords/nobles of feudal system

• Priests/other clergy were well educated and many sought to become part of clergy during this time period

most people not apart of Church were illiterate

No single entity was as powerful as Roman Catholic Church during this time period

Types of theater spaces in Middle Ages

• Pageant Wagons (in the street)

• used to stage liturgical dramas

• similar to parade floats

Name the types of Drama during the Middle Ages

• Mystery

• Morality

• Miracle

Types of Liturgical Drama in Middle Ages

• Mystery

• ex: The Passion Play

• plot & characters taken from books of the bible

• initially the most prominent form of liturgical drama

• best examples are cycle plays of England

Types of Liturgical Drama in Middle Ages

• Miracle

• plot is built around the lives and works of the saints

• usually performed on the saint’s feast day

• some scripts were biblical, others were not

• ex: four St.Nicholas plays presented on St.Nicholas Day, in Latin

Types of Liturgical Drama in Middle Ages

• Morality

• dramas based on the spiritual traits of the average person

• plays were allegories about moral temptations

• action of drama was battle of good/evil to possess a person’s soul

• ex: Everyman

What type of stage was used for Commedia ‘Dell Arte performances

• staging was minimal, was rarely anything more than a market or street scene.

• stages were just temporary outdoor structures, made from barrels or large pieces of wood.

What term for a “picture-frame” style stage?

Proscenium

What does the term, “the fourth wall” mean?

• invisible wall that faces the audience

• opaque wall (to the actors)

• as if the audience is “spying on the characters” - a form of voyeurism. 

Characteristics of Realism

• begins as an experiment to make theatre more useful to society

• sought to bring “real life on stage”

• true to life

• characters are believable, everyday types / costumes are authentic

• stage settings are usually indoors and believable

• “box set” consists of 3 walls, and the invisible “fourth wall” that faces the audience

• Roman theatre often emphasized spectacle, comedy, and entertainment over moral or philosophical lessons.

  • Do you think this focus made Roman theatre more effective or less meaningful than Greek theatre? Support your answer with one example from the unit.

Roman theatre is more effective in comparison to Greek theatre because it focused on entertaining and engaging the audience. Their plot/storylines was influenced by the Greeks. They used masks, slapstick humor, violence/horror occurred on stage. It also included everyday domestic affairs and making it more relatable to the audience and created more inclusivity by allowing women onstage.

• Describe the basic plot of Oedipus Rex (we read this in groups), and be able to identify and explain the fatal flaw of our tragic hero, Oedipus; and how it contributed to his downfall.

Oedipus fetal flaw was hubris meaning excessive pride. By trying to outrun the prophecy he ended up making it happen. He was overly confident that it wouldn’t happen that he ended up running right into it.

Laius and Jocasta of Thebes received a prophecy that their newborn son will murder his father and marry his mother. To escape the prophecy Laius binds the baby’s feet orders a servant to abandon him. Oedipus hears this prophecy as a young man and flees Corinth for Thebes.