THE 561 Exam 1

Definitions from Living Theatre A History of Global Theatre (2025), Powerpoint Presentations, and Readings

Abydos Passion Play

Ancient Egypt

One of the oldest known theatrical performances from ancient Egypt

1878-1839 BCE

Depicts the story of Egyptian god Osiris

Aeschylus

Classical Greece

Playwright (525-456 BCE)

Plays about noble families with grand themes

Great at lyric poetry, dramatic structure, and first to develop drama into a form separate from singing, chanting, dancing or storytelling

Agon

Greek Old Comedy

A scene with a debate between two opposing forces—each representing one side of a social or political issue.

Anagnoresis

Classic Greek

The moment a character makes a critical discovery

Anti-Theatrical Bias

Theaters seen as corrupting influence

(Actors lie, drink, dress up, and enact evil on stage which early churches do not like.)

Can be traced back to Plato

Archon

Greek

An appointed government official responsible for choosing and overseeing theatre festivals.

Aristophanes

Greek 5th century

Comic Playwright (448-380 BCE)

Wrote Lysistrata

Old Comedy

Ars Poetica

Horace’s Ars Poetica

“Roman Aristotle”

Established rules for Roman dramatists

• No mixing of genres: separate comedy and tragedy

• Five act structure

• Three speaking characters (not followed)

• Moral lessons offered by chorus

• Emphasis on decorum (characters behave suitable for who they are)

What is the purpose of theatre according to Horace’s Ars Poetica?

utile et dulce

to teach and to please (moral lessons combined with entertainment)

Artists of Dionysius

Hellenistic

An association of actors & performers who secured safety and other benefits for their group members.

(Actor & Performer Union)

Atellan Farce

Roman

South Italy

Improvised, dealt with family issues, parodies of historical/mythological figures

Stock Characters

Imported into Rome early 3rd century BCE

Auleum

Roman

Curtain raised and lowered into a pit

Aulos

Greek

Common reed instrument

Bujlud Festival

One of the oldest African performances.

Originated by the Amazigh people in Morocco

“Master of skins”

Byzantine Empire

The Roman empire split in 395 CE creating the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire

Major city: Constantinople (Now Istanbul)

Conquered by the Ottomans in 1453

Choregus

Classical Greek

A wealthy person who paid for a production

Chosen by the Archeon

City Dionysia

Classical Greek

Drama festival in Athens

Climactic Drama

Crisis Drama

The action begins near the climax / A late point of attack

Constantinople

The center of the Eastern/Byzantine Empire.

Conquered by Ottomans in 1453 CE

Dance Dramas

Dancing which acts out a story

Decorum

Developed durning the Italian Renaissance

Horace’s Ars Poetica

“Dramatic characters must behave in set ways based on their social class and background.”

Dues ex machina

Classical Greek

“God from a machine”

A crane or lever suspended from the top of the scene house

Later became known as a way a play could end

Dionysius Dithyramb

Classical Greek

A hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus

Ekkyklema

Classical Greek

A wagon wheeled in behind the skene

Used to roll on & off characters which have died

Episkenion

Hellenistic

The 2nd story of the skene/scene house

Euripides

Classical Greek

Playwright (480-406 BCE)

1/3 great tragic playwrights of ancient Greece

Modernism, mixed comedy and tragedy, portrayed gods as human and fallible

Exodos

Classical Greek

Final scene in a classical greek tragedy

Flower Wars

Aztec Fesitval

Carefully staged battles with combatants dressed in full war costumes

(The performers also actually fought and killed each other)

Hamartia

Classical Greek

Tragic flaw

1st in Aristotle Poetics

Hellenistic

336-146 BCE

Alexander the Great updates greek theatre during his reign

Hellenistic Theatre

336-146 BCE

• Stone Seating

• Circular Orchestra

• Platform Boots

• Proskenion (8-13st tall stage)

Historiography

Study of the methods used by historians

• Positivism - chronological narratives

• Revisionist - focus on popular entertainment/people left out of historical recors

• Postmodernist - questions traditional narritives

• Feminist - explores roles of women

• Multicultural & LGBTQ - focus on underrepresented groups

Horace

Roman

Drama Critic

wrote Ars Poetica

Hypokrites

Classical Greek

Mask wearing greek actors

Katharsis

Classical Greek

Purging of emotions by expression

Kordax

Classical Greek

Comic

Kothurni

Hellenistic

High soled boots for tragic actors

Lenaia

Classical Greek

A festival celebrated at the end of January in Athens.

Ludi Romani

Roman

A festival in the honor of the god Jupiter held in September

Luperci

Roman

priests of the festival of Faunus celebrated in Februaray

Mechane

Classical Greek

Crane used to fly gods/monsters

Menander

Hellenistic

342-291 bce

Writer of only extant New Comedies

Influenced Romans later on

Methexis

Classical Greek

The act of group sharing/audience participation

Mime

Hellenistic

Variety Entertainment (included women!) Animal acts, Acro, Dance, etc.

Not enjoyed by early Christians

Mimesis

Classical Greek

Imitation of real world things - realism

Naumachiae

Hellenistic

Stage naval battles (recreated navy battles)

New Comedy

Hellenistic (336 BCE)

Written by Menander

Less focused on politics

Middle-class problems (love, marriage, money, etc)

Set in households

Complex plots with simple stock characters

Almost no chorus

Ode

Classical Greek

Lyric poetry

Old Comedy

Classical Greek

“Komoidia”

Only extant written by Aristophanes (11)

Structure: Prolouge, agon, parabasis, episodes, komos

Onkos

Hellenistic

High headdress of a mask

Orchestra

Classical Greek

Where the chorus plays

Pantomime

Roman

Roman entertainment where a narrative is sung by a chorus while the story was acted out by dancers

Parabasis

Classical Greek

Old Comedy

A scene where the chorus directly addressed the audience members (and make fun of them)

Parados

Classical Greek

The entranceway for the chorus enters

Peloponnesian War

431-404 BCE
Sparta vs Athens

Ends the golden age of Greece (and the Hellenistic period)

Performance Studies

Performance as a continuum — differences depend on societal function

Periaktoi

Classical Greek

Rotating triangular columns

Peripeteia

Classical Greek

Aristotle’s Poetics

Reversal of circumstances/turning point

Phylax

Classical Greek

Actors

Pinake

Classical Greek

Painted Flat

Plato

4th c. Greek Philosopher

Died 347 BCE

Not a fan of theatre (people gonna go crazy watching this stuff)

Plautus

Roman Playwright (254-184 BCE)

Comedy

Super popular

Postmodernism

calls into question traditional narratives as constructions

Proedria

Classical Greek

Front seats for dignitaries

Proskenion

Hellenistic

The performance stage

Protagonist

The main character

Pulpitum

Roman

5ft raised stage (that can be anywhere from 100-300ft wide and 20ft deep) in front of scaena

Rabinal Achi (Xapoj Tun)

Mayan

“Dance of the Wooden Drum”

Performed in Rabinal in Guatemala

Revenge Tragedy

Roman

Big theme of Seneca’s plays

Revisionism

focuses on popular entertainment or people and practices left out of historical record

Ritual

the acting out of an established, prescribed behavior—usually employing bodily movement, words, or interactions with objects—in order to affect a community

Ritual Origin Theory

• Storytelling? (the shaman as a repository of history and myth)

• Imitation? A natural human impulse (Aristotle’s Poetics)

• Role playing?
  All three of the above are inherent to human life

• Education?

• Popular Entertainment?

Roman Empire

founded 27 bce

• centralized government

Roman Republic

founded in 509 bce

Satyr Play

Classical Greek

• Satirical plays

• Dealt with matter similar to that of tragedy or epic, but in a comic way

• Chorus of satyrs: half-men, half-goats

• Low humor

• Cyclops by Euripides is only complete extant satyr play

Scaena Frons

Roman

the facade of the scaena

• elaborate and ornate, with statuary, columns, recesses, and

• three to five entrances

• the central entrance was the largest and had stairs leading up to it

Seneca

Philosopher & Playwright (4 bce- 65 ce)

• Nine plays survive

• Five act structure

• Chorus is there but separate from action

• influence of Stoicism

• emotion becomes flaw of characters

• Violence, horror, the supernatural; Stoic maxims abound

Skene

Classic Greek

Scene building

Sophocles

Philosopher & Playwright (497-406 BCE)

• Wrote over one hundred plays; we have seven extant complete plays, plus fragments

• Revered

• Noted for plot construction

• Complex psychology and delayed revelations

• Focused on individual characters (Oedipus, Antigone)

Stock Characters

Characters types that are commonly used (like templates)

Technitai

Classical Greek

The Artists of Dionysus

Terence

Roman

Comedy Playwright (185-159 BCE)

Stressed characterization, subtle expression, and language

Aristotle’s Poetics

Classical Greek

Climactic structure
Six elements: plot, character, thought (theme), diction, music, spectacle
Descriptive more than prescriptive

Theatre at Epidauros

340-300 BC

Classical Greek

Theatre of Dionysius

Hosted City Dionysia

Classical Greek

Theatre of Pompey

Roman

Completed in 55 BC

Julius Caesar was stabbed here!

Theatron

Greek Classical

“Seeing place” for the audience

Thespis

Classical Greek

First actor

Thymele

Classical Greek

altar in center of orchestra (maybe) Used in some plays

Thyromata

Classical Greek

Openings or doorways that pierced the facade

Utile et Dulce

Horace’s Ars Poetica: To Educate, To Entertain

Venationes

Roman

Hunting and killing wild animals for entertainment

Versurae

Roman

openings on either side of stage

Who Wrote Medea?

Euripedes in 431 bce

Who is Medea? What happens to her?

A woman who is abandoned by her husband- Jason -(so he can chase a political advantageous marriage), she gets pissed, kills Creon and his daughter (the girl her husband was trying to marry) with posion. As well as her own children to get back at Jason.

Does Medea get away?

Yes, she gets to ride a dragon-pulled chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-God. Leaving Jason all alone.

Who is the Chorus in Medea?

Corinthian women

Who wrote Lysistrata?

Aristophanes in 411 BCE

Who is the Chorus in Lysistrata?

Men and Women of Athens

What is Lysistrata’s goal?

To end the Peloponnesian War