Intro to Theater HistoryIntro to Theater History

To know the development of theater is to know the

development of mankind. As the theater grows, man grows; when it flourishes, man flourishes; and when it is suppressed, man

walks in darkness.

Primitive Peoples 40,000 – 10,000 BCE

•Drama was born out of the dance of primitive humans, when rhythmic movements evolved into pantomimes that told, showed, or mimicked something.

• Initiation dances taught the tribe’s customs like reaching adulthood.

• War dances hoped to spark bravery in the warriors.

• Story dances imitated events of hunts or battles.

• Religious dances appeased the numerous unseen spirits that the early humans felt controlled the world.

• Many religious dances evolved into rituals. The chief representative of the gods—the medicine man, shaman, witch doctor, or priest—would wear a mask believed to have powerful magic and would pray, exercise spirits, and chant while the tribe assisted or watched.

• Drama emerged from this religious ritual! It was often performed in a circle in front of the temple with its speaking actor.

Ancient Egypt10,000 BCE – 36 CE

•There were five types of Egyptian plays, all of them were serious and were performed in special tombs or in the temples.

1.// The Pyramid plays were written on the tomb walls and included the plot, characters, and basic stage directions. Performed by the priests, they show the ascent of the soul to become a star and symbolize the resurrection of the body.

1. // The Coronation Festival play was performed at the crowning of a new pharaoh.

3. // The Heb Sed or Coronation Jubilee plays celebrated the pharaoh's 30th year on the throne, enacting the events of his/her reign.

4. // The Medicinal play evolved around magic healing. The plot concerned the goddess Isis, whose child is bitten by a scorpion. Isis heals her son by using artificial respiration and a magic cure.

5. // The abydos Passion plays developed the resurrection (rebirth) theme of Set, Isis and Osiris.

Ancient China 700 BCE•Modern Chinese theater started in the eighth century, when Emperor Hsuan Tsung established a school in the gardens of his palace to teach dancing and music.

•Eastern theater didn’t influence western plays.

• Starting about 550 BCE Greek theater focused on poems and stories – favoring kings, conquerors, gods, and rites.

• Lots of firsts: improv, tragedy, (then) comedy, directors, sets – all the basics that influence our theater today.

Ancient Greece

The chorus underscored the themes, by commenting on the action, and explaining what was going on.

Dionysus • Greek theater started with celebrations that honored Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.

• These rituals turned into festivals with plays, contests, and ceremonies.

Parts of the Greek Theater• The audience sat in the theatron, semi-

curricular terraced rows of benches to watch.

• The acting area, called the orchestra, was the circular space marked out on the ground at the foot of the hill.

• The actors changed costumes in the skene, a small building behind the orchestra. The three doors in its façade allowed actors enter or exit.

• The parodos, the passageways are the paths by which the chorus and some actors moved on/near the stage.

Roman Theater400 BCE- 476 CE

• The theater was heavily influenced by Greece, but was more focused on crowd pleasers.

• War was a common topic as were mistaken identity comedies (gods dressed up in civilian clothes).

• When Rome invaded Greece they became interested in literature and art, but added their own twist.

• Romans preferred spectacle, vulgarity, and slapstick humor that made fun of the wealthy or intellectuals.

• The Romans were the first to use a front curtain and have a claque, a person paid to get the audience clapping and shouting.

• The Senate was against theater though, so early Roman playhouses were portable wooden platforms with a standing audience.

• Julius Caesar then ordered a movable playhouse built in the shape of two wooden theaters. Set back to back, each theater could be revolved to face each other. After a play, the seats were swung around into an amphitheater for chariot races and gladiator contests.

The Colosseum

• Plays were eventually overshadowed by coliseums with gladiator contests, where Christians were fed to the lions and slaves fought to their death.

• Finally, theater entertainment became so base that when Rome fell in 476 CE and the Christian church took over, all theater was banned. For hundreds of years afterwards, theater lay dormant throughout Europe.

“I’m gonna eat you…”

Medieval Theater 476 CE-1400 CE

• The Catholic church dominated society, education, politics and life, so theater usually had religious plots.

• What remained of ancient theater was based on Greek and Roman performing arts: mimes, minstrels and traveling jugglers.

• During the Dark Ages there was little cultural activity, exchange of ideas, or travel. Many people were illiterate.

• In the fifth century the Church introduced the trope, short dramatized scenes, of the Nativity and Easter.

• These pantomimes turned into dialogued plays acted by the priests and choir boys.

• Scenes became so popular that whole stories begun to be enacted on platforms called mansions within the cathedral. The crowd moved from one platform to another until they had seen the whole story.

The Three M Plays

1. The Mystery plays had as their subject matter the Bible stories

2. The Miracle plays enacted the lives of saints

3. The Morality plays taught right from wrong by having the characters personifying abstract qualities like honesty, etc.

Medieval Theater Staging Changes:• Audience members were brought closer to

the performers

• The stage area provided increased freedom/movement for actors

• Acting became more important than dialogue

• The popularity of the comic and the serious events within plays made them secularized (nonreligious) again.

Renaissance Theater1400-1600 CE

• After the Dark Ages a“rebirth” of learning occurred throughout Europe, with vigorous activity in all of the arts and sciences.

• In Italy in 1500s the Commedia dell’ arte was developed from mimes and pantomimes. These improvised comedies were performed in the streets for the masses.

• A company, consisting usually of seven men and three women, would ad-lib action, dialogue, song, and dance around a scenario (plot skeleton) that usually involved love and intrigue.

• They played a set of stock, regularly repeated characters.

• When wealthy Italians started building expensive theaters the rich began to prefer operas over plays.

• Meanwhile in Spain, the Spanish dramatists ignored the rules of time and place, wrote beautiful, flowing dialogue, and evolved their action around “cape and sword” adventure, romance, and chivalry (qualities of a good knight).

Elizabethan Theater 1576-1648

• The Globe opened in London in 1599. Shakespeare was an actor there.

• The multileveled space held 1,500 people including the groundlings who stood throughout the performance.

• Good Morrow! We will learn more about this time period when we do our Shakespearean Soliloquy unit!

Neoclassical 1642-1793• This style began in

France and was characterized by large gestures, melodrama, heavy use of costumes and props and complex plots.

• It was aimed at royalty, who could afford to pay the fancy productions.