Theatre Traditions: East and West

Theatre Traditions:East and WestChapter 7Cohen, THEATRE (Brief edition)

Theatre exists in the present, but is deeply rooted in its past

Many plays seen today are revivals…

Contemporary theatre artists are compared to their

predecessors

Some ancient plays adapt to modern times

Many of the world’s great plays are closely based upon

preceding ones

One theory suggests that the origins of theatre are in tribal groups, dating as far back as 6000 years…

Another theatre suggests that theatre evolved from rituals that can be seen as collective ceremonies…

STORYTELLING…

Storytelling requires an audience

Storytelling involves character impersonation

In Animism SHAMANS are guides to the spiritual world

Mediums are examples of spiritual guides like Shamans

The Sri Lankan sanniyakuma

A Bundu Devil Dancer

Traditional theatre and

drama seems to have its earliest expressions in Ancient Egypt

Abydos Passion Play is likely the first known drama in Egypt.

It was associated with the rites of burial.

Egyptian ceremonies and rites date as far back as 2500 BC

The Abydos procession to the Nile was not unlike a modern parade

Other rites appeared in Babylonia and other locations in the Middle East but did not flourish.

The next wave of development occurred in Attica (Greece).

5th Century Athens stands as one of the great ages of theatre

Attic rites developed both tragedy and comedy

Evidence exists in mosaics and vases from the period

A dithyrambic chorus

Attic rites honored the God of fertility, harvest and wine

Dionysus

City Dionysia held in Athens in theatre at base of Acropolis

Model of Theatre Dionysia

Artists reconstruction of Greek Theatre at its height

Components of Greek drama1. Performed for special occasion to celebrate the

seasons or some important civic event2. It was competitive. Prizes were awarded.3. They featured CHORAL singing and dancing…the

chorus was comprised of from 3 to 50 members.4. The plays were based upon familiar stories and

myths.

Types of Greek Drama

- TRAGEDY- COMEDY- SATYR PLAYS

Comedy and tragedy were the most popular types of plays in ancient Greece. Hence the modern popularity of the comedy and tragedy masks to symbolize theatre.

Aeschylus

The PersiansSeven Against ThebesThe SuppliantsThe Oresteia Agamemnon The Libation Bearers The EumenidesPrometheus Bound

524 – 456 BC

Sophocles (497-406 BC)

Oedipus Rex and Antigone

Euripides

AlcestisElectraThe BacchaeTrojan Women

480-406 BC

Greek masks and musicians

Greek masks and chorus

Greek Comedy

Aristophanes (447-388 BC)

The Birds (pictured), The Clouds, Lysistrata

The satyr play

Theatre at Epidaurus

Greek costumes

Himation, Chlamys

Onkos

kothurnoi

A Greek Chorus

Greek drama introduced...

• Tragedy and comedy• Conventions in costume• The third actor• Skene (elevated stage)• Choral singing• Stock characters• Trilogy• Satyr (parody)

Roman Drama

Terence Plautus

Roman Theatre

Roman theatre in Syria

Medieval Drama

After the fall of Rome, theatrical activity in the West was brought to an end.

It re-emerged in the 10th century with QUEM QUERITAS

By 1250, Bible-based dramas (Mystery Plays) were common in Europe

Mystery cycles were staged by guilds in European cities

Wakefield

York

Logo for York Mystery Play today

Pagaent wagons

Valenciennes Mansion Stage

Morality plays

Renaissance Drama

16th century Commedia dell’Arte troupe

Plautus and Seneca were first translated in the 1470s

Agamemnon HerculesMedeaPhaedraPhoenician Women

(4BC-65AD)

The Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

Theatre’s golden age

Christopher Marlowe

Ben Jonson

John Webster

William Shakespeare

1564-1616

Shakespeare’s first folio-1623

The Plays of William ShakespeareSir John Gilbert - 1849

The King’s Men

William Kemp

Richard Burbage

Elizabethan Playhouse

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Theatre

Globe Theatre

Globe Theatre (exterior)

Interior

Shakespeare Festival TheatreStratford-upon-Avon

The Royal Theatre

In Spain, there wasPedro Calderon at thecourt of Philip IV

Louis XIV in France

Moliere at court

Jean RacinePierre Corneille

In England, The Restoration

The Royal Theatres of Europe defined the Neoclassical age

Theories of drama were adapted from Aristotle

Development of neoclassical ideal of “reasonableness”

Onstage violence eliminated

Strict unity of style and genre

Theatres were moved indoors to encourage new stagecraft

The classical unities

TIMEPLACE

ACTION

Corneille’s LE CID

Moliere’s TARTUFFE

Congreve’s THE WAY OF THE WORLD

After Neoclassicism camethe Romantic Era

A rebellion against Neoclassicism and its rigidity and decorum

The dominant form of the 18th and 19th centuries

Celebrated the exotic and grotesque and emphasized the individual over society

Focused on compassion rather than style

Gave rise to the form of melodrama

Major authors of the romantic age In Germany

Johan Wolfgang von GoetheFriedrich von Schiller

In FranceVictor Hugo

Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)

Theatre in the East is rich and diverse

ASIAN Theatre is never just spoken, but danced, chanted, mimed and sung

Dramatic language is rhythmic and melodic and sound has multiple meanings

Eastern forms of theatre are more visual and sensual than literary or intellectual

There is a strong emphasis upon storytelling, but is not tightly plotted

It has a rich and long heritage, literally hundreds and thousands of years

Asian theatre forms are highly stylized

Actors train in traditional forms through an intense apprentice system

Asian theatre is deeply traditional with significant connections to folk history, ancient religions and cultural myths

Indian Sanskrit DramaDates from 200 BC. Performed indoors.

Natyasastra (treatise on theatre) dates from around 100 a.d.

Indian Kathakali (story play)

Chinese Xiqu (tuneful theatre)often referred to as Chinese Opera

The Monkey King

Scale and spectacle in Xiqu

Japanese Noh

Noh theatre groundplan

Noh masks

NOH masks change identity in light and shadow

Kabuki Theatre

ka (song) – bu (dance) – ki (skill)

Two major forms – history plays and domestic plays

Modern kabuki actors are descended from 11 families dating to the beginnings of the form.

Sakata Tojuro

Tojuro playing the courtesan Ohatsu opposite his son Nakamura Kanjaku as her lover Tokubei in "Sonezaki Shinju"

The Lion Dance

"Yoshitsune Senbonzakura (Yoshitsune and 1,000 Cherry Trees)"

1851

2008

Chikamatsu (1653-1725)was the greatest Japanese dramatist

Chikamatsu also wrote for Bunraku

Theatrical Tradition: East & WestCOHEN identifies twelve great theatre traditions

GreekRomanMedievalRenaissanceRoyal (Neoclassical)RomanticSanskritKathakaliXiquNohKabuki Bunraku

All of these traditions influencedTHE MODERN THEATRE