History of theater revised 3-2012

History of Theater

The Short Short Version…

Think ahead…

What makes drama different from a novel or short story?

Anticipate and brainstorm some ideas using the Venn Diagram on your guided notes.

2 minutes

Drama is actually older than written novels or short stories.

First novel: 1485-ish

First play performed: before written history!

First play written: 1887 BCE – “The Passion Play of Abydos”

Performing stories has been a major part of social human culture throughout history.

We can’t get to every single moment in the history of theater, so here are the highlights…

Stories in Performance

Major Movements in the History of Theater

Primitive Theater

Characterized by the re-enactment of hunting activities, myths, and religious

rituals

Before recorded history – ongoing in indigenous tribal cultures

Ancient Greek Theater

Staging of histories and myths

Greeks invented tragedy and comedy as genres of drama

600 BCE – 250 BCE

Famous Faces:

Aeschylus

Sophocles 

Euripides

ANTIGONE          Look—what’s Creon doing with our two brothers?          He’s honouring one with a full funeral          and treating the other one disgracefully!          Eteocles, they say, has had his burial          according to our customary rites,          to win him honour with the dead below.                                       30          But as for Polyneices, who perished          so miserably, an order has gone out          throughout the city—that’s what people say.          He’s to have no funeral or lament,          but to be left unburied and unwept,          a sweet treasure for the birds to look at,          for them to feed on to their heart’s content.                                [30]          That’s what people say the noble Creon          has announced to you and me—I mean to me—          and now he’s coming to proclaim the fact,                                    40          to state it clearly to those who have not heard.          For Creon this matter’s really serious.          Anyone who acts against the order          will be stoned to death before the city.          Now you know, and you’ll quickly demonstrate          whether you are nobly born, or else          a girl unworthy of her splendid ancestors.

Medieval Theater

Histories, stories of the Bible, instructional drama (morality)

Medieval Theater companies often traveled between villages

925 CE – 1500 CE

Three Categories:•Mystery•Miracle•Morality

The Play of the Shepards, from the Chester Cycle of Mystery Plays

For with walkynge werye I have mee rought;besydes the suche my sheepe I sought.

My taytfull tuppes are in my thought,them to save and heale

from the shrewde scabbe yt sought,or the rotte, yf yt were wrought.

If the cough had them caughtof hyt I could them heale.

Loe, here bee my herbes safe and sownde,wysely wrought for everye wounde--

the woulde a whole man bringe to growndewithin a little whyle--

of henbane and horehounde,tybbe, radishe, and egermonde,

which bee my herbes save and sounde,medled on a rowe.

Kabuki Theater

1603-1868; ongoing

Highly-stylized theater of Japan

From the Japanese kabuku, meaning “out of the ordinary”

Comedies, tragedies, histories, and mythsKabuki Video on YouTube

“Renaissance” – from the Italian, meaning “rebirth”

Plays during this time focused on classic stories from ancient

Greece and Rome, romances, comedies, and histories.

Renaissance Theater

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KkZCq2A5LI

1570’s - 1642

Notable Introductions:

•The Proscenium Arch stage (Italy)•The Thrust Stage (England)•Creation of the theater company with a home theater building

Opera (1597-present)

Classical myths and legends were most popular in 17th and 18th century operas.

Modern operas tell dramatic stories based on novels, short stories, classical romances, and histories.

Opera combines a written text with music.

Written text is called a libretto

The music is called the score

BASICSOpera Masters:

Mozart (18th C.)

Wagner (19th C.)

Verdi (19th C.)

Puccini (20th C.)

SU

BJE

CTS

Amadeus, 1:45. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kGtmHGu9O8

19th Century Theater

Subjects:•Melodrama – stories of good v. evil, usually a happy ending•Realism – examining society’s problems through real-life experiences

Major Players:

Ibsen Shaw

Chekov

1801 – 1900

THE FLOWER GIRL. I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. But they won't take me unless I can talk more genteel. He said he could teach me. Well, here I am ready to pay him--not asking any favor--and he treats me as if I was dirt.

MRS. PEARCE. How can you be such a foolish ignorant girl as to think you could afford to pay Mr. Higgins?

THE FLOWER GIRL. Why shouldn't I? I know what lessons cost as well as you do; and I'm ready to pay.

HIGGINS. How much?

THE FLOWER GIRL [coming back to him, triumphant] Now you're talking! I thought you'd come off it when you saw a chance of getting back a bit of what you chucked at me last night. [Confidentially] You'd had a drop in, hadn't you?

HIGGINS [peremptorily] Sit down.

THE FLOWER GIRL. Oh, if you're going to make a compliment of it--

HIGGINS [thundering at her] Sit down.

Pygmalion

The variety show – different acts taking place over the course of a couple hours

Dancing, music, monologues, comedy, acrobats, magicians

Major Players: Fanny Brice, The Marx Brothers, Bill Robinson

Music Halls/Vaudeville1840-1934

20th Century Theater

1901- ongoing

Theater begins splitting into multiple, sometimes conflicting styles:

• Avant Garde/Experimental Theater (defiant)

• Realism (social criticism)

• Expressionism (exaggerated, stylized)

• Naturalism (natural, like real-life)

A country road. A tree.

Evening.

Estragon, sitting on a low mound, is trying to take off his boot. He pulls at it with both hands, panting. He gives up, exhausted, rests, tries again. As before.

Enter Vladimir.

ESTRAGON (giving up again): Nothing to be done.

VLADIMIR (advancing with short, stiff strides, legs wide apart): I'm beginning to come round to that opinion. All my life I've tried to put it from me, saying Vladimir, be reasonable, you haven't yet tried everything. And I resumed the struggle. (He broods, musing on the struggle. Turning to Estragon.)So there you are again.

ESTRAGON: Am I?

VLADIMIR: I'm glad to see you back.I thought you were gone forever.

ESTRAGON: Me too.

Waiting for Godot

Broadway Musicals

•Usually comedies, but also tragedies•A uniquely American art form•Closely related to opera and vaudeville•Combination of music (score) and spoken dialogue (book)

1857 - ongoing

Broadway Superstars:

George and Ira Gershwin

Stephen Sondheim

Andrew Lloyd Webber

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejGLmx7ZH0c

•Improvise: to compose, play, recite, or sing (verse, music, etc.) on the spur of the moment.

•Related to Jazz - riff, make it up, and change based on impulse

•Saturday Night Live, Second City, The Groundlings

Improvisation

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/lunch-lady/1354913