Egyptian RootsEgyptian Roots

c.2500 bce Ritual Enactment Abydos Passion Play re-enacted the story

of the death and resurrection of Osiris

Greek FestivalsGreek Festivals Festivals honored Olympian gods Ritual Competitions Olympics: Apollo

Athletics Lyric Poetry

Drama: Dionysos Dithyrambic Choruses Tragedy Comedy

Greek TheatreGreek Theatre 6th - 4th century bce Originated in festivals honoring Dionysos

Thespis (6th c. bce) Tragedy:

Aeschylus (524-456 bce) Sophocles (496-406 bce) Euripides (480-406 bce)

Comedy: Aristophanes (c. 485- c.385 bce) Old Comedy: bawdy and satiric New Comedy: social situations

Roman TheatreRoman Theatre 2nd c. bce - 4th c. ce Origins in Greek drama and Roman

festivals Tragedy: Seneca

5 act structure Revenge motif -- sensationalistic Ghosts and supernatural

Comedy:Terence and Plautus Boy meets girl, complications, boy

gets girl: marriage Bawdy Stock characters

Roman SpectacleRoman Spectacle

Gladiatorial combats Naval battles in a flooded Coliseum “Real-life” theatricals Decadent, violent and immoral All theatrical events banned by Church

when Rome became Christianized

Medieval Drama: 13th-15th C.Medieval Drama: 13th-15th C.Arose from need to educate converted, illiterate

Christians about ChristianityHrotsvita (10th c.), German nun, wrote plays

about Christian matyrs using structure based on Terence’s Roman comedies

Liturgical dramaMystery plays: Biblical talesMiracle plays: Saints’ livesMorality plays: Allegories

Italian Commedia dell’ ArteItalian Commedia dell’ Arte La Commedia dell'Arte, "Artistic Comedy,”

began in the second half of the 16th century Based on set pieces, lazzi, that are

improvised with stock characters A distinct group of actors gave birth to the

first nucleus of companies, and started doing their acts on simple stages set outdoors

The mix of popular themes, complex stories, acrobatic jumps and mellow love scenes made it highly influential throughout Europe

Harlequino

Elizabethan Theatre: 16th-17th CElizabethan Theatre: 16th-17th C. Protestant Reformation closed down

religious drama Tudor love of spectacle and patronage of

drama Elizabethan poetry -- love of language

Influenced by Roman theatre, Renaissance ideas, medieval stagecraft and pagan

remnants Important theatrical period even if

Shakespeare had never lived

French Neoclassical Theatre, French Neoclassical Theatre, 17th-18th C.17th-18th C.

Modelled theatre on Greek and Roman examples Disdained English Elizabethan theatre’s

“messiness” and eclecticism Neoclassical Conventions

Decorum Verisimilitude Universal truths Poetic: Alexandrines 5 act structure 3 unities: time, place action

Tragedy and Comedy

Rulers/nobility Affairs of state Unhappy ending Lofty poetic style Revealed the horrible

results of mistakes and misdeeds committed from passion

Racine

Middle class/bourgeosie Domestic/private affairs Happy ending – often

deus ex machina Ordinary speech Ridicules behavior that

should be avoided Moliere

German German Romantic Romantic Theater: 18th-Theater: 18th-19th C.19th C.

“Stürm und Drang” Looked to Shakespeare for

models Sweeping historical and

tragic dramas Johann Goethe and

Friedrich Schiller Began to emphasize

historical accuracy in costumes and settings

Improved theatrical effects -- footlights, revolving stages, theatrical machinery

Melodrama: Melodrama: 19th Century19th Century

Theatre of sentimentality -- emotional appeal

Heroes and villains -- and lily-white heroines

Wide popular appeal Sensationalistic Most widely performed

play of the 19th C: Uncle Tom’s Cabin based on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel

Realism and NaturalismRealism and Naturalism19th-20th C.19th-20th C.

Intellectual reaction against popular theatre Theatre of social problems Influenced by emerging disciplines of

psychology and sociology Emerging importance of director Realistic stage conventions:

Proscenium stage Audience as “fourth wall” Change in acting conventions Continued developments in stagecraft

Realism and NaturalismRealism and Naturalism

• Middle class• Psychological • How can the individual

live within and influence society?

• “Well-made play”• Henrik Ibsen,

George Bernard Shaw

• Middle and Lower classes• Sociological• How does society/the

environment impact individuals?

• “Slice of life”• August Strindberg, Anton

Chekhov, John Synge, Sean O’Casey

20th Century Theatre:20th Century Theatre:a hundred years of ismsa hundred years of isms

Symbolism Expressionism Futurism Surrealism Social Realism Epic Theatre Existentialism Absurdism Magic Realism Hyper-Realism Not to mention musicals,

films, street theatre, etc., etc.

And so… into the 21st CenturyAnd so… into the 21st Century

Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz

Winner of 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama