Chapter 7 Flashcards
theatre traditions origiins
- ritual
- storytelling
- shamanism, trance, magic
ritual
a traditional cultural practice, usually religious, involving precise movements, music, spoken text, or gestures, that serves to communicate with deities. Ritual is often incorporated into plays, either a conventions of the theatre or as specific dramatizied actions.
storytelling
: a personal and individual way of recounting events, imaginary or real, it requires an audience
theatre in the west (Western Drama)
a branch of theatre art that encompasses many different types of drama. Together they are characterized by being very literal and intellectual, containing tightly written plots, stunning reversals, crescending climaxes and elaborate plot closures
theatre in the west-
western drama. chronological order
- Ancient Greece (Greek drama)
- Roman Drama
- Medieval drama
- Renaissance Drama
- Royal theatre
- The romantic Theatre
Ancient Greece
- Celebrate/honor diunysus (God of Wine and Fertility)
a. Lots of drinking/drunkenness
b. Orgy
i. Mardi gras
ii. Dithyramb – celebration of Dionysus - Tragedies come out of this tradition
- Tail stories that was told
iii. Aeschylus credited with being the first playwright in ancient Greece
iv. Sophocles
v. Euripides - Tragedy – 33 plays survive
vi. Aristophanes 11 plays survive - Comedy
vii. Ancient Greek Theatre
Roman Drama
(thru first millennium A.D)
i. Vomitoria
1. walkway
ii. Roman Theatre
Medieval Drama (1000ad)
i. Easter Ceremony – Quem Queritis “Whom seek ye?”
ii. By 1250 – this moved outdoors
iii. Medieval Drama
iv. Beginning of producers
Renaissance Drama
– Rebirth of Classical civilization
i. Originated in Italy 1400s with commedia del Arte
1. (commedia - troops of players, 2 dimensional characters)
a. Funny situations
2. Led to burlesque, sit-coms, “slapstick”
ii. London 1500’s
1. Shakespeare
a. Company of actors
b. The Globe – Public
c. Renessaince –
Royal theatre
intellectual – aristocracy (plays aimed more at the aristocracy)
i. Neoclassical, intellectual, philosophical
The Romantic Theatre
(romantic period – 18th/ 19th C)
i. Natural world, wild, emotional, of the heart
ii. Gave rise to meolodrama, grand opera, modern realism (westerns)
Theatre in the East
(Eastern Drama): A branch of theatre art that encompasses many different types of drama. Together they are characterized by their rhythmic and melodic language, their visual and sensual experience, broad stylization, and they are deeply traditional and has its roots in metaphysics, dance, song, mime, gesture, acrobatics, puppetry, music, sound, costume, and make up are very much a part of this
Theatre in the East. Chronological Order
- India
- China
- Japan
India
i. Katakhai – the most widely known regional dance-drama form “story play”
1. Ramayana
2. Mahabharata
3. Text is sung
China
tuneful theatre, Chinese opera
- Beijing (peking) opera “jingju”
a. Founded in 1790
Japan
- Noh/no
- kabuki
Noh/No
the classical dance drama of japan, performed on a bare wooden stage of fied construction and dimensions and accompanied by traditional music, noh is the aristrocratic forebear of the more popular Kabuki and has remained generally unchanged since its 14tth C beginnings
- Cypress flooring/stage is a square shape – 18 feet by 18 feet
a. The “shite” – the doer – central character – in mask
b. “waki” – secondary character, challenges the shite
Kabuki
ii. Kabuki – created in Kyoto in 16oo,, one of the national theatres in japan. Features magnificent flowing costumes; highly stylized scenery, acting and makeup; and elaborately styled choreography
1. All female – mid century, government changed to all male
2. Ka
a. Waguto – naturalistic, elegant “soft” style
b. Aragoto – the thundering “rough s- 1725
c.
d. tyle
3. Genres – history and domestic
4. Askey
5. Chikamatsu monzaemon (1653
6. Bunraku – japanese puppet theatre – still peformed today
