Firstly, I wanted to add some photos that I thought were fitting from my trip. The first is a very very old venue which held various performances. Not the most comfortable seating and as you can see, there is a lot of damage done. The second photo is another very old venue that was built for alot more people. This specific location has been restored and is still currently used for various performances. This is evident in the second picture as everything is set up for a concert to be held there that evening. I need to find more information on the second photo as if you look closely it appears to be a restored version of the first picture. I'll see what I can find by the end of the article.
Okay transfering a little knowledge from class into this blog, with of course a little research work.
Breaking this up into sub sections:
Greek theatre- 5th century, BC
Roman theatre- 3rd centrury, BC
Medieval theatre- middle ages 13th-16th century
La commedia dell'arte- 16th century
Greek
One of my favorite eras I found it was intersting how a lot of this still transfers into our society today. It was believed that certain events went hand in hand within the Greek society. Some of their events included:
-Festivals -Religious rituals -Politics -Atheletics and gymnastics - Music -Weddings, funerals and -Symposia
Side note: Symposia is much like a drinking chant based on the logic of 3 drinks, leading to 3 wishes. The first for health, the second for love and the third for sleep. The greeks belived that every drink after 4 was in the hands of "bad behaviour". Now in my opinion this can correlate with many other tales where people are granted 3 wishes and beyond that is greed, which is also a bad behavior. Anyway, in this tale after the fourth for bad behaviour, the 5th is shouting, the 6th is rudeness, the 7th is for fights, the 8th for breaking furniture, 9th is for depression and the tenth for madness and unconsciousness.
Comparing the greeks ideas to Canadian ideas I think there are many similarities between the two. We come together during holidays, which are generally religious rituals, such as; christmas, easter, new years. We vote and stay current within politics. As well as athletic events such as hockey, football and lacrosse. Even the Greek symposia correlates with our drinking views today
Its also important to highlight the three types of Greek Theater
- Comedy - Tragedy - Satyr play
Now the slides say that there are 3 complete texts by aeschylus sophocles euripides. Heres the kicker!! I decided to google these guys and just get an idea. Not only were they very sexy men but also my first picture was home to those gentlemen's plays. The theatre goes by the name dionysus, who was once an acient god. It appears the theatre was built in the 6th Century BC, and many of the plays from the 5th century were performed. I got my information from this site and there was lots of other cool things to know as well. Who knew three years later I would be studying about this landmark, or more so, the things that occured there.
Okay moving on...
Roman theatre
- Year 240 BCE marks the beginning of regular roman drama and by the 2end century drama was established in Rome. This brought on a bunch of writers.
Medieval European theatre
- European culture, generally in the higher class; royalty and aristocracy
-Scripted re-enactments of the arthurian legends and other romances that would later move to big theatrical events
As we discussed in class this is generally a play for the rich within england, scotland sort of area. Some people would actually hire on a staff of actors to show plays to guests as a source of entertainment. Now this moves on to a sub heading, but still under the medieval european theatre.
13th century Europe
Roman catholic church dominated, which were generally broken down into the 3 M'S
Mystery plays - short drams based on the bible (old and new testament)
Mircale plays - dealt with the lives on saints
Morality plays - to teach a lesson, through characters who were representations of faults
I think this was one of the coolest stages because not only did they start using platforms but they started using wagon stages to change scenes. Now I know not to use wikipedia but this picture was too cool to pass up.
Lastly, the focus is on:
La commedia dell'arte
This originated in Italy in the 1560's and was the beginning of improvisation. This also devellopped the idea of actor-centred theatre, which required minimal scenery and props. Many of these plays would originate from scenarious known as lazzi. Lazzi is, " a loose frameworks that provided the situations, complications, and outcomes of the action, around which the actors would improvise. Three characteres played vital roles in the development of the play, they could also be referred to as stock characters.
The lovers, usually children of the masters.
The Masters- -Pantalone, an elderly Venetian merchant;
-Il Dottore, Pantalone's friend or rival, a doctor or lawyer who acted far more intelligent than he really was; and
Il Capitano, the braggart
The Servants-Arlecchino (or the Harleguin) He was both cunning and ignorant, but an accomplished dancer and acrobat. He typically carried a wooden stick with a split in the middle so it made a loud noise when striking something. Slapstick.
The servant was also very crude in his ways and jokes. The movie "Jack ass" may be a current example.
The end... of this section anyway.
Part 2- Continuing the Western Tradition
* Renaissance- 1575-1642 AD
* Restoration- 1660-1710
* 19th Century Theatre
* 20th Century Theatre
Restoration
Theatre returns after 18 years of banishment
*The Restoration Comedy
–Charles II
–Sexual explicitness
–Witty and legitimate
*The Restoration Spectacular
–Wowed audiences with costume and set
–Special effects-trapdoors, fireworks and flying
19th Century Theatre
•Early 19th Century –Begins in France 1791 during French revolution
–Romanticism and Melodrama
–Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas
•Late 19th Century
–Henrik Ibsen
–George Bernard Shaw
–Oscar Wilde
–Realism
–Historic accuracy
20th Century Theatre
•Extensions of realism and naturalism
•Modernist and Post Modernist movements •Extensions of realism and naturalism
•Theatre practitioners
•Director
•Actor
•Dramatist-dramaturge
•Praxis-how we arrive at the final product
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