INTRODUCTION
TO THEATER
WEEK#1
Gizem Gürer
The Seagull of the Anton Chekhov at National Theatre.
Photograph: Johan Persson
Hamlet of William Shakespeare.
Shakespeare Globe
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
americanmagazine.org
Japan- Noh Theatre
India - Kathakali
Turkish - Meddah
WESTERN DRAMA
Ancient Greek theater of Dionysus of Athens
Dramatic
Tragic
Drama And Theatre
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“dran”: act and play
“theatron” : viewing place, seating
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Actors
Playwrights
Designers
Directors
Spectators
Theater
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a literary document
live event across time and space
here and now
ephemeral
unrepeatability
real time
Origins of Theatre
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Rites and rituals
Early forms of theater were the products of social, political and religious
forces.
There are some debates about its origins hunting, fertility or any other rituals.
The concensus is that the ritual’s symbolic form turns into a non-ritualistic
form as performance.
The resurrection of Osiris in Egypt (2500 BCE)
USES OF RITUALS
It can be said that the ritual has 5 different uses.
1- Ritual is a form of knowledge. It shows understanding of the universe.
2- Ritual can be educational, initiation ceremonies.
3- Ritual is thought to influence or control events (keep the soil fertile, etc.)
4- Ritual is used for praise. Heroism, totems etc…
5- Ritual entertains and pleases.
Rituals of adolescent Ndembu males undergoing ritual initiation into manhood
experience
According to Joseph Campbell, Western myths focuses on two main issues;
divine and human. So gods and humans; the tension between these roles.
Their importance changes over time. It was the Greeks who expanded the
aspect of the human and placed it as a dominant endeavor. Eastern thought,
unlike Western thought, does not see a fundamental conflict between the
divine and the human. They seek to be one in the mystery of an existence in
which all these divisions will be disappeared and lost in each other. (Brockett,
2014: 5)
THANKS FOR LISTENING