Theater History
“Possibly more true to history than history itself”
Introduction
• Why should you bother to study theater history?
• How is it going to help you today, tomorrow, or next year?
• Who owns a camera/uses their phones to take pictures, snapchat,
etc?
Why should you bother to study theater
history?
• People like to take snapshots of their friends, family members, where they live, places
they visit, etc.
• People enjoy looking at those photos later in life.
• People have albums of old pictures that they sit down with family members to look at.
• Isn’t it fun to see how you looked/dressed when you were younger? How your parents
looked when they were kids? Your grandparents? What did their hairstyles look like?
Their clothes?
• We find out a great deal about ourselves when we look at old pictures. Where we came
from, who we are, and how we got to be that way.
• Looking at those pictures help us establish a connection to our history, that even though
we’re unique, we’re also still part of a unique group.
• Theater History is a lot like a family album. We have to see where we’ve been in order to
find who we are and where we’re going.
Theater History time periods
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Ancient Theater – The earliest origins to the Egyptians
Greek Theater
Roman Theater
Medieval Theater
Renaissance Theater
Elizabethan Theater
French Neoclassic Theater
Japanese Theater
Romanticism
Realism
Ancient Theater
• The most commonly held opinion is that early man engaged in campfire enactments of scenes from the hunt. Possibly even before the
development of language.
• These scenes possibly served in the beginning to show “What
happened today, or in previous hunts”. For example: The big hunt
when Oog fell down and was eaten by a giant bear.
• Later these scenes took on a ritualistic nature, becoming a part of the
religion. They would have added music, dancing, chanting, and
rudimentary costumes, makeup or masks. Acting out a successful
hunt was possibly expected to bring about success on the next one.
Ancient Theater
• Nobody is really sure what happened what long ago. All we can do is
examine what records we do have and investigate modern primitive
cultures and peoples to make informed guesses.
Ancient Theater - Egypt
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In ancient Egypt we find the first evidence of regular religious and civil drama.
Plays were performed:
1. To honor the pharaoh at his coronation
2. To cure the sick
3. Celebrate Egyptian religious beliefs.
No actual plays have survived. Evidence comes from wall paintings and other
artifacts. The most famous play we know of is Abydos Passion Play.
• It tells the story of the battle between the gods Set and Osiris.
• According to the historical legend, Osiris ruled wisely. He was treacherously
murdered and his body was cut in pieces and scattered. His wife, Isis, and his son,
avenged his murder, gathered up the pieces of his body for pilgrimage relics, won
back his throne and established the cult of Osiris-worship.
Greek Theater
• In Greece we have the first substantial surviving evidence of theater. We
have the names of real actors and playwrights, and some of the scripts still
survive today.
• Greek drama had its roots in Greek religion. Primitive celebrations honored
the god of wine and fertility, Dionysus. The celebration included a group of
chanting dancers around an altar. The chant was known as the dithyramb.
• This chant, the dithyramb, is what evolved into Greek tragedy, and the
dancers became known as the chorus. Tragedy, (which translates literally
into ‘goat song’), became the focus of the City Dionysia festival.
• The festival would end with a competition between playwrights. Each
competitor would present a tragic trilogy (3 plays with the same theme),
and a satyr play (a comic version of theme). The winning playwright was
awarded a coveted laurel wreath.
Greek Theater
• In the 5th century BC (534), also known as the Golden Age of Greece,
a man by the name of Thespis of Attica is considered to have “invited”
acting, by having one member of the chorus stand apart and respond
to what they were saying.
• This is why actors today are called Thespians.
Greek Theater
• Theaters of the time period started out as a cleared out space at the
foot of a hill. This changed over time into grand, open-air
amphitheaters.
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Greek Theater
• The theater would be carved from a hillside, providing bench style
seating for large crowds.
• The chorus would enter the orchestra (the dancing place), through a
paradoi. Actors would change costumes in a building called the
“skene”, in front of which was a raised platform called the
“proskenion”
Greek Theater - Videos
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRLK7SogvE&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs
59hmAjlAsX_vh0vGYv_3Jm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSr6mPzxUc&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs59hmAjlAsX_vh0vGYv_3Jm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBvMbfkxcc&list=PLJgBmjHpqgs59hmAjlAsX_vh0vGYv_3Jm
Greek Theater - Staging
• In each period of theater history, theatrical practice has developed certain ways of doing
things. These practices are known as “conventions”, and are dictated by the traditions
and circumstances at that particular time.
• Greek Theater Conventions:
• 1. The chorus was a strong presence in the play.
• 2. Plays had up to three actors.
• 3. Actors might have worn elevated shoes, tall headpieces, and large masks so they could
be seen in the back rows.
• 4. Plays and performances were more declamatory, with speeches delivered to audience
and not other actors.
• 5. Scenery was limited, and they used “periaktoi”
• 6. All violence had to take place off stage.
7. Use of the Dues ex machine (large crane like device)
Periaktoi
Greek Theater - Playwrights
• Most of what we know about Greek theater comes from the surviving
plays of three great tragedy playwrights, and two comic playwrights.
• Tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes
• Comic: Aristophanes, Menander
Greek Theater - Aeschylus
• Aeschylus is known as the “Father of Tragedy”.
• His plays dealt with the interaction between gods and men, and how men
are always going to suffer.
• He wrote the Orestia, a trilogy of 3 plays.
• 1. Agamemnon – Agamemnon returns home after 10 years. He acts with
hubris (pride) and is killed by his wife for killing their daughter as a sacrifice
to the gods.
• 2. The Libation Bearers – The remaining daughter of Agamemnon talks her
brother Orestes into killing her mother.
• 3. The Furies – Orestes is chased by spirits around the world for the crime
of killing his mother. He gets pardoned at the last minute.
Greek Theater - Sophocles
• The second great writer of tragedies. He was responsible for adding a 3rd actor to
the stage. He won the city Dionysia completion 18 times.
• He wrote the Edipus Trilogy:
• 1. Edipus Rex – Edipus saves the city of Thebes at the cost of finding out he
murdered his father and married his mother in an effort to avoid that fate. His
mother/wife kills herself, and he puts out his eyes and condemns himself to exile.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4
• Edipus at Colonius – Edipus’s life, and death after his exile.
• Antigone – Edipus’s daughter Antigone sacrifices her own life in a futile attempt
to fulfill a religious obligation. The king kills her, but the choice also costs him his
own wife and son.
Greek Theater - Euripides
• The youngest, most modern, and least popular of the three great tragic playwrights. His
plays emphasized psychological motivation (what makes people tick), and social issues
• He wrote several plays:
• 1. Medea – The story of the woman who helped Jason with the golden fleece and
married him. When he later abandons her for another woman, she goes mad with
jealousy and gruesomely murders their two children.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zInoTXKyOvI
• 2. The Trojan Woman – A powerful antiwar play. It tells about what happens after the
defeat of Hector of Troy. His daughter is sacrificed and his son thrown from the walls.
His other daughter, Helen, woo’s Menelaus into saving her life.
• 3. Alcestis – A play that attacked the idea that women are subservient to men.
• 4. Hippolytus – A play that attacked the unjust treatment of illegitimate children.
Greek Theater – Aristophanes
• His plays are the only surviving remainder of what is called “Old
Comedy”. He wrote funny and popular social satire for his time. He
also wasn’t afraid of having the gods come in second in his plays.
• His plays aren’t considered as funny today because they were so
closely tied to the current events of his time.
• Lysistrata – The story of a wife who decides to put an end to the 21
year long Peloponnesian War. She calls all the other wives to a
meeting, and they all agree to shut out their husbands until the war is
ended.
Greek Theater - Menander
• Wrote what we call “New Comedy” for Greeks.
• The Curmudgeon – Only surviving play we have a copy of. Was
discovered in the 1950’s.
• Wrote comedies that dealt with daily life and situations They featured
clever servants, protective fathers, young lovers, types we still see
today.
Ancient/Greek Theater - Assignment
• Design a mask similar to one that would be used in Greek theater.
Roman Theater
• After the golden age of Greek Drama, the Romans came to power and
theater flourished in their empire. Many new theaters were built.
The Romans theaters followed the tradition of the Greek theaters in
construction.
• The biggest difference was in construction. Roman theaters were
built to be free standing instead of on a hillside.
Roman Theater - Playwrights
• Plautus – Wrote roman comedies, building on the traditions of Old
Comedy from Greek playwrights. His plays feature complicated plots
with disguises, mistaken identities, and other such elements.
• Terence – Another playwright who wrote in a more refined style, with
less of the buffoonery of Plautus.
• Seneca – The chief Roman writer of tragedies. (Other tragic Roman
playwrights worked on adapting Greek tragedies). His plays were not
intended for public performance, but for private reading.
Roman Theater - Other
• Popular theater flourished in the marketplace and on public squares.
Small portable stages would be used to present popular farces and
satires.
• These plays used stocked characters, such as the braggart soldier, the
clever servant, foolish old man, and young lovers.
• The structure of these plays would lead to their later use in
Commedia Del’ Arte during the Renaissance and even to the present.
Roman Theater – The End
• When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it
effectively put a stop to all theater. The church did not like theater
and considered it to be a sinful activity.
• When Rome was sacked and the empire ended, it was the end of
almost all cultural, intellectual and artistic activities.
Medieval Theater
• This period is also known as the “Dark Ages”, and was a time of intellectual
and cultural stagnation. There was no centralized system such as the
Roman Empire had provided and areas became isolated and independent
of each other.
• The feudal system became the main form of government. Serfs lived on
and worked the land of a powerful ruler in return for protection from
raiders.
• The Catholic church became the primary unifying force of the time. It’s
bishops and priests were trained and controlled by a central command.
They exercised great power over the people because only the men of
church could read the bible, or much of anything else.
• For Europeans, the only path to salvation lay in following what the church
said.
Medieval Theater
• The church was also responsible for the rebirth of theater. (Funny,
because it had been the one to stamp it out.)
• Around the 9th century AD (900s), the church began using elements of
drama and theater for its celebrations of mass. These small playets
were known as tropes, and were likely used to make it easier for the
people to learn and enjoy the message the church was preaching.
• One of the first tropes was Quaem queritas trope, used during the
Easter season. Instead of the priest telling the story of Mary finding
an empty tomb, it was acted out instead by members of the clergy.
• It was so effective and popular the more scenes were then produced
and developed.
Medieval Theater
• Mystery plays – Stories from the bible
• Miracle plays – Stories of the saints.
• Morality plays – Allegories with character that represented values like
greed, beauty, strength, etc, that would teach right from wrong.
• Separate areas of the church would be set up into small stages,
known as mansions. The responsibility for each mansion would be
taken up by a guild – something like a modern day union or trade
group. Ex: Bakers would do the Hell’s Mouth because they were
used to working in heat, or the Fisherman’s guild might do the story
of Jonah and the whale.
Medieval Theater
• Plays increased in popularity as their creators built mansions in more
creative ways and acted them out better. This forced them to move
outside the churches and into public squares.
• Mansions became pageant wagons, a moving stage on a wagon,
where the audience could remain in place while various scenes
moved around them.
• Passion plays evolved during this period, depicting scenes from the
life of Christ. These are popular today, the oldest have run for over
300 years, and is performed every 10 years.
Medieval Theater
• As plays became more popular, the church started to like them less.
This was due in part to the humorous depictions of Satan and other
biblical villians. As a result the church disassociated themselves from
the plays.
• It’s ironic then, that the church reinvented theater for its own uses,
but abandoned it when it became secular and popular.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ02QYh6Ppk
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA3n7G6djDI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNYssOXybz4