theater

Theater Arts

• The art of staging a play or drama.

• Also refers to the building designed to hold plays or dramatic performances.

• It has changed throughout its history. The changes reflect the growth and change of drama and culture.

• Ancient Greece is the birthplace of the THEATER.

• All the arts are found in THEATER…such as,

Theater Arts

Pelophonnesus, Greece

• The theater in Epidaurus (Pelophonnesus, Greece ) is called the Amphitheater.

Epidaurus

• Is a small city in ancient Greece.

• It is located somewhere in the Saronic Gulf and reputed to be the birthplace of

Asklepios - The healer and son of Apollo.

• The modern town is now known as Epidauros.

• Epidaurus is known both for its huge theater and as the most celebrated healing center of the Classical World.

Amphitheater

• Was built in a hollowed-out area of a hillside in a semi-circular form.

• The audience sits on bench made of stone and wood.

• The center is made of round stones,

• And the area is called the ORCHESTRA.

• The speaker in the Greek drama and the chorus stand in the orchestra.

• It is a raised platform behind the orchestra.

Stage

Dressing Room

• Another building behind the orchestra that is a dressing room for actors.

Actors

• Men wearing masks which show the characters they are playing.

The Three Famous Greek Dramatists

Sophocles

Eurepides

Aristophanes

Tragedy

• A play with a sad ending

• Sophocles and Euripedes wrote tragedies.

Comedy

• A play in which the main characters and motive triumph over adversity.

• Aristophanes wrote comedies to mock leaders during his time.

Two Theater Forms

• Pagan or Aboriginal Myth (Pre-Christian Era)

• Christian Form

Pagan or Aboriginal Myth (Pre-Christian Era)

• The aboriginal theater involves the community gathered in the open under the sky.

• Nature provides the backdrop and scenery.

• The action is interdisciplinary.

• The entire performance is unscripted.

• The actors use masks, dances, songs and rituals.

• The community interferes and shapes things according their needs.

• Stories are told and reflected the values and world view of the people.

Christian Form

• It is focused on the actor.

• The community becomes the listener.

• The performances are moved indoors on a stage raised above the people under artificial lights.

• Words are the focus of attention.

• Symbolic meaning is open to interpretation.

William Shakespeare of England

• Known as the greatest playwright of all time.

• Shakespearean theaters often requires artificial acting and elaborate scenography.

• Often performed by students at universities and in great houses.

Scenography

• The practice of making theater, including sets, costumes and texts, from a theoretical and practical point of view.

Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the King’s Men

• Most notably sought-after theater companies during the 17th century.

• The same companies where William Shakespeare first gained extensive experience in theater, both as an actor and a playwright.

Blackfriars Theater

• The first private indoor theater where the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and King’s Men performed on a regular basis.

• Notorious for charging high admission fees to ensure that it’s audiences were sophisticated.

Bertolt Brecht of Germany

• Influential German dramatist, director and poet of the 20th century.

• Known for his learning plays.

• Required impromptu actors to come up on stage, rather than allow them to be just passive spectators.

• Challenged the audience through his alienation technique.

• Used slogan-projected back walls, and sometimes characters carrying picket sign, or stood with their back to the audience as an unconventional way of communicating or expressing the drama.

• His style belongs to modernism.

• Also believed to have pioneered contemporary postmodernism in theater.

• Incorporated multimedia into the semiotics of theater.

• Pioneered in the establishment of a uniquely political theater involving the audience in meaning-making.

Bertolt Brecht of Germany

Semiotics

• The study of signs and symbols in different fields especially language.