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Review Terms for Survey Theatre Test # 2
Exalted Humanism – Man is the Measure of all things
HUBRIS
- excessive pride/ arrogance Catharsis - emotional purging Tragic Flaw
- flaw that keeps the hero from achieving goal
Greek Comedy 448 to 380 BC
Agon
Cuckoldry
“Old Comedy” Focus?? -- the new focuses on romance and domestic satire rather than politics… the old is political satire
aristophotes – the only surviving comedies of greed era… most famous
piece is Lysistrata.
Satyrs and Satires and insult comedy
Lysistrata – its comic premise? --- Athens, Greece – fighting in Pelopanesian wars and the Women are pissed that the men are at war and when they come home all they are there is for showers and sex then wanna leave.. want them there more…. THUS they go on a sex strike
New Comedy begins to focus on romance and domestic problems rather
than politics
Roman Theater – Begins around 240 BC
Jupiter – roman counterpart, roman version of Zeus who was to the Greeks the head guy -- City of Dionisis – the famous festival in Greece Roman Spectacles - Popular entertainment Ludi Romani
- created in response to the C of Dionisis, it’s the Romans Version not greek, b/c they liked the games and contest, but is still theater focused on contest Dominus
- first producer, responsible for all decisions financial, and organizational things, and funding from city to pay the actors of theater
Stock Characters – recognizable, easily noticed Domestic Comedy based on Greek New Comedy Stock Characters – perfected by the romans but started by greeks. Mime and Pantomime
Plays by Plautus
Miles Gloriosus Pseudolous - A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1962) About psledolous who is a slave that wants his freedom, he will do anything to get it so he becomes the harlaquin The Twin Menaechmi – Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare) Two sets of twins separated by birth and is made by shakespera called CoE which is about a mistaken identity
Seneca and Roman Tragedy
Essential differences between Greek and Roman tragedy? Seneca – roman playright who loved to make plays about funny things??? Fall of Rome 476 AD Causes? Which leads to theater going underground
Council of Carthage 398 AD – theatergoers would be excommunicated – actors
cast out of the church, because of pagean ideas, and if the audience even goes they will be excommunicated and be force to confess sacraments Theatre goes underground – when theater becomes traveling, 2 types below Wandering Minstrels - perform in the streets Traveling Troubadours – travel and perform Roman Amphitheater Scaena Platea – the stage, like a plateau, Romans invent Auditorium Vomitorium
Medieval Theater
Medieval Humors – Represented by Dominant Trait characters?
- think that an imbalance of humers made you how you were, if out of balance you are ill or deranged. Who preserved the classical texts from Greece and Rome?
- monks and monestaries Catholic Church the dominant force in Medieval life
Liturgical Dramas Who produced them?
- the church that were bible stories to teach about bible and word of god, spoken in Latin – problem is not everyone speaks latin.. not everyone literate
Vernacular Dramas – language of common man
Rise of Italian Monarchies
Humanism – perspective of rationality Neilism – absence of morality, no meaning to earth Rebirth of Classics Perspective Techniques
- gives depth and originality, septasine,
Italian Theatrical Genres
Opera – Recitative – to recite or intone on pitch, dialogue in our time vs. Aria – full blown songs, long What did opera composers believe they were re-creating?
The Italian Neoclassicists
The Critics’ School Neoclassical Ideals
- group of critics who made up rules about structure of play righting who emulate classic Greek tragedies, Verisimilitude – the most important of Neoclassical rule that means true to life or realistic part of life
Italian Theater Production
Teatro Olimpico
- has archways, now used over teatro Teatro Farnese -- first proscenium arch stage that set rules for theater architecture Flat Wings – Results in Wing and Drop Scenery
- scenes that were painted on canvases that would come in and out, the wings would go sideways and the drop would go up and down Overhead Borders – overhead border scenery Moving the Scenery - Groove System – problem was the tracks so..??
Giacomo Torelli – created the pole-and-chariot system that moved
flats that were mounted on wagons that were set to a pulley system
which innovated the theaters scenery
English Renaissance
Elizabethan Theater – Elizabeth I- daughter of Henry VIII and Anne
Bolyne who was Protestant and when she became in power she banned
religious plays b/c they were taking sides between Catholics and protestants
which forces plays to become a commercial business and limit access by
closing the theaters and selling tickets
Trade Guilds’ Role in Theater – pulled out from paying for it Patrons’ roles in theater – payed to go to theater, bought tickets Control Access - Came from the Patrons having to start buying tickets
Master of the Revels – makes sure that no one goes against rules, enforces Elizabeth’s laws on theater, fairly strict Spanish Armada – battle of Agemcore that is in France over land that both countries thought they owned Changing Repertoire Christopher Marlowe - created Iambic Pentameter, famous play right, died at 29 from a brawl in bar due to him talking too much about being a spy for Elizabeth “ Mighty Line ” Iambic Pentameter – 5 beats to syllables 2 beats to a line – total of 10, Iambic means 5 Shakespeare 1564- Parents – Stratford-upon Avon – where he died and buried, source of his wealth b/c he was an actor… how? --seized the men when on tour in Stratford and when 2 men were fighting and Towne kills Knell who was the lead actor which leaves room for Shakespeare to join the cast Globe Theater – how he got wealthy, was on the South side b/c they had no taxes there Anne Hathaway – wife of Shakespeare, he left her nothing
Why did Shakespeare get wealthy?
o He owned 1/8th^ investment and he uses his investments to
buy land in Stratford and becomes the most wealthy in
Stratford, by the end he owns 1/4th
William Knell – was lead actor, and John Towne – killed William Knell Sir Thomas lucy – the man whose land that shakespear poached Henry V – most nationalistic and patriotic of Shakespeare’s history plays Saint Crispian’s Day speech of King Henry to his troops – right before what battle? “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother… And gentlemen in England now abed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispian’s day.” Much Ado About Nothing Romantic masterpieces Love is a transitory illusion “O God that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace.” Why does Beatrice say this to Benedick in reference to Claudio? “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.” Beatrice “Come, bid me do anything for thee.” Benedick
Theater Company Structure Shareholders – elite company members who own share Hirelings – elite actors for short tiem at set salary Apprentices - Women on Stage - Sides and Rolls – what the actors study, the side is the role of each actor The Queen’s Men – name of the company when he started The Lord Chamberlain’s Men – name the company finally becomes James Burbage – founder of The Theater whose patrain was lord Chamberlain, father of below… who started it as Queens Men Richard and Cuthbert Burbage- ones who were the majority shareholders of the theater and moved it to the other side of the river Othello – plot premise? Othello, Desdemona, Iago, Cassio, Emilia “Beware, my Lord of jealousy. ‘Tis the green-eyed monster. It doth mock the meat it feeds on.” King Lear – Plot premise? (3 daughters, two suck up to Lear, the third does not) Macbeth – Plot Premise? Dark vision of betrayal, treason.
