1. THEATRE HISTORY

2. Roman Theatre 200 BC-475 AD Rome invaded Greece Took over their art
Took over their literature
Took over their theatre

3. Roman Theatre 1.Theatre was frowned on by the educated Romans
2. Theatre was mainly for the lower classes
3. The lower classes wanted spectacle and vulgarity
4. Theatre was decadent and hollow
5. Tragedies awful, Comedies vulgar slapstick

4. Roman Theatre 1. The Senate was hostile to theatre
2. Pompeii- 61 BC builds a theatre
put a statue of Venus in it and said it was a temple
3. Caesar wanted a theatre too

5. Caesar’sTheatre 1. Two wooden semicircles
2. Turned them to create seats for chariot races and gladiator contests

6. Roman Theatre- features
1. Raised stage - called a pulpitum- semicircle
2. Back wall- three story wall- ornate- scanea frons-three doors
3. Seating area connected to the stage
4. Audience area- covered with a roof and “air conditioned by aqua ducts from the mountains

7. Roman Theatre- changes to the stage
1. Added a front curtain- rolled up from the floor along tracks
2. Used a claque- a person who clapped or booed

8. Roman Theatre- Writers- Comedy
Plautus
Copied Greek plots
Set plays in rural setting
Developed stock characters:
Bucco- braggart
Pappus- comic old man
Maccus- gluttonous fool
Dossenus- frightening hunchback
Plays were a model for Shakespeare and Moliere

9. Roman Theatre- Writers- Comedy
Terrence
Borrowed plots from the Greeks
Eliminated the chorus
Lines accompanied by music (musical?)
Influenced the comedy of the Renaissance

10. Roman Theatre- Writers- Tragedy
Seneca-
Plays have 5-6 actors
Very gory plots
Influenced writers in Europe in the Renaissance

11. Roman Theatre-costumes and masks
Masks covered the head
Made of linen
Had hair attached
Wore togas/tunics
Stock characters had their own basic costumes
Mimes wore no masks

12. Roman Theatre-Decline
Plays overshadowed by spectaculars:
Gladiator contests
Christians fed to lions
Special coliseums held water and had sea battles
Slaves on the ships fought- killed each other
Helped get rid of excess slaves and prisoners
Everyone was killed by the time they ended

13. Roman Theatre-Decline
The fall of Rome- 475 AD
Christian Church takes over
Theatre banned
Theatre in Europe, Greece, Italy became dormant
The only place theatre continued was in Asia- the Orient