A BRIEF HISTORY OF THEATRE ARCHITECTURE & STAGE TECHNOLOGY

THE GREEKS  Our knowledge of Greek and Roman theaters is based almost exclusively on archaeological studies and educated guessing. No one can say with authority that, “this is the way it was”.  There was no single style or type of Greek Theater just like there is no single style of theater we use today  Greek theaters were built into the sides of hills

ELEMENTS OF GREEK THEATRE  There were elements that seem to have been common to all the ones we know The steeply raked seating area for the audience, called the auditorium, or theatron surrounded on 3 sides of the circular playing area, known as the orchestra. Immediately in back of the orchestra was the skene (skee-nee), or stage house The skene had several doors through which actors made their entrances and it is assumed that it served various functions such as housing for stage machinery, storage for props, and possibly space for dressing rooms

The paraskenia were long, high walls that extended on either side of and parallel with the skene A columned arch, the proscenium, was located at the rear of this stage and just in front of the skene

The eccyclema, a wheeled platform, was apparently used in a variety of ways: If a scene called for a throne then the central doors to the skene would open up and the eccyclema would be rolled out with the throne on top. One Greek theatrical conventions dictated that violent deaths take place offstage, but later the bodies would be revealed by putting them on the eccyclema and rolling them onstage

The machina was a basket or platform that was lowered from the 2 nd story of the skene. Many plays called for intervention by the gods and the machina would help the gods descend or rise from the earth.

Periaktoi, were tall, 3 sided forms that rotated on a central pivot. Each side had a different scene painted on it and rotated to reveal different scenes

Pinakes were painted panels used for decoration of the theater or used as additional scenery for the play

 The auditorium was divided, as with us, into several parts, but the assignment of seats was determined not by a money payment, but by rank and other considerations. Thus the rows nearest the orchestra were set apart for the members of the council, while others were reserved for young men, who sat together, or for those who, for whatever reason, were entitled to them. Most of the space was given to the general public, who with these exceptions could make their own choice of seats.

 The orchestra was ten or twelve feet below the front row of seats which formed its boundary, a portion of its space being occupied by a raised platform, which presently superseded the altar of Dionysus in the centre, though still known as the thymele. In front of it, and on a level with the lowest tier of seats, was the stage, to which flights of steps led from the orchestra, with others leading to chambers below, and known as Charon's stairways; for they were used for the entrance of spectres from the nether world and for the ghostly apparitions of the dead.

VIDEO & PROJECT  The _Rule_of_Augustus_the _Spread_of_Roman_Culture  Foldable Globe Theatre….. Good luck

THE ROMANS

 Roman architects tinkered with Greek designs, but for the most part their theaters were simply modifications of the basic Greek theaters  The most significant development was that the Romans took the three separate parts of Greek theater (orchestra, auditorium, and skene) and combined them into one structure

 The auditorium, called the cavea, and the orchestra was in a semicircular configuration  The orchestra became a semicircle extending outward from the stage area, which was framed by the proscenium  The skene was transformed into an elaborately decorated single façade called the scaenae frons Its height generally matched the height of the cavea.

 The Roman theaters were usually built on level ground instead of the hillsides sites, favored by the Greeks. Also they developed a roofing that covered the audience called a velum

 The following are examples of Roman Theater Draw to the best of your ability, one of the theaters in the pictures and label its parts

VIDEO  Ancient Rome- Theatre of Pompey

 With the decline of the Roman Empire, these grand theaters, which were also the sites of circuses, gladiatorial fights, and lion feedings (Christians and slaves being the primary food) were essentially abandoned, silent relics of a lost era.  For 500 years after the fall of Rome, formal theatre was virtually dead.

VIDEO  Gladiator

 The auleum, was a front curtain that in early Roman theaters was lowered into a slot or trough in the floor and in later theaters was raised above the stage on ropes.  The siparium was hung at the back of the stage. It provided a background for the action of the play and also concealed the backstage area.

VIDEO  Ben Hur

 It is known that some Roman amphitheatres, such as the Colosseum, made extensive use of elevators, moving platforms, and trapdoors to raise animals, people, and scenery, from the basement underneath the amphitheater’s floor to the area level. There is also evidence of the use of complex moving scenery such as dancing trees, rocks, and other devices.

Medieval Theatre

 The suppression of theatrical activities was a direct result of the church’s opposition to secular drama Secular-not overtly or specifically religious  Yet the same church that denied the sacraments to actors was also responsible for the revival of the theatre

 Clerics began to use dramatized scenes to help convey their lessons and church doctrine to congregations. Many of these interludes became too complex to be staged inside the churches, so they were moved outdoors  Platform stages were generally constructed adjacent to the church, and the audience stood in the town square  In some cases, the platforms were mounted on wagons, appropriately called pageant wagons

 The sets were identical, in concept if not detail, and followed the conventions that had been developed by the clergy for the church productions  The sets were composed of small buildings called mansions, that depicted locations appropriate to the biblical stories dramatized in the productions  The mansions for heaven and hell were on opposite ends of the stage, with the other mansions sandwiched between them

 There was a common playing area, called a platea, located in front of the mansions, where most of the play’s action took place  One by-product of medieval theratre was the development of realistic special effects  Stage machinery, fittingly called secrets, included trapdoors and a wide variety of rigging that was used to move people and objects about the stages

 Performed in cycles. Three kinds of religious plays: -- Mystery plays – about Christ or from the Old Testament – usually done in cycles (Second Shepherds’ Play is one of these). -- Miracle plays – lives of saints, historical and legendary -- Morality plays – didactic allegories, often of common man’s struggle for salvation (Everyman – only his good deeds accompany him in death).

 Characteristics in common: aimed to teach or reinforce Church doctrine melodramatic: good rewarded, evil punished God and his plan were the driving forces, not the characters

MEDIEVAL SECULAR PLAYS  Latin comedies and tragedies were studied in schools and universities  Farce – very popular  Moralities – secularized – allegories based on classical gods and heroes, often with some political content Mummings and disguisings – given at wealthy homes on holidays – pantomimes, danced and narrated stories Interludes and Masques – between courses at a banquet, masques were allegorical compliments to the guests – with intricate dances and spectacle.

 Towns staged pageants—the plays were often put in celebrations in honor of dignitaries.  Secular plays were most often performed by professional actors attached to noble houses.

THE DECLINE OF MEDIEVAL THEATRE :  Increased interest in classical learning – affected staging and playwriting  Social structure was changing – destroyed feudalism and "corporate" nature of communities  Dissension within the church led to prohibition of religious plays in Europe (Queen Elizabeth, the Council of Trent, – religious plays outlawed.).  By late 16 th century, drama of medieval period lost its force.

 Results of the decline:  Professional actors still needed, but not amateurs.  Professional theatre rose, became commercial (no longer a community venture).  No longer religious plays – returned to the classics for new ideas for stories.

THE RENAISSANCE

 With the Renaissance, the theatre became a central part of the cultural reawakening that quickly spread throughout Europe  Renaissance: a movement or period of vigorous artistic and intellectual activity  Although church-sanctioned pageants continued, secular drama reemerged and became the dominant theatrical form. Theaters, which hadn’t been permitted or constructed for over a thousand years, sprang up all over Europe

 Almost all of these theaters corresponded with the description of Greek and Roman theaters  Theaters were patterned after the classical forms, their designers made many interesting and clever, adaptations\  The Teatro Olympico in Vicenza, Italy, was designed in the style of the ancient Roman theaters

 Theater finally moved indoors, with the entire structure enclosed in a building The cavea, or auditorium, was designed not as an exact semicircle but as an ellipse, and this minor change dramatically improved the sight lines in the theater The scaenae frons was no longer a single decorated wall but was broken by several arches elaborate permanent sets of streets scenes were built, in forced perspective on a raked stage floor in back of the arches forced perspective : A visual-distortion technique that increases the apparent depth of an object raked stage : A stage floor that is higher at the back than the front

 A second innovation was the introduction of elaborately painted, forced perspective, scenery  The use of stock sets usually painted drops of the comic scene, the tragic scene, the satiric scene necessitated the evolution of the proscenium, or picture frame stage. Stock Sets- Scenery designed to visually support a generalized location rather than a specific one Drop -A large expanse of cloth, usually muslin or canvas, on which something (a landscape, sky, street, room) is painted

 The 1 st recorded use of stage lighting effect occurred during the Renaissance  The stage of a typical Elizabethan theatre was a large, open-air platform generally raised from 4 to 6 feet off the ground  The platform was surrounded by a yard, or pit which served as the space for the lower-class audience the groundlings to stand

 At the upstage end of the stage platform was the area that formed the inner below  The Inner above was an area above the inner below on the back wall, or the acting area provided by the roof of the structure that projected onto the stage  3 story structure that housed the galleries and private boxes for the wealthier patrons and nobles

 Stage machinery in Europe also had not evolved much since the 1300  There are numerous indications that effects; smoke, fire, clouds, and sound effects were in common use. These effects had all been in use for several hundred years  Up until this time primary challenge of lighting stages, and any indoor spaces, was simply providing enough light so people could see  Early efforts usually involved suspending candle-lit chandeliers over both the stage and auditorium