Theatre History A Study Guide

Greek Drama Thespis was first actor Created to honor Dionysus Dithyrambs: choral chants and songs

Greek (cont.) Aeschylus: The Seven Against Thebes Sophocles: Antigone, Oedipus the King Euripides: Medea

Greek (cont.) Elaborate masks that amplified voices Cothurnii: tall boots that made actors larger than life

Greek (cont.) Drama was a form of worship Used to represent large moral concepts and ideals

English Medieval Originated in the Church Was a way to present the Bible to the non-Latin speaking public

English Medieval Saint plays—lives of saints Mystery plays—Bible stories Morality plays—depicted broad Moral concepts

Medieval (cont.) Performed on platform stages adjacent to the church or on the town square. Used movable stages called pageant wagons

Medieval (cont.) Costuming was simple Only surviving Morality play--Everyman

Italian Renaissance Opera arose from a desire to return to the choral styles of the Greek Main focus was the commedia dell’arte first comedic drama Used stock characters Most famous stock character: Harlequin

Renaissance (cont) Mime was popular Masks were painted directly onto the face Italian Renaissance became the foundation for Western Drama to the present

Elizabethan Theaters were round, with tiers of seats. The poorest people stood on the ground in front of the stage (called groundlings) Most famous theatre: Globe Considered “Golden Era” of Theatre

Elizabethan (cont.) Moliere—French playwright; wrote farces Christopher Marlowe—contemporary of Shakespeare; wrote Doctor Faustus and Tambourlaine the Great William Shakespeare—considered greatest playwright of all time; wrote Hamlet, Julius Ceasar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet

19th Century Plays enjoyed long runs New lighting technology allows night performances Elaborate and accurate sets, costumes, and props Trapdoors and hydraulic lifts create special effects

19th Cent. (cont.) Many plays were melodramas—heavy on plot; light on character development Oscar Wilde—The Importance of Being Earnest Henrik Ibsen—A Doll’s House Gilbert and Sullivan—wrote comic operettas; The Pirates of Penzance

20th Century Many new innovations Theatre of the Absurd: drama that explored the human psyche in strange, abstract ways Musical Theatre: most popular form of theatre in this century Rodgers and Hammerstein innovated the modern musical with Oklahoma!

20th Cent. (cont.) Film, a new form of drama, arose. Film is now the most commonly watched dramatic art. First film with sound—The Jazz Singer Walt Disney—pioneer in animation; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs