1. HISTORY OF DRAMA Learning Target: To understand the conventions of drama for each era. To understand the definitions and functions of tragedy and comedy CLASSICAL MEDIEVAL RENAISSANCE NEOCLASSIC/MODERN

2. CLASSICAL DRAMA Peak during 5 th century Athens was home of drama City Dionysus

3. CITY DIONYSUS Festival honors Dionysus March or April Dramatic competition Celebrate civic pride Tragedy, Comedy

4. CLASSICAL STAGE ORCHESTRA THEATRON SKENE CHORUS MASKS

5. CLASSICAL STAGE

6. Suggestions Lysistrata Agamemnon Medea Antigone The Trojan Women

7. MEDIEVAL DRAMA Peak during 14 th and 15 th century No permanent theater Reenactments of Bible stories, stories of saints, celebrations of holy days Productions moved from churches to outside community productions

8. MEDIEVAL STAGE Fixed or movable platform Mansion – main stage

9. MEDIEVAL PLAYS Cycle plays Miracle Plays Morality Plays The Second Shepherd’s Play Everyman

10. RENAISSANCE THEATER First permanent theater built in 1576 – The Theater The greatest period of drama since Greeks Professional troupes of players Shakespeare greatest playwright

11. RENAISSANCE DRAMA CHANGES in staging: a building, professional actors, support of monarchy, inventive drama Yard, stage, gallery, few props, close contact between audience/actors

12. RENAISSANCE STAGE

13. Suggestions Dr. Faustus Twelfth Night A Midsummer Night’s Dream As You Like It Much Ado About Nothing Othello

14. NEOCLASSIC/MODERN DRAMA At beginning, theaters more intimate – 700 Puritan influence Development of satire, comedy of manners, domestic topics Reflect current culture and comment on it Productions more refined, more elaborate

15. NEOCLASSIC/MODERN STAGE Proscenium arch Pit in front of stage Lighting changes Use of a backstage area Actors wardrobes Acting trends Architectural changes

16. NEOCLASSIC/MODERN DRAMA PURITAN Satire Sentimental Romances Moral domestic plays NEOCLASSIC Social commentary Comedy of Manners REALISM Stage mimic real life or aspects of life REACTION AGAINST REALISM Surrealism Symbolism Expressionism Theater of the Absurd

17. Suggestions Death of Salesman Wilde – Lady Windemere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance Six Degrees of Separation Eugene O’Neill – Anna Christie, The Hairy Ape Wendy Wasserstein – The Sisters Rosensweig, The Heidi Chronicles, Isn’t It Romantic Neil Simon – Brighton Beach Memoirs, The Goodbye Girl, Lost in Yonkers – and so many more Cyrano De Bergerac The Real Thing – Stoppard Waiting for Godot Love Letters

18. COMEDY DEFINITION – A comedy is a play that is initiated through a potentially catastrophic event that creates chaos for the characters in the play, but it ends happily with a healthy, amicable armistice between the protagonist and society.

19. COMEDY PURPOSE – To amuse and to expose human folly.

20. TYPES OF COMEDY POPULAR – slapstick, sight gags, shock value PASTORAL – idyllic, idealized version of country life, romance NEW COMEDY – focus on ordinary person and ups and downs of life, insight into human nature

21. CHARACTERISTICS OF COMEDY MULTIPLE PLOTS MISUNDER- STANDINGS SATIRE LOVE – Often source of conflict, plot, theme IMAGERY – Significant, especially with Classical and Shakesperean PURSUIT OF WRONG VALUE; QUEST POTENTIAL TRAGEDY MULTIPLE LEVELS OF HUMOR DECEIVING APPEARANCES MAN TO ASSREESTABLISH HARMONYat end MORE CHARACTERS

22. STUDY OF COMEDY Look for characteristics of comedy in the what you study. Consider type(s) of comedy for each. Think about staging the play. Apply what you know about drama, tragedies, and comedies to what we read and what you study independently.

23. TRAGEDY …presents courageous individuals who confront powerful forces within or outside themselves with a dignity that reveals the breadth and depth of the human spirit in the face of failure, defeat, and even death. The action of a tragedy is focused on a difficult time in the hero’s life when decisions or actions cause chaos and only through the protagonist’s fall can the world of the tragedy be righted again.

24. ARISTOTLE’S DEFINITION “An imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artful ornament, the several kinds begin found in separate parts of the play, in the form of action, not of narration; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these and similar emotions.”

25. TRAGEDY The purpose of a tragedy is to engender catharsis in the audience by their experience of emotions for the major character and his/her situation and errors. Thus, by viewing the play, the audience is purged of these negative emotions.

26. TRAGEDY Tragic hero  Great person, extraordinary  Fate of state  Fall is result of a flaw or misunderstanding or underestimation  Great but human  Encounter with failure allows hero to display greatness  Fall results in reversal  Tragedy Serious action Dramatic -often poetic language Use of images, symbols, stock characters, irony, archetypes Resolution will include “end” of tragic hero and reestablishing of order

27. STUDY OF TRAGEDY Look for characteristics of tragedy Consider elements and the definition of tragedy Think about staging the play. Apply what you know about drama, tragedies, and comedies

28. … and so begins our study of drama First, we will consider poor Oedipus…