Ch. 4 - Festival Theatre: Greek, Roman, and Medieval Theatre Experiences

Roman Theatrical Context

- The state paid the expenses of production and supplied performance spaces - Tiered seating for several thousand Semicircular orchestra (half the Greek orchestra) - Long, narrow stage, five feet high Stage enclosed by a scaenae frons - façade Three doors on back wall and one door at the end of each side of the stage.

The Menaechmi

- Written by Plautus - Of all Roman comedies, this one has perhaps been the most popular - Plautus' comedy concentrates on ridiculous situations and is unconcerned with social or political satire - The characters are types rather than individuals - A company of six actors could perform the ten speaking roles

Orchestra

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre "dancing place," main performance space, circular

Theatron

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre "seeing place," stadium-like stone seats

Thymele

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre alter to Dionysus originally located at the center of the orchestra Scholars believe it was later moved to behind the skene

Machina

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre crane-like device used to "fly" gods into the performance space

Parts of an ancient Greek theatre (7)

Theatron Orchestra Thymele Skene Paradoi Eccyclema Machina

Deus ex Machina

(God from the machine) - contrived ending

The Wakefield Cycle

- The surviving manuscript contains 32 plays: Creation through Last Judgment - It had several authors, all anonymous - The production of the Wakefield cycle was a community effort involving the town council, the church and the trade guilds - The guilds were assigned plays loosely related to their professions - processional staging appears to have been used - Each play/mansion was mounted on a pageant wagon - like a modern parade float - The same guild always produced the same play - Each wagon had to carry one or more mansions - The performance started at 5:00am - Performance required all daylight hours for completion - All work was suspended on performance day - Most spectators stood to watch performance - Atmosphere was festive but reverent

Noah and His Sons

- The third play in the Wakefield Cycle - Story of Noah and the Ark - The action of the play is divided into three somewhat equal parts: - An opening expository scene - Two scenes of Noah bickering with his wife - The building of the ark and onboard scenes - There are nine roles: three major, six of them minor - Only one mansion is required - the ark - The costuming was simple

Conventions of Medieval Theatre

- A major convention of medieval drama involves the way time is handled: Eternal time vs. earthly time - Earthly time and place were relatively unimportant - Stage conventions depicted heaven at one end and hell at the other and could be fixed or mobile - Stage space had two parts: Mansion and Platea - Costumes were used to distinguish between the inhabitants of Earth, Heaven and Hell - Earthly characters wore contemporary clothes - no attempts were made for historical accuracy - Eternal/heavenly characters wore church garments - There were frequently a number of spectacular special effects - Hell was made as gruesome as possible: the "hell mouth" - Miracles were staged as convincingly as possible to reinforce faith

Roman Mime

- Became the favorite form of entertainment of Romans - Roman mimes were short, topical, improvised comedies - Women were allowed to perform the female characters (a first for women) - No masks were worn - The dramatic action tended to focus on sexual encounters, often obscene

Greek Comedy

- Comedy became an official part of festivals about 50 years later than tragedy - Comedy was performed at both the City Dionysia festival and the Lenaia festival

Oedipus Rex Characterization and acting

- Concerned primarily with psychological and ethical aspects of character - Characterization drawn with a few bold strokes - 3 speaking actors - Chorus size of 15 - Many supernumaries required - Total cast size = 35 minimum

Historians usually divide the Middle Ages into 3 phases:

- Early Middle Ages (liturgical drama) - Mid/High Middle Ages (liturgical drama) - Late Middle Ages (vernacular religious drama)

Why does Oedipus Rex continue to attract audiences?

- Its skillful construction - Its concern with moral taboos: incest, patricide - It develops themes of universal relevance: - The uncertainty of human destiny - The limited ability of human beings to control their fate - Blindness vs. sight is often emphasized in this play to contrast physical sight with the inner sight that sees the truth

Farces

- Medieval Drama - Farcical secular comic drama emerged around 13th century - These farces were not officially encouraged, they emphasized the ridiculous and comically depraved aspects of human behavior (human weaknesses, such as greed or lust) - The French farce Pierre Patelin is one of the best examples

Morality Plays

- Medieval Drama - Treated the spiritual trials of ordinary persons - Provided allegories about the moral temptations that beset all mankind - Everyman is the most famous example - These were gradually secularized - serving as the transition between medieval religious drama and the secular drama of Shakespeare's time

Corpus Christi

- New feast day created by the church in 1311. - all biblical events could be dramatized and related to this festival - central feature of the festival was a procession through the town with the consecrated bread and wine, including representatives from every rank and profession of the trade guild

Interludes

- Non-religious serious or comic plays performed between the parts of a celebration, such as a banquet - These are associated with the rise of the professional actor and the professional theatre

Oedipus Rex Play Structure

- Prologue - devoted to exposition - Parados - chorus enters - 4 Episodes - move forward in present, while continuing to reveal elements of exposition - Choral Odes - used to separate episodes - 5th Episode - divided into 2 parts - Messenger scene - Final scene

Ludi

- Roman "games," religious festivals that included theatrical performances - Theatrical performances honored several gods - Theatrical performances considered diversions, like sports - Borrowed from Greek drama, but adapted it to Roman tastes - The Romans favored games, variety entertainments, and short comic plays over full-length drama (dancing, singing, juggling, acrobatics, gladiatorial contests)

Conventions of Greek Comedy

- differed significantly from tragedy - Usually concerned with current issues - Occasionally playwrights used mythological material - Used a chorus of 24 members - Not always identical in appearance or characters of the same sex - Sometimes depicted as everyday citizens, other times depicted as nonhuman character - The male characters were made to appear especially ridiculous - Costume suggested ludicrous partial nakedness, emphasized by the addition of a large "phallus" and comic masks

Roman comedy

- does not deal with political or social issues but deals with everyday domestic affairs - Plots turn on misunderstandings of one sort or another - The most famous character is perhaps the "clever slave" - Roman plays had a musical element - Plautus' plays include a flute player - Some characters sing

Characteristics of Greek Old Comedy

- he plot of Old Comedy revolves around a "happy idea" - Time and place may change frequently - Unity through idea rather than through causally related events - Characters may speak to or about the audience

Formalized conventions of Greek theatre (6)

A group of performers formed a chorus One actor played several roles in the play Men played both male and female roles Performers wore masks and character appropriate dress Performers sang, chanted, and danced much of the text The scale of the theatre prevented small details from being seen

Four categories of Greek theatre performers

Actors Chorus Supernumeraries Musicians

Masks in Ancient Greek performance

All of the performers, except the musician, wore masks, another distinctive convention of Greek Theatre Masks covered the entire head and included hair/headdress

Ancient Greek choral conventions

Chorus as one of the distinctive features of Greek theatre Usually performed in unison Sometimes broke into 2 subgroups that responded to each other Chorus leader sometimes had solo lines Chorus entered after Prologue Chorus performed Choral Odes

What was the major of the 4 festivals held in Athens, Greece every year by the 5th century BCE

City Dionysia - a religious and civic celebration in which theatrical performances were given as offerings from the city to Dionysus

Ancient Greek Chorus

Composed of 15 men Playwright applied to government official for a chorus and it was assigned ~11 months prior to festival Playwright was assigned a choregus

Thespis

Earliest known playwright and actor and winner of the first City Dionysia

Liturgical drama

Early/Mid medieval church drama, that was written in Latin, was chanted or sung, was financed by the church, and was dramatized biblical episodes

Greek Drama

Emphasizes the attempts of human characters to control their own destinies Greek tragedy often shows the results of human attempts to escape fate Presented exclusively at festivals honoring Dionysus

Purposes of masks in Ancient Greek theatre

Facilitated the rapid change of roles Made it easier for male actors to play female characters Helped the actor in assuming roles of differing types Assisted communication by capturing and emphasizing the essential qualities of each character

Lenaia festival

Five comic dramatists competed each year at the Lenaia, each presenting one play

Functions of the chorus

Formed a collective character who expressed opinions, gave advice, and occasionally threatened to interfere in the action Often seemed to express the author's point of view and established a standard against which the actions of the characters could be judged Served as the ideal spectator, reacting as the author wanted the audience to react Helped to establish mood and to heighten dramatic effects Added color, movement and spectacle through singing and dancing

Ancient Greek beliefs

Human beings were capable of making significant decisions about their lives Democracy Not all people are equal: Greeks kept slaves and denied women any public role in society Happiness depends upon harmony between human and supernatural forces Numerous gods: conceived of as immortal human beings without flaws

Platea

In a Medieval stage, undifferentiated stage space adjacent to the mansion

Mansion

In a medieval stage, a scenic structure that indicated a specific place or location: the "locus"

vernacular religious drama

Late medieval religious plays that were financed by the community, performed outside the church, spoken rather than chanted or sung, and written in the common language

City Dionysia Festival

Major festival with 5 full days of performances honoring Dionysus in Athens, Greece, in which three dramatists presented 3 tragedies and 1 satyr play for contest Out of 900, only 32 plays survive, all of which written by Aeschylus (7), Sophocles (7), and Euripides (18)

How many Roman tragedies survive and by whom?

Nine Roman tragedies survive, all by Seneca

How many Greek Old Comedy plays survive and by whom?

Only 11, all by Aristophanes

How many Roman comedies survive and by whom?

Only 26 Roman comedies survive, all by Plautus and Terence

Skene

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre hut or tent located on the side of the orchestra, opposite the audience, which may have been used for costume changes The skene, or scene house, probably provided a formalized architectural background for all of the plays The skene's roof was also used as an acting area

Paradoi

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre spaces between the skene and the auditorium which were used for choral entrances and exits

Eccyclema

Part of an Ancient Greek theatre wheeled platform rolled or pushed into the performance space to show consequences of violent acts (such as slain characters) because acts of violence could not be shown onstage

Until the 16th century, theatre was (6)...

Performed primarily at festivals Financed by community Performed by community Occurred/available for only brief periods each year Presented as an offering to a god Presented for enjoyment of general public

The Theatre of Dionysus

The largest ancient Greek theatre, located on the slope of the hill just beneath the Athenian Acropolis; it was huge and could seat as many as 17,000 people.

Ancient Greek Musicians

The principle musical accompaniment was a flute player who preceded the chorus and remained onstage in view of the audience Greek music had a great variety of musical modes It may have functioned like modern film music - enhancing mood and emotion

Movable stage

a wagon that could move from one location to another

Cycle plays

dramatize the Bible from Creation to Doomsday

Chiton

ankle-length or knee-length garment that served as usual dress in Greece

Supernumeraries

non-speaking extras that may be used in an ancient Greek play

satyrs

half-man/half-goat characters who were companions of Dionysus

Fixed stage

set against a building, or in the middle of a square

Satyr play

short, comic play poking fun at a Greek myth using a chorus of satyrs 4th and final play (following 3 tragedies) at the City Dionysia

Choral Odes

songs and dance between the episodes

Dionysus

the god of wine and fertility, his blessing was sought to ensure the fertility of human beings and the land

Choregus

wealthy citizen who paid for chorus training and costuming; high civic honor; wealthy citizens required to take turns serving as choregus