theater arts

The Pastoral

A drama staged in the country or woodland setting which emphasized spectacle and the creatures from mythology which inhabited these woods. Some of Shakespeare's plays contain elements of this style.

Platea

A neutral stage area in the Middle Ages that can be used as a generalized playing space and later adopted as a convention by the Elizabethan

Arena

A performance space where the viewing audience surrounds the stage on all sides, also known as theatre in the Round.

Dottore

A quack doctor who is a seller of potions or the fake academic who spouts false knowledge.

Technical

A rehearsal devoted to trying out the technical aspects of a production- scenery changes, costume changes, effects, sound cues, lighting, complicated props.

Pantalone

A ridiculous older man character that was a tight wad and generally concerned with his children's love affairs.

Thrust Stage

A stage space with audience on three sides of the acting area.

Proscenium Arch Stage

A stage, framed by an arch above and on the sides of the playing area developed by the Italians to Frame the scenic designs of the time.

Intermezzi

A style of spectacle that was performed between the regular acts of drama and later inspired the birth of Opera.

Producing

A term, which includes all necessary personnel, space and financing; supervising all production and promotional efforts.

Secular Drama

A term, which might describe the non-religious plays of the Middle Ages. Such play forms include, folk plays, farce and market place performances. Henry the VIII: This ruler broke with the Roman Catholic Church and set the stage for a later time period in which Religious Drama would be forbidden.

Middle Ages

A time period when the emphasis was on religious drama

Satyr play

Bawdy faces performed as an after piece to a trilogy of tragedies that parodied serious myth and legends and typically used half human choruses

Moliere

Best comic actor of his day with plays inspired by the commedia dell' arte.

Lazzi

Bits of comic business and gimmicks performed by the clowns and servants in the Commedia dell' arte. Sure fire comic bits of stage business which included physical jokes or verbal exchanges that is a sure fire comic bit of business guaranteed to get laughs from the audience.

Tragicomedy

Bridges genres; it maintains serious themes and tone moves from grave to humorous.

Aspects of "Cause to effect" play structure

Cause and effect events unfolding - Clear exposition- Logical reversals-Mounting suspense

Decline of medieval theatre

Church distances itself and ends sponsorship-English monarchs restrict and forbid religious drama-Renaissance spreads and man rediscovers the classical theatre of the Greeks and Romans

Low Comedy

Emphasis is on physical farce and slapstick behaviors from characters

Ben Johnson

Famous for creating characters who suffer from an abundance of humors.

Aspects of Realist drama

Genres blended, Scenery depicted ordinary living environments, Doubts, muddles, and confusions became the principal actions of realistic plays and Characters were drawn from everyday life.

Commedia dell' arte

Italian Art Form that is improvised working from scenarios utilizing stock type characters and adaptable to any playing space.

Elizabethan Period

Marked by the legacy of one of the greatest playwrights in History. (Shakespeare)

Mansions

Simple Scenic devices that suggest local.

Melodrama

Stock type characters in which good characters and bad characters are clearly defined and held to a strict moral justice where there is an emphasis on suspense and spectacle.

Features of melodrama

Strict moral justice, punishment fits the crime - Great suspense and extreme reversals-Happy endings-

Aspects of the Renaissance

The Renaissance first emerged in southern Europe during the 1400s- The Renaissance supplied the intellectual seed-bed for humanism-The Renaissance world held that man, was the measure of all things-The Renaissance was marked by great developments in art, conquest, social organization, and philosophy- Renaissance is a French word meaning "rebirth."

Directing

The aspect of controlling and developing the artistic product and providing it with a unified vision; coordinating all its components and supervising all rehearsals.

Burlesque

The mockery of a writing style by an exaggerated imitation of its predominant characteristics.

Italian Renaissance

The picture frame stage got its start and spectacle was a predominate element.

Designing

The process by which you map out the visual and audio elements of a production, including scenery, properties, costumes etc.

Important contribution from the Italian Renaissance theatre

The proscenium arch stage- Development of Perspective scenery- Theatre Architecture- Scene Shifting devices- Birth of Opera- Commedia dell' arte.

Capitano

This character is known as the braggart soldier and runs from any fight.

Main Stage

This is the primary acting space in the English Renaissance public theatre.

Playwright

This person is most often responsible for the starting point of the theatrical event; the initial creator of the script.

High Comedy

This style utilizes verbal wit and typically presents the upper classes preoccupied with reputations.

Episodic Structure

This type of dramatic structure, utilized within drama throughout history, dates back to this medieval time period, It will spans time, and space with a use of many locals and has an early point of attack within a given story line/plot. A term, which indicates a use of tragedy and comedy elements, running side by side within the drama

Roman period

a period where popular entertainment games and domestic comedy were at their height in popularity

The Roman playwright Seneca

and his work had lasting influence over the playwrights during the Elizabethan time period

Sides

are smaller portions of a full script/text with a single actor's lines and cues.

Oedipus Rex

by the playwright, Sophocles.

The public theatres

during Shakespeare's time were built outside the city limits along the Thames River to dodge the restrictions of the puritan opposition to theatrical entertainments.

Roman Comedy

featured stock characters such as; ridiculous older men, clever slaves, courtesans, shrew wives and comic domestic situations and squabbles

The Zanni

in Commedia were the servant characters who made fools of their masters. They could range from very smart to very dumb and were experts at acrobatics and other performance arts.

The Orchestra

in the Ancient Greek theatre, was a circular ground level acting area in front of the stage house used primarily by the chorus

Elizabethan theatre

incorporated many medieval practices in their dramas, in direct contrast to the Italians, who abandoned conventions of the middle ages.

Drama

is a category of literature and theatre is an art form created from drama.

A Mask

is a covering of the face, used traditionally by actors in many theatrical periods

Dues ex Machena

is a term used to describe "Devine intervention from the Gods."

A soliloquy

is a theatrical convention in which a character delivers a speech alone on stage and typically presented as a character thinking aloud.

A Periaktoi

is a three sided scenic device, which could be rotated to depict a certain local, or change of story

Hamartia

is a tragic within the main protagonist of tragedy

The Teatro Olympico

is an example of a classical Roman Theatre Architecture built in doors.

Theatre

is created from drama and the actual presence of the Audience is one of the final elements required in the creation of Theatre. is considered a truly collaborative art form and is generally conceptualized by an overseeing artist in the form of a director.

The Teatro Farnese

is the oldest existent picture frame stage built by the Italians in the Renaissance period.

The use of Mansions

is theatrical convention of the Middle Ages that carried over to the Elizabethan theatre practices.

Hubris

is too much pride within the main protagonist of tragedy

Elizabeth I

loved the theatre and declared acting a legal lawful profession. She forbid all religious drama and instituted the Master of Revels to examine all plays for offenses to the monarchy.

The Scene

or stage house used primarily by the lead actors

Aristotle

outlined the elements of drama in his critical analysis of the Greek tragedy

Miracle plays

presented the lives of saints and martyrs

Catharsis

refers to the purging of emotions, both pity and fear

Thespis

stepped out of the Chorus, delivered a prologue; impersonated a character and became the person known as the first actor

Aspects of the Roman tragedy Playwright Seneca

strong and driven main characters- Violence called for on stage- Long bombastic speeches-Obsessed with ghosts and the supernatural world

Sophocles

the Greek playwright, added a third actor, was a considered the finest of the Greek playwrights, wrote "oedipus rex", and was concerned with man's relationship with other men

Aescelus

the Greek playwright, added the second actor, made dialogue possible and in his themes was concerned with the relationship between man and the Gods

Euripides

the greek playwright, was skeptical of the Gods, not admired in his day, wrote the play "Medea" pushed the envelope of tragedy into melodrama and inspired Seneca and the later Elizabethan playwrights

In Classical Greek Tragedy

the protagonist at the center of the drama is of upper class birth and accepts the responsibility of his actions

Greek Old Comedy

used Political satire and social stabs is at the heart of these plays; Aristophanes is attributed with this style

Emperor Constantine

was a Roman leader who declared Christianity as the semi official religion of Rome and placed a variety of restrictions on the theatrical performances, eventually leading to the downfall of theatre

Terence

was a Roman playwright who had a refined romantic style with fairytale endings; such as a wedding

A Machine

was a crane like device, used for the flying in of an actor, usually playing the part of a God, who generally wrapped up the plot

a dithyramb

was a greek religious rite in which a chorus of fifty men chanted and danced; the precursor to Greek tragedy development

The chorus

was a grouping of characters who would, give exposition in the play, move plot along, add spectacle, act as the ideal audience, give advice to the protagonist, while adding music/rhythm/ tempo

Hells Mouth

was a local generally on the left of a fixed stage. Earthly locals are in depicted in the center stage areas and heaven is on the right

The Platea

was a medieval neutral acting space in medieval theater

The "Master of Revels"

was a person responsible for the licensing of plays in the English Renaissance and beyond.

Seneca

was a playwright of Tragedy. There is no evidence that his dramas were ever fully staged. His strong. influence is clear when studying some of the Elizabethan plays; His style is marked by the use of ghost and super natural characters; H has long bombastic speeches; and main characters driven by a single powerful objective

Plautus

was a roman playwright who employed the use of low domestic farce and comedy with an edge

Greek New Comedy

was a style which employed the use of stock characters and domestic scenes. In the Greek Theatre Menander is the playwright associated with this style. This style later influenced Roman Comedy

A messenger scene

was a theatrical conventions used in the Greek theater in which the happenings of the stage are described to the audience and are most often violent incidents within the story line or plot

the dark ages

was a time period of famine and survival and is marked by the downfall of Rome in which there is very little evidence of any theatrical performances

The Middle Ages

was a time period, traditionally dating from roughly giving us a legacy of Religious drama instituted by the Church. A term describing medieval plays that developed from liturgical drama and treated biblical stories and themes.

An Ekkelema

was a wagon type device, used most often to display the remains of a particular character within the play, which has met with a certain type of un-timely fate of death off stage

Christopher Marlow

was an Elizabethan playwright known for his work with the History play. He was a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare

was an actor, director, and shareholder as well as a playwright.

A Satyr play

was an after presentation; presented at the end of a trilogy of tragedies by the playwright; short bawdy farces that parodied the events of the tragedies and/or a traditional Greek myth or legend

Commedia dell'arte

was an art form that was the most popular in theatre and later inspired some of the great playwrights such as; Shakespeare and Moliere.

An Onkos

was an elaborate head dressing worn by actors in the Greek theatre

An Altar

was at the center of the orchestra in the Greek theatre, used for a sacrifice to the Gods

Dionysus

was the Greek god of drama; also the god of wine and fertility

The Parados

was two entrance areas/pathways that trimmed the scene house, used by the chorus in the Greek theatre that is also part of the structure within the dramas

The Elizabethan main stage or forestage

was utilized as neutral acting space during Shakespeare's time.

Morality plays

were a form in which the characters represent abstractions such as: Good Deeds, Death, Virtue, Gluttony, and Everyman. An allegorical medieval play form, in which the characters represent abstractions such as: Good Deeds, Death, Virtue, Gluttony, and Everyman and the overall impact of the play is moral instruction

The Mimes

were a troupe of performers, who have roots that date back to the Greek legacy of theatrical performing , worked mostly in the country side, utilized, juggling, acrobatics, dancing, and farcical sketches that became more bawdy, risky and helped lead to the restrictions enforced by the church upon theatre

Mystery/Cycle plays

were a type of medical drama that treated biblical stored

Groundlings

were audience members of the English theatre who stood in the pit or yard.

The Lovers in Commedia

were considered the straight parts when compared to the other characters. They were handsome and sympathetic to the viewing audience. They wore no masks but elaborate make-up. The main plot of the scenario revolves around their union.

trade guilds

were groups that helped to sponsor the religious dramas of the Middle Ages. They included, blacksmiths, carpenters, butchers, weavers etc and it was an honor and a civic duty to help mount these religious plays

Pageant Wagons

were rolling stage type platforms traditionally moved to specific locals with the city/ towns and presented a specific portion of a cycle/mystery play

Academies

were schools of study organized by the Italians where the Greek and Roman classical periods were examined.

Mansions

were simple scenic devices that suggest locale

Roman Popular Entertainments

were, sport type, games in which men battle other men or animals, and most often to the death

Classical Greek Period

where western drama and great tragedy is said to have been inspired

Aristotle

with his analysis of Greek drama, gave us a spring-board for future dramatic criticism.