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LessonOriginsAncientGreekTheatre.pptxhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xotPWR5I8RY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v3fJSn-oPo&feature=related
Before we begin. . .
Get into groups of two:
Group A: What are the advantages/disadvantages to reading plays as a text?
Group B: What are the advantages/disadvantages of only viewing a play as a performance?
How can we bring these things together?
Story-telling and Ancient Greek Theater
“Origins” of Theater:
Hi(s/Her)story
What are some of the problems of creating a historical narrative?
What is positivism?
“Origins” of Theater and Performance
Many textbooks, place the origins of theater and performance in Ancient Greece.
HOWEVER. . .
It is important to expand this notion by both time and geography. And to question the very notion of identifying the “origins” of theater.
“The assumption that it is possible to find a single origin of ‘theatre’ is in itself a problematic proposition, since theatre is not one ‘thing,’ but rather a complex set of human communicative activities involving, as does the practice of ritual, fundamental human desires to imitate, play, imagine, and structure our experience” (from Theatre Histories An Introduction, 34).
Oral Traditions and Ritual
If we choose to, we can think of theater as being influenced by oral traditions, story-telling and ritual
Evidence shows that rituals likely originated as much as 30,000 years ago.“Just as oral performance and verbal arts continue to be practiced and interact with complete systems of writing, oral, ritual and shamanic performance practices interacted with the new forms of dramatic performance (or theatre) wherever they began to develop, such as in Greece, India, China and Japan. Ritual and shamanic performance helped shape dramatic conventions, aesthetics and/or performance context” (Theatre Histories an Introduction).
“It is probably true that ritual preceded theatre as autonomous activity, since it seems unlikely that the earliest societies made clear distinctions among the functions of their activities. As societies became more complex, activities became more specialized and distinctions among functions became clearer” (History of the Theatre, 5).
Contributions to theater as we know it today: dance, ritual, story-telling, religious ceremonies (ritual)
Egypt
In 3500 to 3000 B.C. “cities” developed with the domestication of animals, cultivation of grain, invention of pottery. This allowed for men and women to not be nomadic but to “settle down”
Writing was developed in Egypt and the Near East
In Abydos, a city in Egypt, some kind of performance about the god Osiris occurred annually from 2500 B.C. to 500 B.C.
Why is this significant in regards to our reading?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSIDuLHvk8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OXudl_Hp_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-CEOwU01z4
http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/
Theater and Religion
Can you tell me a little bit about what Worthen notes about the relationship between theater and religion?
What is secular vs. non-secular drama?
Ancient Greece/City of Dionysia
What is the City of Dionysia?
When was drama first introduced into the festival?
How was theatre funded in Ancient Greece?
Who participated in the festival and how was it set up?
Why do we consider Ancient Greece the “origin” of theatre as we know it today?
“The English word ‘theatre’ derives from the ancient Greek theatron, which meant ‘seeing place’ and referred to the hillside area on which Greek citizens gathered to experience the plays competitively produced in the context of annual religious festival” (Theatre Histories xxii).
What was the physical space like?
What was the actual physical space in which these performances took place?
What are the major elements of that space?
What is the “machina” and what is a deus ex machina?
The Performances
What were the actual performances?
Who performed in them?
How many actors were in the comedies and tragedies?
What is the difference between old and new comedy?
Describe the chorus
What is a satyr play and what is a trilogy?
Describe how masks were used in Ancient Greek drama.
Ancient Greek Society
Who was allowed in the theater?
How much of Ancient Greek society was comprised of citizens? Who was allowed to be a citizen?
When did Ancient Greek society’s “hey dey” end and in what circumstances?
Who “exported” Greek Drama and where to?
Differences between Greek and Roman Theater
What are some of the major differences between Roman and Ancient Greek theater?
Group A: differences in genre (Comedies and Tragedies)
Group B: what was the format like? What was the theater like?
Everyone: what influence did Roman comedy and tragedy have on later European drama?
Aristotle’s The Poetics
1) verbal expression 2) visual adornment 3) plot 4) song composition 5) character 6) thought
Who is Aristotle and why do we still talk about him today?
Tragedy
What makes a good tragedy?
structure (talk about unified action)
characters
pity, fear and recognition
What does Aristotle think about comedy?
