DRAMA 101 Lecture Notes 1 PDF

Preview

Summary

All material covered up to midterm; Guillaume Tourniaire Spring 2018...

Description

INTRODUCTION TO DRAMA 101 Paideia ● The rearing and education of the ideal member of the polis in ancient Greece ● Paideia - idea of perfection, or of excellence Drama vs. Theatre ● Drama - a written composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or character, or to tell a story involving conflicts and emotions through action and dialogue ○ Designed for theatrical performance ○ Broader term ● Theatre - a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place ○ Performers communicate this through gesture, speech, song, music, or dance ○ Has a recognizable frame ■ In the form of textual composition and typically on a stage ● Performance - a public presentation, or exhibition Qualities of Theatrical Performance ● Immediate - the simultaneous presence of performers and audience, in the same place and time ● Ephemeral - the concept that a live performance can never be exactly recreated READING PLAYS AND THEATRE AESTHETICS Aesthetics vs. Aesthetic ● Aesthetics - a set of principles concerned w/ the nature and appreciation of beauty; the branch of philosophy that deals w/ the principles of beauty and artistic taste ● Aesthetic - a set of principles underlying and guiding the work of a particular artist or artistic movement Literature vs. Drama ● Literature - uses words to illuminate actions and events ● Drama - uses actions and events to illuminate words 3 Elements of a Playtext ● Dialogue - conversation b/w characters (text and subtext) ● Parentheticals - how the character might say or inflect the line (in italicized parentheses) ● Stage directions - on stage action described by the playwright Dialogue vs. Subtext ● Two Levels of Dialogue:

1. What the character says (the text) 2. What the character might consciously or subconsciously mean (the subtext) a. The hidden meaning Stage Directions

Stage directions are from the actor’s perspective

Given Circumstances ● Given circumstances - the “Who, what, where, when, and why?” of the play ● The specific conditions in which the action of the play occurs ● The time/place of the play ● The conventions, attitudes, and manners of the time ● Framework for the dialogue Character ● Character - a coherent pattern of actions associated with a particular figure in a play Objective, Obstacle, and Action ● Objective - what a character wants at any particular moment in the play; their goal ● Obstacle - something that obstructs or hinders the progress of a character’s goal ● Action - what a character does to achieve the objective or overcome an obstacle (usually directed towards another character) ● Super-objective - what a character wants over the course of the entire play; the drive that determines the behavior of the character

Conflict, Climax, and Resolution ● Conflict ○ A clash of opposing wishes or needs; opposition to a goal ○ Tensions in the plot created by opposing motives and events

○ Ex: person vs. nature, vs. society ● Climax ○ Peak of emotional intensity that produces a significant change in the characters ● Resolution ○ Emergence of new relationship b/w opposing forces ○ An apparent re-balancing of the conflicting forces ○ The temporary reestablishment of order and stasis Suspension of Disbelief ● Suspension of disbelief - the idea that we recognize that what is happening is not real but accept the play’s quasi-reality Aesthetic Distance ● Aesthetic distance - the ability to remove oneself from a work of art, far enough to be able to contemplate it and remember that what they are seeing is not real life ● Allows the audience to enjoy the performance while still thinking about it critically ANCIENT GREEK THEATRE Athens and the Delian League ● Greece defeats Persian invasion in 480 BC ● Treasury at Delos moved to Athens ● Tribute paid to Athens by allies ● Golden Age of Athens (480-404 BC) God Dionysus Dionysus - god of generation, regeneration, rebirth, fertility, grape harvest, wine, ecstasy, ritual madness, and theatre; also known as the Twice-Born God ● Dionysus born of woman and man ● Mortal mother and father Zeus ● Known as god of theatre because of man playing woman role in play ● Wine is process of god; world is not really a reality → like the stage of a theatre

The City Dionysia ● Annual religious and civic festival to celebrate the end of winter (April) ● Origins in religious rituals in honor of Dionysus ○ First wine ● Celebration of Athenian citizenship and identity

○ Only festival open to non-Athenians (way of showing off) ○ Military processions ● Musical performances, recitations of epic poetry, and dithyrambic competitions ● 3-5 day state-sponsored competition of theatrical performance ○ One playwright presents three tragedies and one satyr play each day (total of 12 plays) Tragedy ● Tragedy comes from the Greek tragoidia, meaning “goat’s song” ● Imitation of superior persons ● 5 acts ● Tragedy established when Thespis stepped out of chorus, taking a solo part and becoming the first actor Comedy ● Comedy comes from the Greek komoidia, meaning “song of the komos (revel or masquerade)” ● Someone has to be humiliated ● Imitation of inferior persons ● 3 acts Satyr Plays ● Satyr play - a short, satirical play which follows up the three tragedies ● Provides the audience w/ comic relief at the end of the daylong performance ● Only surviving satyr play is The Cyclops by Euripides Aeschylus (525-456 BC) ● “Father of Tragedy” ● 13 wins at the City Dionysia ● Wrote 80-90 plays; only 7 surviving plays ● Wrote the Oresteia, the only extant trilogy ● Added the second actor ○ Created dialogue b/w characters ● Known for his lofty language and imagery ● Most interested in religion and theology Sophocles (496-406 BC) ● Perfected the tragic form ● 18 wins at the City Dionysia ● Wrote 90 plays, only 7 surviving plays ● Author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone

● Added the third actor ● Balanced tragedies b/w mortal and divine ○ Humans working out their own destiny and making their own choices, but under guidance of heaven Euripides (484-406 BC) ● Reinvented the tragic form; breaking with norms ● 5 wins at the City Dionysia ● Wrote 92 plays, 18 surviving plays ● Author of Medea and The Bacchae ● Wrote some of the most complex characters in Greek drama Aristophanes (448-380 BC) ● Crown Prince of Comedy ● Only surviving comedic playwright ● 6 wins at the City Dionysia for comedy ● Author of Lysistrata, the Frogs, and the Clouds ● Topics: vulgarity → poetic sophistication → politics and customs Opening Ceremonies at City Dionysia ● Daylight parade was a lavish spectacle ● Honoring the gods The Acropolis ● Physical site of Athen’s political power ● Civic and religious center ● Sacred temples to Athena and Poseidon ● Housed the state treasury ● Theatre of Dionysus at foothill of the Acropolis ○ Sense of place or polis

Epidaurus ● Another theatre located in Southwest Greece ● Seated 14,000 spectators ● Audience sat according to demes (districts/tribes) Parts of a Greek Theater ● Theatron - “seeing place” ● Orchestra - “dancing place”

● Parados - “entrance” ● Skene - “scene house”

Parts of a Greek Stage ● Proskenion - stage area in front of skene ● Ekkyklema - wheeled platform for rolling out corpses ● Mechane/mekane - crane for lifting figures above stage level ● Deus ex Machina - “God from a machine” Dithyrambic Chorus ● 20 dithyrambic choruses, representing the 10 tribes of Athens ● Choruses competed w/ each other by singing and dancing narrative lyrics, called dithyrambs ● Chorus represents the “polis”, the people, and public opinion ○ Gives advice and tells people what they should or should not do ○ Serves as the middle ground Cothurni - platform shoes worn by actors to make them taller and more visible to the audience Masks - used to project voices and explicitly distinguish b/w characters The Pronomos Vase ● Depicts Dionysus and Ariadne, actors, chorus, and musicians ● Made in Athens in 400 BC

The Boys’ Chorus ● Ephebes - the boys’ chorus made up of young men in military training ● Sang, chanted, and danced Atmosphere of City Dionysia 1. Display of state/military power 2. Religious celebration/ritual 3. Competitive entertainment (dramatic competition) GREEK THEATRE AND ARISTOTELIAN DRAMA Antigone first performed in Greece in 440 BC 440 BC: Greece territory expanded into modern-day Turkey City Dionysia ● Takes place in Athens (most powerful city-state in Greece) ● Celebrates Greek god, Dionysus ● A city-wide festival ○ Military processions ○ Presentation of Athenian wealth ○ Dramatic competitions ● A display of military power ○ Only theatre festival that allowed guests from other city-states ● Religions ritual ○ Worshipping Dionysus and its different aspects of god (theatre, drinking wine) ● Dramatic competition ○ Three days dedicated to tragedy (three tragedies and a satirical play per day) ○ Two days dedicated to comedy (one comedy per day)

Theatre Competition at City Dionysia ● 3 Types of Plays: ○ Tragedy ○ Satyr plays ○ Comedy ● 3 days devoted to tragedy/satyr plays ○ Each day, a different playwright presents three tragedies, followed by one satyr play ○ 12 plays total Origins of Tragedy

● Dithyrambs - a type of song sung by the dithyramb chorus ● Choruses did not wear masks ○ Sang in unison, no one stepped out of chorus ● Thespis became the first actor ● Actors began to wear masks ● Performance style became known as “Tragedy” ● Thespian means “actor” The Chorus ● Offers advice to masked characters ● Voice of Athenian citizens ● Often speak directly to the audience ● Encourages audience to think critically about events onstage ● Ephebes - young men in military training who typically made up the chorus Sophocles (496-406 BC) ● 123 plays, only 7 surviving plays ● 24 wins at City DIonysia ● Protagonists in his tragedies confront his/her Hamartia ○ Hamartia - an injury committed in ignorance ○ Hamartia is not a character trait nor a fatal flaw ● Author of Oedipus, Antigone, and Ajax ● Added the third actor The Agon of Sophocles ● Agon - “argument”; a debate b/w two speaking characters ● Chorus supports the middle path b/w opposing ideas ● Protagonist: for the argument ○ i.e. Creon ● Antagonist: against the argument ○ i.e. Antigone Aristophanes (450-385 BC) ● Only existing comic playwright ● 6 wins at the City Dionysia ● Difficult to translate Aristotle (384-322 BC) ● Greek Philosopher ● Sent to Athens at 17 to study at Plato’s Academy ● 335 BC Poetics

○ Earliest surviving treatise on the structure and purpose of drama ○ Synthesizing the way plays are written ● Tutored Alexander the Great Aristotle’s Six Elements of Tragedy ● Aristotle defined six elements of tragedy in Poetics 1. Plot - the arrangement of incidents; imitation of an action (the most important element) 2. Character 3. Thought 4. Diction 5. Music 6. Spectacle (the least important element) Power of Mimesis (Imitation) ● Mimesis - “to imitate”; the habit of imitating is congenital to human beings from childhood ○ Humans learn first through imitation ○ Humans are the most imitative animal ● Humans take pleasure in works of imitation Spectacle Props ● Ekkyklema - cart for bringing dead bodies on stage ● Deus Ex Machina - “God from the Machine” ○ Often used at end of plays ● Mechane - a crane to suspend an actor above the orchestra, or to place him on the skene ● Exaggerated masks ● Platform shoes Elements of the Perfect Plot 1. Hamartia - an action committed in ignorance 2. Perepeteia - reversal of the situation 3. Anagnorisis - a change from ignorance to knowledge (recognition) ○ Usually occurs at same time as perepeteia ○ The most intense moment in a tragedy 4. Catastrophe - the destructive and painful act ○ Occurs towards the end of the play 5. Catharsis - a purging of pity or fear within the audience ○ The most distinguishing feature of Greek tragedy ○ i.e. Oedipus gouging out his eyes, Pentheus being torn apart Historical Context for Greek Theatre

● Antigone performed in 442 BC ● Persian Wars b/w Persia and Greece (499-449 BC) ● Peloponnesian War b/w Athens and Sparta (431-404 BC) ○ Athens is defeated ○ End of Golden Age To be banished from your home was a fate worse than death. ROMAN AND MEDIEVAL THEATRE Apollonian & Dionysian ● Apollo - god of reason and rational thinking ● Dionysus - god of the irrational; appeals to emotions and instincts The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) ● War b/w Athens and Sparta ● 27 yrs of conflict ● Athens surrendered in 404 BC after facing starvation and disease from prolonged siege ● Athens was stripped of its walls, fleet, and overseas possessions ● End of Golden Age ● End of art and philosophy

Hellenic vs. Hellenistic Kingdoms ● Period of: ○ New Comedy ○ Alexandrian Poetry ○ Stoic and Epicurean Philosophy ○ Science of Euclid and Archimedes ○ Adoption of new Egyptian gods and Buddhism Rome (753 BC - 476 CE) ● Rome systematically borrows Greek culture, religion, art and architecture Roman Entertainment ● Romans preferred to laugh rather than experience pity and fear of tragedy ○ Theatre became simplified ● Inclusion of spectacles ○ i.e. gladiator fights, chariot races, animal baiting ● Theatre fell in esteem

○ Performers and actors demoted to same social rank as prostitutes Roman Comedy Playwrights ➢ Plautus ○ Comedies based on Greek New Comedy (raucous, broad, and farcical) ○ Plays exploited stereotypes, caricatures, confusions, mix-ups ○ Plays typified the clever servant character who rises through shrewdness ➢ Terence ○ Comedies more polished and carefully structured ○ Resemble more closely to Greek Old Comedy ○ Added subplots Roman Tragedy Playwrights ➢ Seneca ○ A stoic philosopher, statesman, and advisor to Nero ○ Plays intended for private enjoyment, not performance ○ Tragedies based on Greek or Roman themes ■ Included murder and other bloody acts, ghosts, and long bombastic speeches ○ Works would later suit Elizabethan temperament ■ Influenced Marlowe and Shakespeare Roman Theaters Decline of the Roman Empire & Rise of the Catholic Church ● 44 BC: Julius Caesar assassinated in Senate by conspirators ○ Resulting in the end of Roman Republic ● 64 CE: Nero blames burning of Rome on Christian population ○ Initiates first large-scale persecution of Christians in Rome ● 313 CE: Emperor Constantine establishes tolerance for Christianity ○ A Christian convert ● 331 CE: Constantine moves capital from Rome to Constantinople (Istanbul) ● 476 CE: Fall of Rome Fall of Rome (476 CE) ● Trade and communication routes that went through the basilicas fell apart when Rome fell ○ Basilicas - public buildings that were used as court of law, marketplace, or for public assemblies ● Fall of Rome → Rise of the Catholic Church

○ Basilicas turned into churches ■ Reestablished the network of trade and communication that the Romans had left behind Romance Languages ● i.e. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, Catajan, Occitan, Franco-Provencal, etc. Mediums of Communication ● Fresco, mosaic, sculpture, and stained glass Hrosvitha ● Born in 935 CE ● A nun, “the strong voice of Gandersheim” at Abbey, in Saxony ● Wrote imitations of Terence, whom she admitted as an amusing comic writer w/ a polished style ● Object was to glorify the laudable chastity of Christian virgins Vernacular Drama (12th cent.) ● Characters of Adam, Eve, God (Figura), and the Devil given costumes and extensive dialogue ● Dramatic detail too elaborate to be contained within the Mass ○ Play “spills” out of the church ● Once outside the church, drama flourished and became independent ○ Pageants and processions Cycle Plays ● Trade guilds began competing w/ each other in cycle plays ● Plays based on Bible stories ● Grew from focusing on the life and Passion of Christ → newly invented material, omitted from the Bible ● By 15th cent: cycle plays encompassed entire cycle of known human history ○ “Garden of Eden” to “End of Days” ● Use of pageant wagons Morality Plays (14th - 15th cent.) ● Taught people how to live ● Depicted people facing temptations of the world ○ Presented allegorically as physical personifications of abstract values ■ i.e. Virtues and Vices

● Central problem: the salvation of human beings -- the struggle to avoid sin and damnation and to achieve salvation in the next world ○ i.e. angel vs. devil Medieval Stages ● Physical structures represented metaphysical spaces ● Presented as “mansions” or “houses” Shakespeare’s Globe ● Relocated to South Bank of the River Thames ELIZABETHAN THEATRE The English Reformation (1530s) ● Henry VIII broke away from Catholic Church ○ Banned all Catholic religious practices, including medieval cycle plays ■ Last cycle plays performed in 1579 Itinerant Players The Renaissance ● Rediscovery of the forgotten past and demand to understand the world through scientific explanation ● Many attended universities for self-improvement, embracing virtues of balance, symmetry, and rhetoric ● Demand for new plays and performances of the Old grew after being rediscovered and translated Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) ● Elizabethan Age - period of discovery, prosperity, and artistic achievement ● When Elizabeth ascended to throne in 1558, there were no theatres in England ● By Elizabeth’s death in 1603, London was one of the leading theatre capitals of the world Elizabethan Thought: The Chain of Being ● Chain of being - natural order, structure, and hierarchy of the universe: 1. God (Heaven) 2. Angels 3. Man (Earth) 4. Animals 5. Devils (Hell) ● When things are out of order, chaos brings storms, ghosts, and other supernatural events

Elizabethan Thought: The Wheel of Fortune ● Wheel of Fortune - art and philosophy valued because they could bring one upwards Act Against Vagabonds ● Puritans thought theatre was obscene, morally lacking, and arousing dangerous passions in the youth ● Actors labelled as scoundrels doomed to everlasting hellfire ○ i.e. tricksters, crossdressers, dressing outside their station ● Vagabond Act - stated that anyone caught roaming “masterless” or without a “lawful craft” would be deemed rogues and vagabonds Punishment of Vagabonds and for Relief of the Poor and Impotent ● Actors branded on chest with letter “V” and taken into slavery for 2 yrs ● Actors branded on cheek with letter “S” and put into servitude for life if found a second time ● Acting companies sought legal immunity ○ Found protection in patronage of a lord or noble ■ Would wear their noble master’s colors and take his name ● Patronage → professionalization ○ Actors began to live in London vs. on the open road ○ Performed at court, private residences, and public theaters Playwriting Becomes a Craft ● Playwright - a person who “builds” or “crafts” a play ● Implies a specialized and even secret or mysterious knowledge William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ● Born in Stratford-upon-Avon ● Father was a glove-maker and alderman; mother came from a prominent family ● Believed to have received an education in rhetoric, logic, and classical lit. ○ Influenced by Roman plays of Plautus, Terence, and Seneca ● Dropped out of school at age 13/14 ● Married at age 18 to Anne Hathaway (age 26) ○ 3 children: Susanna, Judith, and Hamnet ● Living and working as an actor in London alone by age 28 ● Writing plays at age 30 ○ Was a poet first: wrote 154 sonnets ● Retires at age 49 ○ Moves back to Stratford where he dies 3 yrs later

Shakespeare’s Themes ● Saw drama as a teaching tool: ○ Learned broad entertainment from Plautus ○ Terence’s weaving of plots and subplots ○ Recreated the gory and sententious Seneca ○ Combined these w/ majestic sweep and spirituality of medieval theatre ● Wrote in blank verse and iambic pentameter ● Created a form that imparted a moral lesson but in a more Humanistic way ● Started his plays w/ exiting event to capture audience’s interest ● Plots move quickly through time and place ● Plays explore full range and depth of human condition ● Intensified his plays w/ comedy, implied sex, and overt violence ● Mocked as an uneducated hack writer

The Theatre (1576-1598) ● Theatre is first commercialized in 1576 ● James Burbage - carpenter who built the first permanent theater structure in Shoreditch ...