By-

MAYENGBAM SUNIL SINGH

 Theatre began thousands of years ago, probably
before the start of the recorded history.
 Early cultures used ritual, dance, and
storytelling to communicate.
 Theatre is the one of the humanities ; it attempts
to answer the question : “ who am I ?” “ why are
we here ?” and “ where we are going?”
A ritual is : -
- Is a form of knowledge. Its embody a society’s understanding to the
universe, for they represent attempt to define people and relationship to
the world.
- May be didactic. Primitive society is the absence of a written language,
ritual may serve as a means of passing on traditions and knowledge.
- One of the fundamental premises of many ritual is that a desired effect –
such as success in battle, adequate rainfall or the favor of some
supernatural power - can be achieved by acting it out.
- Ritual is often use to glorify – a supernatural power, a victory in hunt or
war, the society’s past a hero or a totem i.e. an animal, plant, or natural
element with which the group thinks itself closely related.
- Is an action performed repeatedly because of its symbolic significance
and its ability to evoke the emotions of those engaged in the
performance.
- Ritual may entertain and give pleasure.
Myths stories ritual

Habit Tradition

Entertainment

Theatre !
 skene

-The word theatre originally comes

from the Greek word THEATRON.
- Festival of Dionysius ( god of wine
and sex) was the surviving theatre.
-Athens was the center location for
theatre competitions.
-Theatre of Dionysius was an open air
theatre . Held thousands of people
(around 14,000-17,000 people)
-Theaters built into hillsides so people
could see
-Behind the stage aka orchestra was the
skene (skaynee) a small hut building
for dressing rooms.
PLAYWRIGHT-
- Sophocles- playwright. Wrote about the
relationship between the gods & man (e.g.
Oedipus, Antigone, Electra).
- Euripides- wrote about psychology in women
(e.g Trojan Women, Medea, Hippolytus).
- Thespis- winner of one of the playwriting
competitions. First actor stepped away from
the Greek chorus.
- Aeschylus (es-kil-us) wrote 90 plays. Often
called “Father of Tragedy”. (e.g. Oresteia,
Agamemnon).
- Aristophanes- wrote comedies. Made fun of
leaders of Athens & the gods ( e.g. Birds,
Clouds, Frogs).
- Large masks with microphones. Changed masks to
change character.
- The performances took place on the group level
called the orchestra.
- No electricity so plays started early morning and
went till sunset.
- Deus ex machine- the god machine. Crane that
helped actors fly.
Deus ex machine
- Started at religious festivals for Dionysius. Drama
at first, added comedy later.
- Greek chorus
- Theatre, drama, comedy, and tragedy (comes from
tragos meaning goat song because during the
festival they sacrificed a goat and sang a song as
part of the celebration
 Roman amphitheatres

- There are two main periods in Roman

history
500BCE-27BCE—The Republic
27BCE-476AD—The Empire
- Romans liked festivals and had many
types of entertainment. Festivals were
called ludi Romani.
- Gladiators—fought each other and
sometimes wild animals.
- Condemned prisoners and Christians
(remember, Rome is not Christian yet)
were thrown to wild animals.
- Naumachina—the floor was flooded
with water for mock navy battles.
- Chariot races—the most popular form of
entertainment
 Competitive Entertainments

-Theatre as we know it (comedy,

tragedy, etc) had to compete with
these other forms of entertainment
(gladiators, chariot races, etc).

- Romans had a great blood-lust.

They adored violence. So, oftentimes,
theatre lost.

- All Roman entertainment (including

theatre) used much violence and
weaponry. Oftentimes, prisoners
were used and killed during a
performance.
- Permanent buildings were slow to
develop.
- The first permanent Roman theatre was
built at Pompei in 75 BCE
- Theatres sat between 10,000 and 40,000
people. This is less than Grecian
theatres, but still very large.
- Theatres were built on level ground—not
hillsides as in Greece.
The Dark ages is the time period after the
fall of the Roman Empire and before the
Renaissance. From approximately 476
A.D. to 800 A.D. During this period of
time the ‘church’ was in control.
- Morality plays,
- Bible stories were the type of the
play during this time.
-After Martin Luther and protestant
reject the church theatre,“vernacular
dramas” were written in common
language (therefore everyone could
understand).
- These plays were performed in town
squares on wagon stages.

-There were three types of

“vernacular dramas”:
• Mystery plays – based on the Old
and New Testament
• Miracle plays – based on the lives of
the saints
• Morality plays – taught a lesson
through symbolic characters
representing virtues or faults.
- Commedia dell’Arte required few props.

- The plays did not come from scripts but

by “scenarios” which were an outline of a
plot.

- The actors improvised the dialogue with

comedic stunts (called lazzi).

- Actors wore half masks which indicated to

the audience which character they were
playing.

Basic Vocabulary
- Comic Timing: The use of rhythm and tempo to enhance humor.
- Beat: a pause taken for the purpose of comic timing
- Pregnant Pause: a pause taken to accentuate a comedy element.
Basic Vocabulary -
- Slapstick: comedy characterized by broad
comedy, absurd situations, and vigorous,
often violent action
-Broad comedy: comedic elements
throughout – everywhere!

Types of Comedy-
- Satire: a comedy with the objective of
ridicule
-Black Comedy (or Dark Humor): grotesque or morbid humor used to express
the absurdity, insensitivity, paradox, and cruelty of the modern world. (Ordinary
characters or situations are usually exaggerated far beyond the limits of normal
satire or irony.)
-Irony: Figure of speech in which what is stated is not meant. (The user of irony
assumes that his reader or listener understands the concealed meaning of his
statement.)
- Meaning:
• Rebirth
• “revival of art and learning”

- Started in Northern Italy

• Thriving cities
• Wealthy merchant class
• Classical heritage (Greece and Rome)
- Strived to revive the culture of classical Greece and Rome,
but instead created new culture

- A man who is a master of many different important areas of study

Examples:
Leonardo da Vinci—painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist (always
called “The Renaissance Man”
Michelangelo Buonarroti—painter, sculptor, architect, and poet
 Renaissance and Reformation
(Approximately began in the 15th Century)

- Further contributions to Theatre were made by Italians

through the development of the proscenium, or “picture
frame stage”.

-The emphasis in plays were on the dialogue. Plays also

continued to have moralistic themes.

- Later religious themes were replaced by themes of loyalty to

the government.

- Performers were organized into troupes or companies who

developed a repertory of plays that they could perform.
-Called this to honor the
queen, Queen Elizabeth I
She loved art, music, drama,
and poetry

-She was a patron of the arts

A patron is a rich citizen of high
rank who backed an acting
company

-She liked Shakespeare’s plays

and protected him
 Elizabethan Plays -
- Intricate plots with deeper and more The Globe Theater
varied characterization.
- Growing emphasis on “real life”
situations.
-Comedies usually ended in
marriage. E.g.: A Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Merry Wives of Windsor.
- History plays were based off of lives
of people and events that had
transpired. – E.g.: Henry V, Henry VIII,
- Tragedies were plays with tragic heroes that undergo a
series of unfortunate events which usually leads to the
death of a lead character. -E.g.: Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo &
Juliet
- - If the flag was black, a tragedy was
scheduled; white flag meant comedy;
and a red flag meant a history play.
- The Players simply refers to the
actors.
- - All actors were men and younger
boys would play female characters.
- - Actors would form groups called
companies (eg: the Queen’s men)
that would be sponsored by nobles
in order to gain political protection.

Performance was Held in the afternoon.

A flag would be hoisted on the day of a performance.
The start was signaled by a trumpet sounding 3 times.
 William Shakespeare -
- (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)
- English poet and playwright
- Wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and several
poems - E.g.: Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, Julius
Caesar.
- Most well-known author of all time

Christopher Marlowe –
-(26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593)
-English dramatist, poet and translator
-Believed to have written 6 plays –E.g: Doctor
Faustus, The Massacre at Paris. -Stabbed to death.
-Shakespeare’s rival- most popular until
Shakespeare
 - In 1642, the English Parliament closed
all the theatres in England.
- Many English actors fled to France.
- Theatre in France began to focus on
scenery and creating spectacle.
- Plays now included costume, dance and
clever scenery which also required scene
changes. These aspects of theatre were
more emphasized than acting or the plot.
- Theatres also used the proscenium style of stage, where the acting
took place on the forestage and the stage behind the proscenium
was used to display the scenery.
- The French also allowed women to perform on stage. (When
Theatre returned to England in 1660, women were allowed on stage
there too. This is due to the French influence).
- In the 18th Century, Theatre
became a popular pastime.
-Actors dressed in modern
fashionable clothes.
- Sentimental comedy and
Domestic tragedy become
popular.
- Pantomime was still popular
and promoted the development
of spectacular staging, slapstick
and special effects.
- Garrick is one of Britain’s greatest actors and the first to be called
a star. He was a highly successful actor, producer and theatre
manager. He wrote more than 20 plays, and adapted many more
(including plays by Shakespeare)
- In general, melodramas are moral tales that illustrate a
battle between good and evil, where good would triumph
and bring morality or justice in society
Characteristics of Melodrama -
- A hero, who is moral, handsome and manly. He acts
on his intuition and is in-tune to nature. And, while he
believes in justice, he does not always follow the less-
important rules of society.
- A heroine, who is also moral in that she is innocent.
She is also beautiful and courageous, but likely
needed saving.
- A villain, who is evil. These characters are often
dishonest, greedy, vengeful and corrupt.
- A villain's accomplice, who is usually rather idiotic
and serves as comic relief.
- A faithful servant, who helps the hero uncover
needed information on the villain. This character also
serves a comic relief, but does not come off as idiotic.
-A maidservant, who is flirty, fun and loyal to the
heroine.
REALISM IN THEATRE
- A focus on ‘real life’
The theatre of Realism investigated and spoke
about real people in everyday situations,
dealing with common problems.
- An emphasis on behavior and tough
decisions
The theatre of Realism focuses on human
behavior – what people do and why in the context of their particular situations. The theatre
of Realism is a mirror held up and reflected back to the audience to show them that what is
taking place on stage is a representation of what they (the audience) experience in their
respective lives.
- Believable dialogue
. It presents everyday conversation in a succinct, direct way.
- Common everyday settings
The sets of realist plays evoke the typical workplaces, towns, and homes of people. These
plays are a reflection of the society and culture in which people live.
 REALISM IN THEATRE
Heinrich Ibsen - Norwegian

- Plays : A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler

-Credited with writing the first pieces of realism that
attacked society’s values.
-Ibsen’s plays tackled issues of the role of women,
euthanasia, morality of war and other social issues.

George Bernard Shaw - English

-Plays Pygmalion, Saint Joan, Man and Superman

-Almost always wrote comedies that dealt with social
issues of the times.
-Made realism accepted in England.
NATURALISM IN THEATRE
-Stage time equals real time – eg. three
hours in the theatre equals three hours
for the characters in the world of the play

- Costumes, sets and props are

historically accurate and very detailed,
attempting to offer a photographic
reproduction of reality (‘slice of life’).

- The action of the play takes place in a

single location over the time frame of a
single day
-Jumps in time and/or place between acts or scenes is not allowed

-Naturalistic plays regularly explore sordid subject matter previously

considered taboo on the stage in any serious manner (eg suicide, poverty,
prostitution)
 Anton Pavlovich Chekhov -
Chekhov’s plays demanded a new style of acting that
would teach actors how to create realistic, multi-
layered characters while also being understood by the
audience. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian
playwright and short-story writer, who is considered
to be among the greatest writers of short fiction in
history. His career as a playwright produced four
classics, and his best short stories are held in high
esteem by writers and critics
Konstantin Stanislavski -
The serious and realistic drama that was being
created in the second half of the 19th century
challenged actors to learn a new method of
acting i.e. ‘Method Acting’
-Konstantin Stanislavski wrote several works on
the art of acting, such as “An Actor Prepares”.
- Stanislavsky's method of acting is still used
today and is considered to be the best training
for actors.
 Expressionism and symbolism: Strinberg
Modernism marks a period of significant changes in scientific and
cultural pursuits beginning in the late 19th century. In visual arts,
there was a clear rejection of tradition and an embracing of
subjectivity. A modernist movement in the early 20th century that
focused on creating purely subjective art for the purpose of
evoking moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express
emotions or meanings rather than convey physical reality.
Epic Theatre: Bertolt
Brecht
(German: episches Theater)
form of didactic drama
presenting a series of
loosely connected scenes
that avoid illusion and often
interrupt the story line to
address the audience
directly with analysis,
argument, or documentation.
 Poor Theatre:
Jerzy Grotowski
The term ‘poor theatre’, defining a
performance style that rid itself of
the excesses of theatre, such as
lavish costumes and detailed sets
(hence ‘poor’). Poor Theatre
pieces centre on the skill of the actor
and are often performed with only a
handful of props.
 TheatreOf Cruelty:
Antonin Artaud
A type of theatre advocated by
Antonin Artaud in Le Théâtre et
son double that seeks to
communicate to its audience a
sense of pain, suffering, and evil,
using gesture, movement, sound,
and symbolism rather than
language.
 Theatre of the Absurd
Samuel Beckett
Eugène Ionesco
A form of drama that
emphasizes
the absurdity of human
existence by employing
disjointed, repetitious, and
meaningless dialogue,
purposeless and
confusing situations, and
plots that lack realistic or
logical development.
Physical Theatre
- work often devised, rather than from a
pre-existing script
- Has inter-disciplinary origins - crosses
between music, dance, visual art as well
as theatre
- Challenges the traditional, proscenium
arch, performer/audience relationship.
-Celebrates the non-passive audience.
- Aim: combines the imagination of both the
audience and the performer
 Superseded
modernism
- Challenges accepted views of
the world
- Includes use of multiple art
/media forms
- Narrative broken, paradoxical
and imagistic.
- Characters are fragmented,
forming a collection of
contrasting / parallel ideas
from a central theme or
traditional character.
- Encourages audience to reach
own individual understanding.
 END OF
WORLD THEATRE
HISTORY
 Indian, Chinese, and Japanese drama are
the most noticed in Western Theatre
 Never just spoken, but danced, chanted,
mimed, and sung
 More concerned with performing arts
than dialogue
• Dance, song, mime, gesture, acrobatics,
puppetry, music, sound, costume, and makeup
 Sanskrit dance theatre
was achieved around
200 B.C and remained
popular
 The Natyasastra is the
most comprehensive
study of theatre from
the ancient world
 Two primary genres of
Sanskrit Theatre
• Praka- based on theme of
love
• Nataka- based on well-
known heroic stories of
kings or sages
Classical Period-
Bharata’s natyasastra also known as Natyaveda or
fifth veda is the first documented classical
manual which primarily aims at describing the
theory and practical of Indian drama and theatre
-Four methods of Abhinaya (acting)

* Gestures (āngika): acting by the movement of

the different parts of the body.
* Oral (vācika): acting through dialogues.
* Spiritual (sāttvika): expressions through
gestures.
* Properties (āhārya): The material required for
the play like colours, dresses and decorations,
etc. practice of Indian drama and theatre
- Bharata in his treatise also described the
ten major forms of drama (dasrūpakas) —
1. nāṭaka
2. prakaraṇa,
3. samavakāra,
4, ḍima,
5. vyāyoga,
6. īhāmṛga,
7. ūtsṛṣṭikāṅka,
8. prahasana,
9. bhāṇa and
10. vīthī
 - Three type of stage

VIKRSTA

Caturasra Tryasta
The nine emotions
included
in Navarasa are
* Shringara (love/beauty),
* Hasya(laughter),
* Karuna (sorrow)
* Raudra (anger),
* Veera ( heroism/courage),
* Bhayanaka (terror/fear),
* Bibhatsya (disgust),
*Adbutha(surprise/wonder),
* Shantha (peace or
tranquility)
Playwright-
Bhāsa's most famous plays are Svapna
Vasavadattam , Pancharātra, and Pratijna
Yaugandharayaanam. Some other plays
being Pratimanātaka, Abhishekanātaka,
Bālacharita, Dūtavākya, Karnabhāra,
Dūtaghatotkacha,
Chārudatta, Madhyamavyāyoga and Ūrubha
ṅga.
 Kālidāsa
Vikramōrvaśīyam ("Vikrama and
Urvashi"), Mālavikāgnimitram ("Malavika
and Agnimitra"), and the play that he is
most known
for: Abhijñānaśākuntalam ("The
Recognition of Shakuntala").
 Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta
 Other Theatre Forms OF India-
1. Koodiyattam
2. Yakshagana
 3. Swang
 4. Bhand Paather
 5. Ankiya Naat Bhaona
 6. Tamasha
 7. Therukoothu
 8. Jatra
 9. Bhavai
 10. Dashavtaar
 11. Karyala
 12. Ramman
 13. Lai haraoba

 (1279-1368)
 Shang theatre
 Han and Tang
theatre
 Song and Yuan
theatre
 Noh
 Bunraku
 Kabuki
 Butoh
 In Thailand, it has been
a tradition from the
Middle Ages to stage
plays based on plots
drawn from Indian
epics. In particular, the
theatrical version of
Thailand's national epic
Ramakien , a version of
the Indian Ramayana ,
remains popular in
Thailand even today.
 Puppet Shows
Mime
Musical Theatre
Drama
Comedy
Tragedy
Improvisation
Fantasy
Action
Arena :
A theatre in which the
audience completely
surrounds the stage
or playing area. Actor
entrances to the
playing area are
provided through
vomitories or gaps in
the seating
arrangement.
 Thrust :
A theatre in which the stage
is extended so that the
audience surrounds it on
three sides. The thrust stage
may be backed by an
enclosed proscenium stage,
providing a place for
background scenery, but
audience views into the
proscenium opening are
usually limited. Actor
entrances are usually
provided to the front of the
thrust through vomitories or
gaps in the seating.
End stage -
A theatre in which the
audience seating and
stage occupy the same
architectural space, with
the stage at one end and
the audience seated in
front facing the stage.
Black box
theatre:
A flexible theatre usually
without character or
embellishment—a “void”
space that may indeed be
black, but isn’t always.
Usually, audience seating
is on the main floor, with
no audience galleries,
though a technical gallery
may be provided..
 Studio theatre:
A flexible theatre with
one or more audience
galleries on three or
four sides of a
rectangular room. The
main floor can usually
be reconfigured into
arena, thrust, endstage,
and flat floor
configurations. The
room usually has some
architectural character.
 Courtyard theatre:
The term courtyard theatre
embraces a range of theatre
forms, all with the common
characteristic of at least one
raised seating gallery
surrounding a central area.
Often this central area is
flexible, and can be configured
into arena, thrust, end stage,
and flat floor configurations.
Sometimes the central area has
fixed seating that faces a
proscenium opening and stage.
Proscenium
theatre:
In a proscenium theatre,
the stage is located at
one end of the
auditorium and is
physically separated
from the audience space
by a proscenium wall.
 Performer
Audience
Director
Theatre Space
Design Aspects
Text
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