Download Theater Performing Arts Chapter 4

Theater Performing Arts
Chapter 4
Shrek did this PPT
but
He can’t do the oral presentation
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
Oedipus the King and its performance
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The beginning of Oedipus the King was signaled by the
entrance through one of the paradoi of a group of people
of all ages carrying branches, the symbol of the suppliant.
Oedipus the King is structurally unusual, for he resolution
scene is the longest in the play. Sophocles was not solely
concerned with discovering the murderer of Laius.
The principal characters – Oedipus, Creon, and Jocasta –
are mature persons, but Sophocles says almost nothing
about their age or appearance.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
About Roman Theatrical Context
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The Roman theatre influenced by Greece ,but it also
differed in significant ways. The Romans considered
Greece culture to be decadent.(頹廢的)
In Greece , the expenses of theatrical production were
assumed by the government. The officials probably
viewed the productions before they were presented for
the sake of guar-ding against unacceptable material.
The Roman government also supplied the theatre in which
the play were presented.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
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Admission to the theatre was free, seats were not
reserved, and audiences were often unruly.
Form The carthaginian (P.76 last paragraph), we can
image how disorderly the scene was at that time.
The most popular Roman comedy
The Menaechmi
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It served as the basis for Shakespeare’s Comdy of Errors and
etc.
This comedy’s outline : Twin brothers was separated when they
were very young, and one , who has been looking for the other,
arrives in a city – Epidamnus without knowing that this is where
his twin brother now is.
Because they just looked like the same, people in city always
misunderstanding them. It made the people angry, Menaechmus
I and Menaechmus II also felt strange. Finally ,they found out
that they were twin brothers.
In most of Plautus’ plays, they began with a prologue that
carefully lays out the background of the action and goes over
important point more than once. The Menaechmi also used this
way as its start.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
The Revival of Drama in the Middle Ages
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Historians usually divide the Middle Ages into three phases:
early(A.D.900 to A.D. 1050), high(A.D. 1050 to A.D.1300),
and late(A.D.1300 to A.D.1500).
During the first two phases, drama was performed
primarily within churches or monasteries(修道院) ; it’s
usually called liturgical drama.
During the third, it flourished in elaborate outdoor
productions, some of which continued even after 1500.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
Convention of Medieval Theatre
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A major convention of medieval drama involves the way time
is handled. Humanity was thought to participate in two kinds
of time: eternal and earthly.
There were no permanent theatres, so theatrical spaces
were improvised. The principal requirement was that there
be sufficient open space to accommodate a large audience.
There were two parts to the stage space: mansions and
platea.
Costumes were used to distinguish among the inhabitants of
Earth, Heaven, and Hell.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
Noah and His Sons
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The play begins with Noah praying to
God and comparing God’s good-ness
toward all creatures.
There are nine roles, of which six are
very minor – those of Noah’s sons and
their wives.
Characterization of the three main
roles is simple; God with magisterially
voices feeling of been betrayed; his
benevolence is seen only in his attitude toward Noah and his familly; Noah,
is pious and obedient.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience
Everyman - The most famous morality play
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Morality plays flourished between 1400 and 1550; it
treated the spiritual trials of ordinary persons.
Everyman, who has been too busy leading a carefree
exist-ence to think about death, now seeks among his
companions (Kindred 近親,Cousin 遠房,Knowledge, Five Wits
智慧, Beauty, Strength, and so on) for one that will
accompany him on his journey, but once they know his
destination, they decline his invitation. Ultimately only
Good Deeds(善行) goes into the grave with him.
Finally, Everyman comes to understand the relationship of
his earthly life to salvation.
Festival Theatre: Greek , Roman, and Medieval
Theatre Experience