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ROMAN THEATRE
Roman Theatre Test
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In what year were the beginnings of Roman Theatre recorded?
Approximately how many festivals did the Romans have each year?
List 5 of the 8 things that Romans included in their performances.
What were the three major influences of Roman Theatre?
Short improvised skits, with stock characters, similar costumes and masks are called:
Which type of performance allowed women?
The official Roman Festivals were called:
The oldest of the official Roman festivals was called the:
Who is the only tragic Roman playwright whose plays still survive today?
Who was the most popular comic playwright in Roman times?
The theatres will built on ________ ground.
Approximately how many people could the theatres seat?
How did the Roman cooling system work?
How did the Romans change the orchestra and what was it used for?
What is the scaena?
What is the scaena frons?
What is the vomitoria?
What is the pulpitum?
What is the cavea?
What were amphitheaters used for?
Roman Theatre Test
1.
In what year were the beginnings of Roman Theatre recorded?
240 B.C.
2. Approximately how many festivals did the Romans have each year?
175
3.
List 5 of the 8 things that Romans included in their performances.
Acrobatics, Gladiators, Jugglers, Athletics, Chariot Races, Naumachia
(Sea Battles), Boxing, Venationes (Animal Fights)
4. What were the three major influences of Roman Theatre?
Etruscans, Greeks, and Fabula Atellana
5. Short improvised skits, with stock characters, similar costumes and masks are called:
Farce
6. Which type of performance allowed women?
Mimes
7. The official Roman Festivals were called:
Ludi
8. The oldest of the official Roman festivals was called the:
Ludi Romani
Roman Theatre Test
9. Who is the only tragic Roman playwright whose plays still survive today?
Seneca
10. Who was the most popular comic playwright in Roman times?
Plautus
11. The theatres will built on ________ ground.
Level
12. Approximately how many people could the theatres seat?
10,000 - 15,000
13. How did the Roman cooling system work?
They blew air over cool streams of water.
14. How did the Romans change the orchestra and what was it used for?
They changed it from a circle to a semi-circle, and it was used for
gladiators, display and killing of animals, and/or seating for the audience
15. What is the scaena?
The stage house
16. What is the scaena frons?
The front/façade of the stage house. Used as setting
Roman Theatre Test
17. What is the vomitoria?
Corridors under the seats that led to the orchestra
18. What is the pulpitum?
The Stage
19. What is the cavea?
The Auditorium (where the audience sat)
20. What were amphitheaters used for?
Gladiator battles, Wild Animal fights, and occasionally Naumachia
Brief Roman History
509 B.C
• Etruscan (from Etruria) ruler was
expelled, and Rome became a republic
(just as Athens became a democracy).
• Roman theatre and festivals highly
influenced by Etruscan practices
Brief Roman History
by 345 B.C
• There were over 175 festivals a year
240 B.C
• The beginnings of Roman theatre
recorded
• The first record of drama at the
ludi Romani (Roman Festival or
Roman Games).
Brief Roman History
55 B.C
• First stone theatre built in Rome by
order of Julius Caesar.
Roman Theatre
• Borrowed Greek ideas and improved (?)
upon them
• Topics less philosophical
• Entertainment tended to be grandiose,
sentimental, diversionary
Roman Theatre
• Included more than drama :
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acrobatics
gladiators
jugglers
athletics
chariots races
naumachia (sea battles)
boxing
venationes (animal fights)
Roman Theatre
3 Major Influences
• Greek Drama
• Etruscan influences, which emphasized
circus-like elements
• Fabula Atellana – which introduced
Farce (Atella was near Naples).
Roman Theatre
Farce
• Short improvised skits, with stock
characters, similar costumes and masks
• based on domestic life or mythology
• burlesque, parody
• Most popular during the 1st century
B.C., then frequency declined
Roman Theatre
Farce
• Probably was the foundation for
commedia dell ‘Arte
• Productions included “stock”
characters:
• Bucco: braggart, boisterous
• Pappas: foolish old man
• Dossenus: swindler, hunchback
Roman Theatre
Pantomime
• solo dance, with music (lutes, pipes,
cymbals) and a chorus.
• Used masks
• The story-telling was usually
mythology or historical stories,
usually serious but sometimes
comic.
Roman Theatre
Mime
• overtook after 2nd century A.D.
• The Church did not like Mime
• Most common attributes of mime:
• Spoken
• Usually short
• Sometimes elaborate casts and spectacle
• Serious or comic (satiric)
• No masks
• Had women
• Violence and nudity depicted literally
• Scoffed at Christianity
Roman Festivals
• Held in honor of the gods, but much
less religious than the Greeks
• Performances at festivals probably
paid for by the state.
• Were often lengthy and included a
series of plays or events, and probably
had prizes awarded to those who put
extra money in.
Roman Festivals
• Acting troupes (perhaps several a day)
put on theatre events.
• Festivals were sometimes repeated,
since whenever any irregularity in the
rituals occurred, the entire festival,
including the plays, had to be
repeated. (known as instauratio)
Roman Festivals
ludi = official religious festivals
these were preceded by
pompa = religious procession
Roman Festivals
ludi Romani
• oldest of the official festivals
• held in September and honored
Jupiter
• regular performance of comedy
and tragedy began in 364 B.C.
Roman Tragedy
Characteristics of Roman Tragedy
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5 acts/episodes divided by choral odes
included elaborate speeches
interested in morality
unlike Greeks, they depicted violence on stage
characters dominated by a single passion which
drives them to doom (ex: obsessiveness or revenge)
• developed technical devices such as: soliloquies,
asides, confidants
• interest in supernatural and human connections
Roman Tragedy
Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
• only playwright of tragedy whose plays survived
• Nine extant tragedies, five adapted from
Euripides (Gr.)
• Though considered to be inferior, Seneca had a
strong effect on later dramatists.
• Wrote The Trojan Women, Media, Oedipus,
Agamemnon, etc., which were all based on Greek
originals
• His plays were probably closet dramas—never
presented, or even expected to be.
Roman Comedy
Characteristics of Roman Comedy
• Chorus was abandoned
• No act or scene divisions
• Concerned everyday, domestic
affairs
• Action placed in the street
Roman Comedy
Material from only 2 playwrights
survived
• Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Terence (195 or 185-159 B.C.)
Roman Comedy
Plautus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Very popular
• Plays include: Pot of Gold, The Menaechmi,
Braggart Soldier
• All based on Greek New Comedies,
probably, none of which has survived
• Added Roman allusions, Latin dialogue,
witty jokes
• varied poetic meters
• Developed Slapstick & Songs
Roman Comedy
Terence (195 or 185-159 B.C.)
• Wrote only six plays, all of which survive,
including: The Brothers and Mother-in-Law
• More complex plots – combined stories from Greek
originals.
• Character and double-plots were his forte
• Less boisterous than Plautus, less episodic, more
elegant language.
• Used Greek characters.
• Less popular than Plautus.
Roman Theatre Design
Roman Theatre Design
• First
permanent
Roman theatre
built 54 A.D.
(100 years after
the last
surviving
comedy)
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Built on level ground with stadiumstyle seating (audience raised)
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Stage raised to five feet
• Stages were
large –
20-40 ft deep
100-300 ft long
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Theatre could seat 10-15,000 people
• dressing rooms
in side wings
• stage was
covered with
a room
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• trap doors were common
• cooling system – air blowing over
streams of water
• awning over the audience to protect
them from the sun
Roman Theatre Design
Scaena
• “stage house”
• joined with
audience to
form one
architectural
unit
Roman Theatre Design
Scaena frons
• front/façade of the stage house
• was painted and
had columns,
niches,
porticoes,
statues
Roman Theatre Design
Orchestra
• becomes half-circle
• was probably used for gladiators
and for the display and killing of
wild animals
• if entertainment permitted, people
were sat here
Roman Theatre Design
Vomitoria
• corridors
under the
seats that
lead onto
the
orchestra
Roman Theatre Design
Pulpitum
• the stage
Cavea
• the
auditorium
Roman Theatre Design
Other structures included:
Circus Maximus
Ampitheatres
Roman Theatre Design
Circus Maximus
• Primarily for Chariot racing
• Permitted 12 chariots to race at once
Roman Theatre Design
Ampitheatres
• For gladiator contests, wild animal
fights, and occasionally naumachia
• Had space with elevators below to
bring up animals, etc.
Roman Actors
• Referred to as histriones, cantores
(means declaimers), and mimes – later
primarily histriones
• Mimes were considered inferior; some
believed they were slaves.
• In the 1st century B.C., a "star"
performer seems to have been
emphasized
Roman Actors
Style of Acting
• Mostly Greek traditions – masks, doubling of
roles
• Tragedy – slow, stately,
• Comedy—more rapid and conversational
• Movements likely enlarged
• Actors probably specialized in one type of
drama, but did others
• Encores if favorite speeches given (no
attempt at "realism")