What is Theater?

“What is Theater?” - Crash Course A theater is a “seeing place” - a building where you go to see a performance. The play itself is also theater. Requires performers and an audience. Official definition: A deliberate performance by live actors and intended for a live audience, typically making use of scripted language. Theories of the origin of theater: Religious rituals Myths acted out Greek drama Functionalism - explain the order of the existing world Reenacting historical events Innate human desire to pretend and play games Teaching people how to feel, act, or think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNWrOuwzax8

Ancient Greek Drama - Crash Course One actor and a chorus of singers Used masks to switch between characters The word “thespian” comes from an actor named Thespis, possibly the first to begin acting out characters in songs. Athens festivals promoted theater (with competitions) Produced Greek tragedies Template for modern theater Catharsis - idea that it was good to get out emotions such as fear by watching plays. https://youtu.be/VeTeK9kvxyo

“Drama as a literary art” - TED-ed 1000s - 1100s “Mystery Plays” and “Miracle Plays” - religious theater to teach the illiterate Pageants - giant stage on wheels that traveled 1200s Guilds - various groups of professions took turns acting and putting on plays 1300s “Morality Plays” - moved away from bible stories and focused on good vs. evil characters Often included comedy and encouraged vices rather than virtues 1400s - 1500s Church outlaws Morality Plays and forces theaters to be built outside of cities Shakespeare’s The Globe theater Plays focused on man’s inner struggles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzcxd8tsJ3Q

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) World’s most famous playwright and poet. His writing is the second most quoted after the Bible. Some of his famous phrases are often misquoted as bible passages. Did not attend university. Married to a woman named Anne Hathaway. Wrote 37 plays, including: Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, The Tempest, and King Lear Built The Globe theater in 1599, in London. “The King’s Men” was the name of his theater company. One of the first professional writers Made up words as needed to express himself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geev441vbMI

Why is Shakespeare so important? Many famous sayings come from Shakespeare: “Eating me out of house and home” “Kill with kindness” “All that glitters is not gold” Great storyteller with universal, emotional themes War, spying, murder, love, death, heartbreak, conspiracies, mental illness, family rifts Many words we use everyday were probably invented by Shakespeare. His words are part of Western culture.

American Shakespeare Center - Blackfriars Playhouse Staunton, VA Opened in 2001, a copy of Shakespeare’s own Blackfriars Playhouse Started with a Shakespearean acting group from James Madison University in 1988 Purpose was to recreate the theater as it would have been performed in Shakespeare’s day.

Reduced Shakespeare Company Comedic, abridged versions of Shakespeare plays

Shakespeare or Hip Hop? “To destroy the beauty from which one came” “Maybe it’s hatred I spew, maybe it’s food for the spirit” “Men would rather use their broken records than their bare hands” “I was not born under a rhyming planet” “The most benevolent king communicates through your dreams” “Socrates, philosophy and hypotheses can’t define me” “Then I hope this take away from my sins” “This was the most unkindest cut of all” “May the Lord protect me as the world gets hectic” “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below” “Count myself a king of infinite space” “Look around this manor and all you will see is ill-mannered people” “Froze up like a mannequin” “Desire too much of a good thing?”