1. Classic Greek Period- 700 - 500 B.C.
Honored Dionysus (God of wine) in a once-a-year competition
Tragedy – tragos or “goat song”
Chorus – kept audiences informed of what was happening, commented on action, gave actors time to change costumes, etc.
Thespis – first actor … became Thespians
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2. Architecture of the Greek Theatre
Orchestra - Actors performed in a circular space of hard packed dirt
Skene was built behind the orchestra; was designed as a changing house
The Proscenium was the front wall of the skene; provided scenery; painted/decorated (limited)
Machina (Machine) – a crane-like device used for flying actors to appear as gods

3. Orchestra was laid out at the foot of a hill; uncomfortable wooden benches were built into the side of the hill for the audience
Seating could hold between 14,000-17,000 people

5. Actors wore masks so that the audience could see them better
There were only three actors in each performance so the masks enabled each to play more than one part
Amplified their voices as well
Plays were either comedies
or tragedies
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6. Aeschylus Orestia Agamemnon Libation Bearers Eurninides
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7. Sophocles Oedipus the King Oedipus at Colonus Electra Antigone
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8. Euripides The Trojan Women Medea Hippolytus
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9. Aristophanes Birds Clouds Frogs
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10. Roman Theatre B.C.
Theatre became more base, rude entertainment rather than the superior messages of the Greeks
Obscene mimes
Drunken actors
Dancers in bikinis
Mostly Comedies- hero succeeds; rough humor, swearing, insults (like an R-rated movie)

11. Roman Theatre Architecture
Based on Greek models
Huge, open-air theatres, which seated over 15,000
Actors stood on a stage, 5 feet above ground level
Some later stages had curtains
Awnings and cool, misted water to
keep audiences cool

13. Prominent Playwrights Plautus – Menaechmi, Amphitryo
Terence – Andrian, The Eunuch
Seneca – Octavia, The Phonician Women, Hercules
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14. Found traces of mimes, acrobats, singing
The Medieval Stage A.D.
Found traces of mimes, acrobats, singing
Catholic Church controlled the theatre;
used drama to teach
Most people were illiterate – couldn’t read
their bibles!
Morality Plays – concerned with the principles of
the bible
Miracle and Mystery plays – based on the saints’
lives and Bible stories
Passion plays – a play based on the last week of the
life of Christ

15. Plays outside The Church
Mansions (or wagons) – actors performed inside, in front of, or on either sides of a small wooden canvas construction (resembled booths at a fair)
– represented special areas such as Heaven, Pilate’s House, Jerusalem and Hell’s Mouth; colorful and complex for their time
-could travel from town to town easily

16. One wagon was decorated as the
background; action took place on the flatbed of a second wagon
To achieve technical effects called for by increasingly difficult scripts, the wagons had a loft for some type of “flying equipment” - cranes
Wagons also had a trapdoor in the floor – trees could sprout up, fountains could gush, actors could appear and disappear

18. Guilds – groups of tradesmen who worked together to produce plays
Cycle – the combined stories of the guilds
Masque – a spectacular play that glorified nobility
Pageant Cart – another name for the wagons used as stages
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19. Medieval Audiences made a mockery
of the performances.
Didn’t take anything seriously.
The Jester was a character
“mocking” the idea of the Devil.
Two prominent plays for this time period include:
The Second Shepherd’s Play
Everyman – still discussed and studied today

20. Renaissance Theatre – 1300s
(Renaissance means “rebirth”)
New Theaters – based on the Roman models
Proscenium Arch was added (arched wall above the stage)
New, elaborate scenery
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21. Commedia dell’arte Basic plot and subplots Stock Characters
Plays were improvised with some comedy and some longer scenes including practical jokes
Actors had more freedom but needed to sing, dance, juggle, mime, do acrobatics and be of quick wit
Travelling companies performed all
over in different towns. Each actor
played the same part in the show
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22. Commedia Dell’Arte Characters
Young Lovers
Heroine’s Father - Pantalone
Heroine’s Maid – Rosetta or Columbina
comic man-servants and house-keepers
Arlecchino
Pulchnella
Pedrolino
Brighella
Il Capitano
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23. Prominent Shows Don Quixote The Cid Phaedra The Miser The Misanthrope
The Imaginary Invalid

24. The Theatre (public)- built by James Burbage
Elizabethan Stage-1600s
The Theatre (public)- built by James Burbage
Blackfriars Theatre (private)- main audience/
influence was Queen Elizabeth I and the Church  

25. Three levels of seating called galleries
Architecture
Round or Octagonal
Three levels of seating called galleries
A pit for standing – people called groundlings
Platform stage with trapdoors
Large “building” behind actors with balconies
Little scenery, performed in daylight
Partial roof with stars and zodiac – called Heaven
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26. Prominent Playwrights Christopher Marlowe – Tamcourline the Great
The Jew of Malta
Tragical History of Faustus
Ben Johnson –
Volpone
The Alchemist
Every Man in His Humor
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27. 37 Plays, none published while he was alive
William Shakespeare
Globe Theatre
Wrote to make money
 37 Plays, none published while he was alive
a. tragedy- Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, MacBeth
(hero fails/dies)
  b. comedy- Midsummer Night’s Dream
(hero succeeds/gets married)
c. history- King Henry VIII
(history of the English kings)  
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28. Wrote in Modern English; we can still understand the language today
Boys played all of the parts; women were not allowed on stage because acting was not respected by the Puritans.
Court Plays – more intelligent audience
 Shakespeare’s Company
King’s Men

29. English Restoration – 1600s
Two men to RESTORE theatre – Thomas Killigrew and William Davenant
The English Royal Patent of 1662
Women were to perform female roles
Theatre is “useful and instructive”
Drury Lane and Convent Garden

30. Architecture Roofs closed in (scenery and stage mechanics)
Elaborate chandeliers
Orchestra moved to the front
Back wall allowed for scene changed
Audience level; stage raked (upstage and downstage

31. William Wycherly (The Country Wife)
Playwrights –
William Wycherly (The Country Wife)
William Congreve (The Way of the World)
Gilbert and Sullivan – Operas
The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore
Oscar Wilde – Plays
Importance of Being Earnest
George Bernard Shaw – Plays
Pygmalion
Most Famous Actor – David Garrick

32. American Theatre Puritans were in control VERY STRICT
Theatre was outlawed – viewing comedic or dramatic plays would lead to BAD BEHAVIOR
Eventually, new ideas persisted and people started performing anyway

33. Lewis Hallam – age 12 start The Barrymores Lionel Ethel
Theatrical Families
The Hallams
Lewis Hallam – age 12 start
The Barrymores
Lionel
Ethel
John – father of Drew
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34. The Proscenium-Arch Stage
Has an invisible division between the auditorium
(audience) and  stage (actors)
Origin is open to debate (probably somewhere
around the 1800s)
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35. Two ways the proscenium-arch separates the audience from the actors
  Curtain/proscenium- action had to be placed behind the
opening; before, action took place in the midst of the
audience.
  Modern lighting- for the first time, audience in the dark,
actors in  light.
  Note: No matter how physically close the spectators
might be to  the action, a psychological barrier was set up.

36. Audience wanted a realistic spectacle;
Emphasis on realism
 Audience wanted a realistic spectacle;
 proscenium-arch provided a practical curtain that
 could be drawn to hide the changing of scenery.
 Technology/special effects
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37. Birth of the musical, combination of: play ballet opera
  first full scale musical = Oklahoma!
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