Текст.
The word «theatre» comes from a Greek word meaning a place for seeing. In this sense, the word refers to the space where performances are staged. However in a broad sense, theatre includes everything that is involved in production, such as the script, the stage, the performing company, and the audience. In addition, theatre refers to a part of human culture that began in ancient times.Theatre is not the same as drama, though the words are frequently used interchangeably. Drama refers to the literary part of a performance that is the play. There are different forms of drama, such as tragedy, serious drama, melodrama, and comedy.Theatre is one of the most complex arts. It requires many kinds of artists for its creation. These specialists include a playwright, performers, a director, a scene designer, a costumier, a lighting designer, and various technicians. For many productions composers, musicians, and a choreographer (a creator of dances) are needed. A director of the theatre integrates all aspects of production including scenery, costumes, makeup, lighting, sound effects, music, and dancing.There are many people who love and visit different kinds of theatres: drama theatres, musical theatres, puppet theatres, opera and ballet houses. A successful theatrical event is an exciting and stimulating experience.There are a lot of theatres around the world. The theatrical centre the United Kingdom is London. There are more than 40 theatres in West End of London, such as the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, which operate a repertory system and use a regular company. The best-known centre of professional theatre in the United State is New York City, though Chicago and Los Angeles have become major centers as well. Moscow and St. Petersburg are the two major theatre centers in Russia. The Maly and Bolshoi Theatre are known all over the world.
Задание.
Agree or disagree with the following statements. Add some more informations.
1. Theatre is the same as drama. 2. Theatre is one of the most complex arts. 3. There are different kinds of theatres. 4. There are not many theatres in West End of London. 5. There are many theatres in Moscow.
For the theatre one needs long arms; it is better to have them too long than too short. An artiste with short arms can never, never make a fine gesture.
Sarah Bernhardt
the old proverbial recovery through ancient eyes
theatre, also spelled theater, in architecture, a building or space in which a performance may be given before an audience. The word is from the Greek theatron, “a place of seeing.” A theatre usually has a stage area where the performance itself takes place. Since ancient times the evolving design of theatres has been determined largely by the spectators’ physical requirements for seeing and hearing the performers and by the changing nature of the activity presented.
Origins of theatre space
The civilizations of the Mediterranean basin in general, the Far East, northern Europe, and the Western Hemisphere before the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the second half of the 15th century have all left evidence of constructions whose association with religious ritual activity relates them to the theatre. Studies in anthropology suggest that their forerunners were the campfire circles around which members of a primitive community would gather to participate in tribal rites. Karnak in ancient Egypt, Persepolis in Persia, and Knossos in Crete all offer examples of architectural structures, purposely ceremonial in design, of a size and configuration suitable for large audiences. They were used as places of assembly at which a priestly caste would attempt to communicate with supernatural forces.
The transition from ritual involving mass participation to something approaching drama, in which a clear distinction is made between active participants and passive onlookers, is incompletely understood. Eventually, however, the priestly caste and the performer became physically set apart from the spectators. Thus, theatre as place emerged.
Developments in ancient Greece
Visual and spatial aspects
During the earliest period of theatre in ancient Greece, when the poet Thespis—who is credited both with inventing tragedy and with being the first actor—came to Athens in 534 bce with his troupe on wagons, the performances were given in the agora (i.e., the marketplace), with wooden stands for audience seating; in 498, the stands collapsed and killed several spectators. Detailed literary accounts of theatre and scenery in ancient Greece can be found in De architectura libri decem, by the 1st-century-bce Roman writer Vitruvius, and in the Onomasticon, of the 2nd century ce, by the Greek scholar Julius Pollux. As these treatises appeared several hundred years after classical theatre, however, the accuracy of their descriptions is questionable.
Little survives of the theatres in which the earliest plays were performed, but essential details have been reconstructed from the architectural evidence of the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, which has been remodeled several times since its construction in stone by the politician Lycurgus on the south slope of the Acropolis about 330 bce. The centre of the theatre was the original dancing place, a flat circular space containing the altar of Dionysus, called the orchestra. In the centre stood a platform with steps (bemata) leading to the altar (thymele). Nearby was the temple out of which the holy image would be carried on festival days so that the god could be present at the plays.
Theatrical representations, not yet wholly free of a religious element, directed their appeal toward the whole community, and attendance was virtually compulsory. Thus the first concern of theatre builders of the day was to provide sufficient space for large audiences. In the beginning, admission was free; later, when a charge was levied, poor citizens were given entrance money. It seems reasonable to assume, from the size of the theatres, that the actors performed on a raised platform (probably called the logeion, or “speaking place”) in order to be more visible and audible, while the chorus remained in the orchestra. In later times there was a high stage, with a marble frieze below and a short flight of steps up from the orchestra. The great Hellenistic theatre at Epidaurus had what is believed to have been a high, two-level stagehouse.
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The earliest productions did not have a background building. The actors dressed in the skēnē (from which the word “scene” is derived), which was then a small tent, and the chorus and actors entered together from the main approach, the parodos. The earliest properties, such as altars and rocks, could be set up at the edge of the terrace. The first extant drama for which a large building was necessary was Aeschylus’ trilogy the Oresteia, first produced in 458 bce. There has been controversy among historians as to whether the skēnē was set up inside a segment of the orchestra or outside the edge of the orchestra. The skēnē in its later development was probably a long, simple building at the left of the orchestra terrace.
In the first period of Greek drama, the principal element of the production was the chorus, the size of which appears to have varied considerably. In Aeschylus’ Suppliants, there were 50 members of the chorus, but in his other plays there were only 12, and Sophocles called for 15. The size of the chorus became smaller in the 5th century, as the ritual element of drama diminished. Since the number of actors increased as the chorus shrank, and the plots of the dramas became more complex, doubling of roles became necessary. On a completely open stage such substitutions were delayed, and the suspense of the drama was dissipated. Dramatic plausibility was also vitiated by the fact that gods and mortals, enemies and friends, always entered from the same direction. The addition of a scenic facade, with three doors, more than doubled the number of entrances and gave the playwright more freedom to develop dramatic tension. About 425 bce a firm stone basis was laid for an elaborate building, called a stoa, consisting of a long front wall interrupted at the sides by projecting wings, or paraskēnia. The spectators sat on wooden benches arranged in a fan shape divided by radiating aisles. The upper rows were benches of movable planks supported by separate stones planted in the ground. The seats of honour were stone slabs with inscriptions assigning them to the priests.
The background decoration consisted originally of a temporary wooden framework leaning against the front wall of the stoa and covered with movable screens. These screens were made of dried animal skins tinted red; it was not until Aeschylus that canvases in wooden frames were decorated according to the needs of a particular play. Aristotle credits Sophocles with the invention of scene painting, an innovation ascribed by others to Aeschylus. It is notable that Aeschylus took an interest in staging and is credited with the classic costume design. Simple Greek scenery was comparable with that of the 20th century; the impulse to visualize and particularize the background of the action became strong. Painted scenery was probably first used in production of the Oresteia; some 50 years afterward a second story was added to the wooden scene structure. A wooden colonnade, or portico, the proskēnion, was placed in front of the lower story of the building. This colonnade, which was long and low, suggested the exterior of either a house, a palace, or a temple. Painted screens set between the columns of the proskēnion suggested the locale.
In the beginning, scenery was probably altered slightly during the intermissions that separated the plays of a trilogy or a tetralogy or during the night between two festival days. By the latter part of the 5th century, scene changes were accomplished by means of movable painted screens. Several of these screens could be put up behind one another so that, when the first one was removed, the one immediately behind appeared.
Soon after the introduction of the facade, plays were uniformly set before a temple or a palace. To indicate a change of scene, the periaktoi were introduced. These were upright three-sided prisms—each side painted to represent a different locality—set flush with the palace or temple wall on either side of the stage. Several conventions were observed with regard to scenery; one was that if only the right periaktos was turned, it indicated a different locality in the same town. According to another convention, actors entering from the right were understood to be coming from the city or harbour and those from the left to be coming from the country.
The permanent facade was also used to hide the stage properties and the machinery. Evidence for the use of the so-called flying machine, the mēchanē (Latin machina), in the 5th century is given in the comedies of Aristophanes; a character in his play Peace ascends to heaven on a dung beetle and appeals to the scene shifter not to let him fall. The mēchanē consisted of a derrick and a crane. In the time of Euripides it was used conventionally for the epilogue, at which point a god descended from heaven to sort out the complications in the plot, a convention that became known as deus ex machina (“god from a machine”). The lavish use of flying machines is attested by the poet Antiphanes, who wrote that tragic playwrights lifted up a machine as readily as they lifted a finger when they had nothing else to say.
A wheeled platform or wagon, called ekkyklēma, was used to display the results of offstage actions, such as the bodies of murder victims. The ekkyklēma, like the periaktoi, was an expedient for open-air theatre, in which the possibilities for creating realistic illusions were severely limited. A realistic picture of an interior scene under a roof could not be shown, because the roof would block the view of those in the higher tiered seats of the auditorium. So the Greeks, to represent the interior of a palace, for example, wheeled out a throne on a round or square podium. New machines were added in the Hellenistic period, by which time the theatre had almost completely lost its religious basis. Among these new machines was the hemikyklion, a semicircle of canvas depicting a distant city, and a stropheion, a revolving machine, used to show heroes in heaven or battles at sea.
Howard Bay Clive Barker George C. Izenour
Theatre has been around for what seems like forever or at least as far back as we can track society that is. The word theatre itself means a place for seeing, usually a building where a dramatic performance is given but theatre is so much more than that. Theatre is more than just a building, it is the telling of stories and putting on a show. It is turning a group of people into an audience and bringing them together through performing arts.
Photo credit: Dominique Landau
When you think of the historical roots of theatre it is often thought upon to go straight to Ancient Greece and its amphitheatres which you would be right so in doing as it’s the first recorded theatre in Europe dating back to 600 B.C. but that would be putting theatre into a box and it’s far too big for that. Arguably, theatre can be dated back all the way to 8500 B.C. considering tribal dance and religious rituals. Theatre, depending on how you define it, goes hand in hand with society as it has always been a part of life to express and perform in some way or other.
Whilst theatre has always been a part of human culture in one form or another, for example the Ancient Egyptians so great signs of being very involved in theatre and performance, but many believe that it was in fact the Ancient Greeks who formed how we think of theatre today, despite its beginnings dating back over 2500 years. The records state it began with a religious festival, much like the history before them, in which they honoured the god Dionysus (God of wine and fertility). The Dionysians developed the more structured form of drama that we are influenced by today; by dancing and singing.
A lot of the influences from the Greeks are still around today, such as the masks they used to show emotion and character, which are often used as a symbol of theatre. These masks were introduced by Thespis himself, a poet who won a dramatic play competition, and whom actors today are often named after: thespians. Tragedies were their forte, and told of Greek myths, many of them performed and interpreted to this day. The Romans too, were inspired by the Greek theatre, and much like everything else changed it to suit them. They wrote Greek plays in Latin and preferred comedies. Roman theatre had a lot of competition, what with it being 300 B.C. and the interesting public executions that were occurring, so from this came the need to be grander and bolder. Thus the creation of vast and impressive public theatres of which over the next two centuries, the Roman’s built approximately 125 of.
Despite the protests of the theatre that Christians brought, shutting down theatres and fighting, theatre eventually rose again with religious plays, once again (although it took them a good 1000 years to get back on track). Theatre expanded across the world, professional actors eventually making a comeback and theatres opening everywhere, slowly but surely commencing onwards.
The 1500’s in England are what shaped a lot of our theatre today, what with Shakespeare on the scene and the birth of Globe Theatre. With all the greats that Shakespeare has given us though, theatre didn’t go on without its hiccups and hurdles, closing and reopening, women being allowed to perform, the middle class dominating as the audiences and not to mention the new styles that were introduced whether in the play itself or the costumes and sets.
Theatre has and is influenced by history and the history of theatre. All that has happened in its history of getting here and surviving its turmoil’s has made it what it is. Now it is a bigger part of our culture than ever, thanks to all that came before it, and is more accessible than before. Hopefully, it will continue to grow and develop; and surely it will always be around.
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Panoramic view of the Hellenic theatre at Epidaurus.
A young cast of «Princess Turandot»
Theatre (British English and also American English), or Theater (mostly American English), has several meanings.
The word comes originally from the Greek Theatron, meaning roughly, ‘a place for viewing’. In American English, the word ‘theater’ can mean either a place where films are shown (this is also called a cinema) or a place where live stage plays are performed.[1] In British English, ‘theatre’ means a place where live plays are performed. Some people, both English and American, use the spelling ‘theatre’ to mean a place where live plays are performed, and the spelling ‘theater’ to mean a cinema.
‘Theatre’ can also mean the business of putting on plays. An actor might say «I am in the theatre business», or a writer might say «I write for the theatre», meaning that they write plays, rather than writing for movies or television shows.[2][3]
History[change | change source]
An ancient Roman theatre in Syria
Ancient Greece[change | change source]
The first people we know created plays were the Ancient Greeks, about the year 500 B.C. They divided plays into two kinds: tragedy and comedy. This division is still used today. The best known Ancient Greek writers of plays are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Some of their plays survived, and are still performed today.
These ancient Greek plays were performed outdoors in large amphitheatres, so that many people could see them. There were contests among the playwrights (people who write plays are called playwrights) and the winner would get a prize.
The Greeks had many brilliant ideas. They used mechanical devices like trap doors and the machina: a crane for winching gods on and off the stage (hence ‘Deus ex machina’). They had a Greek chorus that offered information to help the audience follow the performance. The chorus comments on themes, and shows how an audience might react to the drama. The players wore masks. Illustrations on vases show helmet-like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, plus a wig. The mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Therefore, onlookers did not think about the actor, but thought about the character.
Middle Ages[change | change source]
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church began to use theatre as a way of telling the stories from the Bible to people who did not know how to read. They wrote Mystery Plays, where each part of the Bible story would be a play put on by a different group of people. They wrote miracle plays which were about the lives of the saints. They wrote morality plays which taught the audiences how to live a good Christian life.
Commedia dell’arte plays[change | change source]
In the 1500s, groups of actors toured around Italy performing comic plays to entertain townspeople. These plays were called Commedia dell’arte, and different stories would be created around the same group of characters. Often the spoken lines would be made up by the actors for each performance.
Other kinds of plays called Neoclassical Dramas and Neoclassical Comedies were also popular in Italy and in France at this time. These plays were written to copy the style of the plays from Ancient Greece and Rome.
Elizabethan theatre[change | change source]
At the end of the sixteenth century (before 1600), the traveling actors began to perform in fixed theatre buildings. This was the period when William Shakespeare wrote. He lived from 1564 to 1616. At that time, in England, women were not allowed to perform, so male actors would play female characters.
His theatre was in London, England. It was called The Globe Theatre. It was an outdoor theatre and plays were performed in the daytime for large audiences. His plays were very popular and many are still performed today. Many people believe Shakespeare was one of the best playwrights (a writer of plays).
Plays including Shakespeare’s were banned during the Protectorate’. After that, many more were written and acted.
Plays from the 1900s[change | change source]
After World War II, playwrights in Europe and the United States began doing plays in a new style called «Theatre of the Absurd.» After seeing the horrors of war, these playwrights felt that all their old values had been destroyed. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Jean Genet wrote plays that are considered to be «Theatre of the Absurd.»
The «Theatre of the Absurd» plays have some of the same ideas that are found in the philosophy (a way of thinking) called existentialism. Existentialism is very different from many other philosophies. Most religions and philosopies say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose). The philosophy of existentialism is that human life does not have a meaning (or a purpose). When something has no meaning, it is «absurd». (absurd means means silly and meaningless.)
The plays written in this style make people think about questions like «what is it like to be a person in the world?» and «what does it mean for a person to be free?» They are often filled with sad emotions, such as worry, fear, and thoughts about death.
Theatre breaks[change | change source]
Theatre breaks are a form of short holiday, based around viewing a theatrical convention show. Theatre breaks tend to include a nights hotel accommodation included in the price.
References[change | change source]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Theatre.
- ↑ Brown, John Russell. 1997. What is theatre?: an introduction and exploration. Boston and Oxford: Focal P. ISBN 978-0-240-80232-9
- ↑ Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge guide to theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-43437-8
- ↑ Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. 1983. The Oxford companion to the theatre. 4th ed, Oxford: Oxford UP. ISBN 978-0-19-211546-1