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The development of the theater
Ancient Greek Theatre Architecture
British theatre history
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The Theater of Dionysus
The Theater of Dionysus was Europe's first theater, and stood immediately below the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. It was originally built in the late 5th century B.C. The theater was an outdoor auditorium in the shape of a great semicircle on the slope of the Acropolis, with rows of seats on which about eighteen thousand spectators could comfortably seat. The front rows consisted of marble chairs, and were the only seats in the theater that had a back support.
The priests of Dionysus and the chief magistrates of Athens reserved these rows.
Priests claimed 50 of the 67 front row seats, then came the officials, the guests of honor, then finally the ordinary citizens of Athens. Beyond the front row, stood a circular space called the orchestra where the Chorus would sing and dance, and in the center of which stood the alter of Dionysus. The orchestra level was around 3 meters higher than the shrine. Behind the orchestra, there lied a heavy rectangular foundation known as the stage on which the actors would perform their section of the play. The back of the stage had a building painted to look like the front of a temple or a palace. Here, the actors would retire when they were not needed on stage or would go to when they had to change their costumes. Above lay the deep blue sky, behind it was the Acropolis, and seen in the distance was the olive colored hills and lush green of the forests that surround. The theater was built as a result of the Athenian's religious practice in honor of the god, Dionysos, who personified both wine and fruitfulness. Long before the theater itself was built, an annual ceremonial festival was held for
Dionysus in the same spot. This ancient ceremony was performed by choruses of men who sang and danced in the god's honor. Spectators would gather in a circle to watch these dancers; that was the way that the theater took its circular shape. When the theater was built, the performers only sang and danced about the stories of Dionysus's life, then later the stories of other gods and heroes.
The stories were told in the form of a song, chanted at first by all who took place, then later by a chorus of about fifty performers. During the intervals of a song, the leader would recite part of the story himself. As time passed, these recitations became more and more important, as it eventually overtook the chorus. They were now presented by two or three people, while the chorus
The setup of the stage was very simple. It was the living room of a home in the early 1980’s. It looked like a normal household, and it had small things such as crumpled up pieces of paper lying around the wastebasket. It also had a couch, circular class table and a recliner in the living room. The dining room was to the left side of the stage and only had the dining table and surrounding chairs. There was a door in the back of the set where characters entered and exited through. Beside the door was a table and stool where Willum presumably worked on his blueprints for the hotel. The lighting design was great; it put you into the atmosphere of the
Times were hard for the settlors and resources were limited, so they relied upon their own resources to entertain. They would dance, sing, and worship to music with no accompaniment. The settlors made music and dance a major part of their lives along with worshipping.
idea, as they had to look down on the play. They used a thrust staging
The stage was in proscenium form so it allowed most audience members to have the same amount of viewing as others throughout the theater. Due to the theatre space being so small and intimate, it created the relevant atmosphere of everything on stage happening to be small.
“The altar in an open precinct preceded the temple as a place of worship and later remained an essential adjunct of the temple, being placed either inside it, or more commonly outside, facing the entrance. Generally it was ...
He relates how Irish storytellers would turn their backs to the audience, or speak from another room in order that the listeners would rely on their imaginations. These types of storytellers would not rely on gestures, or voice inflections, but instead chose to paint a mental picture for their audiences who created vivid imagery in their own minds. The story was paramount to the teller. Lindahl laments that current storytellers have become enamored with their own performances and become as important to the tale as the tale itself. The “quiet, shyer world of the lone, quiet voice figures too rarely in folkloric performance studies.” Lindahl compares the true märchen tellers to the quilters who are more intrigued in the stitches of their work, and not the beautiful patterns or to the skilled basket weavers who focus on the intended use of the basket and not the aesthetic beauty of the weaving patterns (McCarthy xix-xx). In today’s society, the figure of a great storyteller evokes an image of gestures, voice inflections, voice impersonations provided by a colorful character. Perhaps our sensory overload from high definition televisions, streaming video, IMAX theaters have dulled our appreciation for the story itself, which is created in our own imaginations by a teller with skilled
Song of Songs. Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Vol. V. XII vols. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
8. Waley, Arthur, and Joseph Roe. Allen. The Book of Songs. New York: Grove, 1996. Print.
Possibly one of the greatest testaments to the Greeks passion for their gods is the Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece. “. . . temple after temple, each more gorgeous and more perfect than the one before, rose all over the Greek main land, to reach a final climax in the Athenian Parthenon . . .” (Hamlin 124). Here Hamlin explains the greatness of what was achieved in Athens at the Acropolis and how nothing beyond that point could compare.
But By the far the most common and powerful song of the era was Pete Seeger’s adaption of the old folk song “We Shall Overcome” (LOC) The first refrain of which reads
The question “Why do we tell stories” does not have one simple answer as any individual may have a different response to the question based on their background but, this essay will attempt to form a cohesive answer to the question by responding to three statements, (1)“Some texts seem to be fighting for or against social change or political attitudes or traditions. Choose and discuss the fight for or against this change.”, (2)“Humans are the only animals who seek to understand themselves.The search of this understanding is a theme in many pieces of literature.”, (3) “Lord Acton once said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The use and abuse of power is a recurring theme. Discuss how this theme is developed.” ;
The scop’s purpose was to honor his noble patron or others who past and be able to sing them at the pride of the tribe depended upon a long genealogy of heroes. Additionally, the scop defined the moral values of his society by singing about heroes and about those who acted in non-heroic ways. His songs endorsed models of behavior. By example, he taught that certain actions were profitable to the group, and and criticized those who failed to perform according to the expectations of the group.
The tragedy was a large part of people's lives in ancient Greece. Tragedies became prominent long before Christ was born. A tragedy, or goat-song, usually were seen during festivals in ancient Greek times. Tragedies gradually increased in seriousness until they were given utmost importance. Greek tragedies began at a festival in honor of a god, there were three great tragic authors, and all tragedies include a tragic situation.
The Tragedy of Othello William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice, from the sixteenth century is an excellent example of Renaissance humanism. “A poet of unparalleled genius, Shakespeare emerged during the golden age of England under the rule of Elizabeth I.”(Fiero 3:98) He produced comedies, tragedies, romances and histories. According to Webster’s pocket dictionary, a tragedy is defined as a form of drama in which the protagonist comes to a disaster, as through a flaw in character, and in which the ending is usually marked by pity or sorrow. I would like to concentrate on the character Iago and the theme of deceit.
which he was a witness. He then heard a ballad sung by a minstrel on the public sq...