...Everyone loves Greek Tragedy, you're smiling right now just thinking about bringing back all the memories, and how much fun we had doing it last time. This should be easy for you. To understand the physics of a true tragic hero we must reveal the traits of one. -A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy -Hubris (fatal flaw) pride blinds theme -Hamartia - the flaw in a character which leads them to their downfall -Downfall -no excuses -the reversal/ change of fortune from good to bad -pity from the audience Now here's the fun part. The Laban Statements, these are sets of strong, deliberate movements used to carry out a sentence. In traditional theatre, masks would be used so the body movement emphasised the mood. Note that most of the movement would occur in the upper body, and that the tempo is very controlled. This is a list of movement. Write down and describe the emotion that might be implied under each one. Share with the class: Punch - direct - strong - sudden Slash - indirect - strong - sudden Push - direct - strong - sustained Wring - indirect - strong - sustained Dab - direct - light - sudden Flick - indirect - light - sudden Glide - direct - light - sustained Float - indirect - light - sustained Another part of Greek Tragedy is the voice, it is very lyrical and spoken with precise diction. Varied tone qualities are also used. The character could be describes as larger than life, and the language is clear and passionate...
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...play. The great philosopher Aristotle defines a tragic hero as a man of noble stature who is admired by society but flawed. The flaw in the hero is a key component to the play. It is often what makes or breaks the character. Many times the flaw in the character is what causes the turmoil. It is safe to say that every tragedy has a tragic hero and every tragic hero has a flaw. The imperfection in the character enables the audience to see eye to eye with the character. The audience is able to see that everybody has their imperfections. Just as our flaws can sometimes lead us into trouble, we can see how the protagonist has to face the same issues. Another key component that every tragedy should have is a catharsis. Catharsis comes from a Greek word meaning purification or cleansing. A catharsis is the emotional climax of the play. It can be said that this is the lesson that the audience can take away from the play. A catharsis is what the audience feels for the protagonist. It must bring out the emotions of the audience. Often times the...
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...I think too many times as a young reader we were taught to think that the main character or protagonist was the main force driving the story line or meaning in a story. We were always taught to make connections with the protagonist first and the other characters were just insignificant, being only used to give more emphasis on the protagonist. It now comes a time as adults to explore all aspects of all the characters and not just single one out. This is especially true when reading tragedies. In tragedies people are also so quick to think that the main character is the one that has suffered the most or is the “tragic hero”. The tragic play Ghosts is an excellent example of this premature thinking. Readers are constantly thinking that Mrs. Alving is living a tragedy, but in actuality the tragedy falls upon the two children Regina and Oswald. From the work of Richard Sewall’s “The Vision of Tragedy”, we can conclude that classifying Mrs. Alving as the tragic hero is inaccurate because of her actions in the story and how those actions affect others. As we soon discover, the life of Mrs. Alving is pretty rough. Her husband was a habitual cheater and was almost completely absent when the two had the responsibility to raise their son Oswald. Having nowhere else to turn, Mrs. Alving decided to try to seek refuge in the family pastor, Mr. Manders. Unfortunately, his solution was for her to continue to do her duties as a mother and wife to bring her husband back to her. ...
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...Greek Theatre The actual staging in which the actors and chorus perform on is very specific and similar in most ancient theaters in Greece. The orchestra (which translates to “dancing space”) is normally a circular level space positioned in front of the skene. This space is typically used by the chorus for dancing, singing and to interact with the actors whom are positioned by the skene. Early orchestras were made of heard earth patted down however during the classical period some orchestras got paved with marble and other grander materials. In the majority of orchestras positioned was a thymele, or altar. The spectators sat in the theatron (translated to “viewing place”), which is the terraced seating positioned on the sloping part of the hillside. The theatron usually wrapped round the majority of the orchestras giving the audience a better view of the performance. The audience would sit on cushions and boards until the fourth century when many Greek theatrons had marble seats. Behind the stage and the orchestra lies the skene (translated to tent) which is a large building used mostly for the actors to make exits and entrances. The skene also allowed actors to change into different costumes and masks without the audience seeing them. The skene also had a path up to the roof actors could take in order to portray the character of a God, the roof is called theologion (theos= Gods). The theatres were built where the sunlight would hit difectly and cast different shadoews since...
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...Definition and Beginnings of Theatre Arts Theatre or theater is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion. By this broad definition, theatre had existed since the dawn of man, as a result of the human tendency for storytelling. Since its inception, theatre has come to take on many forms, utilizing speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle, combining the other performing arts, often as well as the visual arts, into a single artistic form. The word theatre means "place for seeing". The first recorded theatrical event was a performance of the sacred plays of the myth of Osiris and Isis in 2500 BC in Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion. Elements and Principle of Theatre Arts There are six elements necessary for theatre: Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Music, and Spectacle. Script/Text, Scenario, Plan: This is the starting point of the theatrical performance. The element most often considered as the domain of the playwright in theatre. The playwright’s script is the text by which theatre is created. It can be simplistic, as in the 16thcentury, with the scenarios used by the acting troupes of the Commedia dell’ arte...
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...On Sunday, at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards, the Australian-American actress and film producer, Nicole Kidman, won the best actress award for her role as a DNA researcher in Anna Ziegler's award-winning play, "Photograph 51." The 48 year old Nicole Kidman, performing on the London stage for the first time since 1998, has taken over rave reviews for her portrayal of Rosalind Franklin, whose use of X-ray diffraction images aided the cause to the discovery of DNA's double helix structure. The Scottish actor James McAvoy went home with the best actor for a revival of the 1972 film "The Ruling Class" while Imelda Staunton (English actress of stage and screen) took the award for best performance in a musical for her portrayal of Momma Rose in a revival of the 1959 Broadway musical of Arthur Laurents, "Gypsy.'...
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...Stagecraft Essay Since ancient times, people have been enjoying the delights of theatre and play enacted and carried out on stage. The history on lighting for the theatre is very interesting and innovative. As technology has developed over the years, theatergoers have been witness to extraordinary progress as innovations took over and added unique contributions to stage craft, architecture and theatrical lighting. The history of stage lighting and lighting cues in theatre dates back to Greek and Roman times. Light has always been an important component for theatrical storytelling, and various lighting techniques have evolved over the centuries, Before the 20th century, many experimented with electric lights but it was until the turn of the century where electric lights were used exclusively in most theatres. During the 20th century, stage lighting design became an art in its own right, emerging from the obscurity of props, set designs, and costumes. Great efforts were to bring the subtlety and drama of effective light on the stage. The American playwright and producer David Belasco and his assistant Louis Hartman had developed many light instruments. Jean Rosenthal, another pioneer of American stage lighting, invented a system for recording a particular lighting sequence so that it could be faithfully repeated. Going into the 1940s and 1950s, stage lighting kept on evolving and improving. Many technical advances included special lenses, reflectors, projectors,...
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...Errand into the Maze was first performed on 28 February 1947 at New York Ziegfeld Theatre with Martha Graham as the main character, a female Theseus, and Mark Ryder as the Minotaur-like character. The title of this work comes from a poem by Ben Belitt, and the dance is based on a Greek myth of Ariadne and the Minotaur. Martha Graham took this Greek myth as a symbol of the conquering of fear, and the piece portrays the errand into the maze of the heart’s darkness in order to face and battle the ‘Creature of fear’. The piece starts off with the female protagonist fearing the Minotaur, the Creature of fear. The Creature of fear most of the time is moving or standing at a position where it shows how it has control over the protagonist. An example...
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...Section 1 Supporting Notes For our AS Level performance piece we chose to perform iconic playwright-director Steven Berkoff’s adaptation of the story of Agamemnon. Berkoff was born in Stepney, London in 1937 and studied drama in London until he moved to Paris to learn and train the art of mime and physical theatre at the École Jaques le Coq. As a result, many of Berkokff’s productions contain elements of mime and non-verbal acting; they are often very physical and use great exaggeration showing inspiration from the likes of Jaques le Coq. Previously, none of our ensemble had experienced acting that diverged from naturalism, so we wanted to attempt something completely new. This would allow us to learn the methods of our practitioner in their entirety; gaining a better understanding of them. Berkoff adopts European styles: mime, minimalism, characterisation etc. Berkoff says of mime- ‘It is a wonderful tool; it awakens the audiences imagination’. This is something myself and my group are aiming to do; to awaken the audiences imagination. We have found that in order to perform Agamemnon in the best and most suitable Berkovian style, we must use a fair amount of mime. We have practiced this by doing warm-ups that involve mime. For example, one warm-up that we do before each session is miming throwing a ball to one another. However, the ball size, weight, texture and the way it was thrown can change depending on the thrower. Therefore, if a large heavy metal ball was thrown then...
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...Max Reinhardt, a very influential Austrian director, could arguably be called the father of modern theatre. His innovations facilitate the direction and management of both plays and movies. Starting with a brief look at his early life and touching on the big moments in Reinhardt’s life, we will see that many of his beliefs and practices are still widely used today. Max Reinhardt, was born an Austrian Jew in 1873. Reinhardt was born under with the name Max Goldmann. Goldmann did not change his name until 1890, when he became an actor. After about 30 years of being involved with the theatrical world, Reinhardt and his colleagues created the Salzburg festival. By 1924 Reinhardt had made his way to America and he directed his first American production, The Miracle. In 1933, he is, “Forced by the Nazi government to give his theatres in Germany to ‘the German People”. In 1935 he opens his film adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Warner Brothers. 3 years later, Reinhardt’s property in Austria was confiscated but he did open his own studio called, the Max Reinhardt Workshop for Stage, Screen and Radio in Hollywood. Finally, 1943 Reinhardt suffered a stroke and passed away. Otto Brahm, the most notable German producer at the time, introduced a more impressionistic realism to Reinhardt. The impressionistic realism consisted, not only of acting with the voice and with gestures, but with the entire body. Similar to naturalism, everything should be as it was in normal, everyday...
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...sorrow, and revenge, is, by Aristotle’s standards, a tragedy. The play clearly includes each of the three unities and all of the six elements of theatre, as Aristotle discussed in “Poetics.” However, even though Medea can be accurately categorized as a Greek tragedy, the story lacks a tragic hero. Neither of the two main characters, Medea or Jason, possess all the traits that exist in a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, there are three unities of theatre that make plays more pleasurable for the audience. Euripides employs all three. Medea has unity of action, as it only contains one main plot: Medea’s revenge. This makes the story simple for the audience to follow. There is also unity of time, because all of the action involved in the plot occurs in one day. This action unfolds in only one location: Medea’s home. The latter exemplifies unity of place. For example, when Medea’s children bring Jason’s new bride the poison dress and diadem, the setting does not change to the home of Jason and his wife. Rather, a messenger arrives at Medea’s house to report what has happened to the princess. Euripides’ use of the three unities brings the plot together and makes it easy to understand. In addition to the three unities, Medea includes all six of Aristotle’s elements of theatre. The most important element of theatre is the plot. The plot of Medea is very straightforward, and occurs in a logical sequence. The thought of this plot can be expressed in a single...
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...Square”. (Wikipedia, April 2010) O’Neill spent the first seven years of his life touring with his father’s theatre company. He then spent the next seven years attending a Catholic school and then a private school. By the time he entered college he was introduced to an alternative lifestyle. He dropped out of Princeton in the first year and then enrolled at Harvard for one class of playwright. This was the end of his formal education. He married in 1909 and was divorced within two years. He then went to sea in 1910. At the onset of tuberculosis he spent six months in a sanitarium. It was at this point in his life that he decided to become a playwright and began writing plays. O’Neill spent the next five years working on one-act plays. In 1918 he married his second wife. In 1920 he wrote “Beyond the Horizon” which the audience loved and took notice. His play won a Pulitzer Prize. O’Neill’s poetic dialogue and insightful views into the lives of the characters held his work apart from the less sober playwrighting of the day. (American Masters, February 2004). His two plays, “The Emperor Jones” and “The Harry Ape” follows the lives of two men and their personal struggles with life. These two plays established O’Neill as a master of the art. O’Neill’s first real box office success was “Anna Christie” (1928). This play made O’Neill’s name known far and wide. (Theatre History, 2002). In 1935 he began to...
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...Fractum When I looked at the name of the play, I was very curious about what Oresteia Fractum is and how fun it will be. I was quite looking forward to watching it because it was my first time to attend a formal theater in my new American life, and I also watched the promo on YouTube before I went there. On March 11, which is Sunday, I watched John Wilk’s Oresteia Fractum at City College of San Francisco Diego Rivera Theatre, which is directed by John Wilk. It presents an original experimental adaptation of Aeschylus' Greek trilogy based on the end of the Trojan War and the murder of Agamemnon entitled Oresteia Fractum. The piece is a collaboration exploring the "tragic" mode in modern theatrical language, with original alternative music, choreography and multimedia elements. Eric Iverson and Tommi Ko are the musicians. Choreography by Christy Funsch, multimedia by Jesse Blanca. They have been busy studiously composing and recording a rock opera based on the Oresteia - an Ancient Greek play that's all about what happens to the Greek Royal Family after they win the Trojan War. It's got blood, murder, intrigue, sexual betrayal, matricide, incest, and more murder! They are really made a rock opera. This production is actually more of an experimental theatrical show, closer to a Musical, with song and choreographed dance, as well as video, shadow, and other old school special effects. The full final PARAE version of the recorded Rock Opera is still being finished...
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...Phil Theater Arts In many forms, theater was and still an effective medium to promote social awareness, as a means of entertainment and a liberal way to express one’s opinion. Most places in the Philippines have their own town fiestas flaunted with festivities and shows. During holy week, people stage the cenaculo- a theatrical presentation of the passion of Christ, and the moro-moro or comedia that relates to Christian and Muslim conflict. Some towns perform zarzuela, a Philippine version of Spanish light operetta, others present their poetic debate called duplo and karagatans. Another theatre form, the carillo, a shadow drama is usually shown after harvest. Cavite has Sanghiyang, Batangas has Subli and Laguna presents their Turumba and Pasyon. These traditional plays exemplify the union of folk religion and Catholicism. On the first Sunday of January, Marinduque present its Three Kings’ Pageant and during the Lenten season, the same town performs its famous Moriones Festival. In the streets of Baliwag, Bulacan and Kawit, Cavite, Panunuluyan is staged on Christmas eve- a re-enactment of Mary and Joseph’s struggling search for shelter for the birth of Christ. http://www.camperspoint.com/spip.php?article249 Philippines Dula: Musing on Philippine Theater and Drama “Scene 1, Act 1. Lights focus on center stage. Enter actor from corner left of the stage.” People involved in theater arts know this as typical stage lingo. Whether you are talking about Shakespeare, Shaw...
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...Ethics in Theatre Theatre is a form of communication that has been influencing the world for thousands of years. At its most basic form, theatre is story-telling. However, today’s modern society has pushed theatre to be bolder and bigger in order to stay above the waters. Much of this has come with the sacrifice of morality in order to have the most “shock factor”. This brings about the question, can theatre maintain Christian principles without hindering communication and the development of art, especially in a modern society? With a deep analysis on different aspects of ethics in theatre such as community, technology, duty, and propaganda it is very clear that in order to be true theatre, it must always chose art over morality. Although most theatres find it hard to follow Christian philosophy, they do not have to sacrifice the practice of being ethical in order to remain effective communicators. The idea behind ethics is developing an idea of what is “right” and what is “wrong” within a community and an individual. Ethics differ in different communities because they are based on the values of each community. This is why it is hard to have true Christian ethics in theatre. Because we were created by God, humans are called to be virtuous and tell the truth. By studying what is good, just and beautiful, one will become good, just and beautiful. Sometimes theatre focuses on themes that are far from what is just and good. Plato was worried that the idea of free imagination took...
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