Mackenzi Adams
Theatre Appreciation
Quiz 1

Five ingredients of drama are: plots, characters, settings, dialogue, and themes. Plots as defined by the book is “ a term for the action of the drama.” Plot is made up of action, exposition, suspense, climax, rising and falling action, conflicts, and more. Characters are the actors that imitate specific character traits or personalities. Setting is the time in which the drama is assumed to take place, costumes, backdrops, and props all help to place the setting of a drama. Dialogue is the way in which actors/ characters speak and what they say. Theme is the dramas message or central concerns that are faced throughout the drama. The Greek word for “imagination.” Aristotle used the term to define the role of art as an imitation of an action. Two main purposes of greek drama were to celebrate and interpret the relationships between the people and the Gods, and also to create a strong bond between the community. Theatron was “the seeing place,” it was between the two entrances of the chorus, or the parados, it was in the middle of the theatre. Orchestra was “where the action occurs,” this is where the play takes place, it is located in front of the theatron and the parados and it holds the thymele. The thymele is the altar of Dionysus, it is located within the orchestra. The skene is the dressing room, it is located behind the orchestra, the thymele, and the proskerion. The proskerion is the backdrop or scenery. The parados is the two entrances for the chorus. Five main types of stages are: Theatre in the round - this type of theatre is surrounded my an audience from all angles and sides. Requires no stage curtains and little scenery or props. This can be chalenging for actors and directors to act to all members of the audience and getting all of the audinece involved in the action. Thrust stage – extends into the audience on 3 sides. This is also challenging to act to in terms o not having your back face one side of the audience and getting them all involved int the action happening on the stage. Proscenium stage – The stage is a box with the 4th wall missing, the wall of the audiences side, and is usually raised somewhat above the audience. There is usually an arch or frame in the front of the stage. Arena Theatre (Amphitheater) – was the style of the early greeks, it was shaped like a semicircle and went up by rows. Apron Stage – was surrounded by the audience on 3 sides, much like the globe theatre, was raised and there were different levels of seating depending on social class, also enabling the use of heaven and hell on the stage. Satire is the irony of sarcasm, ridicule, or the like in exposing, denouncing or deriding vice, folly. A literary verse in prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn. A manner of treating subject matter that presents a careful description of everyday life, usually of the lower or middle class. Farce is more like slap stick, for example The Three Stooges, while comedy is a much larger category in which farce could fall under. While now of days we think of comedy as the movie The Hangover, we can see a great difference in the two types of comedy, verbal and physical comedy play different roles in comedy. Aristotle said in order to have a classic tragedy these things must happen: The tragic hero must be of royal or noble blood, the tragic hero must be imperfect, the punishment the tragic hero receives is usually much harsher than they deserve, the tragic hero's loss leads them to some sort of gain in awareness, self-knowledge, or learning, and to cleanse viewers of unhealthy emotions. Oedipus is royal by birth, thus blood, he is simple unaware of this which is how the entire story has meaning, and is noble in that he solves the riddle of the sphinx and saves the people. He is imperfect in the fact that he kills his father and marries his mother and has 4 children with her, also he becomes hubris in thinking he alone can solve any problem the people have and by promising he will, unaware that he himself is the problem. His harsh punishment that is undeserved is that of knowledge he becomes aware of everything he has done, killing his father and marrying his mother, he learns this after he leaves to save the people and becomes blind by the loss of his eyes which irionically is when he can “see” what he has done.