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How Has Theatre Changed Over Time

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Throughout history, theatre has changed and developed in various ways. There are cases of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance theatres. The Renaissance brought one of the most famous theatres, The Globe Theatre, and one of the biggest contributors to theatre, William Shakespeare. The performing art started out as celebrations and developed into everyday entertainment, resulting to theatr today. Theatre has been happening in the early stages of human life. Ancient Greece theatre was the first known theatre in Europe was “a religious festival to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility” (Knowitall 2018). The first known actor was a poet by the name of Thespis, he engaged “in a dialogue with the chorus” (History World). Due to this, actors …show more content…

The Renaissance is where theatre bloomed. William Shakespeare was born in 1654, in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Shakespeare was a poet and playwright that changed the course of theatre. Queen Elizabeth strongly supported the arts and enjoyed watching them. During this time the Globe theatre was built, “It was one of four major theatres in the area, along with the Swan, the Rose, and the Hope” (Shakespeare Resource Center 2017). The theatre was shaped in a circular format with and no roof, so that the performances would be provided with lighting from the sun, “The open-air, polygonal amphitheater rose three stories high with a diameter of approximately 100 feet, holding a seating capacity of up to 3,000 spectator” (The Shakespeare Resource Center 2017). Its circular shape allowed for multiple viewers and all around seating. The higher covered sections provided seats for the nobility and the pit was where the poor could view the show with standing room only. Everyone wanted to see one Shakespear’s brilliant plays, and with the arrangement of seat and standing prices, most could. In today's theatre there are similar aspects, but now there is the development of stage lights and the seats closer to the stage are priced higher than the seats

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The set was a simple layout of a monitor screen placed as a centerpiece of the stage that functions both as lighting and a title billboard to identify the location. The stage revolves around one chair and a table that is used for various purposes in different time and setting. Accordingly, this is so that it reflects the tension in the political realm of the Australian society in the eighties, where power corrupts and the working class are undermined, focusing more on the dialogue of conflicting ideology rather than in the detail of the props. Additionally, an element of proxemics was also evident in the unique design of the stage in which it was set up as a thrust stage, with a three-sided playing arena, along with the exit wing being the down right center of the stage. The stage provided the actors to have several scenes that are mainly in the downstage, which increased proximity with the audience.

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So this was not my first time at the University’s theater. I arrived early in hopes of finding a good seat, and saw a number of tables set up across the stage. In addition

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1. What was the relationship between the Catholic Church and theatre during the Middle Ages? The relationship during the Catholic Church and theatre during the Middle Ages was surprisingly good despite its rocky past because the church was "the center of artistic and educational activities" (Wilson 106). One thing that helped to bridge the gap between the church and theatre was the development of liturgical theatre, which developed due to the strong theatrical elements located in Roman Catholic rituals. Theatrical elements were found in "the mass and the hours, the vestments worn by the clergy, the church space, the musical accompaniment, and the annual symbolic events (such as the burial of the cross on Good Friday

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The seating wrapped around the stage for the audience to be able to see the play from where ever they were seated. I sat in the upper orchestra and loved the seating. In these seats you were up looking slightly down to the stage and I was

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These theaters consisted of schools, churches, factories, and closed off streets (Ross) . This may have been one influence to the off-off-broadway theatre movement, later in the 1960’s. They did not produce shows in every state because many lacked the proper theatre professionals (Flanagan). However, 40 states did have shows running and before this many people did not have access to such a luxury. Theatre was very expensive in the 1930’s.

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Globe Theatres and Modern Theaters both show some way of entertainment, whether it be a play or movie. Although, a globe theatre is way bigger than a modern, they both can hold a good amount of people. The two theatres also had professional actors that would perform. There

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The set of the play is a home built of wire. This is very intelligent and effective. This allows all actors to be seen at all times by all spectators. This avoids blocking, and allows characters to be in the same scene, even while they are not in the same room.

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Composers such as Shakespeare began to rise in popularity with the support of the Queen. As Shakespeare began to produce more plays the Queen became the largest supporter, as she attended the first performance of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. (Elizabeth l (1558-1603). The queen understood the importance of the arts, and culture in her country. With the queen's support and more people in attendance, professional theaters were built around England to help showcase the plays.

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At the early Greek festivals, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same person. It was the beginning of modern western theatre, and some ancient Greek plays are still performed today. They invented the genres of tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC) and satyr plays. The city-state of Athens was a great cultural, political and military power during this period. 2.

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Some of the viewers, usually known as the groundings, these groundings would fight, hiss, and throw oranges at the performers during the play. In addition, the auspicious actors were all male creating a disadvantage when playing as female role, since they are forced to talk in a less deeper voice. Also, the Globe's structure did not allow many scenarios to happen. A reason why the Globe’s structure did not allow for scenery changes is because there were no curtain drops, due to the lack of props and changes, which forced the cast to heavily rely on costumes. Thus, during the Elizabethan age actors were faced with many disadvantages, however, the filial actors were able to perform the

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“The theatre, for all its artifices, depicts life in a sense more truly than history, because the medium has a kindred movement to that of real life, though an artificial setting and form.” George Santayana Drama is one of the genres of theatre where comedy, tragedy or actions may be other genres. While drama refers to the written texts, prose or verses composition, which become theatre only when it is performed on the stage with actors performing the role of characters in the text in front of the audience i.e. it is abstract and subjective, theatre is a live performance that meant to be seen, it is physical and concrete. The renaissance period was considered the rebirth of several inspirational

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The Greeks engineered their amphitheaters to have impeccable sound. As a result, the audience will be able to hear every last one of the actors without even the slightest amount of strain, no matter which seat they're. All senses will be tuned in to the production at the perfectly replicated Greek amphitheater.

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“William Shakespeare’s Impact on Theater” says that “Theater, in particular, has experienced many changes due to his influence,” and without any major influence like Shakespeare to guide the changes of theater, it would be extremely different (Octane 1). Shakespeare introduced many new elements to theater because of how his writing was unique in his time period. Despite this, his writing appealed to many different audiences. For instance, Octane says that “The way in which Shakespeare’s plots move forward has helped define modern play-writing. Similarly, Shakespeare’s complex characterizations have brought forth a new type of storytelling in which characters’ choices drive plots forward” and “His plays were often imbued with universal truths of human existence, rather than acting as mirrors of the privileged life.

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Ancient Greek theatre has influenced modern-day theatre in the way the theatres are built, as well as the stories and how they are told and the categories they can be put in. One influence that ancient Greek theatre had on modern-day theatre is the performance spaces themselves. The amphitheaters of ancient Greece had circular seating that rose as it moved away from the stage area and had three specific areas the skene (stage), the orchestra, and the audience (Thorburn). Similarly, our modern-day theatres typically have a semicircular seating arrangement that rises as it goes backward around the stage with some theatres having orchestral pits in front of the stage.

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As the procession progressed toward the temple of Dionysian, Athenian citizens would dance and play tambourines, while others were much more relaxed, displaying their dignity and wearing very lavish robes. The festival began with dithyrambs, or a songs sung by a large chorus of usually 50 men. When these festivals took place woman were not able to participate in the acting of drama in Athens, the men feared the woman would think they are equal to men, which was not the case in ancient Athens. The remainder of the festival was dedicated to competition in which five new plays were performed and judges gave prizes to the best authors and actors, much like actors authors, and directors are awarded

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