MODULE IN ART

History of the Theatrical Forms and Their Evolution

 Theater began from myth, ritual and ceremony. Early society perceived
connections between actions performed by groups of people or leaders to a
certain society and these actions moved from habit, to tradition, to ritual, to
ceremony due to human desire and need for entertainment. The repeated
rehearsals, performances and creation of different actions broke the ground
for theater.

Theatrical forms of the different art periods

Theater means place of seeing, but it is more than the buildings where
performances take place. To produce a theatrical play,
 a playwright writes the scripts,
 the director rehearses the performers,
 the designer and technical crew produce props to create the scenes , and
 actors and actresses perform on stage.
Then it will only be a true theater act when an audience witnesses it.

Ancient Theater
700 B.C.E.-410 C.E. (Greek and Roman Theater)

Greek Theater
 European theater began in Ancient Greece.
 It began around 700 B.C. with festivals honoring their many gods such
as, Dionysus (Di-on-i-sus)
 the god of wine and fertility.
 The Cult of Dionysus
 Also called the religious festival.
 The city-state of Athens was the center of a significant cultural,
political, and military power during this period and where the festivals
and competitions were usually performed.

 Three well-known Greek tragedy playwrights

 Sophocles
 Euripides
 Aeschylus.

 Ancient Greek types of drama: (Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr play)

 Tragedy
o a compound of two Greek words, “tragos” or "goat" and “ᾠδή”
(ode) meaning “song”
– referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before
performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.
 In Greece, tragedy was the most admired type of play. It
o
dealt with tragic events and has an unhappy ending, especially
one concerning the downfall of the main character.
o Thespis
– was the first actor and introduced the use of masks
and was called the "Father of Tragedy”.
 Comedy
o Comedy plays were derived from imitation; there were no
traces of their origin.
o Aristophanes
- wrote most of the comedy plays.
o Lysistrata and Cyclops
– The only play that survived out of the 11 plays

Lysistrata
– A humorous tale about a strong woman who led a
female coalition to end war in Greece
Cyclops
– An adventure comedy by Euripides.
 Satyr play
o Contain comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a
serious play with a happy ending.
o The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed
after each trilogy of the tragedies.
o It is an ancient Greek form of tragic comedy.
o It featured half-man / half-goat characters known as Satyrs.
– They were awful, ridiculous, and usually drunk.
 The Satyr characters lusted after everyone on stage, and they
delivered the most humorous lines, often at the expense of
others.

Roman Theater
 Started in the 3rd century BC. It had varied and interesting art forms, like
festival performances of street theatre, acrobatics, the staging of comedies
of Plautus, and the high-verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.

 Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization

(historical spread of ancient Greek culture) of Roman culture in the 3rd
century BC had an intense and energizing effect on Roman theatre and
encouraged the development of Latin literature.

 By the mid-4th century AD, 102 out of 176 ludi publici (public games) being
dedicated to theatre, besides a considerably lower number of gladiator and
chariot racing events. Greek theatres had a great influence on the Roman’s
theater too.
  Comedy plays were popular too in the Roman Theater from 350 to 250 B.C.E.
and women were allowed to perform on stage.

Medieval Theater 500 C.E.-1400

 During the Medieval era, theater performances were not allowed
throughout Europe.
 Minstrels
– Theater performer that kept the theater alive.
– Though denounced by the Church, performed in markets, public places
and festivals.
– Travelled from one town to another as puppeteers, jugglers, story
tellers, dancers, singers, and other theatrical acts.
– These minstrels were viewed as dangerous and pagan.

 Churches in Europe started staging their own theater performances during

Easter Sundays with Biblical stories and events.
 Eventually, some plays were brought outside the church due to their
portrayal of the devil and hell. An example of this kind of play is the ―
Mystére d ‟Adam” or "The Mystery of Adam.
– The story revolves on Adam and Eve and ends with the devil
capturing and bringing them to hell.

 Over the centuries, the plays revolved around Biblical themes from the Story
of the Creation to the Last Judgment.

Renaissance Theater: 1400-1600

 Renaissance theater arts were characterized by a return of Classical
Greek and Roman arts and culture. In the Middle Ages, mystery plays
formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe
during the Renaissance period.
 Morality plays (in which the protagonist was met by personifications of
various moral attributes who try to choose a Godly life over the evil) and the
University drama were formed to recreate Athenian tragedy.
 Public theatres were developed like, the Commedia dell'arte (Italian
comedy and a humorous theatrical presentation performed by professional
players who traveled in troupes) and the elaborate masques (a dramatic
entertainment consisting of pantomime, dancing, dialogue, and song and
sometimes players wore masks) that were usually presented in court.

 William Shakespeare
 The famous actor and poet who emerged in this period
 An English poet, playwright and actor and regarded as the greatest
writer and dramatist in the whole world.
  His works consist of about 38 plays.
 Some of these plays were well-loved
1. Romeo and Juliet
2. Hamlet
3. Midsummer Night’s Dream
4. Cleopatra
5. Julius Caesar
6. Much Ado about Nothing

 Comedies were common, too, that dealt with life in London after the fashion
of Roman New Comedy.
 Some of comedy plays were
―The Shoemaker's Holiday by Thomas Dekker
―A Chaste Maid in Cheapside by Thomas Middleton

 For the first time, ballet was performed in public during this period.
 Ballet
 Is a formalized form of dance which originated from the Italian
Renaissance courts.
 It developed and flourished from Italy to France with the help of
Catherine de' Medici, (Queen of France).
 A true form of royal entertainment, 'Ballet des Polonais' was
commissioned by Catherine de' Medici to honor the Polish
Ambassadors who visited Paris for the enthronement of King Henry in
Poland.

Baroque Theater 1600-1750

 The theater of the Baroque period is marked by the use of technology in
current Broadways or commercial plays.
 The theater crew uses machines for special effects and scene changes which
may be changed in a matter of seconds with the use of ropes and pulleys.
This technology affected the content of the performed pieces, practicing at its
best the Deus ex Machina (a Latin word meaning "god from the machine”)
solution.

 Where the character gods were finally able to come down from the heavens
and rescue the hero in dangerous situations.

 As a result, the theater was richly decorated, and the multiplicity of plot turns
and a variety of situations characteristic of Mannerism (a variety of
approaches or intellectual sophistication as well as using artificial qualities of
the play) were succeeded by the opera.

 The use of theatrical technologies in the Baroque period may be seen in the
films like Vatel (2000), Farinelli (1999) and in the different stage
productions of “Orpheus” by Claudio Monteverdi.
Neoclassical Theater 1800-1900
 The Neoclassical period was a movement where the styles of Roman and
Greek societies influenced the theater arts.
 During the Neoclassical period, the theater was characterized by its
grandiosity. Costumes and sceneries were highly elaborate.
 The main concepts of the plays were to entertain and to teach lessons.
 Stages were restyled with dramatic arches to highlight the scenes.
 Lighting and sound effects intensified the mood and message of each
scene, enhancing the dramatic experience.
 The idea of changing scenery and backdrops become more noticeable,
particularly with the invention of pulley systems that allowed parts to move
more quickly across the stage.

 The concept of decorum (meaning right and proper audience behavior) was
applied in this period which means classical concepts and appropriate social
behavior must be observed.

 This period officially established just two types of plays, tragedy and
comedy. They never mix these two together. This restriction led to the use of
the now well-known pair of happy and sad masks that symbolize the
theatrical arts.
 Tragedies portrayed the complex and fateful lives of the upper classes and
royals, while comedies, which were either public discourse or comedies of
manners, tended to focus on the lower ranks of society, Observance to these
genres was critical to a play's success.

Romantic Theater 1800-2000

Romantic Playwrights:
 During Romantic period, melodrama and ―opera became the most popular
theatrical forms.
 Melodrama
 Originated from the French word “melodrame”, which is
derived from Greek ―melos”, music, and French
drame”, which is derived from Greek ―dran” to perform.
 Melodrama can be also be described as a dramatic
work that puts characters in a lot of danger in order to
appeal to the emotions and in which orchestral music or
song was used to accompany the action.
 Opera
 An art form in which libretto or called the singers and
musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and
musical score.
 Important elements of the theater
1. Acting
2. Scenery
3. Costumes
 4. Dance

 It is usually performed in an opera house, accompanied

by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

 Victor Marie Hugo

 Considered as one of the greatest and best known French writers.
 He was a poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic Movement.
 Hugo's literary fame comes from his poetry, novels and his dramatic
achievements.

 Known Playwrights in Romantic Period

1. Charles Nodier
2. George Sand
3. Heinrich von Kleist
4. Ludwig Uhland and many more.

FAMOUS FILIPINO PLAYWRIGHTS

Francisco Balagtas y de la Cruz

 Also known as Francisco Baltazar.
 His best known work is the Florante at Laura.
 Francisco Balagtas was the youngest of the four children of Juan Balagtas, a
blacksmith, and Juana de la Cruz.

 Balagtas learned to write poetry from José dela Cruz (Huseng Sisiw), one
of the most famous poets of Tondo.
 It was de la Cruz himself who personally challenged Balagtas to improve his
writing.

 In 1835, Balagtas moved to Pandacan, where he met María Asunción

Rivera, who served as the muse for his future works. She is referenced in
Florante at Laura as 'Celia' and 'Mer'.
 Balagtas published Florante at Laura upon his release in 1838.

 He moved to Balanga, Bataan in 1840 where he served as the assistant to

the Justice of the Peace and later, in 1856, as the Major Lieutenant.

Severino R. Reyes
 "Father of the Tagalog Zarzuela"
 He studied at San Juan de Letran College and later at the University of Sto.
Tomas, where he studied philosophy.
 A Filipino writer, dramatist, and playwright, he was highly acclaimed as
one of the giants of Tagalog literature.
 In 1902, Reyes founded and directed the Grand Compania de Zarzuela
Tagala.
 On June 14, 1902, the company staged his play Walang Sugat (No
Wounds),
 A drama set against the historical events in Bulacan during the
Philippine revolution.
 Severino Reyes' masterpiece, Walang Sugat broadly
underscores the injustice of Spanish rule even as it dances
around the cruel fate of the young lovers Tenyong and Julia
with humor and song.
 Set in the final leg of the Philippine Revolution, Tenyong is
forced to leave behind his childhood sweetheart Julia to join the
Katipunan. Meanwhile, Julia's mother pressures her into
marrying the wealthy Miguel instead. With no word from
Tenyong as the battle prolongs, Julia gives in, but her wedding is
interrupted by the fatally wounded Tenyong. He mentions his
dying wish to Julia, and the play features an "unexpected twist"
that shows how Tenyong was able to outwit the persons
separating him from his beloved Julia.