ARTS 9

4th Quarter LEARNING MODULE 1

WESTERN CLASSICAL PLAY

I- Learning Guide 1
II- Topic: WESTERN CLASSICAL PLAYS/ OPERA

III- Introduction:

Theater Arts of the Western countries produced and performed in different

periods and that has great influence from the ancient Greek and RomanTheater Arts.
Some of the famous playwrights and composers of the Western Theater Arts/ Opera
were Sophocles, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Farinelli, and Claudio
Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi.

Modern Theatrical plays and musicals are still influenced by their

predecessors. The development and evolution of Western Classicalplays/operas are
specifically discussed in this module. For better and effective understanding,
different activities will be performed in this module. Viewings of images are
encouraged to promote appreciation of the culture and traditions of Western
countries.

IV- Objectives:

● identifies selected theatrical forms from different art period;

● illustrate the evolution of the theatrical forms of each art period; and

● Identify the elements and principles of arts manifested in Western Classical

plays and operas;

● Define what makes some selected Western Classical plays and operas

visually unique ; and

● Design the visual elements and components of selected Western Classical

theater plays and opera.

● identify famous Filipino playwrights;

● Show the influences of Western Classical plays or opera on Philippine

theatrical performance in terms of form and content story.

VI- Curriculum Information:

Education Type K to 12
Grade Level Grade 9
Learning Area Arts
Lesson 1:

History Of The Theatrical Forms And Their Evolution

Lesson 2:
Content/Topic
Different Western Classical Plays And Operas

Lesson 3:

Famous Filipino Playwrights

1. how theatrical elements (sound, music, gesture,

movement, and costume) affect the creation and

Content
communication of meaning in a theater
Standard
play/performance incorporated with media

2. theater and performance as a synthesis of arts

Performance The Learner

Standard
1. create appropriate costumes, props, set accessories,

costumes improvised lighting, and another décor for

Philippine plays

2. create/improvise appropriate sound, music, gesture,

and movements for a chosen theatrical composition

 3. participate in an original performance

inspired by local Philippine stories,

myths, and events

● explains how an idea or theme is communicated in

a selected performance through the integration of

musical sounds, songs, dialogue, and dance

● analyzes examples of plays based on theatrical

MELCs
forms, and elements of art as applied to

performance.

● illustrates how the different elements are used to

communicate the meaning.

● A10EL- IVb-4;

● A10EL- IVa-2
Code
● A10EL- IVc-3
A. EXPLORE:

PRE-TEST:

VII- Lesson Proper:

Lesson 1: HISTORY OF THE THEATRICAL FORMS AND THEIR EVOLUTION

B. FIRM-UP
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, and to the ceremony due to
human desire and need for entertainment.

Theater means “place of seeing,” but it is more than the buildings where
performance takes place.
 ● To produce theater,
a. a playwright writes the scripts,
b. the director rehearses the performers,
c. the designer and technical crew produce props to create the
scenes, and
d. the actors and actresses perform on stage,
e. then it will only be a true theater act when the audience witnesses it.
A. GREEK THEATER
⮚ European theater began in Ancient
Greece.
⮚ It began around 700 BC with
festivals honoring their gods.
Dionysus (Di-on-i-sus), the god of
wine and fertility, has religious festivals called “The Cult of Dionysus” to
honor him.

The theater of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama:

1. Tragedy –
⮚ (a compound of two Greek words tragos or “goat” and “won” meaning
ode or song) was the most admired type of play.
⮚ It dealt with tragic events and have an unhappy ending specially one
concerning the downfall of the main
character.
⮚ Thespis was the first actor and introduced
the use of masks and was called the “Father
of Tragedy.”

2. Comedy
⮚ the plays were derived from imitation; there were
no traces of their origin.
⮚ Aristophanes wrote most of the comedy
plays.
 ⮚ Satyr – these plays contain comic elements to lighten the overall mood
or a serious play with a happy ending. This is a short, lighthearted
tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies.

The theater building was called theatron. It is a large, open-air structure constructed
on the sloping hills and consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the scene,
and the audience.

(Thespis, Athens, and The Origins of Greek Drama)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTeK9kvxyo

B. ROMAN THEATER
⮚ The theater of ancient Rome
started in the 3rd century BC.
⮚ It had varied and interesting art
forms such as
● festivals
● performances of street
theater,
● acrobatics,
● the staging of comedies of Plautus, and
● the high-verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.
⮚ The usual themes for Roman theater plays were chariots races, gladiators,
and public executions.
⮚ The Romans loved a good spectacle.
● They loved to watch combat and admired blood sports and
gladiator competitions.
● The more realistic the violence, the more pleased Roman
audiences.
● The Christians however opposed the barbaric themes of the
plays and closed down all theaters.
⮚ Comedy plays were popular too in the Roman Theater from 350 to 250 BC
and women were allowed to perform.
C. MEDIEVAL THEATER (500 CE – 1400)
⮚ During the Medieval Era, theater
performances were not allowed
throughout Europe. To keep the theater
alive, minstrels, though denounced by
the Church, performed in markets,
public places, and festivals. They traveled from one town to another as
puppeteers, jugglers, storytellers, dancers, singers, and other performers in
other theatrical acts. These minstrels were viewed as dangerous and pagan.

D. RENAISSANCE THEATER (1400-1600)

⮚ Renaissance theater arts were
characterized by a return of Classical
Greek Roman arts and culture.
⮚ Morality plays and University drama was
formed to recreate Athenian tragedy.
The famous actor and poet who emerged in this period
were William Shakespeare.
● He was an English poet, playwright, and actor and
was regarded as the greatest writer and dramatist in
the whole world.
● Shakespeare was often called England’s
National Poet and the “Bard of Avon.”

His works consist of about 38 plays. Some of these plays were well-loved:

● Romeo and Juliet

● Hamlet
● Midsummer Night’s Dream
● Cleopatra
● Julius Caesar
● Much Ado About Nothing.
For the first time, the ballet was performed during this period. Ballet is a formalized
form of dance that originated from Italian Renaissance courts.

E. BAROQUE THEATER (1600-1750)

⮚ The theater of the Baroque period is
marked by the use of technology in
current Broadway 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.
⮚ The theater was richly decorated, 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 opera.
⮚ The use of theatrical technologies in the Baroque period may be seen in
the “Vatel” (2000), “Farinelli” (1999), and in the different stage
productions of “Orpheus” by Claudio Monteverdi.
⮚ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCVkEK3HvFA

F. NEOCLASSICAL THEATER (1800-1900)

⮚ The Neoclassical period was a movement
where the styles of Roman and Greek
societies influenced the theater arts.
⮚ During this 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.
 Lesson 2: DIFFERENT WESTERN CLASSICAL PLAYS AND OPERA

1. OEDIPUS REX (GREEK)

⮚ Oedipus Rex, (Latin: “Oedipus the King”) Greek Oidipous
⮚ Tyrannos, play by Sophocles, performed sometime between 430 and 426
BCE.
⮚ https://youtu.be/9Blp4RNLiqI

SOPHOCLES

is an ancient Greek tragedian. He wrote 123

plays, but only seven have survived in a
complete form: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of
Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes,
and Oedipus at Colonus.

Theatrical Elements of Oedipus Rex Main

Characters:

● Oedipus – the king of Thebes, represented with a gold mask with

exaggerated deep empty eye sockets.
● Creon – brother-in-law of Oedipus, mad or angry facial expression,
with a crown.
● Eurydice – Creon’s wife
● Apollo – god or oracle of Delphi
● King Laius – Father of Oedipus
● Jocasta – wife of Laius and mother of Oedipus, the expression of her
mask depends on the scene of the play.
● Antigone and Ismene – the daughters of Oedipus
Genre: Tragedy

Mask : the use of mask acts to advance the universality of the themes and the
dramatic impact of the events and to keep the audience from being distracted by the
actual, physical attributes of the actors.

Gestures and Movements: Facial expression was of no importance to Greek actors

since they were always masked.

Music: Sophocles also used the chorus at the beginning of the play to help tell the
audience the given circumstances of the play. Choruses did a lot of lamenting of
terrible events.

Costumes: Men wore loose floor-length poncho with a pleated shoulder while
females wore draped robes.

Staging: The Parthenon’s façade has the design of Ionic order columns with cornice
and moldings on the top, elevated by 5 step-rises at the center, and a platform in
front near the audience.
2. ROMEO AND JULIET (RENAISSANCE)

⮚ written by William Shakespeare early in his

career about two young star-crossed lovers
whose deaths ultimately reconcile their
feuding families.

⮚ Hamlet is one of his most frequently

performed plays. Today, the title characters
are regarded as archetypal young lovers.

⮚ Romeo and Juliet belong to a tradition of

tragic romances stretching back to antiquity.

THEATRICAL ELEMENTS FOR ROMEO AND JULIET

Staging:

The stage was divided into three levels:

● the main stage area with doors at the rear and a curtained area at the
back for “discovery scenes”,
● the upper canopied area called “heaven” for balcony scenes, and
● the area under stage called “hell” which could be accessed through a
trap door in the stage.

There is no curtain in the front of the stage, which meant that the scenes had to flow
into each other, and “dead bodies” had to be dragged off. There are dressing rooms
located behind the stage.

Props: Props in this play may vary depending on the scene/act.

Characters:

Costumes: The costumes are based on the style and design of dresses worn during
the Renaissance period.
3. CARMEN (ROMANTIC PERIOD)

The opera Carmen is one of the world’s

most popular operas. It was first performed
at the Opera-Comique in Paris in France
on March 3, 1875.

Main Characters: -

Carmen (soprano) Frasquita (mezzo-soprano)

Don Jose (tenor) Mercedes (mezzo-soprano)

El Dancairo (baritone) Micaela (soprano)

El Remendado (tenor) Morales (bass)

Escamillo (baritone) Zuniga (bass)

Staging: The story is set in Seville, Spain, and the surrounding hills in 1820. The
opera, written in the genre of opera comique with musical numbers separated by
dialogue tells the story of the downfall of Don Jose, a naïve soldier who is seduced
by the charms of the flaming gypsy, Carmen. The opera is a fascinating drama of
love and jealousy, filled with famously alluring melodies and captivating dancing.
 LESSON 3: FAMOUS FILIPINO PLAYWRIGHTS

1. FRANCISCO BALAGTAS Y DE LA CRUZ

⮚ was born on April 2, 1788, in
Panginay, Bigaa, Bulacan, and died on
February 20, 1862, of pneumonia.

He was also known as Francisco

Baltazar.

⮚ His best-known work is the

Florante at Laura.
⮚ Balagtas learned to write poetry from
Jose de la 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.

2. SEVERINO R. REYES (A playwright)

⮚ “Father of the Tagalog Zarzuela”
⮚ The son of Rufino Reyes and Andrea Rivera.
⮚ Reyes was born in Sta. Cruz, Manila on
February 11, 1861.
⮚ He studied at San Juan de Letran College and
later at the University of Sto. Tomas, where he
studied philosophy.

3. DR. RICARDO G. ABAD

⮚ (A director) Born in Manila on August 10, 1946, of parents from Cavite and
Camiguin.
⮚ He graduated from the Ateneo de Manila, after
which he obtained a Fulbright grant to finish a
doctorate in sociology at Fordham University in
New York.
 ⮚ A full-time Faculty at Department of Sociology and Anthropology; Artistic
Director, Tanghalang Ateneo;
⮚ Metrobank Network Outstanding Teachers Pathways/ANI, Ateneo de
Manila University Role Players, Theater for Life Social Weather Stations.
⮚ He has been involved as an actor and director in over 120 productions
while are the same time doing sociological works as a teacher, researcher,
and editor.
⮚ He has also directed and acted for professional companies like Teatro
Pilipino and Tangahalang Pilipino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines,
and the Metropolitan Theater. Many of his theater productions were
classics of western drama but in terms of a Filipino and Asian sensibility,
like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

4. SALVADOR F. BERNAL

“Father of Theater Design in the Philippines”

Born in 1845 to a family that ran a Terno shop. He
was the first to develop theater design as a
profession and elevate it to an art form. He studied
at the Ateneo de Manila and at Northwestern
University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, practiced and
handled courses in the art and craft of theater
design. Taught briefly at Ateneo de Manila and
University of the Philippines. He had designed
more than 250 productions in ballet, theater, and
film.

DEEPEN:

TASK 1: VALUING

1. What life lessons could we get from theaters and opera?

2. What is the importance of the Philippines Theater?

 3. How can you show your appreciation for the works of the Filipino playwrights?

VIII- Evaluation:

TASK 2: QUIZ - LOGOS

TRANSFER:
WATCH AND LEARN!
DIRECTION: Watch the play Walang Sugat by Severino Reyes and Florante at

Laura of Francisco Balagtas through the link shown below. After watching, compare

and differentiate their works to western classical theater.

● Florante at Laura Link: #TulangEpiko https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=qmwU_PWSFHs

● Walang Sugat Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESBNfhqoRS8

1. Genre

2. Story Synopsis

3. Similarities to Western Classical Play

4. Differences to Western Classical Play

IX-References

Arts 9 Learner's Material. (2014). DepEd COpy.

Lacia, G. C., Hernandez, M. K., Gernalyn Andres-Solano, E., Fabella, M. G.,
Solis, R. V., & Callo, L. (2018). The 21st Century MAPEH IN ACTION 9.
Manila: Rex Bookstore(n.d.).