THEATER

MAGCULANG, JESSICA O.
BSCE – 1B

Historical Aspect of Art

Focus of report:
 Overview of history/timeline
 How events impact on the art evolution
 3. Notable Artists and their Artworks
 Relevance of the Art in specific era from their time up to the current time

THEATER
A collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually
actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event
before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may
communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of
gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. It is the oldest form of drama,
though live theatre has now been joined by modern recorded forms.
Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are
used to enhance the physicality, presence, and immediacy of the experience.
Places, normally buildings, where performances regularly take place are also
called "theatres" (or "theaters"), as derived from the Ancient Greek
(théatron, "a place for viewing").

THEATER HISTORY TIMELINE AND ITS NOTABLE ARTISTS AND

SIGNIFICANT PLAYS
DATES/PERIOD KEY STYLES

600BC – 600AD Greek Theatre

CLASSICAL Greek theatre, most developed in Athens, is the root of the
Western tradition; theatre is a word of Greek origin.[2] It was
part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in
classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals,
politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry,
weddings, funerals, and symposia.
Development of the classical genres of Comedy and Tragedy.
 Greek Tragedies were often based on explorations of conflict
between the protagonist and the antagonist. Masks were used
for characters. The Greeks also developed Satyr Plays + more
informal, often crude, with phallic imagery. The plays satirized
or were parodies of myths, legends, historical figures &
tragedies. They combined songs, dances & sketches and laid
the basis for the later development of Burlesque & Farce.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Aeschylus The Oresteia

(c. 525 - c. 456 BCE)
One of the great writers of
Greek Tragedy in 5th century
BCE Classical Athens. Known as
'the father of tragedy'.
Trilogy of tragic dramas by the
ancient Greek dramatist
Aeschylus, first performed in 458
BCE. It is his last work and the
only complete trilogy of Greek
dramas that has survived. It is
about a tragedy of inescapable
killing within one family, such
that each generation must avenge
it in kind.

Roman Theatre
The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art
form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre,
nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's
broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style,
verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a
native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman
culture in the 3rd century BC had a profound and energizing
effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of
Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. Particularly
influenced by the Satyr plays. The Romans developed new
forms of theatre including Mime, Farce, and Spectacles.
 Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Homer The Odyssey

(born c. 8th century BC)
A Greek poet who is credited
as the author of the Iliad and the
Odyssey, two epic poems that are
foundational works of ancient
Greek literature. Homer is
considered one of the most
revered and influential authors in
history.
One of two major ancient
Greek epic poems attributed to
Homer. It is one of the oldest
extant works of literature still
widely read by modern audiences.
It is a Greek epic poem that tells
of the return journey of Odysseus
to the island of Ithaca.

600BC–1500AD Liturgical Drama

MEDIEVAL Certain parts of the Catholic mass were enacted in church,
particularly in the Easter liturgy. These enactments were
developed in the monasteries and later spread to other
churches. The plays were performed by the community. Three
principal forms of drama developed from this:

Mystery Plays
o Based on episodes from the Bible.

Miracle Plays
o Based on the lives of saints & martyrs

Morality Plays
o In which virtues like goodness & truth and vices like greed &
sloth became characters in simple good triumphs over evil
stories. These became increasingly political &appealed to the
socially oppressed peasant class.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:
 Anonymous/Unknown

The Summoning of Everyman

Usually referred to simply as

Everyman, is a late 15th-century
morality play. Everyman uses
allegorical characters to examine
the question of Christian salvation
and what Man must do to attain it.

1500BC-1650AD Revenge Tragedy

RENAISSANCE Plots involved murder, death, revenge. Plays often included
nightmare visions of ghosts Complicated subplots. Unrequited
or unacceptable love. Gruesome actions. Sword fights. Poisons
and potions. Madness.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

William Shakespeare Titus Andronicus

(bapt. 26 April 1564 – 23 April
1616)
An English playwright, poet,
and actor. He is regarded as the
greatest writer in the English
language and the world's pre-
Titus Andronicus is the earliest
tragedy and the earliest Roman
play attributed to Shakespeare.
A summary of Shakespeare's
Titus Andronicus - his most
bloody revenge tragedy.
eminent dramatist. He is often
called England's national poet The Roman general Titus
and the "Bard of Avon" (or Andronicus returns from war with
simply "the Bard"). four prisoners who vow to take
revenge against him. They rape
and mutilate Titus' daughter and
have his sons killed and banished.
Titus kills two of them and cooks
them into a pie, which he serves
to their mother before killing her
too. The Roman emperor kills
Titus, and Titus' last remaining
son kills the emperor and takes
his place.

Elizabethan & Jacobean Comedy

At the beginning of the 16th century many plays were based
upon religious themes. These were called ‘morality plays’ and
showed good and bad conduct. Others, called ‘miracle plays’
showed scenes from the Bible. The main exception to this
were the plays put on by wandering groups of actors, known as
‘strolling players. The plays put on by these groups were often
far from religious and the authorities tried to ban them. The
themes of plays changed during Elizabeth’s reign and English
playwrights began to write comedies and tragedies. By the end
of her reign playwrights such as Marlowe, Johnson and
Shakespeare were writing the plays for which they are now
famous.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Benjamin Jonson Volpone

(c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August
1637) Italian for "sly fox") is a
comedy play by English
 Was an English playwright
and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted
a lasting influence upon English
poetry and stage comedy. He
popularized the comedy of
humors.
playwright Ben Jonson first
produced in 1605–1606, drawing
on elements of city comedy and
beast fable. A merciless satire of
greed and lust, it remains Jonson's
most-performed play, and it is
ranked among the finest Jacobean
era comedies.

Commedia Dell'Arte
Began in 16th Italy. Used caricature half-masks for middle-
class and servant characters. Hero and Heroine were
unmasked. Stock Characters were placed in stock situations
(scenarios). Ensemble playing allowed for free improvisation
around the roles & situations. Depicted clashes between
master’s & Servants. Used physical humor known as Slapstick
or Lazzi as well as acrobatic & juggling skills to amuse the
audience. Known as Street Theatre.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni A Servant to Two Masters

(25 February 1707 – 6 February
1793)
Was an Italian playwright and
librettist from the Republic of
Venice. His works include some
of Italy's most famous and best-
loved plays. Audiences have
admired the plays of Goldoni for
their ingenious mix of wit and
honesty. His plays offered his
contemporaries images of
themselves, often dramatizing the
lives, values, and conflicts of the
Goldoni skillfully adapted the
comedia dell'arte pattern to his
own very funny plots, and the
most famous of the resulting
plays is 'The Servant of Two
Masters'. The story concerns the
terrible complications wrought by
the servant Traffaldino when he
gets himself jobs with two
different people at the same time.
 emerging middle classes.

1650BC-1700AD Comedy of Manners

RESTORATION Examined rules of the society of the time from a satirical
standpoint. Portrayed and commented upon the affectations of
the upper classes. Thrived in time of material prosperity and
moral laxity. Uses a heightened form of language. Courtship
and Sexual attraction were an underlying theme. Plots were
concerned with scandals and illicit love affairs. Women were
allowed on stage for the first time. This became an excuse for
raunchy and titlating drama based on the manners of the court
and featured licentiousness, adultery and cuckoldry. In more
recent years. Oscar Wilde & Noel Coward developed this into
an intellectual form known as High Comedy.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Molière The Imaginary Invalid

(baptized January 15, 1622 —
died February 17, 1673) Synopsis In the outrageously
funny masterpiece The Imaginary
Molière, original name Jean- Invalid by Molière, a
Baptiste Poquelin, French actor hypochondriac, victimized by
and playwright, the greatest of all pompous physicians, tests the
writers of French comedy. loyalty of a loving daughter and
discovers the contempt of his
scheming and greedy second
wife. It is a three-act comédie-
ballet by the French playwright
Molière with dance sequences
and musical interludes.

1700AD-1800BC Burlesque / Ballad Opera

BAROQUE Uses caricature and distortion almost to a grotesque extent to
 mock society, particularly respected society figures. First used
in connection with Italian Opera in the C16th. Based on puns
and humor of low wit. Music used as parody; Ballad-operas
were a popular new drama which appealed to all classes. They
parodied / satirized the Italian operas which were popular at
the time. They mixed popular songs and melodies together
with action-orientated plots which often poked fun at the
government & the establishment.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Works:

John Gay The Beggar’s Opera

(30 June 1685 – 4 December 1732)
An English poet and dramatist
and member of the Scriblerus
Club.[2] He is best remembered
for The Beggar's Opera (1728), a
ballad opera.
A ballad opera in three acts by
John Gay, performed at Lincoln’s
Inn Fields Theatre, London, in
1728 and published in the same
year. The work combines comedy
and political satire in prose
interspersed with songs set to
contemporary and traditional
English, Irish, Scottish, and
French tunes. In it, Gay portrays
the lives of a group of thieves and
prostitutes in 18th-century
London.

1800BC-1850AD Melodrama
ROMANTICISM Most popular form of theatre for the majority of the C19th.
Light-hearted entertainment as a means of escapism, Plays
revolved around extremes of good & bad: characters were
either heroes or villains. Dealt with sensationalist stories.
Gruesome crimes were turned into theatre. Fast paced scenes
with plenty of action. Used cliff-hanger curtain scenes to
heighten the audience's emotional response. Lack of subtlety
in acting style. Large gestures and grand voices. Plays were
 invariably quite short & presented as part of an evening
interspersed with other forms of entertainment, such as
Victorian Music Hall.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:
Anonymous/Unknown

Sweeny Todd

Sweeney Todd is a fictional

character who first appeared as
the villain of the penny dreadful
serial The String of Pearls (1846–
1847). The original tale became a
feature of 19th-century
melodrama and London legend. A
barber from Fleet Street, Todd
murders his customers with a
straight razor and gives their
corpses to Mrs. Lovett, his partner
in crime, who bakes their flesh
into meat pies. The tale has been
retold many times since in various
media.

Romanticism
Reacted against the constraints of neo-classicism. Often based
on the representation the heroic individual's struggle to
maintain lofty ideals and values in an imperfect and corrupt
world. Themes included nature, the oppression of the poor,
liberty and nationalism. Often dealt with extreme experiences
 like suicide, infanticide and incest.

Key Playwrights
Artists: Significant Plays:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust

(28 August 1749 – 22 March
1832)
A German poet, playwright,
novelist, scientist, statesman,
theatre director, and critic.[3] His
works include plays, poetry,
literature, and aesthetic criticism,
as well as treatises on botany,
anatomy, and colour. He is widely
regarded as the greatest and most
influential writer in the German
language, his work having a
profound and wide-ranging
influence on Western literary,
political, and philosophical
thought from the late 18th
century to the present day.
Faust is a tragic play in two
parts by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe, usually known in English
as Faust, Part One and Faust, Part
Two. Nearly all of Part One and
the majority of Part Two are
written in rhymed verse. Although
rarely staged in its entirety, it is
the play with the largest audience
numbers on German-language
stages. Faust is considered by
many to be Goethe's magnum
opus and the greatest work of
German literature.

2OTH CENTURY & BEYOND

KEY STYLES

Realism
Realism is a developed set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of
bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances.
o It’s a movement to replace the artificial romantic style with accurate depictions of
ordinary people in plausible situations.
o A theatrical way of taking an unflinching look at the way things really are in the world.
 o Their intention is to illuminate humankind’s struggles and concerns in a
straightforward way.
o The sets of realist plays evoke the typical workplace, towns, homes, society, basically
everyday life.
o The goal of Realism was about truth and accuracy; they denounced anything shown
exaggerated.

ARTIST SIGNIFICANT PLAYS

Henrik Johan Ibsen A Doll’s House

(born March 20, 1828 —died May 23,
1906)
A Norwegian playwright and theatre
director. As one of the founders of modernism
in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the
father of realism" and one of the most
influential playwrights of his times.
A Doll’s House, play in three acts by
Henrik Ibsen, published in Norwegian as Et
dukkehjem in 1879 and performed the same
year. Doll’s House is one of the most
important plays in all modern drama. Written
by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in
1879, the play is well-known for its shocking
ending, which attracted both criticism and
admiration from audiences.

KEY STYLES

Naturalism
Naturalism is an aesthetic philosophy that draws its inspiration from nature. In a
naturalistic play, actors act as they would in real life. Their facial expressions are
natural, and their backs are turned to the audience. This is the basis of theatre drama.
Here are some examples of how naturalism has influenced theatre. Despite its
debatable effects on theatre, it has contributed to the development of modern drama.

ARTIST SIGNIFICANT PLAYS

 Miss Julie

Miss Julie is a naturalistic play written in

1888 by August Strindberg. It is set on
Midsummer's Eve and the following morning,
which is Midsummer and the Feast Day of St.
John the Baptist.
Miss Julie is preceded by an author's
preface, which is considered a significant
manifesto of naturalism in the theatre. In it
Strindberg states that the source of the play is
Johan August Strindberg an actual story he once heard, which made a
(22 January 1849 – 14 May 1912) strong impression on him. The prefaces urge
naturalism and deterministic readings of the
A Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, play, but the play seems to offer more anti-
essayist, and painter. A prolific writer who naturalism and even feminist readings.
often drew directly on his personal
experience. He is considered the "father" of
modern Swedish literature. A bold
experimenter and iconoclast throughout, he
explored a wide range of dramatic methods
and purposes, from naturalistic tragedy,
monodrama, and history plays to his
anticipations of expressionist and surrealist
dramatic techniques.

KEY STYLES

Symbolism
Challenged realism & naturalism. Believed truth lay beyond mere appearances. Aimed
to reflect the mental or spiritual life. Strong on atmosphere and effects, the influence of
supernatural powers and the occult. Non-naturalistic scenery.

ARTIST SIGNIFICANT PLAYS

Thomas Stearns Eliot Murder in the Cathedral

 (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965)
A poet, essayist, publisher, playwright,
literary critic, and editor. Considered one of
the 20th century's major poets, he is a central
figure in English-language Modernist poetry.
Through his trials in language, writing style,
and verse structure, he reinvigorated English
poetry. He also dismantled outdated beliefs
and established fresh ones through a
collection of critical essays.
Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama
by T. S. Eliot, first performed in 1935. A
poetic drama in two parts, with a prose
sermon interlude, the most successful play by
American English poet T.S. Eliot. The play
was performed at Canterbury Cathedral in
1935 and published the same year. Set in
December 1170, it is a modern miracle play
on the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket,
archbishop of Canterbury. The play’s most
striking feature is the use of a chorus in the
Classical Greek manner.

KEY STYLES

Expressionism
Movement in literature & art which originated in Germany before WW1 and ended in
1920s. Erratic & explosive. Tried to destroy superficial ideas of reality (Stephenson)
and explore deeper meanings underneath.

ARTIST SIGNIFICANT PLAYS

 Karl Georg Büchner Danton’s Death
(17 October 1813 – 19 February 1837)
His first play, Dantons Tod (1835;
a German dramatist and writer of poetry Danton’s Death), a drama of the French
and prose, considered part of the Young Revolution, is suffused with deep pessimism.
Germany movement. He was also a Its protagonist, the revolutionary Danton, is
revolutionary and the brother of physician and shown as a man deeply distraught at the
philosopher Ludwig Büchner. His literary bloodshed he had helped unleash.
achievements, though few in number, are
generally held in great esteem in Germany
and it is widely believed that, had it not been
for his early death, he might have joined such
central German literary figures as Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller
at the summit of their profession.

KEY STYLES

Surrealism
Revised the definition of reality. Concerned itself with accounts of dreams, madness,
the subconscious and the non-rational.

ARTIST SIGNIFICANT PLAYS


Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau
(5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963)
A French poet, playwright, novelist,
designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic.
He was one of the foremost creatives of the
surrealist, avant-garde, and Dadaist
movements; and one of the most influential
figures in early 20th-century art as a whole.
The National Observer suggested that "of the
artistic generation whose daring gave birth to
Twentieth Century Art, Cocteau came closest
to being a Renaissance man."
The Infernal Machine
A French play by the dramatist Jean
Cocteau, based on the ancient Greek myth of
Oedipus.[1] The play initially premiered on
April 10, 1934 at the Theatre Louis Jouvet in
Paris, France, under the direction of Louis
Jouvet himself, with costumes and scene
design by Christian Bérard. It is to be his
greatest play, La Machine infernale, a
treatment of the Oedipus theme that is very
much his own. In these two works he moved
into closer contact with the great myths of
humanity.

How Events Impact on the Art Evolution

Ancient Greece
The original religious nature of Greek drama made audiences particularly receptive to the
cosmic themes presented in classical tragedy.
The years from decline of classical Greece through the Hellenistic Period to Roman era
saw the erosion of serious drama and a corresponding increase in the architectural
grandeur of theaters.

Ancient Rome and Early Christian Era

Roman Audiences:
Roman audiences never evinced an interest in serious drama but accepted romantic
comedy as long as it included an element of farce.
Actors Position in the Society:
 While Greek actors were highly respected, their Roman counterparts were originally
slaves. Although position of Roman actors had improved by the 1st century. Later,
Christian antipathy to the stage led to the view of the actor as a social outcast.

Medieval
Drama returned to the western world in the form of mystery and miracle plays:
In the 19th century, drama returned to the western world in the form of mystery and
miracle plays, which were performed in churches. Usually stories from the bible.
Plays moved to the streets:
Later these Plays were moved out of the church into the street, where the platform sets
were arranged around an area in which the audience could stand or move from place to
place in a prescribed order.

Renaissance
Italy:
Italians introduced painted perspective scenery, first outlined in the treatise Architeltura
of Sebstiano Serlio.
Spain:
The Spanish theater developed in the corrol, or courtyard, of various large buildings,
where plays were originally performed. These theaters offered greater flexibility of
movement.
England:
English theaters never indulged in the architectural extravaganzas that proliferated on the
continent.

Twentieth Century
Smaller Independent Theaters:
Smaller independent theaters were prevalent in the early 2oth century. Concurrently,
antirealistic expressionist and symbolic movements in theater were developing.
Theatrical Developments since World War II:
Theatrical developments since World War II, especially in noncommercial theater, have
brought the stage more in contact with the audience.

Relevance of the Art in Specific era from their Time up to the Current Time
 Today, we now have tragicomedy, melodrama, fantasy, etc. Theatre has changed
significantly in this area. The dramas performed contained lots of graphics and were
materialists. It wasn’t long before people began to stereotype these plays as sinful,
harmful, and religiously conflicting, mainly due to Christianity’s surging reign then.
During the early form of the protestant reformation, early protestants believed plays and
dramas were terrible, and they began to prohibit them throughout Europe. During these
periods, playwrights developed themselves vastly in creativity, which saw the rise of
Williams Shakespeare and his contemporaries, whose plays still take a significant portion
of our big stages today.

The playhouses from different period were open-air structures similar to those today,
though they contained semi-circular galleries and a pit below.

In the restoration period, theatres began to feature known as machine plays that contained
various actions, elaborate costumes, musical and outstanding effects like the trapdoor
tricks and fireworks. By the 20th century, many playwrights wanted new, improved, and
better stage acting and performance so much they wanted to get rid of the traditional play
performances. The avant-garde became the new theme, and the conventional theatre
systems were going into obsoletion though not all playwrights were pleased with this new
development. However, this experimentation yielded reasonable efforts as its pace for
improvement of actions, stages, and effects, to the present century, where technology has
made available high-technology recording instruments and projection equipment, which
have primarily improved the theatre industry.

Even though theatre might seem to have changed significantly over the years, it remains a
place where everyone can come together to relate and interact freely together through play-acting
and viewing. In this, the theatre hasn’t changed.