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T

Theatre or theater
- a space where a performance takes place, in effect a large machine in the
form of a building that is specialized for presenting performances
- derived from the Ancient Greek word "thatron" which means "a place for
viewing"
- is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the
experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific
place

History

Western Theatre
- originated in the city-state of
Athens
- 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.

Three types of drama in ancient Greece theatre

Tragedy- branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the
sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual.

Comedy - consisting of jokes and satirical sketches, intended to make an


audience laugh.
Satyr play -genre of ancient Greek drama that preserves the structure and
characters of tragedy while adopting a happy atmosphere and a rural
background.

History
Roman theatre
- Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a
performance by Etruscan actors

- 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 highstyle, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca.

Roman theatre

- the Hellenization of Roman culture in


the 3rd century BCE had a profound
and energizing effect on Roman
theatre and encouraged the
development of Latin literature of
the highest quality for the stage

Theater Space
Stage types
Proscenium stage
- A proscenium theatre is what
we usually think of as a "theatre".
- Its primary feature is the
Proscenium, a "picture frame"
placed around the front of the
playing area of an end stage.
-

Stage types
Thrust theatre
- A Stage surrounded by audience
on three sides. The Fourth side
serves as the background.

-In a typical modern


arrangement: the stage is often a
square or rectangular playing
area, usually raised, surrounded
by raked seating. Other shapes
are possible; Shakespeare's Globe
Theatre was a five-sided thrust
stage.

Stage types
End Stage
- A Thrust stage extended wall to
wall, like a thrust stage with audience
on just one side, i.e. the front.
- "Backstage" is behind the
background wall. There is no real
wingspace to the sides, although
there may be entrances located
there. An example of a modern end
stage is a music hall, where the
background walls surround the
playing space on three sides. Like a
thrust stage, scenery serves primarily
as background, rather than
surrounding the acting space.

Stage types
Arena Theatre
- A central stage surrounded by
audience on all sides. The stage
area is often raised to improve
sightlines.

Stage types
Flexible theatre
- Sometimes called a "Black Box"
theatre, these stages are often
big empty boxes painted black
inside. Stage and seating not
fixed. Instead, each can be
altered to suit the needs of the
play or the whim of the director.

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