Chapter 11: Post-Classical Theatre

Transcription

1 Changes in Festivals evolution toward the inclusion of drama in more festivals festivals also became panhellenic the general collapse of civic pride in Greece led to fewer choregoi which, in turn, forced the creation of the agonothetes ( dramatic-contest official )

2 Changes in Actors and Acting the rise of mega-stars like Polus very popular around the known world! also, the formation of The Artists of Dionysus, a union overseeing the interests of theatre professionals especially those who went on tour n.b. the usefulness of the three-actor rule and embolima to touring actors

3 Changes in Drama Was exposition added to the dramas to make them more comprehensible to the ever increasing influx of foreign viewers? that is, do the texts of tragedies, as we have them, stem in any significant way from scripts written down in the Post-Classical Age? unlikely! Given the variability of myth, the classical tragedians would have needed to supply exposition, especially for foreigners

4 Changes in Drama nevertheless there are clear interpolations inserted by later hands into the texts of classical dramas as we have them e.g. Antigone

5 Changes in Theatre new technical devices bronteion: thunder keraunoskopeion: lightning Charon s steps : dead rising from tombs many different types of theatres some are larger than the Theatre of Dionysus (Ephesus) others are smaller (Delphi)

6 The Theatre of Epidauros

7 The Theatre of Epidauros

8 The Theatre of Epidauros

9 The Theatre of Epidauros

10 The Theatre of Delphi

11 Mime a low-brow form of entertainment not popular during the Classical Age, even though it is attested that far back nor even during the Post-Classical Age rose to prominence in the Roman period

12 Mime highly variable in form and tone mostly raucous, indecorous, full of slapstick but later mime could be philosophical and may not even have been performed only one principal performer (archimime) who played all the speaking parts! mime was what the early Christian fathers despised and protested against so much

13 Mime

14 Mime no mimes have been carried through a literary tradition (duh!) but six Mimiambi by Hero(n)das have turned up on an Egyptian papyrus all are vulgar; some even obscene cf. the Oxyrhynchus Mime ( The Adulteress )

15 Conclusion: Classical Drama note how quickly the evolution of drama took place from invention to the sit-com, in 300 years! the number of geniuses who appear: "Thespis," Phrynichus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes, Alexis, Philemon, Diphilus, Menander, etc. even Renaissance Italy can t match this!

16 Conclusion: Classical Drama no new technical advances until the advent of electricity

17 Conclusion: Classical Drama moreover, there have been no new dramatic techniques invented at all! costuming, dialogue, masks, prologues, irony, epilogues, tech crews, disguises, actors' unions, character-types, scenery, pampered stars, farce, love triangles, flying around the stage on ropes, hit musicals, censored plays, touring shows,... and if you add mime: nudity and sex, too!

18 Conclusion: Classical Drama but don t be depressed! we don t have to be better than the Greeks, because we are the Greeks! just Greeks arriving at the party a little late and speaking Latin with a German accent! the Greeks are our ancestors, too, and we today own them as much as anyone else speaking of Latin, next up is Rome!