ARTS - HISTORY OF THE THEATRICAL FORMS AND THEIR EVOLUTION 2

• 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.
• Comedy plays were popular too in the Roman Theater from 350 to 250 BC and women were allowed to perform.
• TRIUMVIR OF POMPEY - one of the first permanent (non wooden) theaters in Rome, whose structure was somewhat similar to the Theatron of Arthens.
• MEDIEVAL THEATER (500 CE - 1400) - 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.
• RENAISSANCE THEATER (1400 - 1600) - were characterized by a return of Classical Greek Roman arts and culture. During the Middle Ages, mystery plays formed a part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe. Morality plays and University drama were formed to recreate Athenian tragedy.
• WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE - The famous actor and poet who emerged in this period. He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, and was regarded as the greatest writer and dramatist in the whole world.
• England's National Poet "Bard of Avon"; William Shakespeare
• Ballet was performed during this period. It is a formalized form of dance which originated from Italian Renaissance courts.
• INNOVATION OF STAGE

  • PROSCENIUM - This is the area of a theater surrounding the stage opening. Arches frame and divide the stage from the audience.
• INNOVATION OF STAGE

  • BACKDROPS - For every scenery were popularized by the art of painting clothes.
• INNOVATION OF STAGE

  • COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE - It was a quick-witted performance of the characters/players.
• BAROQUE THEATER (1600 - 1750) - It is marked by the use of technology in current Broadways or commercial plays. The theater crew uses machine 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 characteristics of Mannerism (a variety of approaches or intellectual sophistication as well as using artificial qualities of the play) were succeeded by the opera.
• NEOCLASSICAL THEATER (1800 - 1900) - It 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.
• Stages were restyled with dramatic arches to highlight the scenes. Multiple entry points on the stage were evident in many plays. Lighting and sound effects intensified the mood and message of each scene, enhancing dramatic experience.
• The concept of decorum (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.
• ROMANTIC THEATER (1800 - 2000) - Melodrama and operas became the most popular theatrical forms. Melodrama derived from Greek melos, which means "music" and French drame, which is derived from the Greek dran to "perform".
• MELODRAMA - 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 - is an artform in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (libretto) and musical score.