drama term2

• Body language


  Includes attitude, facial expression and gestures
• Body language is a big part of communication, constituting about 75% of all communication
• Gestures


  Any observable movement that helps express or emphasize an idea
• Gestures are usually obvious actions confined to the head, shoulders, hands, and arms, helping to communicate something specific to the audience
• Physical Theatre


  A very popular art form in South Africa, using physical form of storytelling to reach a wide audience and overcome language and cultural barriers
• Physical theatre does not always exclude dialogue like sheer mime work, but the focus is on how visual images are used to tell the story, rather than dialogue
• The form of theatre is not necessarily always concentrated on human characters - bodies can be used to create entire landscapes
• Physical theatre


  Theatre that tells a story visually rather than aurally, making use of physical images rather than the spoken word
• Physical theatre includes


  • Dance theatre
  • Motion theatre
  • The spoken word (acting)
  • Clowning
  • Puppetry
  • Mime
  • Masks
  • Vaudeville
  • Circus
  • Music
  • Singing
  • Imagery
• Because it includes all forms, physical theatre can be seen as "total theatre"
• Physical skills needed for physical theatre

  • Strength (for picking up others)
  • Posture and poise (standing or moving in an aesthetic way)
  • Agility
  • Stamina (inner physical and mental strength)
• You should be comfortable with very close physical contact in physical theatre
• You have to be creative in physical theatre
• You have to be a dancer with acting skills in physical theatre
• You must be able to work within group context and function well within a group in physical theatre
• Although physical theatre productions are mostly staged, numerous productions have been staged in other spaces
• The only aspect that a physical theatre production requires for performance is an open space
• Physical theatre can be performed in public spaces - anywhere where there is an open space and an audience
• Drama and theatre


  Originated from rituals
• Rituals


  1. Communication with gods/ancestors

  2. Ask for blessings

  3. Show appreciation

  4. Celebrate life
• Rituals were accompanied by songs, dance, storytelling, poetry and exaggerated costumes
• In ritual theatre, the audience actively participates
• Over time, ritual enactments became highly skilled performances with a degree of realism, and people came to watch and thus it became more like performances
• Essence of drama and theatre

  (According to Aristotle) People have always enjoyed imitating other people and watching imitations
• For the theatre to exist we need a community that is able to acknowledge the artistic importance of drama and theatre, and we need people who are able to arrange the theatrical components into an experience of a higher order
• The Greeks must be thought of as the main inventors of the theatre since it was they who first identified its possibilities
• Dionysus


  God of wine and fertility in ancient Greece
• Greek drama was performed exclusively in connection with the festival held in honour of Dionysus
• Dionysus


  • Son of Zeus and Semele
  • Killed, dismembered and then brought back to life
  • Took on the forms of a bull and a goat
• Dionysus' story was linked with the seasons and the life cycle: in the winter everything in nature dies and decays, but in the spring and summer, everything comes back to life once again
• Dionysus represented the human desire for reproduction (food, children, etc.) and keeping him happy (through worship), was of fundamental importance to the Greeks
• Dionysus' worshippers enacted his story and sacrificed a bull or a goat, ate the flesh and drank the blood in order to identify with him
• Tragedy


  Means 'goat song', a reference to the sacrificial goat that represents Dionysus
• As time went on and people moved to more urban areas the rituals became more structured and formalised
• Dithyramb


  A choric hymn chanted or sung by a chorus of men in Ancient Greek rituals, describing the adventures of Dionysus
• At religious festivals, a dithyramb accompanied by mime or simple gestures, became extended to include dialogue
• The Greeks held a series of religious festivals honouring the gods, and it was at these festivals that plays were performed
• Festivals in honour of Dionysus

  • The Rural Dionysia (in December)
  • The Lenaia/Lenea (in January)
  • The Anthesteria (end of February)
  • The City of Great Dionysia (end of March)
• The first record of formal drama in Greece comes from 534BCE, when the City Dionysia was reorganized and a competition for the best tragedy set up
• The City Dionysia became the major festival for the presentation of drama. It was a six/seven-day event which the whole city of Athens attended