Role Of An Ensemble On The Production Of The Play And How It Was A Perfect Christmas Show

A chorus is a common element to Greek tragedy’s and in ancient theatre consisted of a group of people who provide a number of different contributions to a play, providing a historical perspective, acting as counsellors and advisors to the plays characters and at times representing various groups such as villagers or a jury. Within this essay, I will consider the main contributions of the chorus within “The Burial at Thebes”

Without a doubt, the Greek theatre remains one of the most recognized and distinctive works in the world. While we associate many features of modern theatre with their Greek counterparts, ancient theatre was a very different animal. You will be surprised at how much Ancient Greece has influenced us today. Without such topics such as drama, democracy and the Olympics coming from Ancient Greece, sport would not be important. Drama was a huge part of ancient Greece. Theatre then became extremely popular performed everywhere including festivals. Greek Tragedy and Comedy was significantly important as not only did it provide entertainment for the ancient Greeks, but has continued to influence society today, inspiring us to create similar styles of theatre into contemporary plays today. Within this essay I hope to show how these ancient plays have transitioned into our modern theatre, and how directors today have morphed them into relevant and relatable productions.

In times of great cultural stress, theatre can form a platform to lead a conversation and to invite a community to discuss the central issues at hand. Kenneth Lin’s Warrior Class seeks to do just that. However, before any social dialogue can be incited, a playwright must, not only understand the issues they wish to talk about deeply, but also have the technical skill necessary to achieve the desired effect on an audience. In Aristotle’s Poetics, Aristotle defines the elements of dramatic form that can create a play that truly acts as intended. For example, plot is a series of incidents, or scenes, while characters are driven by dramatic actions; needs, wants, and desires. A new analysis of Aristotle’s definition of plot defines it as the playwright’s politics. Lin uses all of these devices within his play to, not only provoke an audience into thinking clearly about themselves and understand their own motivations and relationships, but to also get an audience to think of their larger responsibility to the community as a whole. Articulating the thought of a play is not solely the playwright’s job, though. The production itself must do what it can to communicate these ideas to an audience as seen through the Lyric Stage production of Warrior Class in Boston.

Marvin Carlson’s article argues about whether plays are better experienced purely through text or through performance. He discusses the conflict theorists dealt with when they wanted to perform Shakespeare’s plays. Some theorists believed that Shakespeare’s texts were a magnificent work on their own and that any performance needed to be as close to the text as possible. This caused theorists to regard performance as unnecessary since it had the potential to ruin the text. This type of theory carried on past the romantic period and some theorist continue to believe that plays should keep to the original script as much as possible. Carlson cites Charles Lamb commenting on how performances of Hamlet diminish the quality of Shakespeare’s work. Marvin then explains how

Plays take you to a new world and make you ask about life. They establish additional questions. These enduring questions are never-ending, but the amazingly make us think of our world in a newfangled, exciting, and intimidating way. Plays tell stories of the people of the past or people from the writer minds probably based off someone. Does social prejudice and expectations, cover up genius and innovation, but that shows how great these individualities and other people of advancement are that the genius shows through the prejudices and discrimination of the time.

For the last few weeks the topic of discussion has been Greek and Roman theatre. From dramatic situations, like death of a beloved pet, all the way to basic improv this lesson has been intense. New vocabulary words, a greater feeling of confidence and a more in depth knowledge of theatre was given to us. Which allows us to understand and explain the legacy of greek and roman theater and the impact it had on today’s entertainment.

The above example illustrates not only how the theatrical performance affects the audience, but also how the audience influences its dynamics, development and the characters within it. The actors feel a certain level of acceptance from the viewer, who demands a certain way of depicting the character. Theatre is not just entertainment, itís something much more than that ñ itís education. Theatre should always represent things, rather than

Greek theatre and medieval drama were both very popular artistic events in their own periods of performance. However, from ancient Greece to the renaissance, time has set them apart in terms of methodology; their practitioners use a creative process based off of different mindsets. Therefore, the significant time lapse between the two genres has had an evident impact on the way theatre was perceived and presented. In comparing aspects such as religious motivations, conditions of violence and character development, the distinct theatrical natures of Greek theatre and medieval drama will be made apparent.

The tension in this production is created by the fierce inquiry between the characters about the purpose and themes of the production, combined with the complexity of roles and relationships. The characters used the Brechtian conventions of multiple roles and direct address,

The Talbot Theatre production of Lysistrata both entertained and delighted this member of the audience, who was there partly because of an English assignment requirement, but mainly because of the opportunity to enjoy a live theatre production. The theatre company employed many different components to bring this antiwar play to life that evening on the stage.

Therefore, understanding the very concepts of performance types themselves, is a lesson in understanding literal different systems of framing. A staged performance has been rehearsed, the participants work towards the same predetermined objective. Also, risk is minimal because it is artifice. Whereas in real life, each individual’s motivation, objective and end goals can differ. Real life contains self-reflexivity that theatre does not as it is an artifice (the character’s reflexivity is a rehearsed and predestined contrived by actors, writer and director). The theatre can be a liminal space to prompt reflexivity.

Neil Fraser outlines the history of theatre from Greek and Roman times, all the way through the twentieth century. Fraser makes a claim that theatre truly began in Greek culture with even the Roma’s looking upon that time as “the golden age”. “The Romans looked back on Greek theatre of circa 600BC as a golden age, and we can still make a case for the great plays of that period as having never been bettered.” (Fraser, 2004, pg.5). Some of the more important highlights of this book include the transformation of theatre as we view it today from what it originally looked like. It’s roots in Greek religious ceremonies progressing from a chorus of priests speaking all together in unison to a solo voice being used as an

On Saturday, October 31st,, I went to see a play entitled The Tempest, written by William Shakespeare and directed by Francis Marion’s very own, Glen Gourley. The play was performed by students of the Francis Marion community, along with a few guest artists. The Tempest was a well-rounded play that attracted the audience attention right away with a dramatic opening, and gave the audience one heck of a ride throughout. The fact that it was Halloween night might have been a reason for me to enjoy the stage effects and costumes a little more than usual. The actors did a compelling job portraying the characters, and memorizing such difficult lines. Characters such as Ariel, Miranda and Caliban were my favorites of the night to watch evolve on stage. The play at first was very difficult to understand as the Shakespearian language was a challenge barrier, because at this day in age who really understands when someone uses thou, thus, or thy with every other word. The acting, scenery, lighting effects, costumes and among other things really helped make the play, and give the audience a better prospective or feel for the theme or purpose of The Tempest.

“From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other” a quote by Emily Matthews is what we can feel about the play Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberly. Written by Lauren Gunderson, Margot Melcon and directed by Virginia Drake; Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberly is a wonderful show especially for this time of the year, which dispatches its audience a simple message about family: includes love, tradition, and passions in life. In term of performance review, this paper will discuss about the balance between the performers, subjects and the audiences.

Theatre stage conventions are used to heighten and convey a story’s narrative in the Greek, Medieval and Elizabethan Eras of theatre. Each era built on the foundations of Greek theatre staging, through all of this are a perspective of modern Theatre was born. In order to understand a play, one must detail the conventions associated with the production. One must ask themselves if the play a presentational or representational piece? In this paper, I will be comparing staging conventions through Antigone, Acting: The First Six Lessons and William Shakespeare 's As You Like It. Antigone is a battle between opposition, while As You Like It is a tongue and cheek melodrama. Acting: The First six Lessons stands out for its depiction of parental nurturing and teaching. It is a play devoted to the theme of teaching rather than it is characters or spectacle. Its conventions follow suite in this ambition. First off, important to note that the functions of theatre conventions set the rules and parameters of the world the actors happen to embody.