Taking a Look at Natyasastra

As Donald J. Trump said, “The Theatre must always be a safe and special place”, and for once he is right, the Theatre is a special place place, where people and objects transform in front of our eyes. One element that helps make a play great, is if it effectively uses its sacred space. The definition of sacred space according to our lecture is, “A physical space that feels almost magical, sometimes it may transform or appear before our eyes.” Sacred space is not required to incorporate the entire stage either, it can just be certain parts of the play. I remember in reading the book The Lord of the Flies, that one of the boys when the world would get too intense for him, he would hide in a hole in a tree and calm down; that was his sacred space. Sacred spaces are used effectively throughout all forms of art. One item that is used frequently in safe spaces in the act of rituals. Our lecture definition of Ritual is, “Something that repeats. Each repetition feels the same and different at the same time”, kind of like how Star Wars The Force Awakens was basically just A New Hope. Joking aside Rituals are very important in literature, like for example in Lord of the Flies again, the kids would participate in ritual when they would kill a kid or a pig and chant “Kill the Pig, cut its throat, bash her in, drink its blood.” Throughout the four plays we watch the themes of Rituals and Sacred Space flowing through the veins of these stories, that carry the meaning of the works.

Theatre today as in ancient Greek times is a popular form of entertainment. Today’s theatres share many similarities with the Greek predecessors however they are also very different. There are in fact many differences for example; layout, special effects, seating arrangement, the importance of drama and religion, setting, location and architectural features.

The space was a well-constructed thrust stage however, the stage was not raised off the ground and the seats appeared to be mobile which lead to the belief that this is an Environmental Theater. As for the layout of the stage, there was a couch and a table in center stage for the first two acts, a door to the unseen outside front of the house upstage right, there were two large double doors upstage center leading to the backyard garden, and a raised floor upstage left containing a piano, a bookcase and a door

"A Philosophy of Theater « " East of Mina. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2011.

Antonia was presented in a thrust stage. This type of stage allowed for the audience to be more intimate with the actors and form part of the world in which the play was taking place. In the first scene, during the dance off, the actors invite the audience

The structure of the play was an arena stage. Which were the circular stage, and the audience surrounding the stage. I like the set up of the arena stage opposed to a proscenium or the Karl C. Bruder Theater because with an arena stage the characters are in the middle and

Indian literature written in English language has its base n the myth that has been passed on from generations. Like many Indian English writers writing in English Girish Karnad is of no exception. In his writings the mythological aspects echo throughout. His plays like ‘Hayavadana’, ‘The Fire and The Rplay hain’ and ‘Nagmandala’ are based on the myths but Karnad gives an approach to myth in a different way. His plays originate from the myths of Indian legends but in the course of the play hee insert some of the acts which make us rethink about depending on God, especially through the man-God encounter acts.

I believe to understand performance you must first understand what it’s about and its history. One of the biggest ideas in performance art is breaking the rule. Theatre was first discovered by ancient Greece. The people of Greece first started doing performances to please the gods and to celebrate them. They started with just a chorus, but over time people started adding more and more people on stage. The first rule that came up from this is no more than three people on stage. The second was to change characters you either went off stage or by the chorus and changed your mask. The third and final rule was death accouris off stage, never on. As time went on more rules were slowly being added and each artist, director, performer and playwriter would think of ways they could break or bend the rule to make the performance more interesting to the public eye.

Most theatres had around eight to twenty-four sides. This is because they were usually made from wood at this point. And stages were usually in circular shapes.

First we have the very stage itself. Because of drama's close connection with religion, theaters were often located in or near sanctuaries.The Theater of Dionysus in Athens was placed in the sacred precinct of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis. There was also a theater on Apollo's sacred island of Delos. The theaters were very large, open-air structures that took advantage of hillsides for their seating. They could also be

The person responsible for the backdrop of the play used only a limited number of objects but was successful in revealing the specific venue to the audience. The stairs, balcony, chandelier and the walls gave the viewer the impression that the scene was held in a palace. This was because these things are usually present in a palace making it automatic for us to think that the setting is in a palace. Whereas for the prison, which was just under the balcony of the palace, the bars, walls and even the darkness well depicted the picture of a prison. By just seeing those, one can already conclude that the place is a prison. These were also similar with the convent, whorehouses and outdoor setting. But despite these, the stage was still quite problematic because of the space. There were certain scenes when a lot of characters crowd up an area because that was only the part of the stage where the venue is

In Marathi folk tradition the Sutradhar introduces the play and greets the audience and then goes off the stage. But Ghashiram Kotwal, being a combination of classical, folk, and modern form, the sutradhar stays on the play from beginning to the end. Tendulkar’s brilliant fusion of Bharata’s Lokdharmi and Natyadharmi makes this play one of a kind. It is one such play where the Sutradhar can comment or even directly talk to the audience, or stand by silently as a spectator. The role of the Sutradhar is played by Haridasa in the play. He is an actor and a commentator. The Sutradhar comments on the incidents rhythmically. And it is followed with the last rhyming words by the Brahmin line. The play is truly an innovative experiment that offers a new direction to modern Indian Theatre due to Tendulkar’s

     "The arts of the western world have been largely dominated by the artistic standards established by the Greeks of the classical period" (Spreloosel 86). It is from the Greek word theatron, meaning a place for sitting, that we get our word theater. According to James Butler, "The Greeks were the first people to erect special structures to bring audiences and theatrical performers together" (27). "The theaters were normally located near a populated area at the bottom of or cut out of a carefully selected, sloping hillside overlooking a seascape, a plain, or a city" (Butler 30). "They eventually with few exceptions consisted of three distinct parts: theatron

In these plays, there is an attempt to capture and present basic contradictions of life in a bigger perspective and with contemporary relevance; there is also a bold and creative experiment to synthesize some of the techniques and dramatic usages of the Sanskrit theatre and the traditional modes like the