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.

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

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 allows the audience to become part of the show, and also allows the actors to be more engaged with their surroundings. The space that was picked for this production fit the play absolutely perfectly. The stage was set up in the round where the audience on three sides surrounded the stage. This type of space made for even more interaction between the audience and the actors. At one point in the play I could feel the breath of one of the actors on stage.

This semester in World Theatre we have covered different theatres from all over the world dating back to the beginnings of theatre to the present. We’ve studied how theatre is different everywhere in the world and the groups we’ve gone over the most are Western theatre, Asian theatre, and African theatre. We have learned about how theatre has changed over time, and that in some areas such as Asia it has stayed the same for thousands of years. Each theatre has its own style and each have set of elements that define what the theatre is truly about. In this paper I will be writing about what elements and pieces of each theatre that we have learned about that I believe together would form a type of theatre that would be a universal and would work in any given culture.

Greece is the protégé of theatre and in turn stands as the basis of Western theatrical tradition; as a large part of the broader culture of theatricality and performance. In classical Greece included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposiums. In the original culture of the Greek theatre they stressed the importance of the twelve Olympian gods, advanced technology, theatrical stage, first actor, and rise of different genres. Due to these ideals and stresses, Greek style theatre is still prevalent today; we are very privileged to see the growth theater had since it first started out and to see that the old ways still persist today.

A key term used when describing the exhibition space is ‘mise-en scène’. ‘Mise-en-scène’ is an expression used to describe the design aspects of a theatre or film production, which means ‘visual theme’ or perhaps more pertinently ‘telling a story’—both in visually artful ways through storyboarding, cinematography and stage design, and in poetically artful ways through direction. It is also commonly used to refer to multiple single scenes within the film to represent the film. This is particularly the case in this show as each room has a different look and feel like one would experience in a theatre; for example the Main Stage has a very different look and feel that the Backstage area. The Main Stage is particularly evocative of the shows aims and provides a centre point for the show – especially the main stage itself which has been constructed especially for this show and painted green. Emily Young’s ‘Archangel I’ 2004 (see figure 1) made from Monteone onyx stone is situated on the edge of the stage and can be seen straight away as one enters from the bar. This sculpture, which weighs one tonne , had clearly exercised difficulties due to its weight and size. The polished stone resembles a woman’s head who appears to be singing on the stage. The polished stone is sensuous and smooth with a strong sense of past and time. This is the antithesis of the blunt, cumbersome and

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

     "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 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