Theatre History (Rome Through Italian Renaissance)

Festival that magical dancers were invited to perform at to get rid of the plague in Rome. Celebrated Roman heritage

Slave picked up by Rome as they conquer the Italian peninsula (ransacking villages along the way to get Thuri to pay for the boats they wrecked). According to Livy, he introduces plot drama, rather than improvisation.taught by his master and later taught school himself. Presented first drama in 240 – first drama was adaptations of Sophocles and Euripides

lived in Northern Italy, idolized the Greeks. Rome’s early festivals and traditions were similar in structure to Romans. If there was a religious part to the fair, and if anyone messed up they had to go back to the beginning and start again. Masks, music and dance used.

Possible origin of performance in Rome -- compositions consisting of improvised and obscene dialogue by masked clowns at harvest celebrations or weddings

famous writer who suggests that Etruscan magical dancers were liked so much they kept doing the dance and a youth added dialogue to the dance to create a new type of drama. More elaborate performance is elongated improvised dialogue and shortened dance. Eventually we get professional performers

Roman word for performer

Plots, rather than strict improvisation. Introduced by Livius Andronicus

Lived in the south of Italy. Had farces (Fabula Atellana) based off of Phylakes (improvised comedy based on Athenian comedy and tragedy), written down by Rhinton

Improvised comedy based on Athenian comedy and tragedy

Form of theatre based off of Phylakes (improvised comedy based on Athenian comedy and tragedy), eventually written down by Rhinton in 300BC

Most influential playwright of all time. We only have one play, The Grouch. First new comedy that we have. Comedy developed in Rome based on his work

Chorus less commonplace, less essential to action, less song and dance, more attention paid to plot. We are confused because it is a transition period, and we only have fragments and two complete plays. Parabasis is gone (chorus addresses audience directly after cast leaves), character types evolve, chorus is less prominent.

300 fragments, so we can't construct a plot, but he was a misogynist.

Athens lived in changing world, lived under Macedonian rule, breakdown of local patriotism or civic duty. – materialist nature of people, tedious matters. prologue becomes prominent – direct address to the audience, often times given to a divine figure. Set the setting and give background divided into five acts: includes interludes between acts that are relevant to the action. no lyric portions to be sung, dialogue all spoken in ordinary speech. May be fluid accompaniment but for the most part it is only everyday dialogue. Few references to Athens or actual events (universal themes, not universal. Very realistic plots). padding (grotesque costumes) and phallus are gone. Instead dressed in contemporary/realistic clothes. no real concern of politics – concerned with individual characters and their relationship with each other. Rich in comic irony – the audience knows a lot more than the characters do. A few motifs constantly repeated (young men fall in love with poor girls w/ obstacles, children kidnapped by pirates, hybrid family…

Roman play based on a Greek story and/or done in Greek dress(Livius Andronicus)