Transcript ROMAN THEATRE by 345 BC There were over 175 festivals a year

ROMAN THEATRE
Brief Roman History
by 345 B.C
• There were over 175 festivals a year
240 B.C
• The beginnings of Roman theatre
recorded
• The first record of drama at the
ludi Romani (Roman Festival or
Roman Games).
Brief Roman History
55 B.C
• First stone theatre built in Rome by
order of Julius Caesar.
Roman Theatre
• Borrowed Greek ideas and improved (?)
upon them
• Topics less philosophical
• Entertainment tended to be grandiose,
sentimental, diversionary
Roman Theatre
• Included more than drama :
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
acrobatics
gladiators
jugglers
athletics
chariots races
naumachia (sea battles)
boxing
venationes (animal fights)
Roman Theatre
3 Major Influences
• Greek Drama
• Etruscan influences, which emphasized
circus-like elements
• Fabula Atellana – which introduced
FARCE (Atella was near Naples).
Roman Theatre
Farce
• Short improvised farces, with stock
characters, similar costumes and masks
• based on domestic life or mythology
• burlesque, parody
• Most popular during the 1st century
B.C., then frequency declined
Roman Theatre
Farce
• Probably was the foundation for
commedia dell ‘Arte
• Productions included “stock”
characters:
• Bucco: braggart, boisterous
• Pappas: foolish old man
• Dossenus: swindler, drunk, hunchback
Roman Theatre
•
•
•
•
•
Serious or comic (satiric)
No masks
Had women
Violence depicted literally
Scoffed at Christianity
Roman Festivals
• Held in honor of the gods, but much
less religious than the Greeks
• Performances at festivals probably
paid for by the state.
• Were often lengthy and included a
series of plays or events, and probably
had prizes awarded.
Roman Festivals
ludi Romani
• oldest of the official festivals
• held in September and honored
Jupiter
• regular performance of comedy
and tragedy began in 364 B.C.
Roman Tragedy
Characteristics of Roman Tragedy
• 5 acts/episodes divided by choral
odes
• included elaborate speeches
• interested in morality
• unlike Greeks, they depicted
violence on stage
Roman Tragedy
Characteristics of Roman Tragedy
• characters dominated by a single
passion which drives them to doom (ex:
obsessiveness or revenge)
• developed technical devices such as:
soliloquies, asides, confidants
• interest in supernatural and human
connections
Roman Tragedy
Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
• only playwright of tragedy whose
plays survived
• Nine extant tragedies, five
adapted from Euripides (Gr.)
• Though considered to be inferior,
Seneca had a strong effect on later
dramatists.
Roman Tragedy
Seneca (5 or 4 B.C. – 65 A.D.)
• WroteThe Trojan Women, Media,
Oedipus, Agamemnon, etc., which
were all based on Greek originals
• His plays were probably closet
dramas—never presented, or even
expected to be.
Roman Comedy
Characteristics of Roman Comedy
• Chorus was abandoned
• No act or scene divisions
• Concerned everyday, domestic
affairs
• Action placed in the street
Roman Comedy
Material from only 2 playwrights
survived
• Platus (c. 254-184 B.C.)
• Terence (195 or 185-159 B.C.)
Roman Theatre Design
• First
permanent
Roman theatre
built 54 A.D.
(100 years after
the last
surviving
comedy)
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Built on level ground with stadiumstyle seating (audience raised)
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Stage raised to five feet
• Stages were
large –
20-40 ft deep
100-300 ft long
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Theatre could seat 10-15,000 people
• dressing rooms
in side wings
• stage was
covered with
a room
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• trap doors were common
• cooling system – air blowing over
streams of water
• awning over the audience to protect
them from the sun
Roman Theatre Design
Scaena
• “stage house”
• joined with
audience to
form one
architectural
unit
Roman Theatre Design
Circus Maximus- (Circo
Massimo)
• Primarily for Chariot racing
• Permitted 12 chariots to race at once
• Largest Roman Amphitheater
• Could seat
150,000 spectators