ROMAN THEATRE Brief Roman History 509 B C

ROMAN THEATRE

Brief Roman History 509 B. C • Etruscan (from Etruria) ruler was expelled, and Rome became a republic (just as Athens became a democracy). • Roman theatre and festivals highly influenced by Etruscan practices

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 1 st 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 Pantomime • solo dance, with music (lutes, pipes, cymbals) and a chorus. • Used masks • The story-telling was usually mythology or historical stories, usually serious but sometimes comic.

Roman Theatre Mime • overtook after 2 nd century A. D. • The Church did not like Mime • Most common attributes of mime: • Spoken • Usually short • Sometimes elaborate casts and spectacle

Roman Theatre • • Serious or comic (satiric) No masks Had women Violence and sex depicted literally (Heliogabalus, ruled 218 -222 A. D. , ordered realistic sex) • 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 tp those who put extra money in.

Roman Festivals • Acting troupes (perhaps several a day) put on theatre events. • Festivals were sometimes repeated, since whenever any irregularity in the rituals occurred, the entire festival, including the plays, had to be repeated. (known as instauratio)

Roman Festivals ludi = official religious festivals these were preceded by pompa = religious procession

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

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. ) • Wrote. The 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 Comedy Platus (c. 254 -184 B. C. ) • Very popular. • Plays include: Pot of Gold, The Menaechmi, Braggart Warrior • All based on Greek New Comedies, probably, none of which has survived

Roman Comedy Platus (c. 254 -184 B. C. ) • Added Roman allusions, Latin dialog, witty jokes • varied poetic meters • Developed Slapstick & Songs

Roman Comedy Terence (195 or 185 -159 B. C. ) • Wrote only six plays, all of which survive, including: The Brothers, Mother-in-Law • More complex plots – combined stories from Greek originals.

Roman Comedy Terence (195 or 185 -159 B. C. ) • Character and double-plots were his forte • Less boisterous than Plautus, less episodic, more elegant language. • Used Greek characters. • Less popular than Plautus.

Roman Theatre Design

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 stadium -style 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 Scaena frons • front/façade of the stage house • was painted and had columns, niches, porticoes, statues

Roman Theatre Design Orchestra • becomes half-circle • was probably used for gladiators and for the display and killing of wild animals • if entertainment permitted, people were sat here

Roman Theatre Design Vomitoria • corridors under the seats that lead onto the orchestra

Roman Theatre Design Pulpitum • the stage Cavea • the auditorium

Roman Theatre Design Other structures included: Circus Maximus Ampitheatres

Roman Theatre Design Circus Maximus • Primarily for Chariot racing • Permitted 12 chariots to race at once

Roman Theatre Design Ampitheatres • For gladiator contests, wild animal fights, and occasionally naumachia • Had space with elevators below to bvring up animals, etc.

Roman Actors • Referred to as histriones, cantores (means declaimers), and mimes – later primarily histriones • Mostly male – women were in mimes

Roman Actors • Mimes were considered inferior; some believed they were slaves. • In the 1 st century B. C. , a "star" performer seems to have been emphasized

Roman Actors Style of Acting • Mostly Greek traditions – masks, doubling of roles • Tragedy – slow, stately, • Comedy—more rapid and conversational

Roman Actors Style of Acting • Movements likely enlarged • Actors probably specialized in one type of drama, but did others • Encores if favorite speeches given (no attempt at "realism")

Roman Actors Style of Acting • Mimes – no masks • Used Greek or Roman costumes • Lots of music