A presentation describing the history of drama from the very root of ancient greek rites to its reborn on medieval era

1. Drama

2. History

4. Dionysus
The god of the grape
harvest, winemaking and wine,
of ritual madness, fertility
Every year a festival known
as The Dionysia was held in
honor of the God
Here was Dithyramb
becoming part of the festival

5. Dithyramb
Ahymn to the god of
Dionysus composed by the
musician Arion
In Athens, dithyramb were
sung by a Chorus of up to
fifty men or boys dancing in
circular formation.

8. The Father Of Tragedy
According to Aristotle’s
Poetics, the first person ever
to appear on stage as an
actor playing a character in a
play (instead of speaking as
him or herself) is Thespis.
He invented Hypokrites,
and named performance as
Tragedy.

11. City of Dyonesia
Peisistratus (ruler
of Athens) held
drama festival
called City of
Dyonesia.
He instituted a
prized
competition of
Tragedy in 534
BC.

16. The Actors Hired and paid by the state
Only THREE actors were
required
Woman were not allowed to
take part in dramatic production

17. Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is admirable, complete
(composed of an introduction, a middle part and an ending), and
possesses magnitude; in language made pleasurable, each of its
species separated in different parts; performed by actors, not
through narration; effecting through pity and fear (the
purification) of such emotions.
— Poetics,
The Tragedy
tragos = "he-goat"
aeidein = "to sing"
Trygodia :
trygos (grape
harvest)
ode (song)

18. Aristotle’s Poetic
Tragedy is characterized by seriousness and involves
a hero who experiences a reversal of
fortune (peripeteia ). caused by the tragic
hero'shamartia. The "Tragedy Tragedy
results in a catharsis for
the audience in response to the suffering of the
characters in the drama.
"the structure of the best tragedy should not be simple
but complex and one that represents incidents
arousing fear and pity—for that is peculiar to this form
of art.“

19. The only surviving example of a
trilogy of ancient athenian
tragedy play, is Oresteia by
Aeschylus
It was originally performed at the
Dionysia festival in Athens in
458 BC, where it won first prize

20. One of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian
Sophocles. Competing at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC.

21. Analyzing the Play
The Kind of Play
Sources
The Physical World of The Play
The Central Theme
Style
Characters Defined Plot
Outstanding Feature Of The Play

22. The Comedy

23. The adjective "comic" related to
the sense of "laughter-provoking“
Old Comedy
Middle Comedy
NewComedy

24. Old Comedy (archaia)
Aristophanes has sharp political satire in
his work.
He lampooned the most important
personalities and institutions of his day
Old Comedy, as represented by
Aristophanes' early plays, is analyzed
below in terms of three broad
characteristics — topicality, festivity
and complexity.

25. Middle Comedy (mese)
Middle Comedy is generally seen as
differing from Old Comedy in 3
particulars:
• The role of the chorus was diminished to the
point where it had no influence on the plot
• Public characters were not impersonated or
personified onstage
• The objects of ridicule were general rather
than personal, literary rather than political.

26. New Comedy (nea )
Menander's comedies tended to be
more about the fears and foibles of
the ordinary man, his personal
relationships, family life and social
mishaps rather than politics and
public life.
They were supremely civilized and
sophisticated plays which were less
farcical and satirical than the plays
before them.

27. The only one of Menander’s plays, and of the whole New
Comedy, that has survived in almost complete form

28. Analyzing the Play
The Kind of Play
Sources
The Physical World of The Play
The Central Theme
Style
Characters Defined Plot
Outstanding Feature Of The Play

29. Medieval Drama

31. Christianity grew at an astounding rate as the
Roman Empire fell, and the church itself was
no friend of the theater because of its close
association with Greek philosophers and the
religion of that era.
Faced with the problem of explaining a new
religion to a largely illiterate population,
churches in the Early Middle Ages began
staging dramatized versions of particular biblical
events on Liturgical Drama.

32. The Mystery Play

33. By the 12th century, the earlier liturgical
dramas had developed into a more popular
form, the mystery play.
The term "mystery" in this sense refers to
the word "miracle," another name for the
play type.
The mystery play began as the simple
recitation of Biblical texts, the various
persons in the text each being represented
by a person on the stage.

34. The Morality Play

35. Morality plays sprung up in order to teach
the audience a lesson.
These plays depicted the struggle of man
in a good-vs.-evil drama. Vices such as
greed, pride and vanity were personified
along with wholesome traits such as
patience, good will and honesty.
The most widely known morality play and
possibly the most famous medieval drama
is Everyman

36. The Miracle Play
Miracle plays or Saint's plays are specifically re-enacted
miraculous interventions by the saints into the lives of
ordinary people, rather than biblical events.

37. The Mansion
These were small scenic structures that indicated the location. Both the performer and
the congregation would move from mansion to mansion.

39. The Pageant Wagon
Amovable stage or cart used to accommodate the mystery and miracle play
cycles of the 10th through the 16th Century.

41. Question?