Theater is a collaborative art form that uses live performers to present real or imagined events. It originated in ancient Greece around 532 BC. There are several types of theater structures including arena, flexible, and proscenium theaters. Naturalism and expressionism were early modern movements that sought to realistically or expressionistically portray life influences. Theater provides benefits such as bringing people together, modeling democratic discourse, contributing to education, supporting the economy, and encouraging self-reflection.

1. THEATER

2. THEATRE
• A COLLABORATIVE
FORMOFFINE ART THAT
USES LIVE PERFORMERS,
TYPICALLY ACTORS TO
PRESENT THE EXPERIENCE
OF A REAL OR IMAGINED
EVENTS

3. Who invented the theater?
•Greek tragedy as we know it was created in
Athens around the time of 532 BC, when the
Thespis was the earliest recorded actor. The
winner of the first theatrical contest held at
Athens, Greece.

5. theater…
•A building or area for dramatic performances

6. Types of Theater

7. Arena Theater
A central stage
surrounded by audience
on all sides. The stage
area is often raised to
improve sightlines

8. Flexible theater
Sometimes called “black
box” theater, these stages
are often big empty boxes
painted black inside. Stage
and seating not fixed

10. Proscenium theater
Basically a big picture
frame dividing acting
space from the
audience.

11. NATURALISM
• is a movement in European drama and theatre that developed in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. It refers to theatre that attempts to create a perfect
illusion of reality through a range of dramatic and theatrical strategies:
detailed, three-dimensional settings; everyday speech forms (prose over
poetry); a secular world-view (no ghosts, spirits or gods intervening in the
human action); an exclusive focus on subjects that are contemporary and
indigenous (no exotic, otherworldly or fantastic locales, nor historical or
mythic time-periods); an extension of the social range of characters
portrayed (away from the aristocrats of classical drama, towards bourgeois
and eventually working-class protagonists); and a style of acting that
attempts to recreate the impression of reality (often by seeking complete
identification with the role, understood in terms of its ‘given circumstances’,
which, again, transcribe Darwinian motifs into performance, as advocated by
Stanislavski

12. • Naturalistic writers were influenced by the theory of evolution of
Charles Darwin. They believed that one’s heredity and social
environment determine one’s character. Whereas realism seeks
only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also
attempts to determine “scientifically” the underlying forces (i.e.
the environment or heredity) influencing the actions of its
subjects. Naturalistic works are opposed to romanticism, in which
subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even
supernatural treatment. They often include uncouth or sordid
subject matter; for example, Émile Zola’s works had a frankness
about sexuality along with a pervasive pessimism. Naturalistic
works exposed the dark harshness of life, including poverty,
racism, sex, prejudice, disease, prostitution, and filth. As a result,

13. Emile Francois Zola
• French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of
Naturalism and important contributor to the development of theatrical
naturalism

14. Expressionism
• Is a modernist movement in drama and theater that
developed in Europe (principally in Germany) in the early
decades of the 20th century.
• Anti-realistic in seeing appearance as distorted and the
truth lying within man. Unrealistic portray an eternal
truth. Speech is heightened—expansive and rhapsodic

15. Modernism
• A broad concept that sees art including theater, as
detached from life in a pure way and able to reflect on
life critically.
• This approach uses other media and breaks accepted
conventions and practices

16. Classical
• This relies upon imagination to convey the setting
and atmosphere of the play. It contains lofty,
grand prose or free verse dialogue.
• Good examples are the Elizabethan dramatist
William Shakespeare.

17. Zarzuela
• Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates
between spoken and sung scenes, the latter
incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as
dance.

18. Tragedy
• Form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in
its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the
viewing.
• Refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a
unique and important role historically in the self-
definition of western civilization

19. 7 Reasons Why Theatre Makes Our
Lives Better

20. 1. Theater does no harm
• Theatre is one of those human activities that doesn’t really hurt
anyone or anything. While we are engaged in attending theater,
we are not engaged in war, crime, drinking, wife-beating,
pornography, or any of the social vices we could engaged in
instead.
• The more time and energy we as a society devote to theatre and
arts, the better off we will be.

21. 2. Theater is a sophisticated expression of a
basic human need—one might call it an
instinct– to mimic, to project stories onto
ourselves and others, and to create meaning
through narrative and metaphor.

22. • We see this instinct expressed in children when they act
out real or imagined characters and events.
• Theatre matters, in essence, because we can’t help it. It’s
part of what makes us HUMAN

23. 3. Theatre brings people together
• For a performance to happen, anywhere from a
hundred to a thousand or more people need to gather
in one place for a couple of hours, and share together
in witnessing and contemplating an event that may be
beautiful, funny, though-provoking, or hopeful at least
diverting.

24. 4. Theatre models for us a kind of public discourse
that lies at the heart of democratic life, and builds
our skills for listening to different sides of a
conversation or argument, and empathizing with
the struggles of our fellow human beings whatever
their views may be.

25. • When we watch a play, we learn what happens
when conflict don’t get resolved, and what happens
when they do.
• We develop our faculty for imagining the outcomes
of various choices we might make in our personal
lives and our political lives

26. 5. Attending of theatre and making of
theatre contribute to education and literacy.
• Watching the characters talk back and forth in the theatre
is tricky; it requires sharp attention, quick mental shifts,
and nimble language skills.
• It teaches us about human motivation and psychology.
• In historical plays we get lessons in leadership and
government, cultures in different countries.

27. • Studies show that students who participate in theatre do
BETTER in school.
• Making plays together also draws kids out of their shells
and helps them learn to socialize in a productive and
healthy way.

28. 6. Theatre as an industry contributes to our
economy and plays a special role in the
revitalization of neglected neighborhoods.
• As each theatre opened, new audiences started flooding
in, new restaurants opened, jobs created, the city
improved the sidewalks, and neighborhoods that were
once grim and forbidding became vibrant hubs of
activity.

29. 7. It influences the way we think and
feel about our own lives and encourages
us to take a hard look at ourselves, our
values, and our behavior

30. • “Maybe the play is about a fierce battle over a
family dinner that breaks the family apart over
irreconcilable political divisions– but maybe you
watch the play and say “gosh!, wouldn’t it be nice
to at least have a family dinner once in a while!”
and so you decide to plan one for the next month.
Isn’t it amazing.