Styles Of American Theatre

Mac Kenzie Mayo

Theatre 110 – Final Paper

Professor Kraszpulska

11/25/2014

Styles of theatre are essentially based upon different time periods and cultures. There are several different styles throughout the world ranging from as early as 700 BC to present day. The origins of theatre are not fully known but from ancient artifacts, journals, hieroglyphics have shown some history regarding theatre. Since computers and cell phones were unavailable during those time it shows that storytelling and passing down tradition was a big deal back in the day of no technology. Not only was storytelling a big practice among the people they often-exaggerating many of the events that had happened in the stories as well. By sharing these stories to younger

Many of the playwrights were guided by social status and political opinion. Soon enough this turned into tradition and then ultimately ceremony. Because of the way things were being done and new traditions being formed this made theatre a much bigger deal.

According to the mythologist Joseph Campbell, Power was a major influence among theatre. Rituals were often done in order to gain glory from the gods. The rituals were mainly to glory something supernatural such as heroes. To represent heroes and their supernatural gifts the costumes and masks were exaggerated. Although the rituals were a duty to the people in order to please the gods they also entertained society. The rituals were based on myths and since the stories were passed down from generation to generation they became

Music, dance, and masks were essentially in Roman celebrations. The first Roman performance occurred in Rome around 364 B.C. the Romans are known to take strategies from other cultures and improve to make a bigger, better performance. Although the Romans used Greek strategies during their performances they had improved it so much that it was ultimately there own.

Compared to ancient Greece, comedy trumped tragedy in Rome. Titus Maccius Plautus was a Roman comedy writer. He has written 130 plays including The Braggart Warrior, The Casket and Pot of Gold. Publius Terentius Afer was another Roman comedy writer who only wrote six plays, including Mother-in-Law, Self-Tormentor and The Brother. Although they were both on different level based on entertainment terms Terrence’s writing is believe to be much deeper than Afer’s.

The god of Venus was Rome’s idol and the design of the performance area was built based on her. The design was much more elaborate than lead to be. The theaters had a designated orchestra area. The pulpitum or stage was raised and had a curtain. The scaenae frons was the method of scenery for Roman