Roman theatre Essay Example

Florales (April), Plebeii (November), Apollinares (July), Megalenses (April), Cereales (no particular season). Under the empire, these festivals afforded "bread and circuses" to the masses – many performances. Performances at festivals probably paid for by the state a wealthy citizen, had free admission, were lengthy - including a series of plays or events, and probably had prizes awarded to those who put extra money in.

The main forms of Roman Theatre were Roman Drama, Comedy, Tragedy, Pantomime and Mime. The famous Roman writers wrote hundreds plays, some of them is still used in the modern theatre. Livius Andronicus (240 – 204 B. C. ) wrote, translated, or adapted Greek comedies and tragedies in Latin. Gnaeus Naevius (270-201 B. C. ) excelled at comedy. These Roman authors helped to "Romanize" the drama by introducing Roman allusions into the Greek originals and using Roman stories. The Romans' carnival-like festivals included acting, flute playing, dancing, and prize fighting.

Almost all festivals used music, dance, and masks in their ceremonies. There were very specific forms in the Roman theater. Pantomime was, probably, the most important. It was solo dance with music (lutes, pipes, cymbals) and a chorus. They used masks, story telling, the plot was based on mythology or historical stories, usually serious but sometimes comic. Roman pantomime consisted of short, improvised, burlesque scenes and depicted current events and themes of love, adultery, and mocking of the gods.

During the age of Julius Caesar it became more literary in the works of, for example, Laberius (106-43 B. C. ). While tragic pantomime was developed by Pylades of Cecilia and his disciples, his rival Bathyllus of Alexandria and his followers performed comic pantomime. Comedy

was very popular. Some of Roman writers (e. g. Titus Maccius Plautus (254-184 B. C. ) and Publius Terenius [Terence] (195 or 185-159 B. C. )) wrote hundreds of comedies. These plays were based on Greek New Comedies but there were added Roman allusions, Latin dialog, varied poetic meters, and witty jokes.

One of wide spread techniques was stichomythia – dialog with short lines, like a tennis match. In the Roman comedy chorus was abandoned. Plays had no act or scene divisions. Today we know only one Roman playwright of tragedies: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (5 or 4 B. C. – 65 A. D. ). He wrote nine extant tragedies, some of them (The Trojan Women, Media, Oedipus, Agamemnon etc. ) were adapted from Euripides. Though considered to be inferior, Seneca had a strong effect on later dramatists.

In Senecan Roman Tragedy there were five episodes/acts divided by choral odes elaborate speeches. Interest in morality was expressed in sententiae (short pithy generalizations about the human condition). Characters dominated by a single passion – obsessive (such as revenge) – drive them to doom. In the Roman Theater extending the playing area over the orchestra created the apron of the stage, where important members of the audience were seated. The entire structure was often enclosed and built on level ground.

The background, the three-door scene, was always a street; from the point of view of the actor facing the audience, off left indicated the town or adjacent points and off right indicated an exit to the country or distant points. A curtain was sometimes used to open the play; it was dropped into a trough as the play began. The Romans

were probably the first to use torches and lamps at evening performances. In the Roman theatre costumes and mask were worn to show the type of person on stage. Different symbols were worked out. The actors wore masks - brown for men, white for women, smiling or sad depending on the type of play.

The costumes showed the audience who the person was - a purple gown for a rich man, a striped toga for a boy, a short cloak for a soldier, a red toga for a poor man, a short tunic for a slave etc. Women were not allowed act, so a man or young boys wearing a white mask normally played their parts. The actors spoke the lines, but a second actor mimed the gestures to fit the lines, along with background music. Some things are represented by a series of gestures, which are recognized by the audience to mean something, such as feeling a pulse to show a sick person, making the shape of a lyre with fingers to show music.

Reference

http://www.2020site.org/rome/romantheaters.html