The Ball and the Hall

ALRIGHTY FOLKS, LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD. As you are aware, 2 scenes will be discussed and compared up in this blog post.

Scene 1: West Side Story's gym dance.

ba-BAM --->

Scene 2: Romeo and Juliet's ball.

ba-ba-BLAMM -->

Wait, was that Paul Rudd? What the hell? Paul Rudd plays Paris in Romeo+Juliet. Alrighty then. HOORAY FOR LEARNING NEW THINGS!

Anyways, on to the main event. I feel like

The End

One thing that really stuck for me is the popularity of live theatre. Back then, it was like a religion, literally. Now, not so much. On Broadway, yes, it is popular and many people go to them. But around here in Vancouver, as an example, most of the shows I've been to have only filled half the seats. Theater then had a different meaning then it does today, in other words. I guess I just don't like how theater is labeled nowadays. And that we won't make a lot of money, if any at all.

Would theater be more popular if we used mask work more frequently? Like in the good old days of Greece. That'd be cool. Coming back to how theater is viewed today, people would probably be a little creeped out. Especially if we were to do satyr plays. That stuff would not go well.

Anyway, I think I'd like to see a Greek performance back in the day if I could travel through time. Get a feel for what it was like. I picture BC Place split in half and cheering just as loudly as if there were a touchdown.

Final Thoughts

I apologize for the late submission, but I just had to get two-cents in here!
This term has been a very interesting experience for me. I have always had an interest in history and of course I have always loved theatre, but I had never had much knowledge of how theatre developed into the form we're studying.
I'm the type that will always attempt to argue the abstract, even if it doesn't align with my actual opinion. The discussion we had at the beginning of the year was, for the most part, one of those circumstances. I felt that although events which involved spectacle and entertainment could be considered "theatrical", I wouldn't consider them "theatre". Studying the many evolutionary forms of the art and the different ways that they have expanded and developed, has not altered my opinion much... it has, however, widened the spectrum of what I perceive as theatre. A chant, based on religious practices, would not fit my definition of theatre, but, knowing that theatre came from rituals worshipping Dionysus, theatre and choral chanting are much more closely related than I ever would have guessed.
Theatre is incredibly universal. It could almost be used as an example of convergent evolution, where different sects of the same species develop a similar skill at a similar time. Theatre has risen out of a variety of cultural practices, but has always been connected by the elements of storytelling and spectacle. From Europe to Asia, theatre has been a means of communication and entertainment, a way of connecting the masses through story. I'm sure if we delved into Native American culture we would see similarities in several of their practices as well.
The power of communication is one we're all familiar with.  The different styles of theatre are tailored to fit the needs of the society at the time, but it also has the power to influence change (we see this in Shakespeare's age, with the development of his language style). It is both influenced by society and also influential to society. As Oscar Wilde said "life imitates art almost as much as art imitates life".

- Sabrielle

History Of Theatre

The thing I found most interesting in the history if theatre, is the way the acoustics work in a Greek theatre. After hearing many educated guesses from people through history, I believe what most people have concluded. Theatre comes from rituals.Though there is no way to prove where theatre comes from, religion seems to be the beginning of many things. I suppose theatre falls under that category as well. I loved all the different rule alterations during the development of theatre, and how it is still changing today. From natives dancing around a fire praising spirits, to live puppet sex in vigorous harmony. Theatre has changed quite a bit since when ever it started. Even though it has come so far, it is best sometimes to consider your roots. It is like the Greek theatre. You could stand in the center of the orchestra, whisper, and people in the last row would hear what you're saying. Since then, shows around the world have tried to find a theatre that provides as good of acoustics as that but all they had to do was look back into the old ways.

Final Thoughts

Hello fellow bloggers,

I'm going to share my final thoughts about theatre. Exciting, I know... okay.. so.. I conclude.. Theatre is awesome!!

Ha I'm just kidding. Well it is awesome. No, I'm going to discuss how I never actually thought about theatre history before. Of course, there's history in everything ever made, but I never have actually took the time to really try to dig deep in.

I find it really interesting to think theatre started from brilliant works, such as Euripides or Shakespear, and have to developed into our huge spectacles of today!

Another thing I'd like to touch on was the asain theatre we learned about. Again, I had never thought of theatre from foreign places, but all the theatre genres sound so cool. Kabuki and showdow plays are the two that were my favourite. I really love big, eloborate costumes, and in most of the asain geres, theor costume were truly gorgeous

Anyway, I learned a lot and I'd just like to thank everyone for and awesome class!

Sophie Leroux

The thing that surprised me the most about theatre, is that it seems to naturally emerge within any society. If we look at both the Greek and the Japanese, both societies came up with theatre without influence from each other. Although their traditional forms have many distinct differences, they involve similar factors. I found this incredibly interesting. As if theatre is inherent in human nature and that it will always exist. For me, this realization has validated my choice to pursue performing because it is something that is very important to our culture. It was also neat to see how theatre evolves. Because people get so passionate, they want to revolutionize this art and make it their own. All of the rules (neoclassicism), choices (reducing the dithyramb), and rebellions (storm and stress/romanticism) individuals and groups of people have made in the past have shaped what theatre is today, which is very broad and diverse (this is why theatre is so hard to define). My idea of what theatre is hasn't changed much from the start of this course, but I now have a better understanding of why i define it the way I do. I feel that above all else, it must tell a story and entertain an audience. The story does not have to be anything concrete, but it must be something that has been thought out in order to have an influence on the viewers. My reasons for believing this are because, when we look at history, theatre was used as a tool to prove a point, create change, satirize, glorify, mock, etc. In general, theatre has been our way of communicating something to the masses. It is then the responsibility of the public to do with it as they will.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJcCLr19tIs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rlp1zrBl4g

Theatre Reflections

At the beginning of the year when we had the definitive theatre debate I was on the side that said that anything could be considered theatre as long as it involved players and an audience. In some ways I still agree with that I mean look at the ancient greeks and dithyramb or Japanese Banraku... If chanting in front of a crowd without dialogue and big puppet shows are "theatre" then who's to say that Pro-Wrestling, or a birthday party clown can't be considered the same.

However, my gut tells me that there are things in life that are more theatrical than others without actually crossing into the realm of theatre and that's where I stand.

Theatre is planned but not necessarily scripted, it has to be acted but sincere, it has to be a performance that resonates with the players and anyone watching through the 4th wall unbeknownst to the players.

Theatre is like emotion, it is a cluster of contradictions, but always powerful and present.

Theatre

Over this past few months I've learned a lot about theatre (mostly in the past few weeks of cramming, but hey, that's learning, right?)

The biggest thing I have realized is to not rush to compare different styles and genres of theatre, as well as everything that comes with it. Learning to appreciate everything for it's differences and similarities, much like anything in life.

Without learning about the origins of Greek Theatre, or Minstrel Shows, or the life of Stephen Sondheim, we wouldn't have what we know today as the Musical Theatre lifestyle that we love and live for.

The history of anything takes more than just a few steps, it takes an entire set of stairs to build up to what the present holds, and what the future promises.

The Art of Sharing

At the beginning of this semester, we were asked as a class: "What is Theatre?" Naturally this sparked a debate as obviously musicals and plays fit into the category, but other events that are theatrical in own manner could be debated to fit the definition of theatre. As a part of the Practice blog post, I wrote that "arguably, [theatre] could be anything you want it to be. But I think if we examine theatrical elements and determine what is crucial to most pieces of theatre, we may be able to be closer to defining the ever-undefinable art of theatre." (To view the entire blog post, go here.) Now that we are at the end of the semester, I feel as though I still agree with this statement.

We have traveled through the many eras of theatre, but one thing remains true: Theatre is about sharing the art of humanity with society and taking influences from society and integrating it. From Thespis stepping out of the Dithyrambic chorus and becoming the first actor to the introduction of the proscenium arch in the Italian Renaissance to Agnes DeMille's choreography in Oklahoma!, theatre continues to shape itself and redefine itself. It acts as a mirror to societies values and stories; the showgirls in the Ziegfeld Follies might not have been as popular in the time of Plautus' comedies, but in their respective eras, they were a hit simply because it was the sort of entertainment that the public was looking for. Theatre is a shared experience. The performers and the artists assemble to inspire the audiences, and the audiences and the general public inspire the artists to create these stories. In the theatre, the energy of the audience and the actors is shared infectiously. Theatre teaches us how to observe others and really listen. It shares ideas and stories. 

One of the theatrical elements that I think really defines theatre is one that Peter Brook declared. It is that there must be an agreement between the artists and the audience that a theatrical event is taking place. After all, two people can't share if only one of them knows that they are sharing. So let's share.

Theatre is the question!

This question has always struck me as unusual- because, theatre is theatre, how could it possibly be anything else? Yes of course, there's the argument that things that are theatrical in nature could in fact be identified as theatre, but I just don't agree.

All year we have been studying Musical Theatre History. I feel that everything that we touched on: from Greek tragedies, to Operetta, to the book musicals of today, can be fully and unquestionably considered to be theatre. I feel like instead of broadening my views on the definition of theatre, the things we have learned this semester actually narrowed them. At the beginning of the semester I believed that most things could be considered to be theatre, if there was some sort of spectacle and spectatorship involved, but now, I'm not so sure. Certainly the phenomenon of gladiators influenced the development of what theatre is today, but if it is theatre, then a hockey game could be called theatre, and that's just something I can't agree with. Because we didn't really study gladiators and hockey players did we? We studied playwrights and opera singers and the Quem quaeritis tropes. Those are all things that I would consider to be theatre. Or at least steps toward it.

I don't think this new perspective is narrow-minded in any way. It really just comes down to personal opinion, and I think that theatre in its true form was revealed to us through the things that we have learned throughout the semester.

So to conclude...

Theatre:

Not theatre: