Unit 32: Developing Physical Theatre
Physical Theatre
There are a few practices/practioners who contributed to the roots of physical theatre.
Greek theatre
Greek theatre spanned from 600BC-600AD and it began with festivals honouring Greek Gods. Plays were only allowed to be presented at the Dionysia festival. At early Greek festivals actors, directors and dramatists were the same person however, after a while only three actors were allowed to perform in the plays. Then they later decided to have a few more non speaking were also allowed to perform on the stage. This became the Greek chorus and became a very active part of Greek theatre as it helped the audience understand what was happening in the play more.
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell’arte is a type of theatre which mainly uses masks. It began in Italy in the 16th century and was responsible for improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A stock character is a stereotypical person who the audience readily recognize from frequent recurrences. Stock characters are characters that aren’t very complex, resulting in them being easy targets for parody and to be criticized as clichés. Stock characters are a key component of many genres. Commedia dell'arte has 3 main groups of stock roles; the servants (zanni), the masters or elders (almost always old men hence their Italian name, the vecchi) and the lovers (innamorati, also known as the amorosi). Male servants and male masters (but not male amorosi) are masked and those characters themselves are often referred to as "masks" (in Italian: maschere), which, according to John Rudlin, cannot be separated from the character. In other words, the character and the mask are one in the same. In time however the word maschere came to refer to all of the characters of the commedia dell'arte whether masked or not. Female characters (including female servants) are most often not masked (female amorose are never masked). Female characters in the masters group are rare. The amorosi are often children of a male character in the masters group, but not of any female character in the masters group, which may represent younger women who have e.g. married an old man, or a high class courtesan. Female characters in the masters group, while younger than their male counterparts, are nevertheless older than the amorosi. The servants or the clowns are referred to as the zanni and include characters such as Arlecchino, Brighella and Pedrolino. Jacques Lecoq Jacques Lecoq was born in 1921 in Paris, was a French actor, mime and acting instructor. Lecoq trained his actors in ways that motivated them to find ways of performance that they felt suited …show more content…
She was given several awards and established the Wuppertal dance theatre in 1973. Wuppertal formed because they wanted to redefine dance around the world and were reacting to postmodernism. They helped Bausch to revolutionize herself and redefine dance around the world. Bausch was already a famous choreographer of modern dance and was an influence to the USA, Britain and Europe. She said that “she was not interested in the movement of the dancers but what moved them. “ She wanted to revive modern dance in post war Germany. She looked at everyday movements to express personal experiences. Wuppertal wanted to move away from post- modern theatre and create something more …show more content…
They both used men and women to demonstrate power struggles. Some of their work contained violent themes and they also liked to use symbolism and metaphors, this was all used to convey real life in the social and political context. They both also wanted to create a different era of dance, a more modern one that was more aligned to the present day social and political issues. They wanted people to learn from them and to understand real life. They had different methods in which they delivered their work; Bausch’s use of personal questions was somewhat unethical as was her need for an emotional shock reaction but maybe she saw this as the only way in which to get her views of feminism and gender roles across. She wanted to create something real that people could identify with. Newson wanted to deliver how interesting dance was by using topical themes like homosexuality, he wanted people to see dance in a new light and to gain emotional
Physical Theatre
There are a few practices/practioners who contributed to the roots of physical theatre.
Greek theatre
Greek theatre spanned from 600BC-600AD and it began with festivals honouring Greek Gods. Plays were only allowed to be presented at the Dionysia festival. At early Greek festivals actors, directors and dramatists were the same person however, after a while only three actors were allowed to perform in the plays. Then they later decided to have a few more non speaking were also allowed to perform on the stage. This became the Greek chorus and became a very active part of Greek theatre as it helped the audience understand what was happening in the play more.
Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell’arte is a type of theatre which mainly uses masks. It began in Italy in the 16th century and was responsible for improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A stock character is a stereotypical person who the audience readily recognize from frequent recurrences. Stock characters are characters that aren’t very complex, resulting in them being easy targets for parody and to be criticized as clichés. Stock characters are a key component of many genres. Commedia dell'arte has 3 main groups of stock roles; the servants (zanni), the masters or elders (almost always old men hence their Italian name, the vecchi) and the lovers (innamorati, also known as the amorosi). Male servants and male masters (but not male amorosi) are masked and those characters themselves are often referred to as "masks" (in Italian: maschere), which, according to John Rudlin, cannot be separated from the character. In other words, the character and the mask are one in the same. In time however the word maschere came to refer to all of the characters of the commedia dell'arte whether masked or not. Female characters (including female servants) are most often not masked (female amorose are never masked). Female characters in the masters group are rare. The amorosi are often children of a male character in the masters group, but not of any female character in the masters group, which may represent younger women who have e.g. married an old man, or a high class courtesan. Female characters in the masters group, while younger than their male counterparts, are nevertheless older than the amorosi. The servants or the clowns are referred to as the zanni and include characters such as Arlecchino, Brighella and Pedrolino. Jacques Lecoq Jacques Lecoq was born in 1921 in Paris, was a French actor, mime and acting instructor. Lecoq trained his actors in ways that motivated them to find ways of performance that they felt suited …show more content…
She was given several awards and established the Wuppertal dance theatre in 1973. Wuppertal formed because they wanted to redefine dance around the world and were reacting to postmodernism. They helped Bausch to revolutionize herself and redefine dance around the world. Bausch was already a famous choreographer of modern dance and was an influence to the USA, Britain and Europe. She said that “she was not interested in the movement of the dancers but what moved them. “ She wanted to revive modern dance in post war Germany. She looked at everyday movements to express personal experiences. Wuppertal wanted to move away from post- modern theatre and create something more …show more content…
They both used men and women to demonstrate power struggles. Some of their work contained violent themes and they also liked to use symbolism and metaphors, this was all used to convey real life in the social and political context. They both also wanted to create a different era of dance, a more modern one that was more aligned to the present day social and political issues. They wanted people to learn from them and to understand real life. They had different methods in which they delivered their work; Bausch’s use of personal questions was somewhat unethical as was her need for an emotional shock reaction but maybe she saw this as the only way in which to get her views of feminism and gender roles across. She wanted to create something real that people could identify with. Newson wanted to deliver how interesting dance was by using topical themes like homosexuality, he wanted people to see dance in a new light and to gain emotional