THEATER essays

THEATER essays How different cultures affected English Theater Theater unites the past and present in a unique cultural experience. Theatre continues to thrive and has become an important subject for study in schools and universities. Reaching back in time and across the world, this ranging new history draws on the latest scholarly research to describe and celebrate theatres greatest achievements over 4,500 years, from festival performances in Egypt to international multicultural theatre in the late twentieth century. English theatre has been changed by different cultures throughout the world. The Father of drama was Thesis of Athens, 535 BC, who created the first actor. The actor performed in intervals between the dancing of the chorus and conversing at times with the leader of the chorus. The tragedy was further developed when new myths became part of the performance, changing the nature of the chorus to a group appropriate to the individual story. Aeschylus added a second actor and a third actor was added by Sophocles, and the number of the chorus was fixed at fifteen. The chorus part was gradually reduced, and the dialogue of the actors became increasingly important. The word chorus meant dance or dancing ground, which was how dance evolved into the drama. Members of the chorus were characters in the play that commented on the action. They drew the audience into the play and reflected the audiences reactions. The Greek philosopher Aristotle, who observed the basic human tendancy to imitate, recognized the origins of Greek theatre in the dithyramb, a hymn sung and danced to honor the god Dionysus. This had evolved from earlier ecstatic dances by female celebrants of shamanism. A chorus of 50 men and related episodes from the gods life performed the dithyramb at annual festivals of Dionysus. The Greeks of Athens invented Western drama. Athenian playwrights used myths and heroic l...