Pre Modern Theatre Styles

Theatre styles are the traditions of theatre that are accepted as conventional and are particular to specific times, places, peoples and cultures. By their very nature, theatre styles and their associated conventions are not static, constant or definitive but are indicative. For example, a theatre style might indicate a historical period or political movement. (Taken from the Study Design

Different theatre styles include different theatrical conventions. A theatrical convention can be thought of as an ingredient, something that is added to a performance that make it recognisable as a particular theatre style. For example, in Greek Theatre masks are a theatrical convention; in Realism, believable characters and ordinary settings are conventions. Theatrical conventions are the techniques or devices used by the productIon team to turn a script into a piece of theatre.

Pre-modern theatre refers to works prior to the 1920s. Theatre styles from the pre-modern era of theatre include Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman, Commedia dell’Arte, Elizabethan, Restoration comedies and dramas, Naturalism/Realism, Beijing Opera, Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki and other traditional indigenous theatre forms. Sometimes students approach these styles thinking they are going to be 'boring'. HOWEVER, pre-modern theatre was innovative for its time and has contributed to the theatre we enjoy today.

REALISM

(mid to late 1800s onwards)

Realism is a style of theatre that attempts to create 'a slice of life' on stage. Realism aims to be authentic to the human experience.

Costumes authentic to reflect status, context, characteristics, etc
Doesn’t break 4th wall
Representational acting
Dialogue is not heightened for effect, but that of everyday speech
Vernacular
Props authentic to context
Setting believable, reflects context/s
Characters are believable, everyday types
Use of Acting Skills (voice, gesture, facial expressions and movement) are nuanced and psychologically motivated, reflecting internal characteristics
Chronological timeframe
Use of symbol

ELIZABETHAN THEATRE

1558-1603

Elizabethan Theatre is a style of performance plays which blossomed during the reign of Elizabeth I of England (1558-1603).

Elaborate costumes: rich and colourful to reflect status
Presentational acting
Direct address (during asides, prologue, soliloquy, epilogue)
Dialogue full of imagery
Poetic and heightened dialogue
Use of prose and stylised, rhythmic verse
Blank verse, rhyming couplets and iambic pentameter
Double casting (actors playing multiple roles).

"Having one actor play more than role was convenient for Shakespeare, whose acting company was limited in size, but doubling also enabled him to intensify the atmosphere of his plays, and to make connections and contrasts between scenes and storylines."

Use of hand props/minimal use of props
Minimal scenery, largely empty acting spaces with isolated set pieces single tree equalled a forest, a throne for a King’s palace
As plays become more complex in nature, psychologically motivated characters were portrayed
Movements stylised and dramatic
Gestures were appropriate but stylised and highly selective for tragedy
Balcony at the rear of the stage used for scenes involving fantastical beings, Gods or Heaven
Trap door used to drop characters into Hell or raise characters up from beneath.
Play within a play
Masque (allegorical stories about an event or person involving singing, acting and dancing)
Clear articulation of the voice; slightly elevated tone
Male actors only - boys played female roles

COMEDY OF MANNERS

Costumes contemporary dress of the time
Large brimmed plumed hats, heavy periwig, ruffles, gowns with bell shaped skirts and sleeves with high mantillas and veils, hooded cloaks, eye patches.
Predominately presentational
Action took place mainly downstage on the apron of the stage.
Gesticulation was very important and an entire array of facial grimacing, winking and smiling was developed.
Witty dialogue, sexual innuendos, voice brilliant and brittle, prose
Intricate vocal pauses and timing, tempo of delivery was rapid.
Characters clashing over love entanglements and intrigues Situations are ridiculous and surreal with lots of coincidences
Settings in the town or scenes that portrayed country life as boring
Stock characters: the rake, the fop
Excessive make-up, false noses, beards, moustaches, powder, rouge, pencil, lipstick and beauty patches.
Satirizes upper class, ridicules their behaviour
Reflects the life, ideals and manners of upper class society
Prologues and Epilogues

FARCE

(began 15th century)

Burlesque
Presentational acting
Breaking the 4th wall
Direct address
verbal and physical humour
Ludicrous situations
fast-paced physical action and visual comedy
Satire
Character exaggeration - caricture
Rough and boisterous physical play which can be violent – elements of slapstick

JACOBEAN THEATRE

(1603-1625)

Jacobean Theatre refers to the drama that was written and performed during the reign of Elizabeth’s successor, James I (1603-1625)

Towards the end of Elizabeth’s reign the plays were becoming more edgy and human situations were becoming more exaggerated.
Extreme violence was being portrayed on the stage. The playwrights were focusing on the human being’s capacity for selfishness, and exaggerating such Renaissance forces as human ambition, and its effects.
Exploring the nature of evil, pushing things to the extremes of human behaviour.
Representations of the society in which they lived, dramatised in exciting titillating stories, full of sex and violence.
The comic dramas of the Elizabethan theatre give way to harsh satire
Dramas centred on moral corruption and violent stories of revenge
Playwrights, reading the audience’s changing appetite, felt the need to give them even more realistic representations of the society of which they were a part

https://nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/era/jacobean-drama-theatre/

COMMEDIA DELL' ARTE

Commedia dell’arte is a form of rehearsed improvised comedy with clear acting techniques, simple staging and hilarious plots lines.

Pronunciation: co-MAY-dee-ah del AR-tay.

Formal performances began in Italy in the mid-1500s, soon spreading to France and Spain (where they were very popular) and other parts of Europe.
Mix of masked and unmasked characters
Characters belonged to one of three categories: masters, lovers, servants.

Masters: adults, landowners, merchants, businessmen etc. Lovers: young attractive ladies, handsome effeminate men. Servants (zanni, pl.): typically young, most often male, witty (sometimes stupid), physical.

Characters were one-dimensional, stereotypical, caricatured, satirical “stock” qualities (conventional, repeated, anticipated, unchanged. Commedia characters did not develop or learn from previous mistakes.

Plot and Structure

Scripts consisted only of scene descriptions, known as scenarios.
Dialogue, while rehearsed, was improvised and could differ from one performance to another.
Plots were often risque and bawdy.

Performance Spaces

Initially performances occurred outdoors: in the streets, at market places and fairs.

Acting Techniques

Often very fast dialogue
Physical comedy (precursor to modern physical theatre style).
Comedic qualities such as singing, dancing, acrobatics, tumbling etc.
Slapstick an essential ingredient, particularly for servant characters.
Exaggerated gestures, arm and leg movements.
Fast-paced action
Exemplary comic timing.
Audience interaction

VAUDEVILLE

(1880s to the end of the 1920s)

Theatrical and exotic Costumes depending on the act
Presentational Acting
Breaking the 4th wall
Direct address
Dance and acrobatics
A series of short entertaining acts
Slapstick
Comedy
Magic acts, Juggling, pantomime - hybrid form of entertainment between a circus and a musical.
Song
Satire
Origins: France

LITURGICAL DRAMA

The earliest traces of the liturgical drama are found in manuscripts dating from the 10th century.

Acted within or near the church.
Moveable stages (pageant wagons)
Performed stories from the Bible
Chanting, song, dance and music
Tableau vivants
Dramatic and performative
Trap doors, fire, and flying techniques
Minimal props
Elaborate stages, representing earth, heaven, and hell
Grotesque masks representing Satan
Both simple and elaborate costumes, used costumes to personify virtues and vices, life and death
Use of allegory in design elements

NOH THEATRE

Noh is one of the the three most famous Japanese traditional theater styles, the other two styles being Bunraku and Kabuki Theater.

Masks are one of the most essential conventions and are so revered they have almost spiritual powers.
Costumes are vibrantly coloured and elaborate conveying age, gender, occupation, and social status of any role just by looking at their dress.
Simple props that are more symbolic than realistic. Use of handheld fans.
Music, song, and dance
Performance spaces include theatres and shrines.

GREEK THEATRE

Costume reflects gender and social status.
Contemporary dress of the time: “chiton” and “hemateon”.
Female roles wore a “prosterneda” (imitate female breasts) and “progastreda” (belly).
Presentational acting
Breaks the fourth wall
Images painted on the exterior walls of the ‘skene’
Pinakes-painted scenic panels (like modern day flats/panels)
Periatoki-three-sided pivoting triangle with a different scene painted on each side
Eccyclema-wheeled platforms
Minimal props often used symbolically
Masks
The use of a Chorus who comments on action
Unity of time, place and action
Hero/Heroine had tragic flaw, otherwise known as hubris
Stylised gesture
Burlesque
Exaggerated movement
Ritualized, dance-like movement sequences either individually or in a group, often using repetition, symbolic gesture
Heightened use of language
Lyrical, poetic imagery through use of song, movement and verse

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