Guided notes: The Historical Origins of Theater
Early drama developed from
ancient
greece
particularly the festival of
Dionysus in ancient Greece. These theatrical performances endeavored (attempted) to pass on
thereputic
messages to the audience and bring on catharsis, or a purging (release) of tragedy
such as pity and fear.
Key Term
The action was interspersed
the
Greek comedy, in contrast, was intended to provoke satyr
(scattered) with farcical (absurd) and humorous situation that
and made people laugh.
and
took up the forms of Greek
Roman playwrights like Seneca,
tragedies and comedies.
→ Seneca wrote plays with
endings.
→ Plautus and Terence modeled their works on Greek
Q
In their comedies, we see the emergence of stock characters like the braggart soldier, the love-struck
and the
father.
Stock characters are based on common social
and cultural stereotynes