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Meta-theatre
Metatheatre, and the closely related term metadrama, describes the aspects of a play that draw attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. "Breaking the Fourth Wall" is an example of a metatheatrical device. Metatheatrical devices may include: direct address to the audience (especially in soliloquies, asides, prologues, and epilogues); expression of an awareness of the presence of the audience (whether they are addressed directly or not); an acknowledgement of the fact that the people performing are actors (and not actually the characters they are playing); an element whose meaning depends on the difference between the represented time and place of the drama (the fictional world) and the time and place of its theatrical presentation (the reality of the theatre event); plays-within-plays (or masques, spectacles, or other forms of performance within the drama); references to acting, theatre, dramatic writing, spectatorship, and the fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the Epic poetry, epic and the Lyric poetry, lyrical modes ever since Aristotle's ''Poetics (Aristotle), Poetics'' ()—the earliest work of dramatic theory. The term "drama" comes from a Ancient Greek, Greek word meaning "deed" or "Action (philosophy), act" (Classical Greek: , ''drâma''), which is derived from "I do" (Classical Greek: , ''dráō''). The two masks associated with drama represent the traditional Genre, generic division between Comedy (drama), comedy and tragedy. In English (as was the analogous case in many other European languages), the word ''Play (theatre), play'' or ''game'' (translating the Old English, Anglo-Saxon ''pleġan'' or Latin ''ludus'') wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for theatre, theatrical performance rather than mere Reading (process), reading. The creator of a play is known as a playwright. Plays are staged at various levels, ranging from London's West End theatre, West End and New York City's Broadway theatre, Broadway – the highest echelons of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world – to Regional theater in the United States, regional theatre, community theatre, and academic productions at universities and schools. A stage play is specifically crafted for performance on stage, distinct from works meant for broadcast or cinematic adaptation. They are presented on a stage before a live audience. Some dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, have shown little preference for whether their plays are performed or read. The term "play" encompasses the written texts of playwrights and their complete theatrical renditio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus (; ; 85 BC – 23 October 42 BC) was a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar. After being adopted by a relative, he used the name Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, which was retained as his legal name. He is often referred to simply as Brutus. Early in his political career, Brutus opposed Pompey, who was responsible for Brutus' father's death. He also was close to Caesar. However, Caesar's attempts to evade accountability in the law courts put him at greater odds with his opponents in the Roman elite and the senate. Brutus eventually came to oppose Caesar and sided with Pompey against Caesar's forces during the ensuing civil war (49–45 BC). Pompey was defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48, after which Brutus surrendered to Caesar, who granted him amnesty. With Caesar's increasingly monarchical and autocratic behaviour after the civil war, several senators who later called themselves ''liberatores'' (liber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julius Caesar (play)
''The Tragedy of Julius Caesar ''(First Folio title: ''The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar''), often shortened to ''Julius Caesar'', is a history play and Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy by William Shakespeare first performed in 1599. In the play, Brutus the Younger, Brutus joins a conspiracy led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Cassius to assassinate Julius Caesar, to prevent him from becoming a tyrant. Caesar's right-hand man Mark Antony, Antony stirs up hostility against the conspirators and Roman Empire, Rome becomes embroiled in a dramatic civil war. Synopsis The play opens with two tribunes Flavius and Gaius Epidius Marullus, Marullus (appointed leaders/officials of Rome) discovering the plebeians, commoners of Rome celebrating Julius Caesar's Roman triumph, triumphant return from Battle of Munda, defeating the sons of his military rival, Pompey. The tribunes, insulting the crowd for their change in loyalty from Pompey to Caesar, attempt to end the festivities and break up the commone ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet''. He is the chief counsellor of the play's ultimate villain, Claudius, and the father of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play, Polonius is described by William Hazlitt as a "sincere" father, but also "a busy-body, hois accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent". In Act II, Hamlet refers to Polonius as a "tedious old fool" and taunts him as a latter day " Jephtha". Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, provoking Ophelia's descent into madness, ultimately resulting in her (probable) suicide and the climax of the play: a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Character Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counsellor to King Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has also been suggested that he only acts like a "foolish prating knave" to keep his position ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew of the usurping King Claudius, Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At the beginning of the play, he is conflicted whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes (Hamlet), Laertes, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two acquaintances of his from childhood. He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude (Hamlet), Gertrude (mistakenly poisoned by Claudius). Role in the play The play opens with Hamlet deeply depressed over the recent death of his father, King Hamlet, and his uncle King Claudius, Claudius' ascension to the throne and hasty marriage to Hamlet's mother Gertrude (Hamlet), Gertrude. One night, his father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antony And Cleopatra
''Antony and Cleopatra'' is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed around 1607, by the King's Men at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre. Its first appearance in print was in the First Folio published in 1623, under the title ''The Tragedie of Anthonie, and Cleopatra''. The plot is based on Thomas North's 1579 English translation of Plutarch's '' Lives'' (in Ancient Greek) and follows the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony from the time of the Sicilian revolt to Cleopatra's suicide during the War of Actium. The main antagonist is Octavius Caesar, one of Antony's fellow triumvirs of the Second Triumvirate and the first emperor of the Roman Empire. The tragedy is mainly set in the Roman Republic and Ptolemaic Egypt and is characterized by swift shifts in geographical location and linguistic register as it alternates between sensual, imaginative Alexandria and a more pragmatic, austere Rome. Many consider Shakespeare's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boy Player
A boy player was a male child or teenager who performed in Medieval theatre, Medieval and English Renaissance theatre, English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for adult companies and performed the female roles, since women were not allowed to perform on the English stage during this period. Others worked for children's companies in which all roles, not just the female ones, were played by boys. Children's companies In the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan and Jacobean era, Jacobean periods, troupes appeared that were composed entirely of boy players. They are famously mentioned in William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'', in which a group of travelling actors has left the city due to rivalry with a troupe of "little eyases" (II, ii, 339); the term "eyas" means an unfledged hawk. The children's companies grew out of the choirs of boy singers that had been connected with cathedrals and similar institutions since the Middle Ages. (Similar boy choirs exis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was also styled as Thea Neotera () and Philopatris (); see 70/69 BC10 or 12 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and the last active Hellenistic pharaoh.She was also a diplomat, Ancient navies and vessels, naval commander, linguist, and Ancient Greek medicine, medical author; see and . A member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian Greek general and Government of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)#Companions, friends, councils, and assemblies, companion of Alexander the Great. writes about Ptolemy I Soter: "The Ptolemaic dynasty, of which Cleopatra was the last representative, was founded at the end of the f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval Theatre
Medieval theatre encompasses theatrical in the period between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century. The category of "medieval theatre" is vast, covering dramatic performance in Europe over a thousand-year period. A broad spectrum of genres needs to be considered, including mystery plays, morality plays, farces and masques. The themes were almost always religious. The most famous examples are the English cycle dramas, the York Mystery Plays, the Chester Mystery Plays, the Wakefield Mystery Plays, and the N-Town Plays, as well as the morality play known as '' Everyman''. One of the first surviving secular plays in English is '' The Interlude of the Student and the Girl'' (c. 1300). Due to a lack of surviving records and texts, low literacy in the general population, and the opposition of the clergy, there are few surviving sources from the Early and High Medieval periods. However, by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theatre Studies
Theatre studies (sometimes referred to as theatrology or dramatics) is the study of theatrical performance in relation to its literary, physical, psychological, sociological, and historical contexts. It is an interdisciplinary field which also encompasses the study of theatrical aesthetics and semiotics. A late-20th-century development in the area has been the ethnographic theory of theatre, pioneered by the Russian scholar Larisa Ivleva who studied the influence of folk culture on the development of Russian theatre. List of theatrologists Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field, those who have been described as theatrologists can vary widely in terms of the primary focus of their activities. * Emil František Burianwriter, singer, actor, musician, composer, playwright and director * Jovan Ćirilovphilosopher, dramaturge, and writer * François Delsarteteacher of acting and singing * Joseph Gregortheatre historian and opera librettist * John Heilperntheatre critic and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Renaissance Theatre
The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatre'' encompasses the period between 1562—following a performance of ''Gorboduc'', the first English play using blank verse, at the Inner Temple during the Christmas season of 1561—and the ban on theatrical plays enacted by the English Parliament in 1642. In a strict sense "Elizabethan" only refers to the period of Queen Elizabeth's reign (1558–1603). ''English Renaissance theatre'' may be said to encompass ''Elizabethan theatre'' from 1562 to 1603, '' Jacobean theatre'' from 1603 to 1625, and '' Caroline theatre'' from 1625 to 1642. Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed towards the end of the period. Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
