Structure

10 Objectives
11 Introduction
12 Origins of DramdTheatre
13 Growth of Drama
14 Types of Stage
15 Let Us Sum Up
16 Exercise
17 Suggested Readings

OBJECTIVES
e aim of this unit is to familiarize the readers with the origin of drama, and to
the role and significance of theatre as a distinct practice. Drama has its
oral literature of Greek theatre and religio-social !ife of the Athenian
passed this initial beginning of performative behai.iour gave way to
in turn pawed way for formal written and performed plays.
focus on the origin and growth of drama and, later emphasizes
use of stage that evolved in the last few centuries. The soul of
Thus the audience plays a vital and pivotal role for the aim
is performance.

INTRODUCTION
I
I is a literary composition involving conflict, action, crisis and atmosphere
I eant to be acted by players on a stage before an audience. This definition may be
to motion picture drama as well as to the traditional stage. In Abram's
t drama is, "the form of composition designed for performance in the theatre,
which actors take the roles of the characters, perform the indicated action and
1 the written dialogue." Thus the essential ingredients of a drama are actors,
t logue, setting, plot and action. It is primarily meant for enactment on the stage.
e stage and the spectators are equally important. Marjorie Boulton says that
ue play is three dimensional; it is literature that walks and talks before our
I
' A drama operates within the limits and framework of space and time. It is
I stinguished from other literary forms by its special, complex relationship to the
I we call time. As a narrative art, it addresses to the telling of events which
I
place in the past, present or future. But as a performing art, along with music
I dance it has its existence in time. Thus it is a temporal act. Draina can never
a subject of purely literary study. It has to be known in relation to the stage, to
theatre. Tom F. Driver writes:
The act of performing the play in the theatre becomes a miniature reflection
of historical action taking place within the limit imposed by the conventions of
the theatre. This will be particularly true in those dramatic periods, such as
the Greek and the Elizabethan, where the theatre was frankly accepted as
the locus of the action and where there was not, an attempt to black out both
audience and theatre ... The theatre tends to reflect the assumptions of its age
regarding time and history because it is on the one hand a narrative of
temporal events, and on the other hand an enactment taking place within a
Drama: An Introduction moment of time. The mimetic instinct is confined to no single nation; it is
universal in its appeal and reveals itself as one of the most primitive of human
emotions. It is the earliest of imitative arts.
Drama may be defined as a well-told cohesive story presented in action. Compton-
Rickett writes:
It must be articulate -that is, spoken; for a pantomime is a story in action,
and the orator who declares may give us an articulate story, though not
necessarily in action ... for effective drama conflict of some kind is essential
... If the conflict be a trivial one, we get a farce. If a serious one, ending
happily for hero and heroine, we have a comedy. If a serious one with an
unhappy ending, we term it a tragedy.

ORGINS OF DRAMAITHEATRE
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece.
Between 600 and 200 B.C. the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture whose
form, technique and terminology have lasted two millennia, and they created plays
that are still considered among the greatest works of world drama. Their achievement
is truly remarkable when one considers that there have been only two other periods
in the history of theatre that could be said to approach the greatness of ancient
Athens - Elizabethan England and the Twentieth century.
The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from religious rites which date back to at
least 1200 BC. At that time Greece was peopled by tribes that we in our arrogance
might label 'primitive'. In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a cult arose
that worshipped Dionysus, the god of fertility and procreation. The Cult of Dionysus
practiced ritual celebration. The cult's most controversial practice involved, it is
believed, uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created an altered mental
state. This altered state was known as 'ecstasies'. Ecstasy was an important
religious concept to the Greeks, who would come to see theatre as a way of
releasing powerful emotions. Though it met with resistance, the cult spread through
the tribes of Greece. (Dionysiac, hysteria and 'catharsis' also derive from Greek
words for emotional release or purification). During this time, the rites of Dionysus
became mainstream and more formalised and symbolic. An essential part of the
rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb. The word means 'choric hymn'. This chant or
hymn was probably introduced into Greece early accompanied by mimic gestures,
and probably music. It began as a part of a religious ceremony, like a hymn,
describing the adventures of Dionysus. It was performed by a chorus of men, group
of dancers, and band of revellers. In this way, over a period of time dithyramb
evolved into stories in play fonn now known as drama.
Greek Theatre: By 600 BC in Greece the most prominent city state was Athens.
It was here that the Rites of Dionysus evolved into theatre. In about 600 BC, Arion
of Mehtymna (Corinth) wrote down formal lyrics for the dithyramb. Later Thespis
of Attica (Athens) added an actor who interacted with the chorus. This actor was
called the protagonist meaning the main character of a drama. When Thespis, the
director of choruses, his face smeared with white lead perhaps in simulation of the
dead god, stood on a table and addressed the leader of the chorus, dialogue was
born in Greece. With his inspired step Thespis also created the classic actor as
distinct from the dancer. His table (which probably served as an altar for animal
sacrifice) was the first inkling of a stage as distinguished from the primitive dancing
circle. In time, a second speaker was introduced and one moved from one art to
another, from choric chant to theatre. Gradually the leaders of the dithyramb could
include other related details taken from the many tales of ancestral and local heroes
which were being recited by poets. The words associated with dithyrambic dances
6 became elaborate and dramatic plot was introduced. In 534 RC, Pisistratus the ruler
 ens, instituted drama competitions. These competitions became popular annual Drama and Theatre
. A government authority called the archon chose the competitors and the
s, wealthy patrons financed the productions. The 'theatre' was constructed-
atre of Delphi, the Attic Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. In
word 'theatre' derives from the Greek word 'theatron' which referred to
en spectator stands erected on the hill sides; and the word 'orchestra' is
om the Greek word for a platform between the raised stage and the
n which the chorus was situated. Thespis who acquired a theatre building
e his plays (he was the first prize winning ~laywrightin 535 RC) were performed
anent circular dancing ground of stone with a stone temple in the
. Plays in those days were performed in the daytime. Actors wore little
up. There was no scenery. Actors wore masks and buskins (leather
pto the knees). Until 484 BC the Athenian drama co~npetitionsconsisted
f dithyrambs and a satyr play. Their style of presentation was choral
amatic. Around 484 BC there appeared on the Athenian theatre scene
amed Aeschylus. He introduced props and scenery and reduced the
to 12. Aeschylus ' Persians, written in 472 BC, is the earliest play in
crowning work was The Orestia, which tells the legend of
amemnon, the Greek war hero who was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and
pursuit of justice by his children, Orestes and Electra. Thematically, it is about
e tragedy of excessive human pride, arrogance or hubris. Aeschylus is also known
the Father of Tragedy. Of the ninety-two plays of Aeschylus only seven have
us. Hundreds of scattered fragments and comments provide an
of the subjects he treated. He is a master of the picturesque. His
aracters are colourful creatures, many of them supernatural, barbaric and his
eech is metaphorical. Prometheus Bound is an unforgettable work as its theme
as God himself. He turned from the drama of God to the drama of man in his last
o tragedies of which one is Agamemnon. In 468 BC Aeschylus was defeated in
tragedy competition by Sophocles.
hocles, contribution to drama was the addition of actors, and an emphasis on
ma between humans rather than between humans and Gods. He was a fine
aftsman. He won 20 competitions. He experimented, tried different styles and
ruggled painstakingly for perfection. He used only one play for each plot and was
consequently constrained to pack all his actions into it. In all respects the shorter
form offered the greater dramatic possibilities. His works bear a strong resemblance
to the architecture and sculpture of his time which favoured small temples and
statues of gods who are not much larger than well-built human beings. Sophocles is
precise rather than rhapsodic. It is noteworthy that Sophocles is the first writer
known to have used some comic details in his tragedies, a procedure that could oniy
be motivated by a desire for contrast and variety. He is a master of the device of
tragic suspense and tragic irony of which Oedipus the King is a supreme example.
Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone and Philoctetes are the other well known works.
Another contemporary Greek playwright was Euripides. His plays were about real
people. He placed peasants alongside princes and gave their feelings equal weight.
He showed the reality of war, criticized religion, and portrayed the forgotten of
society - women, slaves and old people. Euripides is credited with adding to the
dramatic form the Prologue which set the stage at the beginning of the play. He
managed to create the most forceful realism and social criticism of the classic
stage. The Trojan Women, Medea, Hippolyttrs, Cyclops and Alcestis are the well
known plays of Euripides.
Tragedy was not the only product of Athenian theatre but comedy also thrived at
the time. Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy represented by Cratinus
and Aristophanes; and New Comedy, whose main exponent was Menander.
Aristophanes, theatrical works were presented at the Athenian festivals. He used
three actors, a chorus that sang, danced and sometimes participated in the dialogue.
Drama: An introduction His first two comedies The Banqueters and The Babylonians were lost but it is
known that they were a satire on new education and a political satire respectively.
The Acharnians is the world's first anti-war comedy. His other comedies include
The Wmps on deterioration of Athens, Peace an anti- imperialistic comedy, The
Frogs and Plutus.
The use of overt satire, topicality and the pointed lampooning of celebrated characters
to be found in Aristophanes' style were replaced by mistaken identities, ironic
situations, ordinary characters and wit. Menander is the more significant name in
the New Comedy. His main contribution was to create a comedy model that greatly
influenced later comedy. His characters were not celebrities but ordinary people.
The chorus resembled modem chorus singers and dancers who provided fillers
between acts. They were also portrayed as drunken audience members. His
characters were classic comedy archetypes. Emphasis on mistaken identity, romance
and situational humour became the model for subsequent comedy, from the Romans
to Shakespeare to Broadway. His talent is witnessed in his comedy of errors - The
Girl From Samos, The Shearing of Glycera and The Arbitration. The work of
Menander was reincarnated in the Latin comedies of Plautus and Terrence.

1.3 GROWTH OF D U b I-
A .---
Gassner writes:

...there is not a single human impulse, moral or otherwise, that cannot be

associated with the growth of the stage; the masters of the drama are the
children of life .... The first playwright began indeed as a player and a magic
maker. But he gradually took the whole world of experience and thought for
his field. ...in copying movements or gestures, repeating sounds, and employing
human, animal and even vegetable disguises, primitive man was instinctively
bringing himself in touch with his~nvironment.And in playing he was not
only discharging excess energy but preparing himself for purposeful action.
...Man danced out his desires until the pantomimic dance became the most
finished early form of drama. ...The playwright leads the pantomime since
the form and execution of the performances requires a guiding iiltellect ... he
is also a social philosopher, for it is he who organizes the performance as a
commercial activity and extends the psychological reality of commune.

From Greece, the stage was passed on to Rome. With the fall of Rome in the fourth
century, the theatre virtually vanished. Drama in England does not begin until the
tenth century. The medieval theatre also developed out of the religious services.
It was the creation of the Church. Thus it is true to say that the "cradle of the
drama rested on the altar." The clergy were obliged to find some method of
teaching and explaining to the ignorant masses the doctrinal truths of religion. The
Gospel stories were illustrated by a series of living pictures in which the performers
acted the story in dumb show. In the next stage the actors spoke as well as acted
their parts. These early plays were known as Mysteries and Miracles. The
former were stories taken from the Scripture narrative while the latter are plays
dealing with incidents in the lives of Saints and Martyrs. Drama is inherent in the
very ritual of the Church, and the Mass itself was a factor in the dramatic
development.

Miracle plays grew out of the liturgy itself, with its solemn rites and the chants
alternating between priest and congregation. They began as short dialogues. Recited
at first inside the church these dialogues developed into title plays acted in the
church porch. One of the most iinportant was the play of Adam written in the
12°C by a Norman. It is in threr: pans, showing the fall of Adam and Eve, the
8 death of Abel and the line of prophets announcing the advent of the Saviour. This
 ay was written in French. Another important play was Noah, about Noah finishing Drama anld Theatre
e Ark, informing his wife and begging her to enter the ark. Thus the plays
folded scenes from the Scriptures, depicted scenes from the Life of Christ, and
ebrated Holy days like Christmas, Easter or Corpus Christi.
ertain towns, either by reason of the importance of their fairs, or through the more
werful organization of their trade guilds became noted for the presentation of
eir miracle plays. These cycle plays were known by the names of the places
ere they were shown - Chester, York, Coventry, Norwich, Newcastle and
kefield. The guilds played an important part in the powerful organization. One of
e most touching plays is that of Abraham and l ~ s a c
ystery and miracle plays gave way to Moralities and Interludes. In the
ystery and Miracle plays, serious and comic elements were interwoven. Now
ey part: the Morality presenting the serious and the Interlude the lighter side of
The characters typified certain qualities - Sin, Grace, Repentance. Moralities
te from allegory. Bible characters are replaced by abstract virtues and vices
ersonified. Their aim was primarily the teaching of the Christian faith. If in the
iracle plays the scenes had a movable pageant, the moralities required a fixed
stage. The moralities were concerned with wider issues and showed human life
wavering between good and evil, between God and the Devil. Well known plays
were Castell o f Perseverance, Everynzan and hlankind. The protagonist was
mankind a;; large. If on one side were grouped the person of evil angel and his
minions the Seven Deadly Sins, then on the other side were the good angel and the
Divine Graces. Thus the debate was between Sin, Jealousy, Malice, Gluttony etc.
and Mercy, Justice, Peace, Truth, etc. The persons of the mystery plays were
nearly all given individual names and the drama was rooted in reality. The
performances consisted of a group of local amateurs who formed an association for
the specific; purpose of acting - in other words, a fifteenth century amateur dramatic
society. The three plays mentioned above were pointers to the varied courses that
drama looked to .The miracle plays ceased to be acted about 1600, but by that time
the regular drama was established.

No mastet piece was produced during the years 1520 - 1578AD.

Interludes were comic dialogues and Heywood's interludes were popular as his
originalit4 consists in the fact that he avoids moralizing and aims at amusement. The
best knonn is The Four P b - Palmer, Pardoner, Pothecary and Pedlar. Heywood's
The Mery Play Between the Pardoner und the Frere was also very popular. Such
interludes indicate that an effort was made to combine good healthy instruction with
much conlic business.

The first Engl~shdrama was Gorboduc written by Sackville and Norton and played
before Elizabeth at Whitehall in 1562. When published it was called Ferrex and
Porrex . The tragic story is divided into five acts. Norton wrote the fourth and fifth.
The action takes place behind the scenes, and each act ends with a chorus, in
imitation of the tragedies of Seneca. It is written in blank verse and treats of an
episode in national history.

The first regular English comedy was produced in 1553 by Nicholas Udall and was
titled Ralph Roister Doister. Udall is justly entitled as the "Father of English
Comedy." The play is neither farce nor debate but is a comedy full of incident and
intrigue, well ordered and well planned. Gammer Gurton S Needle is the second
English comedy written by Mr. S.

The foufidation of a truly national theatre was helped by the formation of companies
of professional players. In 1576, the first theatre was built in Shoreditch. Gradually
the Rose, the Swan, the Globe and the Fortune were built. 9
Drama: An Introduction
1.4 TYPES OF STAGE
Drama has undergone significant changes with passage of time. Stage types also
changed and have thus required different forms of acting.
Drama, period-wise can be classified into broad categories as follows:
1. Classical Theatre (Greek and Roman)
2. Native Drama (1066-1 500)
3. Renaissance Drama ( 1500-1660)
a) Elizabethan Drama: Shakespeare and Contemporaries.
b) Jacobean and Caroline
4. The Neoclassical Period or Restoration Drama (1660-1700)
5. Drama in 18h, 19thand 20" Century.
Greek Theatre
Plays in ancient Greece were staged in amphitheatres, which were marked by a
round stage about three quarters surrounded by the audience. Since amphitheatres
were very large and could hold great masses of people (upto 25,000), the actors
could hardly be sPen from far back, and for this reason, acting included speaking in
a loud, declamatory voice, wearing masks and symbolical costumes and acting with
large gestures. The chorus was a vital part of ancient drama. It had the function of
commenting on the play as well as giving warning and advice to characters. The
stage scenery was neutral and was accompanied by the real landscape surrounding
the amphitheatre. Play were performed in day light.
Ancient Greek drama was performed on special occasions like religious ceremonies,
and it thus had a more ritual, symbolic and also didactic purpose. The audience
consisted only of free men; slaves and women were excluded.
The Theatre in Epidaurus (Theatre in Stone): The theatre at Epidaurus shows on
open-air Greek theatre, with seats for the audience hewn out on the slope of a hill.
The most prominent feature of the theatre is the large dancing circle, or orchestra,
for the chorus. At the side to the right is one of the passageways or paradoi,
affording entrance and exit for the chorus and processions. At the back, are the
ruins of the stone scene building, the skene, which could represent a temple or a
palace, and served as a permanent scenic background for the stage productions.
During 5" century BC, the skene became a two -storey stone building where the
upper storey or episkenion was used for the stage machinery, by means of which
the gods were lowered to the stage level. The front of the lower story had a
colannade or proskenion. Most of the acting transpired on a low platform in front
of this structure, which had three doors and was flanked by projecting wings as
paraskenia. The theatre at Epidauros belongs to the Hellenistic period (4th century
BC), but the above- mentioned architectural features were also present in the
theatre of Dionysus. Gradually the stage production became elaborate. The Skene
was usually rectangular and divided into rooms. The front wall of the ground story
had a series of pillars between which were set painted wooden panels or pinakes.
The actors usually performed on the second story level, so that the stage was about
a foot high and from 8 to 10 feet deep running the entire length of the building. At
the back of this stage stood the colonnaded front wall of the second story, pierced
by three doors, and served as the background. Between the columns of this upper
colonnade, too, pinakes might be placed. There was less inter-mingling between
the actors and the chorus.
Later under Roman influence, the Greek theatre underwent other modifications, the
10 stage or acting-area was lower by a few feet but deeper, the frontage of the stage
 st its colonnade but became a highly decorated scenic faqade, and the orchestra Drama and Theatre
no longer a complete circle.
ater, tragedy was stately and comedy was extravagant. The actors were trained in
ii eech, dance and pantomime.
ative Drama
edieval pIays (Mysteries and Moralities) were performed during religious
ivities. They were staged on wagons (pageants), which stopped somewhere in
market place and were entirely surrounded by the audience. The close vicinity
etween actors and audience had to account for a way of acting. Actors took into
count the everyday experiences. Rarely were the mystery plays exhibited anywhere
cept out of doors and no attempt was made to construct for them any theatre.
ithin the church stations or locations (sedesl seats; locilplaces; domuslhouses)
ere in view of the method of stage representation called 'simultaneous setting' or
ultiple setting'. When the liturgical plays ceded their position to the mystery
cles, the seats or small platforms elaborated into mansions - sometimes made
little rooms by provision of curtains at the sides and back, sometimes decorated
carved or painted scenery and the platea served its original function. The
ationary set presented the mansions in a curving row facing the audience. The
ond involved the placing of the mansions on wheels, so that they became
geants, which could be drawn from spot to spot. The actors were amateur -
embers of various guilds or companies who for a time put aside their labour to
erform. They were generally paid for their services. Heaven and Hell were
presented 'either on left and right sides respectively or top and bottom. Costuming
as not only gorgeous but imaginative. On a multiple stage live animals such as
bbits and lambs were employed. Placards were used. The attention of the audience
as concentrated on gestures, delivery of numerous monologues and the many
ades for effect. There were no actresses, boys took the parts of women. The
eterogeneous audience from the groundlings to courtiers were simple folk willing
be taught and edified. They appreciated the essentials of drama: life, pathos and

he Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatres, i.e. plays were no
nger performed outside. However it was still open air theatre. From 1580 to 1642
ndon theatres presented almost everyday a number of plays both old and new,
ch one a medley of styles. Theatres were simple in structure, mostly circular in
rm; within was a courtyard open to the sky, surrounded by two or three tiers of
overed galleries. At one side of the courtyard projected a platform which formed
stage. In the centre, on either side of the platform, two pillars supported the
ling; at the back, between two doors which sewed for the entrance and exit of
e actors, was another stage overlooked by a gallery with balcony and windows; in
ont of this rear - stage was a movable curtain. There were no wings, only
ementary accessories. The front stage served most purposes. On the bare stage
e actors, performance was all important. The most common stage form in
naissance England was the open stage which was surrounded by the audience
n three sides and there was still close vicinity between audience and actors. The
estigial platform was known as the apron and it stood in front of the proscenium
rch and accommodated most of the acting. Playwrights wrote long speeches
ularly into their plays, employed the embellishments of rhetoric, and made free
of asides and soliloquies. The Elizabethan theatre could hold upto 2,000 people
d the audience was heterogeneous. Plays of the period typically combine various
bject matters and modes because they attempted to appeal to as wide an audience
possible. The apron was cut down and was finally discarded entirely after the
iddle of the 19h century. Once the actor played close to the scenery within the 11
Drama: An Introduction setting, as became customary, he was disproportionately tall and the painted scenery
looked false. Stage illusiori deteriorated.

Restoration Stage
Theatres of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were considerably smaller
than the Elizabethan theatre (held about 500 people) and performances took place
in closed rooms with artificial lighting. Audience was seated in a fully illuminated
room. The stage was closed in by a decorative frame and the distance between
audience and actors was thus enlarged. There was no curtain and changes of scene
had to take place on stage in front of the audience. The plays presented an
idealized, highly stylized image of scenery, characters, language and subject of
matter. Emergence of 'Patent' theatres and minor playhouses is a significant move
of the drama in the 17" and 18"'century. As the old tightly - knit aristocratic society
began to disintegrate and the middle classes started to enter the playhouses, the
playhouse established its own tradition, which were passed on to the nineteenth
century and even to the present day. Nicoll writes: "Four popular species of
entertainment must be noted - the operatic, the spectacular, the terpsichorean and
the mimic." The men and women liked show; music appealed to them and dances
were appreciated. The ballad-opera invented by John Gay exhibited that the tastes
lay within the field of extravagant and satirical.
Proscenium Stage

The stage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is called proscenium or picture
frame stage because it is shaped in such a way that the audience watches the play
as it would regard a picture: The ramp clearly separates actors and audience, and
the curtain underlines this division. While the stage is illuminated during the
performance, the auditorium remains dark, which also turns the audience into an
anonymous mass. Since the audience is not disturbed and can fully concentrate; it
became easier to create an illusion of real life in plays. Scenery is elaborate, and
true -- to - life. More detailed stage props, lighting and sound system are possible
due to new technologies. Multiple stages are operative simultaneously. The play is
not just a drama but moves like a tilan as it creates the illusion of a story world 'as
it could be in real life.' There is a wide range of different types of stage in the
present era, alongside the conventional proscenium stage or the modern street
theatre. With passing time, dramatic power has heightened, artistry refined and
situations secularized and universalized.

1.5 LET US SUM UP

At the end of this unit, we are familiar with
a the role of theatre
a the significance of theatre.

1.6 EXERCISE
1. Elaborate Boulton's statement; "A true play is three dimensional."

2. Elucidate the fact that the 'cradle of the drama rested on the altar'.

3. Write notes on:

a) Greek theatre
b) Growth of British drama
12 c) Origin of tragedy and comedy
Drama ant1 Theatre