1.  Theatre developed in ancient Greece from religious rituals.  It began as the
Dithyramb, a religious ceremony devoted to the god Dionysus.  The leader of the
chorus became the main character in a dramatic play, and the rest of the chorus
became, fittingly, the chorus in the play.  Eventually the form developed untill
there were 2, 3 or more named characters in the play.


2. Imitation of a noble and complete action: 'Imitation' is the action of the play,
while 'noble' and 'complete' mean the action is worthwhile and fully carried out.

Proper magnitude:  This means that the events in the play are important enough, I.e.
about gods and kings.

Language that has been artistically enhanced:  This is language designed to be
dramatic or artfull, instead of everyday speaking language.  An example would be
iambic pentameter.

Presented in dramatic, not narrative form:  The action is not told as a story, but
is told to emphasize the tragic nature of the events.

Pitiable and fearful incidents:  These are the actual tragic events of a tragedy,
such as the hero dying or poking his eyes out.

Catharsis of such pitiable and fearful incidents:  Catharsis is the purgative
feeling that is supposed to be brought about by a tragedy.


3. When signs of disease and misfortune begin to appear in Athens, the king Oedipus
tries to find their cause.  The seer Tiresias tells Oedipus that it is Oedipus
himself that is the cause.  Oedipus does not believe Tiresias and believes that it
is the brother of his wife (and mother) Jocasta, Creon, who is plotting to usurp the
throne.  A messenger tells Oedipus that Polybus and Merope are not his real parents,
and that Polybus has died of natural causes despite the prophesy that Oedipus would
kill his father and marry his mother.  Jocasta realises the truth before Oedipus
does and begs him not to pursue the matter any further.  Oedipus summons the
shepherd named by the messenger and questions him.  The shepherd says that he was
given Oedipus to dispose of by king Laius, but that he instead gave him away.
Oedipus then realises the truth, that he has killed his father and married his
mother.  He discovers that Jocasta has hanged herself, and pokes out his own eyes
with brooch pins. 


4.  The liturgical drama of the medieval period grew out of the chuch service of The
Hours.  The plays originally took the form of 'tropes', which are very short scenes
depicting as much as perhaps a passage or two from the bible.  These early scenes
were originally performed in a church, with the architecture of the church being
employed as the set.  The front of the church would act as the stage, and the chorus
loft might represent heaven.


5.  At night, Romeo sees Juliet through the window, and compares her to the sun.  He
compares her to the moon who, he says, is envious.  He wishes she knew he loved her,
then wonders who she is talking to.  He then compares her eyes to stars, but says
that stars in her eyes place would be shamed by her beauty, and her eyes in the
stars place make the night like day.  Finally, he wishes that he were a glove on her
hand that he might touch her cheek.


6.  Jo-ha-kyu means, essentially, a gradually increasing temp.  This is manifested
in the stages of a play, with Jo being the beginning going at a slow pace, the
middle increasing in tempo, and kyu is the climax and conclusion.  Jo-ha-kyu is also
linked to chaos (ha) and resolution (kyu).


7.  Saxe-Meiningen was the major influence on the Théâtre Libre, which was concerned
with authenticity.  A 'box set' was used to emphasize the existance of a 4th wall.
The 4th wall was a phrase popularised by the Théâtre Libre.  Declamation was
discouraged in favor of a natural acting style, and ensemble acting was stressed.
Footlights were replaced with more natural lighting.


8.  Stanislavsky developed his 'System' (upon which Method acting is based).  His
methods focused mostly on realistic acting, as opposed to realistic stage setting or
presentation.  Stanislavski's 'Affective memory' was a method by which an actor
would remember experiencing an emotion in their past, and use that memory to portray
that emotion on stage.  

9.  A Streetcar Named Desire is about Blanche DuBois, a southern belle who has come
to stay with her siste, Stella Kowalski, at the home of her and her husband Stanley
Kowalski in New Orleans.  Blanche's ancestral home, Belle Reve, has been lost and
Blanche has lost her job (although this is not revealed until later in the play).
Blance's appearence in the Kowalski home upsets the balance that Stella and Stanley
had maintained, and Blanche and Stanley become inexorably attracted to eachother,
even though they are seemingly complete opposites.  Blanche had a suitor, Mitch, who
is pushed to the side along with stella.  Eventually, the confrontation between
Blanche and Stanley results in Stanley raping Blanche (or maybe not).


10.  Freuds work The Interpretation of Dreams, and explains many of Freuds theories
on the unconscious and the significance of dreams.  Freuds theories on the
unconscious had a large impact on the contemporary society.  In theater, this
manifested itself as the idea that a characters actions or conscious thoughts might
not actually indicate their true motives.  That is, a character might have ultirior
motives that they themselves do not realise.  Karl Marx's Das Kapital, which focused
on economics, developed the idea of the working class in the mind of society.  As a
result, realistic drama was influenced to focus on everyday characters, as opposed
to focusing on kings and gods, or idealised or romanticized characters.


11.  The Piano Lesson is about Boy Willie and his sister Berniece, and their family's
piano.  Willie wants to sell it to buy land, and Berniece wants to keep it as an
heirloom to remember their ancestors by.  


12.  

13.  Avant-Garde:  French for vanguard, is any work that is experimental, or on the
forefront of new thought.

Symbolism:  Symbolism is the use of abstract symbols to convey other meanings.

Surrealism:  is described by Guillaume Apollinaire as a movement stating that the
liberation of our mind, and subsequently the liberation of the individual self and
society, can be achieved by exercising the imaginative faculties of the "unconscious
mind" to the attainment of a dream-like state different from, or ultimately ‘truer’
than, everyday reality.

Dada:  Dada was a sort of anti-art movement that sought to oppose everything that
art stood for, such as aesthetics, meaning, and form.

Expressionism:  Expressionism is the tendency to distort reality for emotional
effect.


14.  Existentialism is the idea that human consciousness necessarily exists in a
real world, and that the existence of that world preceeds consciousness.  That is,
there is no overall meaning or purpose in the world except what people make for
themselves.  Absurdism is the philosophy that the search for meaning is useless and
bound to fail, because no meaning exists.


15.  The Bald Soprano is absurd because it deals with the breakdown of
communication.  In the play, the characters dialogue is filled with non-sequiters
and absurd statements disguised as realistic conversation.  Absurdism is concerned
with the futility in searching for meaning in the universe, and in The Bald Soprano
all of the characters fail to convey meaning in their words.  This failure grows
more and more aparent throughout the play, untill at the end they're all shouting
out abstract phrases louder and louder.

16.  'Jack, Or The Submission' is about the Jack family who are all named Jack (or
Jacqueline).  The characters are all absurd characatures.  The Roberts family enters
and presents their only daughter Roberta as a potential bride for Jack.  It turns
out that Roberta has two noses, and Jack demands a bride with three.  The Roberts
leave and return with their second only daughter Roberta, who has three noses.  Jack
resists at first but she eventually wins him over with stories and word games.


17.  Formalism and deconstruction are both ways of looking at or analysing a given
piece of art.  Formalism is a style of criticism that focuses on artistic or
literary techniques, and generally disregards the historical and social context.
According to formalism, everything necessary in an artwork is contained within it.*
Deconstruction is related in that it also looks only at what is present in the
'text'.  Deconstruction is an attempt to refute the ideas presented by evidence also
presented in the text, although the evidence may be incedental.


18.  Fully developed Vaudville was characterised by it's broad appeal.  It was a
variety show including acts of acrobatics, song and dance, comedy, drama, music,
magic, animals, opera, and so on.


19.  Buster keaton was an innovator as both a comedic actor and as a director. He
and Charlie Chaplin were two greats of silent film comedy.

20.  Low comic opera:  A light opera with a comic nature, possibly featuring
slapstick.

Hight comic opera:  A comic opera focusing more on plot.

George and Ira Gershwin:  These brothers wrote musicals for broadway and music for
traditional concert halls.

West Side Story:  West Side Story was a musical about warring gangs in new york
city, based on Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet.


*...a method which breaks down when the subject of criticism is significantly less
than perfect and cannot stand on it's own OR the subject of criticism is anything
by T.S. Elliot.