![]() That’s why the stories and plays that we watch today have changed in content but not in structure or techniques. You don’t see it because you don’t want to you don’t expect to “get anything out of it.” We want to see stories that interest us, that are about people like us, that have a relevance to our own lives. A similar phenomenon occurs when a new movie comes out that is not about something that you enjoy. There might be very little that you would understand about that play. Imagine if you were to go see a play all about life in the Himalayan mountains, spoken in Tibetan and dealing with yaks and yetis. If they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any communication. They reflect those people’s ideas, goals, values, and cultures. have changed, but plays still address the people for whom they are written. Again, the context of the plays, the cultures they reflect, and the specifics of the language, etc. We often find ourselves pretending to be something we aren’t to experience life through different eyes and perspectives.Īnother part of the historical tradition of theater that has lasted from the ancient Greek world is the play itself. We very often learn through role-playing and make believe. We can even go as far as mentioning our games as young children through to adulthood. Except for the specifics of an individual event, the overall shape, form, and substance of many of these are the same throughout our culture-and even across some other cultures as well. Consider the performance-like nature of a church ceremony, or a wedding, or a court case. When we stop to examine just how much of our lives is affected by the urge to perform and that uses traditional theatrical elements, we will notice that this is all around us, ranging from the very simple use of our hands, faces, and bodies to add to or emphasize elements as we are telling a story to our friends or families all the way to the much more formal influences of performance, such as our celebrations, rituals, and other such events. The very natural human urge to perform is a part of our nature, as noted above. The tools may have modernized, but the purpose is the same-to make the experience of live theater as engaging as possible for the audience. They didn’t have all of the technology that we do today, but they did some very impressive things with what they had, and many of the techniques they developed for their theaters are still used today. The people of ancient Greece were just like us in that regard. ![]() That is, we instinctively gather together and try to share our individual experiences with those around us-to fit in, to share information or ideas, to participate in the larger life and experience of the group, or just to be entertained as we live our lives in this world. However, it also ties us into a very human urge-the desire to communicate. The Western tradition of viewing plays goes back to the ancient Greek world. Walking into the theater, finding a seat, sitting down, waiting for the performance to begin, watching the actors, listening to the lines they speak, and reacting to them with laughter, emotions, and applause are all things that those great-great-great-great-great-ancestors of ours did too. Sitting in a seat in a theater today, an audience member goes through the same experience that humans have been having for hundreds of generations. In watching a play, or virtually any other type of dramatic or theatrical event, we are taking part in an activity that has been occurring without much significant change for nearly 2,600 years. See how this passage is translated into performance by Sophie Stone for the Shakespearean Globe Theatre:Īnd now, watch actor Benedict Cumberbatch (et al.) perform Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” for film in this BBC montage:ĭo you perceive the words differently when they are performed versus when read on paper? Today, we often read dramas as fiction or poetry, but the original intent of a play (or screenplay) is for performance. Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. Is second childishness and mere oblivion Turning again toward childish treble, pipesĪnd whistles in his sound. His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wideįor his shrunk shank and his big manly voice, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Īnd so he plays his part. In fair round belly with good capon lin’d, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,Įven in the cannon’s mouth. ![]() Then a soldier,įull of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad At first the infant,Īnd then the whining school-boy, with his satchelĪnd shining morning face, creeping like snail They have their exits and their entrances Īnd one man in his time plays many parts, ![]() ( from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques )Īnd all the men and women merely players “All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare
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