Drama
just like the other genres, has undergone significant changes in its historical
development. This is partly attributable to the fact that stage types have also
changed and have thus required different forms of acting. Let us have a look at
the various stage forms throughout history (based on Pfister 1997:41-45):
A.
GREEK CLASSICISM
Plays
in ancient Greece were staged in aphhitheatres, 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 (up to 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 sorrounding the
amphitheatre. Plays were performed in board daylight, which also made
impossible to create an illusion of ‘real life’ on stage, at least for night
scenes. That was not intended anyway. Ancient Greek drama was originally
performed on special occasions like religious ceremonies, and it thus had a
more virtual, symbolic and also ditactic purpose. Another interesting fact to
know is that the audience in ancient Greece consisted only of free man, i.e,
slaves and women were excluded.
B.
THE MIDDLE AGES
Medieval
plays were primarily performed during festivities (mystery plays, morality
plays). They were staged enttiely surrounded by the audience. The close
vicinity between actors and audience has to account for a way of acting which
combined serious renditions of the topic in question with stan-up comedy and
funny or bawdy scenes, depending on the taste of the audience. Actors took into
account the everyday experiences of their viewers and there was much more
interaction between audience and actors than nowadays. The lack of clear
boundaries between stage and audience again impeded the creation of a realistic
illusion, which was also not intended.
C.
RENAISSANCE ENGLAND
The
Elizabethan stage was typically found in public theatre, i.e, plays were no
longer performed outside. However, The Elizabethan theatre still as open-air
theatre as the lack of artifical lighting made daylight necessary for
performances. An excerption was the Blackfirars theatre, which was indoors and
lit by candlelight. Theatre groups were now professional and sponsored by
wealthy aristocrats. Groups which were not under anybody’s patronage were considered
disreputable vegabounds.
The
stage was surrounded by the audience on three sides and there was still a close
vicinity between audience and actors. The most common stages form in
Renaissance England was the apron stage which surrounded by the audience on
three sides. This meant that actors could not possibly ignore their viewers,
and theatrical devices such as asides and monologues ad spectatores were an
intergal part of the communication system. The stage set was reasonably barreb
while costumes could be very elaborate. Since performance took place in board
daylight, the audience had to imagine scenes set at night, for example and
respective information had to be conveyed rhetorically in the characters’
speeches (word scenery). As there was barely any scenery, scenes could change
very quickly with people entering and exiting. The three unities were thus
frequently not strictly adhered to in Elizabethan drama. The Elizabethan
theatre could hold up to 2000 people from different social backgrounds. Plays
of that period thus typically combine various subject matters and modes(e.g,
tragic and comical) because they attempted to apeal to as wide an audience as
posible.
D.
RESORATION PERIOD
Theatre
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were were considerably smaller than
the Elizabethan theatre (they held around 500 people), and performances took
place in closed rooms with artifical lighting. In contrast to modern theatres
where the audience sits in the dark, the audience in the Restoration period was
seated in a fully illuminated room. One must bear in mind that people of the
higer social class were aso intereseted in presenting them selves in public,
and attending a play offered just such and opportunuty. Because of highting
arrangement, the devision between audience and actors was thus not as clear-cut
as today. Plays had the status of a cultural event, and the audience was more
homogeneous than in an earlier periods, belonging primarily to higer social
classes. While the stage was closed in by a decorative frame and the distance
between the audience and actors was thus enlarged there was still room for
interaction by means a minor stage jutting out into the auditorium. Further
more there was no curtain so that changes of scene had to take place on stage
in front of the audience. Restoration plays thus still did not aim at creating
a sense of realism but they presented an idealised, highly stylised image of
scenery, characters.
E.
MODERN TIMES
The
stage of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is called proscenium stage or
picture frame stage because it is shaped in such a way that the audience
whatches the play as it would regard a picture: The ramp clearly separates
actors and audience, and the curtain underlines this devision. Furthermore
while the stage is illuminated during the performance, the auditoriom remain
dark, which also turns the audience into an anonymous mass. Since the audience
is thus not distrubed from watching the play and can fully consentrate on the
action on stage, it become easier to create an illusion of real life in plays.
Furthermore, the scenery is now often elaborate ans as true-to life as possible
thanks to new technologies and more detailed stage props.
While
many modern plays aim at creating the illusion of a story-world ‘as it could be
in real life’ and acting conventions follow this dictum accordingly, there have
also been a great number of theatrical movements which counter exactly realism.
However, the modern stage form has not been able to fully accomodate to the
needs of more experimental plays (e.g, the epic theatre), nor to older plays
such as those of ancient Greece or the Elizabethan Age simply because the
overall stage conventions diverge to much. For this reason, we find nowadays a
wide range of different types of stage alongside the proscenium stage of
conventional Theatres.
