Theatres and Playwright.

Part one: (4 points for each question)

1 - What was the name of the first western theatre?

2 - Where was the first western theatre located?

3 - Which civilisation owned this theatre?

4 - What is the usual layout of a theatre? (Diagrams can be included but a description will be fine)

5 - Where is the globe theatre situated?

6 - When did a fire destroy the globe theatre?

7 - Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre?

8 - What is a Playwright?

9 - When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this?

10 - Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s _ _ _ _ _ _ you!”


Part Two:

For this you must write a short autobiography (200-250 words) about a playwright. Can be famous or unfamous. Information must include

· Full Name
· Date of birth
· Date of Death (if applicable)
· Places the playwright lived
· Famous Plays/Poems the playwright has written
· Something else interesting about the playwright.

60 points awarded maximum.

Extra Points will be given for extra information. Also extra points will be awarded for a short snippet on what you think of the playwright you have chosen.

Part one: (two points for each question)

What was the name of the first western theatre?

Where was the first western theatre located?

Which civilisation owned this theatre?

What is the usual layout of a theatre? (Diagrams can be included but a description will be fine)

Where is the globe theatre situated?
The modern day one is located in London. The original's reamains were found beneath Anchor Terrace on Park Street

When did a fire destroy the globe theatre?
1613

Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre?
William Shakespeare

What is a Playwright?
A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is one that writes dramatic literature or drama. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance.

When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this?
Pantomime (informally, panto) refers to a theatrical genre, traditionally found in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland, which is usually performed around the Christmas and New Year holiday season.

Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s _ _ _ _ _ _ you!”
"Its-behind-you!"

Part Two:

· Richard O'Brien [Richard Timothy Smith]
· March 25, 1942
· Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Tauranga, New Zealand
· The Rocky Horror Show
· It later became a movie and has become possibly the best-known and longest-running cult film in the U.S. It all began in the 1970s and it still has a huge fanbase.

I love the Rocky Horror Picture Show it is a fun combination of b rated films, steve reeves movies, and 50s rock n' roll. i have been enjoying te film since as far back as i can remember. my parents introduced me to this world of Rocky Horror. I cant wait till i can go to one of the live theater preformances they still do.

What was the name of the first western theatre? According to Wikipedia the earliest theatres are a bit foggy, but it's believed that the "Blind Steps" at the Minoan Palace is one of the most likely early theatres to have survived.

Where was the first western theatre located? I believe in Athens, Greece. The oldest plays that we still have in existence come from there. Athens was the center of power and money in ancient Greece, so it was also the home of early theatre.
Which civilisation owned this theatre? The Ancient Greeks.

What is the usual layout of a theatre? (Diagrams can be included but a description will be fine) In a typical theatre the stage is, of course, front and center, with the seats fanning out from the stage like a seashell or semi-circle.
http://www.mwcc.mass.edu/HTML/gmod/tam/theatre_diagram.html

Where is the globe theatre situated? The theatre was built originally in 1599 in Southwark, near the Thames. It was one of many famous theatres in the area, such as the Rose, the Swan and the Hope. The Globe Theatre was built with the lumber from the Theatre, that had been built by Richard Burbage's father, James Burbage.
When did a fire destroy the globe theatre? It burned down in 1613(during the first performance of Henry the Eighth) and then was rebuilt in 1614, then it was closed in 1642, then it was demolished two years later in 1644. The third incarnation of the theatre was reopened in 1997, renamed as Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre? William Shakespeare was a member of Lord Chamberlain's Men who owned the Globe.

What is a Playwright? A playwright is simply a person who writes plays, referred to as a dramatist
When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this? A pantomime is a play without words. It can be set to music, but the actors express words, action and emotions silently.

Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s _ _ _ _ _ _ you!” It's behind you! Usually the audience would shout it out to the actors when something or someone was behind them.

Part Two:

For this you must write a short autobiography (200-250 words) about a playwright. Can be famous or unfamous. Information must include

I choose Shirley Jackson, technically she was an author, not a playwright, but her most famous short story, The Lottery, has been adapted to the stage and is one of my favorite plays of all time. She was born Decemeber 14, 1916, though she usually claimed that she was born in 1919 so that she would be younger than her husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman. Sadly, she died August 8, 1965.
Born in San Fransisco, her family moved to Rochester, NY. Jackson studied in Syracuse, New York . At one point she and her husband lived in a secluded shack in New Hampshire so that they could concentrate on their writing, and then later moved to North Bennington, Vermont. Shirley lived there until her death. Her most well known works are The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and The Sundial.The Lottery is a favorite of mine because its plot line unsettles me. In the story the townspeople of a seemingly idyllic community regularly sacrifice victims to ensure good crops. The whole town participates in the murder, every man, woman, and child stone the unlucky lottery winner. It is a powerful story of what we accept and what we condone as a society
Shirley Jackson was quite into the idea of witchcraft, and believed herself to have supernatural powers. Her friend, the critic Brendan Gill, included in her obituary a story of how she had thought she caused the accident of an enemy by making a wax image of him with a broken leg. While researching haunted houses for the The Haunting of Hill House, she found the perfect place to base Hill House on, only to find out that it had been built by her great grandfather. Later in her life she began to have emotional and mental problems and believed herself to be persecuted by her townspeople. Much of her interest in the occult and her mental state is reflected in her work.

Part one:

What was the name of the first western theatre?

"Blind Steps"

Where was the first western theatre located?

In the Minoan Palace at Knossos

Which civilisation owned this theatre?

The Ancient Greeks.

What is the usual layout of a theatre?

Since the Italian Renaissance, the most common stage used in the West has been the proscenium stage which may also be referred to as a picture frame stage. The primary feature is a large arch, the proscenium arch, through which the audience views the performance. The audience directly faces the stage--which is typically raised several feet above front row audience level--and views only one side of the scene.



Where is the globe theatre situated?

London

When did a fire destroy the globe theatre?

On June 29, 1613

Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre?

Shakespeare

What is a Playwright?

A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is one that writes dramatic literature or drama.

When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this?

Pantomime (informally, panto) refers to a theatrical genre, traditionally found in Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Ireland, which is usually performed around the Christmas and New Year holiday season.

Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s behind you!”

Part Two:

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, in England in 1564. He was the third of seven children born to John and Mary Arden Shakespeare.
In 1582 at 18 years of age, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, a lady seven or eight years older than he from Shottery, a village a mile from Stratford. Their first daughter, Susanna, was born in 1583, followed by twins in 1585, Hamnet and Judith. By 1592, Shakespeare was an established playwright in London. The plague kept the theaters closed most of the time, and it was during this time that Shakespeare wrote his earliest sonnets and poems.
Shakespeare did most of his theater work in a district northeast of London, in two theaters owned by James Burbage, called the Theatre and the Curtain. In 1598, Burbage moved to Bankside and built the famous Globe Theatre, in which Shakespeare owned stock.
In 1603, Shakespeare's theatrical company was taken under the patronage of King James I, and became known as the King's Company. In 1608, the company acquired the Blackfriars Theatre.
Shakespeare retired from theatre in 1610 and returned to Stratford. In 1613 the Globe Theatre burned down, but Shakespeare remained quite wealthy and contributed to the building of the new Globe Theatre . Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616 and was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Stratford. A monument to Shakespeare was set up on the north wall of the chancel, with a bust of Shakespeare.

Tragedies
• Titus Andronicus
• Romeo and Juliet
• Julius Caesar
• Hamlet
• Othello
• Timon of Athens
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Antony and Cleopatra
• Coriolanus

Poetry
• Venus and Adonis
• The Rape of Lucrece
• Sonnets
• `A Lover's Complaint'
• The Passionate Pilgrim
• The Phoenix and The Turtle

Comedies
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Comedy of Errors
• Love's Labour's Lost
• A Midsummer Night's Dream
• The Merchant of Venice
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• Much Ado About Nothing
• As You Like It
• Twelfth Night
• Troilus and Cressida
• Measure for Measure
• All's Well That Ends Well
• Pericles Prince of Tyre
• The Winter's Tale
• Cymbeline
• The Tempest

Histories
• 2 Henry VI
• 3 Henry VI
• 1 Henry VI
• Richard III
• Richard II
• King John
• 1 Henry IV
• 2 Henry IV
• Henry V
• Henry VIII

I choosed Shakespeare because I believe him to be one fo the greatest playwrights that ever walked upon the Earth, tragedies like Romeo and Juliet are immortal

-------------
Source
http://www.wikipedia.org/

For this points were awarded to

slytherin
drkangelcat: 27
Raistlin_the_wizard: 45

Ravenclaw
Rigby Dumbledore: 48

Part one:
(too funny! We were discussing this in Brit. Lit. this semester!)

1 - What was the name of the first western theatre?
In 538 BC the Greek tyrant constructed a theatre in Dionysus' honor for plays to be preformed to him. The first modern theatre's were actually guild carts that traveled around in Mystere Plays. This was in the time shortly before Shakespeare. Each of the guilds were assigned a story from the Bible. They decorated their carts and preformed their stories. Each story was appropriately fifteen minutes long. Some were very funny and others were serious. By the time you had watched all the carts go around, you had learned the entire Bible story. One of the funnier stories was the story of a missing lamb. The shepherd that had been waiting for Jesus were out looking for a lost lamb. They found that it had been stolen. The man who had stolen it said that his wife was pregnant and had just given birth. The shepherd were almost fooled. Until they asked to get a better look at the baby. I am not 100% certain on how the story unfolds, just that we laughed long and loud in class when it was told to us.

2 - Where was the first western theatre located?
The first theatre was located in Athens. They were preformed at the festival of Dionysus in particular.

3 - Which civilisation owned this theatre?
The ancient Greeks in particular the Dionyastic cult. Though I am sure that their leaders claimed ownership.

4 - What is the usual layout of a theatre? (Diagrams can be included but a description will be fine) The typical layout of a theatre is proscenium. This consists of a "frame" that surrounds the stage. The main action takes place within this frame. The audience is seater in front of this. The back wall of the stage consists of either flats or a curtain. Behind this the actors, props, and scenery wait. Another type of stage is a thrust stage. In this format the stage extends into the audience in a "thrust." Action is preformed to three sides as the audience is on three sides of the stage. And, the last common stage style is in the round. In this style the audience surrounds the action and actors must preform to all sides. Included in this link are pictures of these stage styles. Though I did not get my information from this site, it does provide fairly accurate examples of the stage. My information came from my own knowledge of theatre.

5 - Where is the globe theatre situated?
The Globe Theatre is located in Southwark, London, England. Ironically this is also the starting place for the travelers in Canterbury Tales!

6 - When did a fire destroy the globe theatre?
June 29, 1613 was the date of the great fire.

7 - Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre?
Do you mean other than Shakespeare? Just kidding, however, you may well see up and coming playwrights, actors, and directors at the Globe in London. People are still preforming there to this day.

8 - What is a Playwright?
The official definition from dictionary.com is noun- a writer of plays, a dramatist. Though we already knew that.

9 - When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this?
Pantomime is something that we teach children from a young age. It could be the actions to Itsy, Bitsy Spider, acting out Mother Goose, or anything else that is acting without talking. A lot of pantomime is set to music or someone else speaking. Modern pantomime includes interpretive movement, interpretive dance, and general miming. If you look at the era of Commedia Del Arte, you will see a lot of pantomime.

10 - Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s _ _ _ _ _ _ you!”
It's behind you. I believe that anyone who has seen a Mime has said this!
Part Two:

I started this with the intent on writing on the Playwright Jane Martin. Upon further research of this great writer, I found that no one knows anything about her. She is a complete enigma to us. She has one had a good deal of plays to do well and win awards. Scott Keiser sums up her awards, “Throughout her career, Jane Martin has won many awards and honors for her plays. Keely and Du premiered in 1993 at the Humana Festival and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; it also won the American Theater Critics Association for Best New Play in 1996. Two other Martin plays that have won the Best New Play Award: Jack and Jill (in 1997) and Anton in Show Business (in 2001).” However, instead of accepting the awards herself, they are accepted by Jon Jory. He is the artistic director at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville. Mr. Jory refuses to answer any questions about the plays or the playwright that he claims to know. He will only plead no comment.
What we do know about Miss Martin, is that she is a modern playwright. She has ten plays and six one acts under her belt, as well as shorter plays. Her plays have run from the eighties to 2001 for the most recently known. Her plays cover a variety of modern topics. They are also about real women and what they deal with. If you ever get a chance, read her work, you will love it.


Citations:
Part 1:
Greek History
The information about Theatre Mystere was from my class as was information on Shakespeare and Commedia Del Arte.
definition
The Globe Today

Part 2:
Jane Martin 1
Jane Martin 2
Jane Martin 3
Jane Martin 4, note pg 23

Part 1 hidden
[hide]

mcfly_42 wrote:

Part one: (4 points for each question)
Wikipedia sources
1 - What was the name of the first western theatre?9
Epidaurus
2 - Where was the first western theatre located?
Greece
3 - Which civilisation owned this theatre?
Greek
4 - What is the usual layout of a theatre? (Diagrams can be included but a description will be fine)
A circular stage with a half circle of seats rising upwards in stone bench format and open space behind the stage.
5 - Where is the globe theatre situated?
London, England.
6 - When did a fire destroy the globe theatre?
June 29, 1613
7 - Which famous Playwright preformed often in the globe theatre?
William Shakespeare
8 - What is a Playwright?
"A playwright also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance."-wikipedia.
9 - When we say theatre to small children a lot of them will think “pantomime” but what is this?
Pantomiming is acting out something, often without words.

10 - Finish this famous Pantomime quote: “It’s _ _ _ _ _ _ you!”
Behind
[hide/]
Part Two:

For this you must write a short autobiography (200-250 words) about a playwright. Can be famous or unfamous. Information must include

· Full Name George Michael Cohan
· Date of birth July 3rd 1878 but likes to go with the 4th.
· Date of Death (if applicable) nov 5, 1942
· Places the playwright lived all over the country
· Famous Plays/Poems the playwright has written Yankee Doodle Dandy, Give My Regards to Broadway, I'd rather be Right than President..Over There. Grand Old Flag..
· Something else interesting about the playwright.
He grew up in a performing family.
A great source of information about this fellow is the movie where he is portrayed by James Cagney, Yankee Doodle Dandy. He was a very patriotic fellow. He was not only a playwright but an actor, singer, dancer, producer and composer as well. He grew up in a traveling performing family The Four Cohans. "My Mother thanks you, my Father thanks you, my Sister thanks you and I thank you." He would say at the end of performances.
He was a devoted baseball fan. He was married twice and had three children.
He was one of the founding members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He opposed the Actors Equity Association and their strikes even though he was generous to his workers. He learned to play the violin at an early age. He and his family took part in the now controversal black face performing. He died of cancer, was Irish American and Roman Catholic. At viewing Cagney's portrayel of him in Yankee Doodle Dandy he said, "my God, what an act to follow!" On June 29, 1936 he got the Congressional Gold Metal, the first person to gain one in any artistic field selected for that honor, and by President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt no less!
In 1996 his granddaughter accepted on his behalf for him to enter the Musical Theatre Hall of Fame. He was an extraordinary man and a credit to his nation. I feel he in general was a good role model. He was an early pioneer in the book musical. I like the songs of his I've heard. His plays were also entertaining.
60 points awarded maximum.
Wilipedia and yankee doodle dandy movie.
Extra Points will be given for extra information. Also extra points will be awarded for a short snippet on what you think of the playwright you have chosen.

[left]

GRYFFINDOR

HUFFLEPUFF

SLYTHERIN
Aurora Black :: 98
Gloria Malfoy :: 91

RAVENCLAW