The theater was formed when the first spectator appeared, who was interested to see the mummers at the fire. This art has evolved over the centuries with its audience. This process is unchanged to this day. Moreover, what is happening on the stage can often be ahead of the viewer’s thought and intellect, providing him with ideas that are expressed in an unusual form. In other words, the theater develops only when its creators do not fall to the level of the viewer, but raise it to themselves.
Instruction manual
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"Theater" is a sight and a place for a sight. In any case, the Greek word "theatron" means just that. The ancient Greeks, even before they created the theater itself, gave the world a name that stuck. It was approved by those gods whom they then worshiped and in whose honor they arranged their first performances: Demeter, Kore, and Dionysus. Indeed, the latter, in addition to protecting the culture of winemaking, took over the functions of patronage over all creative manifestations, including poetry and theater.
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Ancient Greek theater gave the world an understanding of the importance of the mission of the Theater. The occupation of this art was an important state affair, and the poets and actors who studied it professionally were considered state people. The Greeks took the theater very seriously, so initially they did not exchange for anything other than tragedies, which translates as "the song of the goats" - a tribute to Dionysus, often portrayed in a goat skin. Later comedies appeared among the only comedian in the whole country - Aristophanes. However, comedies, with the light hand of Aristotle, immediately began to be considered the lowest genre.
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It is believed that the official opening of the world theater took place during the Great Dionysius in 534 BC, when the poet Fespid drew the actor to recite them for the more solemn sound of his poems.
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The Athenian poets liked the idea of attracting reciters so much that they began to use their services one after another to outperform their rivals. The playwright Aeschylus added two reciters to the general choir, and Sophocles three.
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Roman citizens, in contrast to the Greek, considered the theater art low, almost shameful. If at first they borrowed a lot from the Greeks, then over time the art of the theater degraded from them. On stage for the Romans, what was important was not the thought laid down by the playwright in the work, but entertainment. Therefore, gladiatorial battles were very popular with the public. Representations of mimes and mimes were slightly better.
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For the most part, reworking ancient Greek works for the stage, the Roman Theater nevertheless managed to present the world with several immortal works by such playwrights as Seneca, Plavt, Ovid and Apuleius.
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In the era of the early Middle Ages, during the aggressive offensive of Christianity, the theater was violently uprooted by clergy from society. And, since it lasted about six centuries, the theater survived almost by miracle, breaking through the only window that was possible at that time: church liturgies and the Mysteries.
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And even later - during the late Middle Ages, in the 12-15 centuries - to be an artist, musician or circus performer was quite dangerous. One could pay for this with life, having burned at the stake of the Holy Inquisition. In a completely inexplicable way, theatrical art still survived in this dark time, which lasted almost a millennium. It survived thanks to small strolling theater troupes playing farce comedies for the malice of the day and reworked mystery dramas.
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The revival was a cleansing gulp of freedom for all arts and the theater was no exception. Having returned for a short time - to find its origins - to antique images and samples, theatrical art began to rapidly develop, using technical progress with might and main. Special performances were built for performances in cities. Over time, professional theater troupes competing with each other appeared, often led by playwrights: Lope de Vega, Calderón, Cervantes. Or the main actor, or the manager, ordering exclusive dramas to playwrights - for example, Marlo or Shakespeare. Various types and genres of theatrical art developed.
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Subsequently, almost until the end of the 19th century, the theater developed on the basis of aesthetic trends prevailing at one time or another: from classicism, enlightenment and romanticism to sentimentalism and symbolism. The main characters in it for a very long time remained a playwright, actor and entrepreneur.
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From the beginning of the 20th century, all of the above aesthetics were defeated, almost swallowing them, realism. And with it, the era of directorial theater came. Gordon Craig, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, Evgeny Vakhtangov, Bertorld Brecht, Charles Dullen, Jacques Lecock - it was they who, having created their own theater schools and methods, laid the foundation for that theater, those areas of it that in many ways exist today time.
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The modern theater is bright and sometimes unpredictable. The archaic is also preserved in it, where the unshakable postulates dominate: conflict, event, action, reincarnation, play, artist, director. But thanks to the development of new technologies, the use of cinema and computer technology, new forms of presentation of any, even the most archaic material, arise, and therefore much is rethought and reborn. In a modern theater, such directions as drama and documentary theaters, modern dance and pantomime, opera and ballet organically coexist.
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