While open-stage performance discouraged scenic elaboration, it stressed the actor and his role, his playing to and away from the spectators, with the consequent subtleties of empathy and alienation. The open stage and its variants were used by the majority of great national theatres, particularly those of China and Japan, the booths of the Italian commedia, the Elizabethan public and private playhouses, and the Spanish corrales (i.e., the areas between town houses) of the Renaissance. Intimate and ritualistic qualities in the drama could be combined with a new focus on the players as individual characters. When more narrative forms of action appeared in drama and particular singers or speakers needed to control the attention of their audience by facing them, the open, “thrust,” or platform stage, with the audience on three sides of the actor, quickly developed its versatility. Clearly, the idiom of realistic dialogue would have been inappropriate both to the occasion and the manner of such theatre. Characteristic of all these theatres is the bringing together of whole communities for a ritual experience therefore, a sense of ritualistic intimacy and involvement is common to the content of the drama, and only the size of the audience changes the scale of the sung or spoken poetry. Arena performance was the basis for all early forms of theatre-the ceremonies at Stonehenge, the Tibetan harvest-festival drama, probably early Greek ritual dancing in the orchēstra, the medieval rounds in 14th-century England and France, the medieval street plays on pageant wagons, the early Noh drama of Japan, the royal theatre of Cambodia. To the arena, or theatre-in-the-round, belongs the excitement of the circus, the bullring, and such sports as boxing and wrestling. Three basic playhouse shapes have emerged in the history of the theatre: the arena stage, the open stage, and the picture-frame. The difference resulted from the physical relationship between the audience and the actor in the two periods, a relationship that determined the kind of communication open to the playwright and the role the drama could play in society. The English critic John Wain called the difference between Victorian and Elizabethan theatre a difference between “consumer” and “participation” art. Western theatre has broken away from the dominance of the Victorian picture-frame theatre, and therefore from the kind of experience this produced. The shape of the theatre is always changing, so that to investigate its function is both to understand the past and to anticipate the future. Moreover, it is arguable that the playhouse architecture dictates more than any other single factor the style of a play, the conventions of its acting, and the quality of dramatic effect felt by its audience. Though apparently an elementary matter, the shape of the stage and auditorium probably offers the greatest single control over the text of the play that can be measured and tested. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.COVID-19 Portal While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.Student Portal Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.This Time in History In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.#WTFact Videos In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
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