Research Assignment Paper: Describe The Theater History (Essay Sample)

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History of Theater
Theater is generally a place of viewing the dramatic actions and performances. Historically, theatre is known to have come into existence in different ways. According to Robinson Scott, theater emerged from myth, ritual and ceremonyCITATION Tan10 \l 1033 (Tanitch). The paper explains the history of theater, its origin and tries to relate to the current arts and performances that take place.
In the past, societies perceived connections between some actions performed by a certain group or by their leaders and the desired results of the community as a whole. These actions developed from habit to tradition and finally to ceremony and ritual. Scott argues that the formulation of all these actions and the consequent repetition and rehearsal, broke the ground for theatre. Rituals were ceremonies that took place in societies in a way of pleasing the gods and glorifying the supernatural powers, victories and heroes CITATION Pic10 \l 1033 (Pickering). These ceremonies took place as costumes and masks were used to represent the supernatural powers. It is same to theater because in its performances, it involves the use of costumes.
Joseph Campbell a mythologist supports that the rituals are related in three major concerns; pleasure, power and duty. Apart from that they are also purposed for entertainment. In this way it gives a basic link with what happens in theater. It shades some light because this gives a basic origin of theatre. He also says that these rituals were accompanied by myths. The myths enter the story telling tradition and hence gaining more strength beyond the original rites that move them to the entertainment and aesthetic level. The same stories are performed for their own sake and move towards theatre.
Thespis, a Greek, was also credited by the westerners by his knowledge of theatre. He was a poet who came up with the idea of using masks in introducing individual characters .He was also known to be a person who traveled from one place to another. It is affirmed to be true as performers in the theater field still do that to date. Just like there is a competition between performances that take place in theater today, it is evident that historically at the religious festivals the same happened in the interpretation of reenactments. Theatrically, there was also an opportunity for one satirical play to break up the unfestive content of other works.
In England Theater was religious and it had evolved from liturgical drama of the 10th and 11th centuries. After the reformation religious drama was suppressed and secular theater rose in a popular manner. In the 19th century, new theaters opened to satisfy a demand for entertainment from the large number of workers in the major cities as industrial revolution took hold. Additionally, prehistoric hunters acted out stories about their hunting activities and ancient Egyptians also performed sacred songs and danced to their gods in religious ceremonies and in this way, the idea of theater came up. This was generalized as ancient theater.
During the medieval period [500-1200 A.D] stages were created by raising platforms in a simple way wherever they performed in halls, at festival and even at market places. The creation of such platforms shades some historical light on how theater originated CITATION Kat16 \l 1033 (Kati). Though the Christians thought that this kind of entertainment was a sin and so they decided to come up with a theater of their choice. During Easter Sunday the priests acted out the real meaning of the holy day in a way of helping people who could not read. In the process these demonstrations became popular and the space in church seemed to be so limited and they ended up finding some place where they could perform from.
Historically, there was also Community Theater. In 1736, the Dock street Theater in Charles-Towne was the first building in America created solely for theatrical purposes. Today the same Dock street Theater provides a place for performances by community arts organizations. Although full-time paying positions could not be available at all community theaters, they provided a place of exposure to the ancient art of live theater.<...