Medieval Theatre By Joseph Norman

Some have written that theatre died following the 1) f__ll of the Roman Empire, and its memory was kept alive only in the 2) performan__es of roving bands of 3) jongl__urs: itinerant street players, jugglers, 4) a__robats and animal trainers. However, while such troupes did help to maintain certain aspects of 5) theatri__al art, particularly that involving stock characters, the Church itself contributed to the 6) pre__ervation of theatre. It is ironic that the Church, which caused theatres to be outlawed as the Roman Empire declined and then fell, was one of the 7) pr__mary means of keeping theatre alive through the Middle Ages.

At first the parts 1) ______ in these simple religious re-enactments of the nativity and 2) _______ of the Magi were played by priests in the sanctuary of the church. However, as the 3) __________ of the Church grew to include the passion and 4) ________of Christ, the Church was confronted with the dilemma of how a priest should portray Herod. While division of opinion in the Church continued as to the worth of 5) _______6)________, the members of the congregation clearly 7) _________ and were moved by them.

The dramas continued to 1) (grow, growing), 2) (move, moving) out of the sanctuary and into the open air 3) (in, on) front of the Church. Ultimately, the members of town guilds began to contribute to these dramas, which 4) (continuing, continued) to grow 5) (most, more) elaborate with time. Known as passion plays, miracle plays and morality plays, they continued their close connection with 6) (an, the) Church and church holidays, but began to introduce elements of stock characters that were more contemporary in nature.

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From The Mirror

23.08.2008

Defining Postmodern Theatre

By Stephen Hewett

I'd like to begin by 1) dif__erentiating postmodern theatre from its preceding periodizing 2) cate__orization, the 'classical' and the 'modern' drama. Classical drama is characterized by the value placed in the plot and its 3) ad__erence to Aristotle's laws of dramatic unities. In the nineteenth century we also observed how Hegelian philosophy filtered into modern drama with the 4) move__ent of 'man'/character at the forefront of 5) dramat__rgy in the character dramas of Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekov. We also see how Aristotle's 6) mi__esis is taken to the heights in the period of naturalism as influenced by the Darwinian science in the stagings of modern theatre. Raymond Williams observes the perfection of tragedy in modern drama where the alienated 7) predi__ament of the human being in a highly industrialized world is highlighted.

To Elinor Fuchs, it is in the 1) _______ theatre that we witness the "death of the 2) _______" and the eradication of the plot. In this statement we are reminded of Barthes' announcement of the "death of the 3) _______ ", Foucault stating the "death of man" and Lyotard hailing the dissolution of 4) _______metanarratives. As rigid categorization and structures of modernism collapse, eclecticism now characterizes 5) _________. But unlike Jameson's notion of 6) ________ and extreme consumerism of multi-national capitalism, critical postmodern theatre derives its theory from the post-structuralists' 7) _________ on semiotics. De Saussure laid bare the very construction of the human language exposing its structure of signs and codes.

Taking 1) (of, off) from this, Derrida's analysis of the subjectivity of 2) (mans, man's) meaning-making has furthered the invalidation of metanarratives. Now as the validity of the sign-signified and code-meaning constructs of languages 3) (is, are) put into question, postmodernists 4) (has been, are) forced to investigate the language construction 5) (himself, itself). Ultimately, we come to realize that meaning and signification is subjective and should be contextualized. With this, 6) (categorization, categorizing) boundaries set by modernism collapse as well.

Текст 4

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From The Mirror

22.07.2006