Women in the Western Theatre Tradition Antiquity to 1700 Timeline Classical Period The Greek Theatre 2000-1100 B.C.E. Bronze Age Arrival of the Greeks in Greece. Rise and Fall of the Mycenean kingdoms. Trojan War occurs near the end of this period 1400 B.C. Cult of Dionysus, God of Wine, intoxication and sexual vitality established in Greece 1100-800 B.C.E. Dark Age Social and political recovery, evolution of the Greek City State, Rebirth of literacy Homer writes The Iliad and Odyssey on the exploits of the great Trojan and Greek Heroes of the Trojan War. Hesiod writes the Theogony, an epic account of the gods, their origins and exploits 7th-6th B.C.E. Cult of Dionysus reaches its greatest power. Festivals started with choruses of satyrs dancing in the street, followed by “fat” people wearing phalli. Dithyramb, hymn or song of praise to Dionysus started celebrating his life, death and resurrection. Choral leader emerges. Becomes narrator, improvising the story in song while the chorus fills in the story with traditional song and dance Women Most women, as far as can be traced, live private, domestic lives under the domination of fathers and husbands. Women in aristocratic families sometimes educated. Great mythic figures of women – goddesses, queens, princesses, priestesses – who will become the subjects of the great tragedies, recorded in the writings of Hesiod and Homer. Sappho (630-12?-570) first extant woman poet in the Greek tradition writes. Widely admired for her lyrical and love poetry. Later European women writers often compared to her favorably as continuing to write in her tradition. 536-336 B.C.E. The Classical Age – Classical Athenian Theatre 536 Great or City Dionysia Festival started 534 Competitions in tragedy and dithyramb started at Festival. Thespis credited with the actual creation of drama. Wrote prologues and interlinking dialogue. Acts out instead of narrating action as choral leader. Three other important dramatists whose work has not survived: Choerulus, Pratinas, and Phyrinichus Women Quietness, chastity, obedience to male authority, and contentment with the simple, domestic life of motherhood and household management praised as the feminine ideal. However, rural women were likely to be active in helping to run the family farm as a family business, and urban women had increasing opportunities for leisure, culture and learning. Heterae – highly educated, and artistically accomplished courtesans become popular companions of male citizens. Phyrinichus (511-476) credited with introducing women characters into drama. Women characters played by male actors with masks. 499-479 B.C.E. The Persian wars. Final defeat of Persia by a coalition of Greek forces (479 B.C.E.) rapid expansion of the Athenian Empire (478-431 B.C.E.) 490 Battle of Marathon. Greek States unite and pool resources to beat a superior Persian force under King Xerxes. Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E.) fights as a soldier with the united Greek armies 472 Aeschylus writes The Persians his oldest extant work. Emerges as the first dominant playwright of the Golden Age. The Oresteia (468) remains only extant trilogy. 468 Sophocles (496-406/405) beats Aeschylus for the first time. Begins to emerge as second great playwright of the Golden Age Ajax (450-440.B.C.E.) and Antigone (441 B.C.E.) among his earliest plays. 455 Euripides (485/4-407/6) begins to write plays. Begins to emerge as third great tragic playwright of the Golden Age. 431-404 B.C.E. Peloponnesian War Athens and its allies go to war against Sparta and its allies in a long drawn out conflict that exhausts the human and material resources of both sides. War ends in Athens’ humiliating defeat and the end of its Golden Age 420-406/05 Sophocles writes most of his mature work including Oedipus Rex (420s), Electra (418-410) and Oedipus at Colonnus (produced posthumously in 401) 431-408 Euripides writes most of his mature work including Medea (431), Hippolytus (428), Andromache (425), Hecabe (424), Suppliant Women (423), Electra (c. 422-416), The Trojan Women (415), Iphigenia in Taurus (414), Ion (413), Helen (412), Phoenician Women (409), The Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis (406) 427-405 Aristophanes (circa 447-380), begins to write plays. Emerges as first and only extant master of Old Comedy, Plays include Lysistrata (411) and Thesmophoriazusae (411) Women Most of the great dramatic women characters of the Classical period created over this period. Many of them drawn from the mythic period of great wars and conflict, though Aristophanes uses women in fantasy and satire to critique contemporary male folly in war and statecraft. As initially realized by mature male actors in the highly privileged form of tragedy, these characters set many of the basic models for the writing of tragic women characters throughout the neo-classical period. Uncertain whether women were allowed to watch the plays in the Athenian theatre, and if references to women in audience date from Hellenistic revivals. Possible that lower class women acted in popular forms of mime, dance or musical entertainment, but no certain record of that. 336-1 B.C.E. The Hellenistic Theatre Begins with the reign of Alexander the Great, and the integration of both Sparta and Athens into the Macedonian Empire. Dominance of Athens challenged, but Greek culture and learning highly valued and spreads its influence throughout the Empire. Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle becomes influential and first important criticism on the nature of theatre and its relevance to human life and society are produced. But great age of playwriting over. Writing becomes increasingly secularized and conservative. Revivals of earlier works with a greater emphasis on developing the technical and acting arts becomes popular. Professionalism grows as numbers of festivals increase giving more opportunities for production, and state subsidization replaces individual subsidization by wealthy families or citizens. 399 Socrates (470-399) tried and condemned to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. After Socrates’ death, Plato (427-347 B.C.E.), his most influential disciple, begins his mature writing, and the greatest body of his philosophical dialogues. Views on Art and Women given in The Ion and The Republic 366 Aristotle (384-322) enters Plato’s academy and stays there until Plato’s death in 347. After serving as tutor for Alexander the Great, returns to Athens and establishes his own school in 335 B.C. Writes most of his major works, including Nicomachean Ethics and The Poetics, which deal specifically with theatre. 317 Menander (342-291), the only extant writer of New Comedy wins first prize at the Lenaian Festival with The Grouch, his only remaining play of over 100 written. Women Women benefit from increasing urbanization and secularization of Hellenistic society. Growth in monarchies to replace the polis creates a class of royal women active in political and diplomatic life either as reigning or consort queens. Female literacy continues to rise among wealthy or aristocratic women. Records of women writing poetry, studying philosophy, practicing medicine and being active in business, politics and legal activities. However, most women were still legally or formally under the guardianship of a male relative, and only a relatively few wealthy, upper class women benefited from the changes. With few exceptions such as the Cynics, who argued that women should be treated as equals, the dominant philosophical schools of the time viewed women, as a sex, as being inferior to men, and saw no need to reform or change their status as a class. Aristotle’s theories on drama validate its worth to the later Western tradition. However, his emphasis on hierarchy and categorization, the primacy of tragedy over comedy, text over performance, rationality over the passions and senses, and women’s unsuitability, for a variety of natural, moral and social/political reasons, to serve as tragic heroes, cast a long shadow over women’s place in the Western tradition and women’s role in it. By contrast, while Plato was more hostile to theatre in general, his validation in The Ion of divinely-inspired “genius” taking precedent over rationality in special cases, concepts of Platonic love and relationships transcending the flesh, and belief expressed in the Republic that education equalizes the sexes, and that women, properly trained alongside men, can participate as fully in society, also had important influences on women’s involvement in theatre in the Western tradition. Menander’s New Comedy was also to have a long-term influence on the development of women characters, by emphasizing romantic love as a dominant theme, and introducing such “types” as shrewish wives, lecherous old fathers, malicious and kindly courtesans, clever servants and sympathetic wives mothers, daughters and lovers into the tradition. The Roman Theatre Rome – The Republic – 509 B.C.E. – 27 B.C.E. Rome becomes a world power based on “republican” values of discipline, economy, endurance, military precision and loyalty to family and state. 509 Expulsion of the last Etruscan king. Founding of the Republic 6th c. 1st State-sponsored religious festivals or ludi established 390-290 Rebuilding of Rome after being sacked by Gauls. Roman expansion into Italy. 364 1st theatrical performance performed at ludi 282-146 Era of overseas conquest. Defeat and destruction of Carthage, defeat of Hannibal during the First, Second and Third Punic Wars. Conquest of Hellenistic Greece. Rome dominates the western Mediterranean 240 Livius Andronicus translates and presents 1st Greek plays for the Roman stage. Comedy and Tragedy start to be offered on a regular basis at the festivals. Roman art and literature are increasingly based on Greek models 211 First clear reference to mime or fabula racinata 207 Collegium poetarum – association of writers and actors founded Plautus (254-184 B.C.E.) and Terence (195-159 B.C.E.) write comedies based on Greek originals of New comedy 100-75 Pomponius, Novius, DecimusLaberius and Publilius Syrus experiment with turning Atellan farce, with its origins in the plots and character “types’ of the satyr play and Greek farce, into a literary form 78-27 B.C.E.