Pre-Modern Theatre 2010 McTier: January 2010

Friday, January 29, 2010

Project #1: Sample of Pollux's Devices

Bronteion

The bronteion was a metal container (probably a bronze vase) located under the stage and containing stones that, when moved or shook, produced a noise that audiences accepted as thunder. Such thunder noise would be used in scenes involving a storm or, when accompanied by the keraunoskopeion (lighting machine), to signal the appearance of a god.

Sources:
Pollux's Onomasticon (Wayne Turney's translation) http://www.wayneturney.20m.com/onomastikon.htm
Wikipedia (translated from Italian) http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronteion
Theatrum http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Theatrum.html

PICTURE HERE

Project #1: Sample of Actor History (for Euripides' Medea)

Judith Anderson as Medea, The National Theatre (Broadway), New York City, (10/20/1947-12/14/1947)

Judith Anderson won the 1948 Tony Award for her portrayal of the title role in Medea, then newly adapted by Roberson Jeffers and directed by John Gielgud. Performing in a “grand manner” atypical of what most Broadway audiences expected, Anderson was so psychologically intense and physically violent during her two-hours onstage that reviewer Brooks Atkinson wondered if she would have the stamina to make it through a long run; she did, for 214 performances.

Review“Medea for Moderns” by Brooks Atkinson, New York Times, October 26, 1947. http://unx1.shsu.edu:2048/login?url=?did=99277047&sid=1&Fmt=10&clientId=96&RQT=309&VName=HNP

Other Sources
Internet Broadway Database: http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=1789
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Anderson