scholarly journals WHAT DOES THE TERM TOGATA ‘REALLY’ MEAN?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
G.E. Rallo
Keyword(s):  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Theatrical Representation

Abstract This article aims to shed fresh light on the meaning of the term togata. It conducts an analysis of the term as it appeared in ancient sources,1 investigating in particular both how and why ancient authors across several periods focussed their attention on the togata. The paper will also distinguish between the attestation of the term togata in ancient writers, who are likely to have actually watched these theatrical performances in person and known more directly what they were talking about, and the usage of the term by later grammarians, who would have had no opportunity to watch such performances. These later authors, rather, were simply guessing what kind of theatrical representation could have been performed onstage (much as we do nowadays) and did so by adopting obvious differences in terminology.

scholarly journals Ritual Performances in the Nāṭyaśāstra II. Food Offerings

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-183
Author(s):  
Thomas Kintaert
Keyword(s):  
Wide Range ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Theatrical Representation ◽  
Final Article ◽  
Food Offerings

In the pursuit of a better understanding of how theatrical performances relate to ritual ones in Bharata’s Nāṭyaśāstra, the whole work has been scrutinized for relevant data. This data can be assigned to three major categories: (1) prescriptive information on rituals to be performed prior to a theatrical spectacle; (2) prescriptions regarding the theatrical representation of rituals within a play; and (3) miscellaneous references that, often incidentally, afford additional insights into individual aspects of ritual performances. In view of the large extent of the compiled information, the latter is at first systematically presented in separate articles covering individual aspects of ritual performances, before being considered as a whole in the theoretical reflections and conclusions of the final article. Whereas the first article of the series dealt with a wide range of ritual items, the present one specifically looks at ritual food offerings.

The Signs of the Theatre

1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lionel Gossman
Keyword(s):  
Literary Text ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
The Other ◽  
Clear Distinction ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Dramatic Text ◽  
Theatrical Representation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
A Performance

There have been few systematic studies in English of the signs of the theatre. I hope in this essay to indicate something of the range and interest of the topic. The focus of attention, clearly, will be the theatrical act of representation or performance rather than the dramatic text or script. The dramatic text has a life of its own, independent of all performances of it: on the one hand, as Gordon Craig, one of the great champions of the theatre over the text, recognized, it overflows all performances and is exhausted by none; on the other, any performance overflows the literary text that it purports to be a performance of, and is not reducible to it. A clear distinction must therefore be made between theatrical representation and literary text. As most theatrical performances are based on dramatic texts, however, some consideration of the nature of the relation between the two is desirable. Before broaching the subject of signs in the theatre directly, therefore, I propose to say a word or two about this question.

NURTURING OF CHILDREN THROUGH DRAMA AND THEATRE: THE CASE OF INTWASA KOBULAWAYO PERFORMANCES

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-99
Author(s):  
Vimbai Moreblessing Matiza
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Children And Youth ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One

Dramatic and theatrical performances have a long history of being used as tools to enhance development in children and youth. In pre-colonial times there were some forms of drama and theatre used by different communities in the socialisation of children. It is in the same vein that this article, through the Intwasa koBulawayo performances, seeks to evaluate how drama and theatre are used to nurture children and youth into different developmental facets of their lives. The only difference which this article will take into cognisance is that the performances are done in a different environment, which is not the one used in the pre-colonial times. Although these performances were like this, the most important factor is the idea that children and youth are socialised through these performances. It is also against this backdrop that children and youth are growing up in a globalised environment, hence the performances should accommodate people from all walks of life and teach them relevant issues pertaining to life as they live it now. Thus the main task of the article is to spell out the role of drama and theatre in the nurturing of children and youth through socio economic and political development in Intwasa koBulawayo festivals.

Acting Between the Spheres: Charlotte Cushman as Androgyne

1996 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 23-66
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Audience Member ◽  
Gender Ideologies ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Contemporary Theatre ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Human Figure

On 29 December 1845, Charlotte Cushman did an extraordinary thing at the Haymarket theatre: she convincingly transformed herself into a man. Audience members who witnessed this performance were captivated by “the transmuting power” of Cushman's “genius” as she became Romeo. This production (and Cushman's Romeo in general) continues to fascinate both contemporary theatre historians and feminist scholars, who are equally impressed with Cushman's seeming ability to create an unsettling paradox. In a recent article, Anne Russell discusses the positive reception that Cushman's Romeo received and questions how the cross-dressed actress could have been so successful “in a period when dominant gender ideologies assumed clearly delineated separate spheres for men and women, when stage reviewers as a manner of routine assessed the ‘womanliness’ or ‘manliness’ of characters and performers.” As Russell explains, the nineteenth-century audience member, critic, and/or commentator read the human figure on stage as either male or female; indeed, such antithetic thinking was pervasive throughout nineteenth-century culture. Cushman was unique, however, in that she repeatedly defied such categorization, both in her theatrical performances and in her “private” life.

Magical Practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy de Waal Malefyt
Keyword(s):  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Magical Thinking ◽  
Gaming Industry ◽  
Alternative Facts ◽  
Contemporary Life ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Agent Of Change ◽  
Magical Beliefs

The word “magic” refers to a broad range of beliefs and practices that include animism, charm(s), divination, enchantment, fantasy, fetish, glamour, illusion, miracles, the occult, shamanism, sorcery, spells, the supernatural, superstition, taboos, trickery, and witchcraft. Magic―once thought a core feature of “primitive societies,” abandoned by more rational, bureaucratic and progressive beliefs―is, in fact, thriving in contemporary life, and central to practices of capitalism as well as to everyday behaviors. Magic is practiced in fields of finance, government, law, medicine and health, technology, advertising, marketing, sports, the gaming industry, and theatrical performances, among other institutions. When situations allow for the assemblage of a “magician,” “rite,” and “representation” within these complex social networks and when professional skills, ideas, conditions, contexts, media, and meanings align, magic acts as an agent of change. Magic is also practiced in everyday situations in which people need to feel a sense of control in circumstances where it’s lacking, such as performing well under competitive conditions or during times of crisis with indefinite outcomes. Consequently, they rely on magical thinking—in the forms of superstitions, wishful thinking, and taboo avoidance—which is often accompanied by charms, amulets, or acts of faith to guide them through uncertainty. Conjuring terms such as “fate” and “luck” to ward off illness or improve one’s chances at getting a hit in baseball, are, in fact, ways of expressing ambiguities and dealing with conflicts of temporal existence that all humans face in one form or another. Magic structured in institutions and practiced in everyday situations is a prime example of contradiction in contemporary life. Objective knowledge of facts is increasingly understood as contingent rather than permanent, leaving room for uncertainty, mystery, the unknown, and seemingly nonrational alternatives. Scientific evidence becomes as valid as alternative facts. Documenting recent developments, it is suggested that rationality and magic are not mutually exclusive. Rather, rational behaviors and practices are suffused with magic. Magical beliefs and specific rituals complement practical knowledge so as to enhance knowledge as a way to secure success. All of these ways of thinking and social practices have something at stake, in that risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity of outcome are prevalent, and hence call on magical practices to bring about change.

The Textile Black Body

2016 ◽  
pp. 169-185
Author(s):  
Ian Smith
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Black Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The Merchant Of Venice ◽  
Theatrical Representation ◽  
Black Man

In addition to cosmetic applications for early modern ‘blackface’ theatrical representation, the essay posits that performers used a variety of racial prostheses, most notably cloth and animal skins. In The Merchant of Venice, Morocco’s description of his own body as ‘shadowed livery’—that is, dyed cloth worn by a servant or apprentice—reveals a complex metatheatrical consciousness indebted to this prosthetic blackface tradition. Morocco’s identification with livery connects specifically to Lancelot, the other liveried character in the play whose servant uniform contextualizes Morocco’s corporal blackness as a sign of membership in a social underclass. The play’s mercantile ethos, reflecting John Wheeler’s assessment from A Treatise of Commerce that pervasive economic interests bring ‘all things into commerce’, creates the conditions for category violations: people are perceived as commodities, and none more insidiously than Morocco, the textile black man, read, in turn, as a powerful antecedent for post-Enlightenment constructions of race.

scholarly journals FEATURES OF BECOMING AND DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL AND LEISURE PRACTICES IN ANCIENT GREECE

2017 ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
I. V. Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Greek Life ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Theatrical Performances ◽  
Strict Regulation ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Voluntary Choice ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
Social Collective

The analysis features of becoming and development of cultural and leisure practices in Ancient Greece is the goal of the article. The author justifies the preconditions which formed the appropriate hierarchy of life values of ancient Greek and reated the base for leisure development in Ancient Greece. It has been determined the leading preconditions such as absolute kosmolohizm, religiosity and polytheism, mental features of ancient Greeks and agon of Greek life, human cultural activity, polis political system, special perception of freedom as condition of absence of bright expressed domination over the human and strict regulation of the individual behavior, his personality initiative, existence of free time that isn't occupied by routine and care of urgent daily needs. It has been revealed the essence of such cultural and leisure practices as symposiya, gymnasiya, professional, religious and political groups, agons, theatrical performances, visiting of agora and organization of events. It has been argued that the general patriarchal orientation of Greek civilization affected the system of leisure organization in Ancient Greece. It has been justified the opinion that value of leisure was being determined by its role in the aid of social balance: between thetendencies to integration and differentiation of society and to its unification and hierarchy. Therefore, there were coexistent leisure formsconnected with the opposite social tendencies: some leisure demonstrations were acceptable for all (or for most) groups of population, they unitedand consolidated it, and others, limited by some requirements, extended social, cultural and political differences. Consequently there is a distribution of leisure practices on private (in which people could to participate according to their interests), and social (collective); obligatory (the participation was compulsory), and voluntary (choice of which depended only on desires of people); "high" (addressed only to mental and physical development of people), and "inactive" (passiverecreation, entertainment or bodily pleasure).

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