I was thinking like the Theaters from greek to roman to william shakespeare to tv now - Essay Example

These plays might be tragedies or comedies, but in all they were incorporated into the Greek Culture. They told the stories of the Greek Gods and Goddesses, and were dominated by male actors. If a play required a female part, the playwright would have the male dress up as a female. Also, these plays were sometimes violent. If part of a play included someone being killed, the playwright may take a prisoner who was supposed to be killed, put him in the costume of the character that is to be killed, and surreptitiously sneak the prisoner out there instead of the real actor.

Then, the prisoner would be killed and the crowd would have a realistic scene. This theme of violence would be largely outpaced with the next dominating Empire to emerge. The Romans, at the center of their world, lived at the head of the most powerful Empire of its era. Over a million people lived in Rome at one point, and, since the massive amount of slaves owned by the Roman Empire was able to do all the farm work, the Roman people themselves often did not have work. They were unemployed, and thus needed to be placated.

Famously, Roman leaders placated the populace with bread and games. These games would become the dominating source of entertainment for the Roman people. There were a variety of games, from chariot races to naval battles to gladiatorial games. The gladiatorial matches are the most well known, renowned for their violence. But even the chariot races were lauded for their gore, as a mass of chariots racing around a tight course often lead to much bloodshed. Thus, the major entertainment of this ear was directly violent, not faked, just blood.

Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, the segmentation of Western Civilization meant there was not a strong, multicultural entertainment movement. Yet one man, William Shakespeare, came about in the late 1500’s and revitalized the tradition of plays. He made a variety of plays, like Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Henry V (Sayre). These plays often made plays on contemporary figures, and were attended by people from all social orders. They helped bring entertainment back to the masses.

Previously, the poor mass of the population lived on farms or in squalor in the cities, had to work or beg, and had little access to entertainment. The upper classes had their private shows and were able to use their luxury of time and money to entertain themselves. Shakespeare transcended these boundaries by providing open plays with universal themes, and helped bring the love of entertainment back to the masses. While the tradition of plays continues to this day, the more common source of entertainment is movies.

Cinema came about in the Great Depression, when people needed a cheap way to forget the horrible conditions they were living in. Movies began to offer this, an easy mental escape from reality. While books require reading and interpretation, movies allow a person to just absorb information, not necessarily thinking unless they want to understand a complex plot of a complex movie. While originally outdoors and black and white, their popularity led to their further development. They were popular, so investors began to flock to them.

Eventually color and sounds were added to movies, and then they were placed primarily indoors. Now, we have 3D movies and access