I became aware of the term Thespians in my freshman year of high school when my interest in the Performing Arts was ignited. In my acting class, we were assigned to read the one person play titled No Child by Nilaja Sun. The story is about a teacher attempting to inspire over the top urban teenagers who have no interest in the arts what so ever. It's a very comical piece of art and a extremely hard piece to act out. While reading it, Ms. Sun, the drama teacher, states "And from now on we are nothing but thespians" and Xiomara, one of her students responded "Lesbians?". The whole class went nuts! Every one was laughing as if Sandra Bullock, Kevin Hart, Kristen Wiig, and Adam Sandler all became one person named Sanhart Kristsand. Our instructor stopped us and explained to us about that term.
When I was listening to the group presenting Greek Theater, someone in the class gave the same response and I instantly remembered my experience. I find it funny how people have the same first reaction although Thespis might find it annoying. Thespis, according to Aristotle, is the first actor ever to perform in our world (You know this is legit because it says 'according to Aristotle'. Let's pretend like we are not questioning his credibility for fun.) so in order to honor Thespis, actors are called thespians. This is similar to how Justin Beiber's fans are called believers, Taylor Swift's fans are called swifters, or Lady Gaga's fans are called monsters. It's the same concept of giving credit to the original. The world of acting is flourished from Greece.
The group also introduced Euripides, the father of melodrama. Melodramas make you believe that chance, the idea of uncertainty, rules our world. I agree. I believe no one can take exact control of what will happen in the future. You can only grab a few things on the way to make sure you are ready for whatever the future has in store. Key characteristics of Melodrama also include the questioning of traditional values and include lots of reversals.
The presentation also highlighted the key characteristics of Greek tragedies, which were very dominant, Greek dramas, which were submitted to contests and performed on special occasions, and Greek Comedies. They also noted how different Sophocles' characters were to the others during his time.
P.S My favorite part? The ending of their presentation was the best. They acted out some scenes of Oedipus Rex.
Check out No Child by Nilaja Sun performed by Sun herself.
Jose.
When I was listening to the group presenting Greek Theater, someone in the class gave the same response and I instantly remembered my experience. I find it funny how people have the same first reaction although Thespis might find it annoying. Thespis, according to Aristotle, is the first actor ever to perform in our world (You know this is legit because it says 'according to Aristotle'. Let's pretend like we are not questioning his credibility for fun.) so in order to honor Thespis, actors are called thespians. This is similar to how Justin Beiber's fans are called believers, Taylor Swift's fans are called swifters, or Lady Gaga's fans are called monsters. It's the same concept of giving credit to the original. The world of acting is flourished from Greece.
The group also introduced Euripides, the father of melodrama. Melodramas make you believe that chance, the idea of uncertainty, rules our world. I agree. I believe no one can take exact control of what will happen in the future. You can only grab a few things on the way to make sure you are ready for whatever the future has in store. Key characteristics of Melodrama also include the questioning of traditional values and include lots of reversals.
The presentation also highlighted the key characteristics of Greek tragedies, which were very dominant, Greek dramas, which were submitted to contests and performed on special occasions, and Greek Comedies. They also noted how different Sophocles' characters were to the others during his time.
P.S My favorite part? The ending of their presentation was the best. They acted out some scenes of Oedipus Rex.
Check out No Child by Nilaja Sun performed by Sun herself.
Jose.
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