2006-10-30 21:31:41 · 5 answers · asked by jenny m 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Performing Arts
It goes back to ancient Greece. The masks determined certain characters and were meant to hide the personality of the individual actors.
2006-10-30 21:41:48 · answer #1 · answered by WISE OWL 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a body of study by a Frenchman named George Polti, who, after studying the entirity of world literature ( he took samples of modern literature coz there was too much ) came to the conclusion that throughout time the same themes and stories were consistently re-written or re-hashed. That the fine detail or description was all that varied. He finally postulated that there were no more than 36 themes. Get this : within the nature of human-kind there are no more than 36 possible interactive or dramatic encounters. If this is so - and I believe there is widespread support for his research - then theatre can be reduced to but one of these 36 themes. If the themes re-occur so frequently, it is no longer necessary to build the outward layers behind which the actual story lies. Therefor you could just as easily paint the players as broadly drawn masks, symbols or representatives. Archetypes!!! Primitive theatre actually understood this concept and used The Mask
2006-11-01 11:49:40 · answer #2 · answered by rob s 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In ancient Greece only men were allowed to perform and the masks were the solution for female characters in the dramas.
2006-10-31 05:40:17 · answer #3 · answered by Vette 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
So that the human emotion attached to that character can be seen from a distance.
2006-10-31 05:40:38 · answer #4 · answered by Iain 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
so that the dialogue and not human personalities is the centre of our attention
2006-10-31 09:49:03 · answer #5 · answered by michael c 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋