Annotation on An Introduction of Theatre Histories (P.B. Zarilli)

Departing from the description of performance and theatre in oral cultures, moving on to the print-culture (1500-1990) till the current globalised cyber-cultures, Zarilli provides an overview of the performance making developped up until now. We consider that creation of language and consequently performance evolved through three eras. The language formation in nomadic cultures from the tribal organization to chiefdoms and finally states, the impact of λόγος (in its double sense) in the western culture and the technological inventions that formed the print culture parallelled to the institutionalization of theatre and the appearance of the first permanent theatre space (Serlio). The emphasis of structure, both in elaborated written texts and perormances (neoclassical rules on verisimilitude, adaptation of the classics) raised issues of authorship and established a materiality that dominated through several eras up to the end of modernity where it found its peak with the invention of photography and film and the use of image as the ultimate means for the depiction of reality. This epistemological climax influenced also performances while methods and systems formed to reach this "materiality" (Stanislavsky, Antoine). Print- culture formed an audience of primarily readers where Art and Life were distiguished. In the age of communication technologies, cyber- culture and globalisation such boundaries are violated to the point they don't even exist. The deconstruction of language and the multi-focal representation in the media cultures influences performance making and reception (body as a performance instrument, rejection of usual performance venues).