Introduction to the Theatre- Theater 100

Where do theatre, storytelling, and rituals intersect?

Ritual is a periodic invitation by the society, typically by its religion, to come together to mark an occasion or an event, often of an underlying spiritual or psychological nature (“History Of Ideas- Rituals min 0:00-0:40”). Rituals and storytelling combine to form sacred theatre. A theatre is a form of fine art that uses live performers to present a real or an imagined event before a live audience. According to (Mitchell 2014, 113), theatre, storytelling, and ritual use music, costumes, dance, speech, audience, performers, and sometimes stage in their set up. Even though not all societies treat rituals as a source of theatre, rituals have a role in theatre works. Rituals add aesthetic value and pleasure to theatre work and bring the efficacy of the work (Mitchell 2014, 37).

Theatre goes hand in hand with storytelling, in regards to (Mitchell 2014, 36) states that for our imaginations, we still yearn to be emotionally connected to the storyline of the play and real life. Stories allow the audience to put themselves in someone’s life and perceive it as their own and learn from the anticipation of the unknown (Mitchell 2014, 37). Theatre artists are taught to express and tell the story better, these artists design sound effects to accompany the events of the storyline. These sound effects enhance storytelling and bring the liveliness of the story. Storytelling brings to the creation of the characters that the stage brings to life in theatre work (Mitchell 2014, 125). Remember storytelling must transport us into the character’s world and must hold people’s attention.

Rituals, theatre, and storytelling intersect in any performance set up in our society today. Although rituals are not often used, when used they bring a sense of belonging to modern society. Storytelling for example can be used to bring back these rituals virtually on the stage. Storytellers can create their storylines based on a ritual to educate modern society on the importance of forgotten rituals. We also learned that rituals re-present old stories or ideas and make them happen now, just like what is common in the theater. Both theater and ritual draw on similar mythological sources, but rituals identify these sources as fact and in theatre as fiction. 

Works Cited

“History Of Ideas- Rituals”. Youtube.Com, 2016,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_xJpVlry14https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_xJpVlry14 (Links to an external site.).

Mitchell, Charles. Theatrical Worlds. University Press of Florida, 2014.