Hey there, I'm Mike Rugnetta and this is Crash Course Theater and this is Yorick. More on him later. So maybe you're a part of your school theater program, maybe you're a Broadway musical devotee,
maybe you've just been waiting for a series that would explain things like, what are these phalluses doing in Greek drama? And Who thought neoclassicism was a good idea?
And the Theatre of Cruelty, why so mean? If that's the show that you're after then great, have a seat. We've explored several plays in Crash Course Literature, mostly Greek tragedies and Shakespearean Tragedies,
and we'll be looking at plays in Crash Course Theater, but we'll be doing a lot more than that too. We'll explore theater's history, its theories, and even its performance technologies,
from the Greeks Right into the modern era. Thunder sheets, fog machines, rotating gobos. Because reading a play is great but if you've attended live theater then you know
that it's a different and pretty extraordinary experience to see that play performed right In front of you. We're going to investigate how that experience is produced and what it's meant throughout history to theater going audiences.
Theater going at Least when they aren't running off to go see rope dancers, or consorting with prostitutes, or heading out to grab a beer and a chicken Leg.
Audiences are tricky but we say it's worth staying in your seat. Why? Because theater is the art form most like life. It's performed by real people, in Real space, in real time, and it's often a way to work out our ideas
about the social conflicts and problems of the day. Theater is a laboratory for life. Plays explore how people feel about government, and religion, and birth and death, and love, and each other.
And sometimes they explore how it's funny to put on a wig and tell lewd jokes. So really just something for everyone. And oh, just so you know, I won't be teaching you how to act, or direct, or write plays, or hang lights, or. . . sew phalluses onto costumes.
