Religion and Theatrical Drama, an Introduction

Abstract

[ ]scholars interpret aspects of belief, affect, thought, and practice often while interpreting history, society, culture, and nature in ways informed by traditionary and constructive perspectives (from Mahayana Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, North American indigenous traditions, Ethical Humanism, and traditions within traditions, e g , Hasidic Judaism, Sufi Mysticism, Kiowa Sun Dance ceremonies) [ ]given the cultural or historical distance now separating us from them, such convergences can now appear anew and differently with shifting interpretive paradigms [ ]do Euripides’ Bacchae sing praises for Dionysus as an act of worship, to reify civic values and duties by displaying the dangers of unchecked bacchanalia, or to lament the conflicted power structures of family, tribe, gender, or even substance abuse, not to mention the complications of “fate” or random contingency? Whereas “theater” often suggests the arts of making performances to be seen and heard (what Aristotle called spectacle, opsis), and “theater” gives much attention to performance–audience–spatial relationships and to the business (including economic) of sustaining this performing art