The Info Dragon’s Lair

Science fiction shows were all the rage, growing up in the 1960s. One of the most popular ones was Lost in Space. It ran from 1965 to 1968 for the CBS network and 83 episodes were aired. The setting was in the future, in 1997 and Earth was suffering from overpopulation and a lack of essential resources. Another planet, suitable for humans, must be found and the Robinson family volunteer for the mission.

Inspired by the Swiss Family Robinson story, the show was an adventure series, enjoyed by all the family. The story begins with the Robinson family setting out in their spaceship, the Jupiter 2. Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams) leads the expedition. He is accompanied by his wife, Dr Maureen Robinson (June Lockhart), and their three children, Will, Judy and Penny. Other members of the crew include their friend and trained pilot, Major Don West (Mark Goddard) and the Robot.

This is not a straightforward mission, however, as they have an uninvited guest on board. Psychologist Dr Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) was intent on sabotaging the spaceship, only to become trapped on board with the others. The extra payload of having Smith interferes with the ship’s systems and the mission goes off course. Several guests appeared on Lost in Space, including some actors that would go on to be major stars. They included Michael J.Pollard, Kurt Russell and Daniel J. Travanti.

The complete series is available on DVD for fans that want to go down memory lane and for a new generation that missed it on TV. In addition to showing every episode, there are extras containing interviews with cast members and bloopers. Interest in the old Lost in Space was revived when a feature film version was released in 1998. It had an impressive cast and fans enjoyed seeing their show on the big screen. William Hurt played Professor John Robinson and Matt LeBlanc (Joey in Friends) took the role of Major Don West. Other cast members included Heather Graham and Mimi Rogers.

There is a range of merchandise available, in association with the show. This includes posters of the film and soundtrack CDs from the original series. Composer John Williams composed the theme tune and score, making futuristic, electronic sounds. There is a lot of interest in the Robot character. It had its own personality and technology enthusiasts can buy full size replicas of the robot. There is even a robot builders’ club, dedicated to Lost in Space.

The history of theatre arts can be dated back to as early as the period of ancient Greek. Since then the various eras witnessed changes in the types of theatre stages, which affected the actors and also gave rise to different forms of acting.

In ancient Greece, plays were staged to mark a religious occasion in theatres where only prestigious men were allowed as at that time women and slaves were looked down upon in the society. Theatres popularly known as amphitheatres housed a large round stage which was encircled three-fourth by audience. This is how a stage would be set in the Greek Era. Amphitheatre could accommodate an audience of 25,000 at a time which made it very difficult to see what’s going on for the audience at the back. To overcome this obstruction the actors would be loud with grandiose voice and enormous gestures and to be more noticeable wore mask and symbolical attires. High pitched chorus was used to as a means of cautioning of an upcoming event or to advice co-actors. To improve the visibility and to give a deception of reality to the plays they were held in daylight and a real landscape acted as the background of the play.

In the medieval era facilities were more commonly available to many of the inhabitants of the community. Theatres too were no longer reserved for the rich. Plays were held on wagons better known as pageants. The wagon would be dragged into the marketplace where the play was decided to be held. Spectators would surround the stage from all sides and would watch the play. The themes of most of the plays at that time were the daily happenings and day to day experiences depicted as an ironic comedy or as a genuine mime depending on the taste of the audience. This created an interaction between the audience and the actors with the audience expressing their views on the theme.

During the Renaissance Period theatre performance took the form of professional performance more than an artistic one. The blueblood of England started investing into performing groups and theatres with an apron stage. The apron stage had a rectangular platform with nearly an audience of 2,000 surrounding the three sides of it and was in close proximity with the actors performing on stage. With the wealthy aristocrats funding the plays the costumes were designed with more details and were elegant. Plays were enacted at daytime which made the creation of illusion of nighttime difficult which was overcome by dispatching the information as a part of an actor’s dialogue which is termed as word scenery. Denizens from all sects of the society attended these plays so an effort was made to please a large array of spectators by taking different storylines into consideration.

The period around the seventeenth and eighteenth century was known as the Restoration period. The theatres around this time were smaller than those of the Renaissance period and held up to 500 spectators at a time. This period gave an end to daylight lit auditoriums replacing them with closed rooms lit completely with man-made light. Stages were bounded with decorated frames but with no curtains like the modern times. Although the audiences weren’t in close vicinity of the stage, a small stage protruded into the auditorium so as to increase the interaction between the audience and the actors. Lack of curtain hindered the privacy of changing of scenes which affected the realistic illusion. Performances by the restoration period were character driven with more emphasis on the perfectionism, social issues, and scenery.

The stage in the later centuries evolved into what is known as the proscenium stage or picture frame stage. It’s designed and named after the technique of how one visualizes a picture. There is a defined separation between the spectators and the actors with the introduction of ramp. Curtains added to this and the same time gave privacy to change scenes thus creating a realistic and elaborated picturization. The auditorium is darkened during the performance there by increasing the concentration of the audience. Modern technologies and aids have made illustration more interesting and realistic and made the art even more interesting and popular.

The Greeks had denizens excelling in all kinds of trade and they had a habit of excelling in their respective fields irrespective of whatever constraints are presented to them. Although the Greeks were known to be great warriors and athletes they were also good in artistic fields such as theater, pottery and philosophy. Athens was the scholastic epicenter of ancient Greece and was named after the goddess of wisdom, Athena. Theaters of Greece flourished during 500-300 BC which has an effect on theater arts till this date.

Theater was symbolized by two masks which represented the masks worn during comedy and tragedy. They also depicted the dual nature of life. The tragic mask had a painful and mourning expression and the comedy mask had a joyful and smiling expression.

Festivals were held to honor the theater arts. Every year at the Theater of Dionysia named after the Greek god of wine and fertility Dionysus, festival was held for ten days to please the gods. Writers and poets from all over Greek gather to perform. The schedule consisted of plays based on tragedies or comedies which were followed by a short farce. It was from the poetry of Aristotle. He wrote songs, known as dithyrambs, to praise god Dionysus out of which tragic stories began evolved.

In 500 BC, another theater art was discovered by Thespis. It involved a single actor playing various roles by wearing different masks to differentiate between the characters. Other than him there were narrators and commentators on stage with whom the actor used to collaborate. This type of theater arts was recognized as tragedy which meant goat skin in Greek. It was either named after the event of sacrificing goat to gods or after the goad skin worn by the performers. Competitions were being conducted in festival at theater of Dionysia. Thespis was the first known actor of ancient Greek.

Aeshylus, in 471 BC, introduced plays having two actors who interacted with each other using dialogue. A third actor was introduced by Sophocles in 468 BC and thus the plots too became complicated. But each actor was to enact different characters wearing mask accordingly. The masks were so large that it covered the entire face of the actor including his hair. The mask was carved with care because that increased audibility of the actor’s voice. These masks were made out of linen or cork, that’s the reason why the archeologist couldn’t find a trace of them. The sculptured statues and paintings depicted actors wearing mask this was how the information was collected. Props weren’t still were restrained from usage because the size of the theater were so large, it diminished the visibility of the spectators seated on higher levels. To make up for this, Pantomime was used by the actors. This also meant that the actors wore bright dresses and loud makeup to attract the attention of the audience. Along with that the actors wore high heeled boots and large gloves to make them more vividly visible. Stories not only revolved around Dionysus but also were based on other Greek mythological characters.

The structure of the theater at that time was known as Theatron. They were open-aired and were constructed on the slopes as the seating arrangement for the spectators was in the form of ascending circles. The theaters were designed such that the voice of the performers could reach the highest seated audience. In the theater at Epidaurus one can hear the sound of a dropped pin from the highest row. The three essential elements of the theater, in Greece, were orchestra or the platform, on which performance was done, the Skene, was a building which acted as the backstage as well as the background of the play and the last element is the audience.

The audience and performers at all theaters were only men as at that time women were considered to be the downtrodden sect. The actors as well as the chorus could speak dialogue or even sing as required. Detailed costumes and huge mask were worn while enacting the roles and was the trademark of Greek theater.