GREEK THEATER

Historians look to Greece as the source for Western theater and drama.

When theater began in ancient Greece is not known, but the Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing in the 4th century BC, claimed that it began with hymns to the god Dionysus presented at an annual festival.

According to tradition, Dionysus died each winter and was reborn each spring, a cycle that signified the seasonal return of fertility to the land and also the rebirth of human beings after death.

Greece’s earliest theater architecture took its form from the threshing circle—a round, flat circle at the base of a hillside that was used for separating wheat from the chaff.

By the 5th century BC, when the classical period began, two performance areas were cradled within the curve of a hillside: one where a chorus performed, usually portraying ordinary citizens; and the other where the main actors performed.

Initially audiences stood or were seated on the ground; later, wooden or stone benches on the hillside formed an auditorium. The open-air theaters of ancient Greece, which held some 20,000 people, became the prototypes for amphitheaters, Roman coliseums, and modern sports arenas.

The most celebrated theater of classical Athens, the theater of Dionysus, was located on the slope of a hill below the Acropolis. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, the four Greek playwrights whose work has survived, wrote for annual dramatic festivals held there.AeschylusSophocles EuripidesAristophanes

Their plays expanded and interpreted the characters and stories of legend and history.

The tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes took their plots from the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (i.e. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea, etc.) took on their classic form in these tragic plays. For his part, the comic playwright Aristophanes used myths, as in The Birds, and The Frogs.

During the 5th century BC, the features of Athens’s annual dramatic festival became fixed: three groups of players, each consisting of: a chorus, musicians, and two (later three) actors, competed in acting four sets of plays

Each set contained three tragedies and a satyr play, a burlesque of Greek myth that served as comic relief. Costumes were richly decorated, masks elaborate, and physical action restrained; violent scenes occurred offstage.

In the 4th century BC, theaters throughout the Greek world grew more elaborate.

A theater usually had a round area for the orchestra, a place for sacrificing and pleasing the gods, and wrapping around all of this were bleachers for the audience. This arrangement made it much easier for the audience to see the performers.

Wrapping around the round center was the audience area forming a semicircle. On either side of the semicircle were entrances used by the actors.

For subjects, Greek playwrights often used myths as well as tales from the Iliad and other epics. The writers also depicted recent historical events, especially military attacks on Greece. Many of these plays have been lost.

The playwrights themselves had heavy duties. In addition to writing the plays, they acted in them, trained the chorus, composed the music, staged the dances, and supervised all other aspects of the performance.

They were so involved in instructing others that at the time they were known as “didaskali,” or teachers.

There were many people (all men) who participated in performing the play. There were actors who acted out the story and there was a chorus who interacted with the actors.

The chorus moved from place to place and reacted with the play’s events and characters with the appropriate verses and gestures. During the performance that followed, the chorus broke formation.

The actors who interacted with the chorus wore elaborate masks which covered the whole head, resting on the shoulders.

Different Moods, Different Masks

Masks made it possible for men to play women’s roles, because it was thought inappropriate for women to show emotion, which therefore made it impossible for them to act.

The costumes, props, and scenery were all brightly colored because spectators sat far away. The performers used props like chariots, statues of gods, shields and swords.

For special effects they had movable platforms on rollers and even lightning and thunder machines!

As the Greek Empire entered its Golden Age, around B.C., the theater became more and more prosperous, and a new generation of playwrights and actors emerged.

Aeschylus, who was known as the father of Greek tragedy, was said to have written around 90 plays.

Sophocles composed more than 100 plays, which include Oedipus Rex, Electra, and Ajax.

Euripides wrote plays like Medea, and his characters include people such as Bellerphon and Phaethon.

All three of these playwrights wrote tragedies. There was also Aristophones, a master of comedy, who wrote The Knights, The Clouds, and The Birds.

The Greeks’ theater continued to change as the empire entered its Hellenistic Age. As actors gained prominence, the design of theaters changed. The stage was raised and set designers painted scenery. The design was to remain a standard well into the 17 th century. Globe Theater

Without the Greeks, the theater we know wouldn’t be here, at least not with its clever topics, costumes, and many other aspects, and as we look back on what we know about the Greeks and their theater, the more we are amazed and grateful for their accomplishments.

Vocabulary Epiphany De Casibus wheel The three unities Three types of irony Catharsis Tragic hero Tragic flaw Chorus Hubris Archetypal theme