Greek Theater History

Dionysus (700 B.C.)  Honored with a festival called “City of Dionysia”  Men would perform songs to welcome Dionysus  Tribes would compete against one another in performances

Early Greek Festivals  The actors, directors, and writer were all the same person.  Eventually, only three actors were used in each play.  Chorus evolved into an active part due to the limited number of people allowed on stage.  The chorus was given as many as half of the lines in the play.

Aristotle  Says tragedy evolved from dithyramb  Songs sung in praise of Dionysus at Dionysia each year  Dithyrambs may have begun as frenzied improvisations

Tragedy Plays (About 6 th Century B.C.)  “tragedy” literally means “goat song”  Festival participants’ goat-like dancing around sacrificial goats for prizes  Thespis, a priest of Dionysus, is the originator of tragedy.  He became the first actor by engaging in dialogue with the chorus.  It’s because of him that actors are known as Thespians.  The three well-known Greek playwrights of the fifth century are Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus.

Aeschylus  Was the first person to add a second actor  Wrote three plays with one main theme making a trilogy

Sophocles  Was the first person to add a third actor  Used the tragic dilemmas on a more personal level in the themes of his plays  Complex plots  Characterization was more subtle  The personal interaction between characters became more central to the drama

Euripides  Introduces a more unconventional view of Greek myth  Sees it from new angles or views mythological characters in terms of their human frailties

Greek Theatre  Theatre buildings were called theatron  Large open-aired structures on the slopes of hills  Consists of three main elements  Orchestra, skene (stored costumes and was part of the scenery), and the audience

Orchestra  A large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites, and acting used to take place

Skene  A large rectangular building situated behind the orchestra, used as a backstage  Actors could change their costumes and masks  Earlier the skene was a tent or hut, later it became a permanent stone structure  These structures were sometimes painted to serve as backdrops.

Audience  Rising from the circle of the orchestra was the audience  The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience  Up to fourteen thousand people

Acting  The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not professionals (all male)  Ancient Greek actors had to gesture grandly so that the entire audience could see and hear the story  Most Greek theatres were cleverly constructed to transmit even the smallest sound to any seat

Costumes and Masks  The actors were so far away from the audience that without the aid of exaggerated costumes and masks the audience would struggle to understand what was going on in the show  Costumes helped to distinguish the character’s gender and social status  Used animal skins and feathers  The masks were made of linen or cork  Tragic masks carried mournful or pained expressions, while comic masks were smiling or leering  The shape of the mask amplified the actor's voice, making his words easier for the audience to hear