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Greek Drama
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Religious Festivals In honor of Dionysus – god of wine, food, fertility Dionysia--city where festival was held in the spring Festival lasted for 4 days; ended with awards given to best plays. Competitive dances, songs and choral hymns performed to honor the gods, esp. Dionysus Choric storytelling evolves into re-enactments of legends of Greek culture Prisoners would be released from jail. Everyone would go – slaves, free, men, women
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Greek Drama The Ancient Greeks took their “entertainment” very seriously and used drama as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human.
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Greek Drama Wealthy citizens would sponsor plays by paying a tax called the choregia. Many hoped the success of the play they sponsored would provide them with a way into politics.
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Greek Drama The three genres of drama were comedy, satyr plays, and most important of all, tragedy.
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Comedy Mainly satirical and mocked men in power for their vanity and foolishness.
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Tragedy Themes -- love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Main protagonist commits some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world crumbles around him. The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
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Tragedy Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.
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Satyr Plays Short plays performed between the acts of tragedies that made fun of the plight of the tragedy's characters. The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors in these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect.
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Thespis Father of Drama/First Actor
astounded audiences by leaping on to the back of a wooden cart and reciting poetry as if he was the characters whose lines he was reading “Thespian”
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First Playwrights Aeschylus introduced a second actor, creating DIALOGUE Sophocles introduced a third actor, as seen in Oedipus Rex, which allows for dramatic complexity.
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Structure of the Theater
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Classic Greek Theatre Theatron Orchestra Thymele
Seeing place where audience sat. Held up to 20,000 people. Orchestra Circular dancing place where actors and chorus performed Thymele Altar to Dionysus, center of orchestra
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Classic Greek Theatre Skene Proskenion Parados
Building used as dressing room Proskenion Façade of the skene building which served as backdrop Parados Entrance to the theatre used by chorus audience
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Actors & Acting A play could have many characters but had to be divided among three actors Unlimited number of extras or mutes. Stage could have a dozen or more soldiers or village maidens without violating the rule of “three” All roles were played by men
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Costumes & Masks Long flowing robes
Symbolically colored High boots, often with raised soles Larger than life masks Made of linen, wood, and/or cork Exaggerated features
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Masks—Persona Male vs. female Young vs. old Grief stricken vs. hopeful
The “open mouth” on the mask increased the resonance of the actor’s voice
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Function of the Chorus Serve as a barometer of popular opinion
Add beauty (theatrical effectiveness) through song dance Give background information Divide action & offer reflections on events Questions, advises, expresses opinions—usually through chorus leader
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Conventions Unities Action—simple plot Time—a single day
Place—one scene throughout the entire play Temple at Delphi
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Conventions Messenger Tells news happening away from the scene
Reports acts of violence not allowed to be seen Limitations Continuous presence of the chorus No intermissions: continuous flow of action and choral odes No lighting or curtains
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Tragic Hero Tragic Flaw—Hubris Tragic Realization
Excessive Pride; arrogance Fatal errors in judgment which contributes to the downfall Tragic Realization Accepts responsibility for the outcome Perceives before the fall how he/she has contributed to his/her own destruction
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Irony The awareness—by the author, character, or reader—of a contrast or an incongruity between appearance and reality Verbal Irony Words that appear to mean one thing really mean the opposite
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Irony Dramatic irony Situational Irony
What appears true to a character is not what the audience or reader knows to be true Situational Irony What appears likely to happen is not what actually happens
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Paradox A statement or a situation that at first seems impossible or self-contradictory but that may actually be true, either in fact or in the figurative sense.
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Deus ex machina 'dA-&s-"eks-'mä-ki-n& Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, a god from a machine, translation of Greek theos ek mEchanEs Date: 1697 1 : a god introduced by means of a crane in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome 2 : a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty
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Archetype A basic model from which copies are made; a prototype
An original pattern
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