1. Theater of the Ancient Greeks

2. Where is the evidence? Vases

3. Where is the evidence? Plays

4. Where is the evidence? Architecture

5. Dionysus, the god of wine and the cycle of the seasons, became associated with the theatre festival of the Greeks, called the City Dionysia.

6. Theatre in Athens

8. A complete event: civic, religious, historic, entertaining, social, competitive The height of Greek theatre was in the 5 th Century BC

10. Theatre at Epidauros

15. Plays performed outdoors All male cast Actors wore masks, costumes, raised shoes Competition for best play A minimal number of featured performers on stage at a time…2, 3, or 4 A large chorus of about 15 performed songs and dances

16. Aristotle (384-322-BCE) Wrote an important description of the theatre of the generation before him: The Poetics We only have a fragment He deals only with tragedy, which he says derives from “goat song”. A great tragedy has unity of action

17. Sophocles: Oedipus Rex Euripides: Electra Aeschylus: The Oresteia Important Figures from the Theatre of the Greeks Oedipus and the Sphinx

22. Theatre words from the Greek Skene: the building behind the acting area Parados: the procession of the chorus Orkestra: the acting area Chorus: the group of actors commenting on the action Theatron: the seating area Antagonist and Protagonist Thespis: the “first” actor (534 BCE)

23. Producing Greek Theatre Today