Ancient Greek Theatre

1. Ancient Greek Theatre

2. Greek Theatre • Greek theatre started in the year 550 BC to 220BC. It originated in the city of Athens which had a lot of power in military , culture and • political views.

3. The Theatre of Dionysus in Athens Here!

4. Who was Dionysus , and what was his festival? In Greek mythology he was the God of wine and drunken revelry ,he was also the supporter of theatre. Dionysus was a Greek God. Dionysus was son of the Greek gods Zeus and Semele. Dionysus Dionysus was believed to be born twice once in his mothers womb and then again in his fathers thigh. The theatre could hold 17,000 people and was situated on the south slope of the Athenian acropolis. Greek theatre began by one of the ways of worshiping the God Dionysus . There was a theatre of Dionysus. There was annual festival which honoured Dionysus. Part of the festival included performing two types of play : comedy and tragedy .

5. What did an Ancient Greek theatre look like? A dues ex machina was something magical, irregular or illogical that happens to resolve all the problems in the plot of the play and therefore ends the play. The Theatron is where the spectators would sit. It was situated around the orchestra. They would normally sit on cushions or marble seats. The parados was a small pathway used as an entrance and exit for both performers and audience The place where the chorus would dance , sing and interact with the actors who were on stage. It was normally circular and made of earth. An ekklyema was a wheeled platform rolled out from the skene that allowed the actors to make interior scenes visible to the audience. The skene was the building directly opposite the stage . It had a few doors so that actors could make an exit or an entrance . It was normally decorated as a building depending on the needs of a play.

6. Who was Thespis and why was he important to Greek drama ? According to ancient tradition Thespis was the first actor in Greek drama. He was often called the inventor of Tragedy, and his name was put down as the first to perform a tragedy at the festival of Dionysus.

7. What was a chorus and how many people were in it ? A chorus was a group of originally 50 people but the number reduced to 15 by Sophocles. The chorus would stand in the orchestra part of the theatre – they would narrate the play that was going on - either by singing or repeating words/lines of the play. The chorus members were all men as no women were allowed on stage , so they used masks to play different characters or roles (especially the female ones).

8. The different plays , characters and costumes : In many plays Greek gods appeared as the main characters in plays. Costumes were very important in Greek drama .They could determine social status, gender, personality, occupation and even the size of the character(e.g: padding). If someone was playing a emperor or a god hay would wear a costume with royal colours for example purple, red ,gold or blue. However if the actor was playing slave they would probably wear brown and green rags. Deaths in plays would happen off stage as Greek playwrights found it hard to perform a death convincingly on stage. There were three main genres of plays performed in Greek theatre : comedy, satyr and tragedy. Tragedy plays dealt with big themes of love, power, abuse and death. Often a tragedy would have the relationship between two Greek gods in it. The typical plot of a tragedy would be that someone commits a crime without realizing how foolish he/she has been and his/hers world starts to crumble around him/her.

9. Medieval Mystery Plays

10. How and where did medieval Mystery plays begin? Medieval Mystery plays began in 1210 in large cities in England such as York. They were focused on representing Bible and religious stories and miracles. They were originally performed in church yards but soon moved to market places and town squares and then eventually theatres.

11. What was a pageant wagon? A pageant wagon was very much like a parade float that we have today. It was a moving stage and had a stage platform about 5 ft from the ground. It would move through the streets whilst the actors repeated the same play so that more people could see it. Drama became the primary style of acting.

12. What did actors use as costumes and props? Actors would use church vestments as costumes. For example if an actor was playing an angle then they would probably wear a church robe with some wings attached. Like previous time periods medieval mystery plays used masks to play different characters . Different features of the mask would portray the character as good or bad.