Ancient Greek Theatre

Ancient Greek Theatre Welcome to the Acropolis………. From approximately 600 B.C. to 100 B.C.

Early Greeks created theater as part of their fertility festivities.

Plays were Dramatizations about Dionysius- the Greek God of Fertility. Start of Ancient Greek Theatre Ancient Greek theatre was a "... mixture of myth, legend, philosophy, social commentary, poetry, dance, music, public participation, and visual splendor." (Cohen 64) It began as a religious ceremony about 1200 B.C. The Athenian theatre focused on the God Dionysus. (Die- on-is-us) Dionysus was the God of: fertility and agriculture.

Celebration of Dionysus • Think of Walt Disney’s Pastoral Symphony scene from the animated movie Fantasia. This whole scene is a tribute to the Festivities celebrating Dionysus in Greek culture.

Athenian Festival Athenians had an annual fertility festival in March with one week of public celebration. Their religious ceremony, was not like most current day religious ceremonies. It was more of a party than what current religious events are like today. During the ceremony the main ceremony aperformer did an ancient dance and chant to the fertility god. This festival celebrated the birth of the wine god, Dionysus and the great grapes that made the wine.

Early Athenian Festivals The dances were performed outside in bowl-like craters. Later these bowl like craters developed into amphitheaters. The largest ultimately held twenty thousand people) hillside amphitheatres. The ruins of these theaters are still present today. The acoustics in these theaters are so good that you can hear someone on the stage from the farthest seats in the back.

The theaters were cut into the hillside and stone steps and seats and stages were laid into the ground. In addition to a stage with columns for creating dramatic entrances and exits, there was an area for an orchestra as music and poetry was also a large portions of the celebration. Often the performance was done in the Orchestra section.

Humble beginnings for Characterization and a Stage. Masks represented different characters, and boots like platform shoes were worn to add height to the players, but this made it difficult to move on stage. The concept of "actors" themselves was not originally a part of Greek theatre, but was developed through the creative genius of Greek playwrights .

Thespis and Thespians The players included a chorus and their leader, and the "lines" were more chanted than spoken. The chorus performed in the "orchestra", not on a raised stage. Later during this era, competitions were held for the best performers. One outstanding performer named Thespis was so good that no one could out perform him. It is believed that Thespis would go around all year as a street performer as well. Soon anyone who was a performer was given a label reflecting Thespis’ name, and they were called a Thespian. This term is used today for anyone involved in the Theatrical Arts.

Thank you Thespis! Thus the talent and profession for performing was begun. Theatre has often been defined as involving the art of acting a part on stage, that is the dramatic impersonation of acharacter other than yourself. This truly began with Thespis. Yet the only thing we really know of this creative genius, is that he won several play competitions in honor of the Greek god Dionysus, in 534 B.C. While it is uncertain whether Thespis was a playwright, an actor or a priest, it is his name with which the dramatic arts are associated in our word "Thespian".

Theatre Transforms From Ceremonies and Festivals to Story telling Greek drama was dominated by the works and innovations of five playwrights over the 200 years following Thespis. The first three of these wrote tragedies. Aeschylus (Es-kil- luss) (525-456 B.C.), who is most famous for his tragic trilogy the Oresteia. He also is the writer who added a second and ultimately a third characters, and plot development through the interaction of his characters in his dramas. Sophocles (Sof-ah-clee-s) (496-406) was most famous for his trilogy Oedipus Rex, reduced the role of the chorus in plays, and further developed complex characters , and characterization. It was Euripides (Ur-ip-i- dees) (480-406 B.C.) developed more simple stories that were more natural in their story telling., and most like what we know today.

Comedy & TragedyTwo Types of Greek Plays There were two major types of Greek plays. There was comedy, which was derived from the word odéwhich means song. The other was tragedy, which was derived from the word tragos and means goat. A tragedy received its name from how it was performed. A tragedy had actors who wore goatskins and danced like goats. The best performers were given a kid goat at a prize.

Parts of a Play An ancient Greek play consisted of three major parts. The play began with a prologue, a simple speech. Then, there was the entrance of the chorus. Finally, there were major episodes, scenes or acts, of the play.

Greek Theatre Masks In their celebrations and plays, the ancient Greeks of Athens created masks . The masks helped greatly with “characterization.” There was a different mask for each different character.

Masks helped to tell their stories.

Theatrical Costuming throughout the Ages

Greek Plays Endure Today. The themes of Love, Romance, Tragedy , War, & Comedy are the same as they were thousands of years ago. These same stories still ring true in the 21st Century. Five of Greece’s playwrights are still popular today.

Portrayal of a Greek Play The participants are with masks, and some have the goat skin clothing on.

Not Your White Columned Greek Theatre A lot of people think that the ancient Greek theatre consisted of white buildings with white scenes and white robes or clothing. This is because when the ruins were discovered, they were so washed out by sunlight. Sun faded. The ancient Greek theatre actually consisted of loud music, bright colors, and vigorous dancing. Their plays showed: violence and daily life social and ethical plays war murder lust betrayal

Credits: Ancient Greek Theatre; March 6, 2011 http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/theatre/Theatre.html Ancient Greece Forum; March 6, 2011 http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Theatre/ The Ancient Greek Theatre Page; March 6, 2011 http://anarchon.tripod.com/indexGREEKTH.html

Ancient Greek Theatre