GREEK THEATRE

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GREEK THEATRE
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Influences on Greek culture

• Polytheism
• Agriculture
• Many wars
• Fate

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HOW THEATRE BEGAN

• 6th Century BC to 2nd Century AD
• Rituals honoring Dionysus
• Drama Competitions

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THEATRES

• Amphitheatres
• Carved into hillsides for acoustics and sight
  lines
• Seated up to 15,000 people
• The audience

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Parts of a Greek theater
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Theater at Delphi
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Epidauros
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Theater of Dionysus
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The Skene

• The skene provided the scenery.
• Actors made entrances and exits.
• Actors could change costumes and masks behind the
  skene.

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Greek Origins of Theatre Terms

• Choros
• Tragos
• Orkestra
• Thespis
• Skene
• Theatron

• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Hypocrite
• Deus ex machina

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The Actors

• All roles played by men
• The role of the chorus
• Thespis
• What they wore

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The Chorus

• The chorus would stand to the side of the
  dramatic action and chant their lines together.

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Function of the Chorus

• To explain the current situation
• To bring the audience up to date
• To comment on the action
• To engage in dialogue with the actors and offer
  them advice.

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MASKS

• Illustrated a characters emotion
• Allowed for quick character changes
• Distinguished female characters
• Made the actors appear larger
• Amplified the actors voices

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Greek Theatre Masks
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Plays and Playwrights

• Aeschylus The Oresteia (only surviving trilogy)
• Sophocles Oedipus Rex (emphasis on individual,
  complex characters)
• Euripides Medea (themes considered
  unsuitable)
• Aristophanes Lysistrata, The Frogs (broad
  comedies)

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The Plays

• Religious myths
• Stories of mortals interacting with gods and
  goddesses
• Kings and Queens
• Battles
• Family relationships of important historical
  characters

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Roman Theatre

• Rome conquered Greece 146 BC
• Seneca wrote tragedies copying plots and
  structure of Greek plays
• Comedies by Terrence and Plautus
• The Colosseum used for circuses and gladiator
  spectacles