Greek Drama

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Greek Drama
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Drama was born in ancient Greece!

• 600s B.C. - Greeks were giving choral
  performances of dancing and singing
• Performances at festivals honoring Dionysus
• Later they held drama
• contests to honor him

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Thespis (534 B. C.)

• First actor
• Introduced art of acting a part on stage
• dramatic impersonation of another character
• Uncertain whether he was a playwright, an actor,
  or a priest
• Thespian term comes from his name

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Description of Greek Theater

• Took place in large hillside amphitheaters
• held as many as 15,000 to 20,000 people!!
• Players included a chorus and their leader
• Lines were chanted rather than spoken
• Chorus performed in an orchestra, not on a
  raised platform

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Greek Theater (continued)

• Masks used to represent characters
• High-soled boots worn to add height
• Both of these limited movement

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Greek Theater
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Most Important Era (400s B.C.)

• Tragedies performed as part of a civic
  celebration called the City Dionysia
• Festival lasted several days
• Prizes given for best tragedy, comedy, acting,
  and choral singing

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Theater of Dionysus

• Located on slope below the Acropolis in Athens
• Seated 14,000
• Circular acting area called orchestra
• Skene (stage house)

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The Physical Structure of the Greek Theater
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Greek Tragedy

• Nearly all surviving tragedies are based on myth
• Characters struggle against hostile forces ended
  in defeat and ultimately in death
• A series of dramatic episodes separated by choral
  odes (mini-songs).
• Episodes performed by a few actors - never more
  than 3 on stage

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Greek Drama (continued)

• Wore masks to indicate the nature of the
  characters played.
• Men played womens roles
• Same actor appeared in several parts.
• Of the hundreds of Greek tragedies written, fewer
  than 35 survive.

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• Greek Tragedy
• The Three Greek Tragedians
• Aeschylus - his are the oldest surviving plays -
  began competing in 449 at Dionysus Theatre. Most
  of his plays were part of trilogies.
• 2. Sophocles (496-406 B.C.) won 24 contests,
  never lower than 2nd believed to have introduced
  the 3rd actor fixed the chorus at 15 (had been
  50).
• 3. Euripides (480-406 B.C.) very popular in later
  Greek times, little appreciated during his life
  sometimes known as "the father of melodrama".

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Three Playwrights

• Aeschylus
• Most famous for Oresteia
• Introduced concept of second actor
• Expanded possibilities for plot

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Sophocles

• Innovation of the third actor
• Most famous for Oedipus Rex

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Euripides

• Created the ultimate form of drama
• Far more naturalistic or human approach in his
  works
• Showed interest in psychology through portraits
  of women
• Medea is most famous work
• Describes how a mother kills her children to gain
• revenge against their father

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Euripides (continued)

• Medea is most famous work
• Describes how a mother kills her children to gain
  revenge against their father