Greek Theater

1
Greek Theater

• From Ancient Chant to Modern Theater

2
Introduction to Greek Theater

• 2500 years ago, 2000 years before
  Shakespeare,Western theater was born in Athens,
  Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient
  Athenians created a theater culture whose form,
  technique and terminology have lasted 2
  millennia. They created plays that are still
  considered among the greatest works of world
  drama.

3
Ancient Greek Theater

• Their achievement is truly remarkable when one
  considers that there have been only 2 other
  periods in the history of theater that could be
  said to approach the greatness of ancient Athens
  - Elizabethan England and, perhaps the 20th
  Century. The greatest playwright of Elizabethan
  England was Shakespeare, but Athens produced at
  least 5 equally great playwrights. The 20th
  Century produced thousands of fine plays and
  films, but their form and often their content are
  based on the innovations of the ancient
  Athenians.

4
The Cult of Dionysus

• Ancient Greek Theater evolved from religious
  rites dating back to at least 1200 BC
• In 500 BC, in Northern Greece (Thrace) a cult
  arose that worshipped Dionysus (god of fertility
  and procreation)
• An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was
  the dithyramb

• Dithyramb means choric hymn
• This chant or hymn was accompanied by mimic
  gestures and music
• The dithyramb was performed by a chorus of about
  50 men

5
Dithyramb

• The performers wore costumes, danced, and played
  drums, lyres and flutes,
• They described the adventures of Dionysus.
• The dithyramb was given a regular form and raised
  to the rank of artistic poetry about 600 BC.
• It became one of the competitive subjects at the
  various Athens festivals.
• It attracted the most famous poets of the day.

6
From Dithyramb to Drama

• As time went on, the dithyramb started to cease
  to concern itself exclusively with the adventures
  of Dionysus and began to choose its subjects from
  all periods of Greek mythology.
• In this way, over time the dithyramb would evolve
  into stories in play form DRAMA.

7
Golden Age of Greek Theater

• The most prominent city-state in Greece by 600 BC
  was Athens where at least 150,000 people lived.
• In Athens the rites of Dionysus evolved into what
  we know today as theater .

8
Thespis

• In about 600 BC Arion of Corinth wrote down
  formal lyrics for the dithyramb.
• Some time in the next 75 years, Thespis of Attica
  added an actor who interacted with the chorus.
• This one actor was called the protagonist.

• Thespis walked around Athens pulling a handcart,
  setting up a kind of one man plays, where he
  showed the bad behavior of man. The word for
  actor, thespian, comes from his name.

9
Thespis

• The "inventor of tragedy" was born in Attica, and
  was the first prize winner at the Great Dionysia
  in 534 BC.
• Thespis was an important innovator for the
  theater, since he introduced such things as the
  independent actor (as opposed to the chorus) as
  well as masks, make up and costumes.

10
.Athenian Drama Competitions

• In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus,
  changed the Dionysian Festivals and instituted
  drama competitions.
• In the next 50 years, the competitions became
  popular annual events.
• During this time, major theatres were constructed
  , notably the theater at Delphi, the Attic
  theater and the Theater of Dionysus in Athens.

11
Greek Amphitheatres

• The Theater of Dionysus, built at the foot of the
  Acropolis in Athens, could seat 17,000 people.
• During their heyday, the competitions drew as
  many as 30,000 spectators.

• The words theater and amphitheater derive from
  the Greek word theatron, which referred to the
  wooden spectator stands erected on the hillsides.

12
Amphitheatres

• Current day Theater at Dionysus

• Artistic replica of the Theater at Dionysus

• Delphi Theater reconstruction and current day
  ruins

13
How plays were performed

• Plays were performed in the daytime.
• Since women were not allowed to take part, male
  actors had to play female roles.
• The playing of multiple roles, both male and
  female, was made possible by the use of masks.

• The masks prevented the audience from
  identifying the face of any actor with one
  character in the play.
• The masks had exaggerated facial expressions,
  different lengths and color hair,and helped the
  audience identify the sex, age, and social rank
  of the characters.

14
3 Types of Greek Plays

• Tragedies The first type they invented was the
  tragedy. In tragedies, one or more major
  characters always suffered a disastrous end.

• Comedies Comedies were invented next. In
  comedies, plays always had a happy end.

15
3 Types of Greek Plays, cont.

• Satires Satires were plays that made fun of
  mortal legends and of real people. In ancient
  Greece, you did not poke fun at the gods - not in
  a play, not in real life, not ever. But you could
  poke fun

• at your leaders. And that was uniquely Greek.
  Satires in ancient Greece were often political in
  nature, and could indeed affect people's opinions
  about current events.

16
The Chorus/ Singers

• In Greek drama, the chorus or the singers told
  the story, not the actors. Actors used gestures
  and masks to act out their parts. Actors changed
  roles by changing masks.

17
Masks

• Were large so that audience could see them easily
• A distinctive mask was made for each character in
  the play

18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
Some Masks Were on Sticks
21
The Skene?

• The theater of Dionysus in the earliest days of
  tragedy must have consisted of only the most
  basic elements.
• All that was required was a circular dancing area
  for the chorus at the base of a gently sloping
  hill, on which spectators could sit and watch the
  performance.

• On the other side of the orchestra facing the
  spectators there probably stood a tent in which
  the actors could change their costumes (one actor
  would play more than one part).
• This is suggested by the word skene which means
  'tent', and was used to refer to a wooden wall
  having doors.

22
The Skene and Seating

• The wall was painted to represent a palace,
  temple or whatever setting was required. The
  wall, which eventually became a full-fledged
  stage building, probably acquired this name
  because it replaced the original tent.

• The construction of the wooden skene (cf. our
  theatrical terms "scene" and "scenery") and of a
  formal seating area consisting of wooden benches
  on the slope, which had been hollowed out,
  probably took place some time toward the middle
  of the fifth century.

23
Greek Theater
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
Mechanical Stage Devices

• One device is the ekkyklema a wheeled-out
  thing, a platform on wheels rolled out through
  one of the doors of the skene, on which a tableau
  was displayed representing the result of an
  action indoors (e.g., a murder) and therefore was
  unseen by the audience.

• The other device is called a mechane theatrical
  machine, a crane to which a cable with a harness
  for an actor was attached. This device allowed an
  actor portraying a god or goddess to arrive on
  scene in the most realistic way possible, from
  the sky.

31
Flying Actors?

• The mechane deposited the actor on top of the
  skene so that he as a deity could address the
  human characters from an appropriately higher
  level.
• This device was not exclusively limited to use by
  divine characters, but was employed whenever the
  plot required any character to fly.

32
Actors

• The actors in tragedy were hired and paid by the
  state and assigned to the tragic poets probably
  by lot.
• By the middle of the 5th century 3 actors were
  required for the performance of a tragedy. In
  descending order of importance of the roles they
  assumed they were called the protagonist first
  actor, (a term also applied in modern literary
  criticism to the central character of a play),
  deuteragonist second actor and tritagonist
  third actor.

33
Actors

• The protagonist took the role of the most
  important character in the play while the other 2
  actors played the lesser roles. Since most plays
  have more than 2 or 3 characters (although never
  more than 3 speaking actors in the same scene),
  all 3 actors played multiple roles.

• The fact that the chorus remained in the
  orchestra throughout the play and sang and danced
  choral songs between the episodes allowed the
  actors to exit after an episode in order to
  change mask and costume and assume a new role in
  the next episode without any illusion-destroying
  interruption in the play.

34
(No Transcript)
35
(No Transcript)
36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42

• British Museum
• http//www.ancientgreece.co.uk/festivals/explore/e
  xp_set.html