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Theater as known today was invented by the Greeks The city state of Athens was center of the Greek theater culture Play writing flourished in the fifth century B.C.E. The earliest plays grew out of impromptu songs and dances.
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Theater as known today was invented by the Greeks • The city state of Athens was center of the Greek theater culture • Play writing flourished in the fifth century B.C.E. • The earliest plays grew out of impromptu songs and dances
The Festival of Dionysus was a religious event held each spring to celebrate the god of wine for which it was named • Men dressed as satyrs danced around the statue of Dionysus while a chorus sang about the god’s achievements Greek tragic drama eventually grew out of this form of entertainments • The event, held on the acropolis or high city of Athens, grew into a five day dramatic event
Early festivals focused on a group of men, the chorus, who sang and danced • Tradition credits the poet Thespis with first reciting lines as a single member of the chorus in response to the group • The role of the chorus shrank as the dialogue between actors became the most important part of the play • Music remained an important part of the performance and many lines were sung to accompaniment
Greek drama developed into two distinct written types: tragedy and comedy • Tragedy • Focused on heroes from Greek myth • Dealt with moral choices, passion, conflict between heroes or heroes and gods and often had unhappy endings • Comedies • Generally about ordinary people • Often mocked politicians and other well-known figures of the day
The first plays were performed in the agora, or marketplace • The Greeks eventually developed the open-air theater for play productions • One of the first stages was the Theater of Dionysus built on the Athens acropolis during the city-state’s • Golden Age ( 448 B.C.E. – 429 B.C.E.) • Capacity: + 18,000 people • Became the prototype for all ancient Greek theaters
Theatron: Seats for viewers, the front rows were reserved for guest of honors, priests of Dionysus, and government officials • Orchestra: Where the chorus stood
Proscenium: Raised stage for the actors • Skene: Long building which served as a dressing room, the wall of the skene was decorated as a background to the stage
Famous ancient Greek theater located in the city-state for which it is named on the Peloponnesus • Designed in the 4th century B.C.E. • Seats 15,000 people • Unrivaled acoustics the voice of a person standing on the stage can be clearly heard in the last row
Theater located in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus on the west coast of Anatolia (Turkey) • Could hold up to 25,000 spectators • Constructed in the 3rd century B.C.E. • Place in which the riot against the Christian disciple Paul took place
Performers during the Golden Age of Athens were professional actors paid by the state • Men played both male and female rolessince women were not allowed to act • Actors were considered valuable members of society and were exempt from military conscription
Masks were worn during performances to identify each character and allow everyone to see clearly • Masks identified characters and emotions • Some masks were reversible with one emotion on each side • Special costumes were designed to help the actors look bigger and taller • Costume pieces included wigs, thick padded tunics and platform shoes • Bright colors indicated happy characters; dark colors for tragic roles
Slide 3: http://culturalcocktailhour.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/dionysus-kleophrades1.jpg • Slide 4: http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/imagesFolder/greek_chorus.jpg • Slide 6: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Theatre_of_Dionysus_01382.JPG • Slides 7 – 8: http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110tech/graphics/theaterdiagram.jpg • Slide 9: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Epidaurus_Theater.jpg • Slide 10: http://www.ephesus.us/ephesus/theatre.htm ; http://www.ephesus.us/ephesus/the_great_theatre_of_ephesus.htm • Slide 11: http://www.richeast.org/htwm/Greeks/theatre/chorus.gif;http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-03/24/xinsrc_56203052408535311952615.jpg • Slide 13: http://mymasks.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/greek-mask1.jpg; http://www.alyssaravenwood.com/Images-2/pics-masks/greek-tragedy-L-3-C.jpg;
