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Welcome to the Acropolis……….
From approximately 600 B.C. to 100 B.C.
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.
•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 a performer 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.
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.
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 .
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.
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 a character 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".
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.
There were two major types of Greek plays.
There was comedy, which was derived from the word odé which
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.
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.
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.
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.
The
participants
are with
masks, and
some have
the goat skin
clothing on.
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
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