Greek Theater

• Western theater dates back to Greece approximately 2,500 years ago/700 BCE ago.
• Ancient Greek theater started as religious rituals.
• The Ancient Greek theater began specifically in Thrace, where a cult venerated Dionysus.
• Dionysus was the God of procreation and fertility.
• This religious concept was important to ancient Greeks, who would see and experience theater to purify and purge powerful emotions.
• Dionysians were credited as the first to create a more formally structured drama.
• Aristotle defines tragedy as an imitation through action rather than narration of serious, complete, and ample action.
• A tragic play imitates significant actions and emotions-life itself.
• A tragic play should have actions, which can be delivered through dialogic parts.
• An important part of the tragedy is the orderly arrangement of incident-it should have a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
• A tragic play's language must have rhythm, instrumental melody, and song; vulgar language must be avoided.
• The spectators of the tragic play must experience a release of powerful emotions.
• The surviving tragedies of Greece are The Persians (472 BCE) by Aeschylus, Antigone (442 BCE) and Oedipus Rex (c. 430 BCE) by Sophocles, and Medea (431 BCE) by Euripides.
• The word comedy comes from the word Comus.
• Comus is the Greek God of laughter, joke, and revelry.
• There are only 11 surviving comedies written by Aristophanes, and some of these are The Frogs (405 BCE), Lysistrata (411 BCE), and The Clouds (423 BCE).
• Plays were a crucial part in many religious festivals in ancient Greece.
• Open-air theaters were usually built on hillsides and could accommodate over 180000 people.
• Theaters in Ancient Greece were built in a half circle form and had rows of tiered stone seating around them.
• A theater was divided into four separate areas, the orchestra, the theatron, the parados, and the skene.
• The orchestra was the space where the chorus would sing and dance.
• An altar dedicated to Greek gods was usually found at the center of these orchestras.
• The theatron was the area where the spectators were seated.
• The parados was the pathway on both sides of the orchestra which divided the orchestra and theatron. These passage ways were used by the actors and chorus to enter and exit the orchestra, as well as by the audience.
• The skene was the structure behind the orchestra. This area was reserved as a changing room for the actors and other performers.
• Movements, gesture, and dance were the element of Greek theater.
• Actors of the Greek theater as well as the chorus had to speak loudly, and their gestures had to be big so that every viewer could hear what was being said and see what was going on.
• Actors of the Greek Theater used pantomime instead of props to indicate objects.
• Facial expression was not that important in ancient Greek theater because actors always wore masks.
• Movements and gestures executed in unison added power to the performance.
• Sound and music. The main actors and chorus of the Greek theater delivered their verses set to a musical accompaniment.
• Chant, music, and dance were important in Greek theater.
• Ancient Greek theater is more similar to opera than modern plays. In fact, the first operas were produced to revive Greek drama.
• In Greek theater, music embodied pathos (a quality that evokes sadness or pity) or the sensation or feeling of what it is to be a human.
• Pathos is the opposite of logos, which refers to the written or spoken words and everything that is rational or logical.
• Pathos was inhibited in the beginning, but it always dominated in the end, in the same way that nature wins over logic or reason.
• Costume. Costumes were crucial in every production because it determined the gender, social status, or motivations of the characters.
• Actors used body painting in early productions and eventually began using animal feathers and skins as costume.
• Actors wore garments such as chlaina (overgarments), peplos (cloak), chiton (rutin or robe), kothurnus (short lace-up boots), and chlamys (short cloak).
• Actors in ancient Greek were always men, even though they portrayed female characters.