Greek Theater PPT

• Tragedy is about the failure and tragic end of the protagonist, who is always a mythical hero or heroine because of gods’ will, fate or arrogance.
• Greek tragedies were based on myths and ancient heroes.
• Tragedy's themes are focused on moral issues, especially on the danger of arrogance, or hubris in Greek.
• Famous writers of tragedies were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes.
• Comedy mainly aims to amuse the audience through ridicule of character, customs, and institutions by means of jokes and puns.
• A famous comic playwright was Aristophanes.
• Satyr were short plays performed between the acts of tragedies and made fun of the plight of the tragedy’s characters.
• The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors wore large phalluses for comic effect.
• The play had a chorus made up of 12 to 15 to a standard of 50 members

  people who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music.
• Chorus is a group of performers who sings and speak in unison.
• The performance space was a simple circular space called the orchestra, where the chorus danced and sang.
• One performer played multiple roles- as actor, writer, director. Later, dramas had 3 actors in an act or scene.
• After some time, roles which have no dialogues were allowed.
• The Greek theater only employed only males as part of its cast.
• Masks are allowed to shift roles in Greek theater.
• Plot is a series of events which makes the story.
• The three types of plot is reversal, recognition, suffering.
• Reversal or peripeteia happens when an event looks like developing in a path, then changes direction. It is like having a good ending and yet reverses to bad ending for the hero.
• Recognition or anagnorisis - which means “knowing again” or “knowing

  back”.
• Recognition is when an event from complete ignorance turns into total awareness of something the tragic hero has horribly committed a mistake.
• Suffering or pathos is when the tragic hero or heroine commits suicide or suffers painfully from the mistakes, fate, or wrath of the gods.
• Hubris pertains to the hero’s/heroine’s arrogance that has led him/her to disobey the gods/goddesses or moral rules.
• The hubris or defiance of the protagonist will result in the tragedies that he/she is going to face.
• Hamartia is the misjudgment that is made by the protagonist and to which he/she will fall victim.
• Catharsis pertains to the “purification” of the audiences’ soul after

  watching the tragic drama.
• Catharsis is commonly expressed by pitying the protagonist and

  projecting a feeling of fear that the tragedy may also happen in real life.
• Orchestra or “acting and dancing space” is a large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre where the play, dance, religious rites, and acting take place.
• Theatron is a place where the audience sat to watch or view the drama, usually carved from a side of a hill overlooking the orchestra.
• Skene or “tent” is a large rectangular building behind the orchestra used

  as backstage where the actors could change their costumes and masks.
• Parodos is a pathway along the side of the theatron which actors

  and chorus used to reach the orchestra and is also used also by the audience as entrance and exit before and after a performance.
• Mask. Actors of tragic drama wore masks as a part of their costume. These masks helped them in imitating the physical appearance of a Greek god.
• The ancient Greek mask was called prosporon (face) used in ceremonial rites and celebrations in the worship of Dionysus.
• Mask-makers were called skeuopoios or “maker of the properties”.
• Oedipus Rex is a famous ancient Greek tragedy written by Sophocles that was first performed around 429 BC. It was about the life of a man called Oedipus, who at birth was prophesied by an oracle that he would unintentionally kill his father and marry his mother.
• Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides based on the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on Medea’s revenge against Jason’s betrayal of her with another woman.