Intro. To Greek Theater

Greek Theater• European theater was started by the Greeks.• Plays = Tragedies and comedies• Tradition first came from choral songs that dealt with the

death & return of Dionysus, god of wine & patron of theater.

• Women could not perform in Greek theaters.• Only scenery in plays were sets of rocks & tombs.• Thesbis, 1st playwright & first actor given credit for

introducing masks to theater & with giving actors speaking parts; 6th century BCE hence term thesbian for actors

• Greek plays = outdoors

Greek Theater• Early Greek theaters = open areas in city centers or next

to hillsides• 1st Greek theater in Athens was a large simple circle

called the “orchestra” (the dancing place).• Greek comedy & tragedy flourished in 5th and 4th

centuries BCE & performances were done before 12,000 or more people.

• Unless revised later, plays were performed only once & in competition with other plays.

• Tragedies dealt almost exclusively with stories from the mythic past.

• Comedies dealt almost exclusively with contemporary figures and problems.

Great Greek Playwrights• “Golden Age” of Greek theaters rests on 3 tragedians:• Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)—impact on art form of plays;

increased # of actors from 1 to 2; involved the chorus more in action; and emphasized dialogue; brought serious & dignified dramatic form (tragedy) into being; wrote over 90 plays, but only 7 survive—Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes, and the Oresteia trilogy—Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, & Eumenides

• Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)—well-educated & accomplished actor; great innovator of Greek drama; 1st play he defeated Aeschylus in dramatic competition; contributions—added the 3rd actor; abolished trilogic form & concentrated action into one, more dramatically powerful, play; invented painted scenery; wrote over 120 plays, only 7 survive in their entirety—Antigone, Electra, Oedipus the King (masterpiece), & Oedipus at Colonus

Great Greek Playwrights• Euripides (485-406 BCE)—generally ignored by

judges of Greek festivals because his free thinking & pacifist views were not popular; compared to Aeschlyus & Sophocles; life not happy & plays reflected grim outlook; he incorporated elements of humor in his plays breaking rigid rules of & making it easier for new forms of drama to develop; other contributions include probing a man’s psyche and introduced the common man to the stage; plays include Medea, The Trojan Women, and Bacchae

Greek Comedies• 5th century BCE great age of comedy• Only surviving comedies are written by

Aristophones (c. 450-380 BCE)• He lived through the deterioration of Athens,

the Peloponnesian War, and the fall of Athens to Sparta; plays are marked by wit, invention, & skillful use of the language as well as a satiric view of the politics of the time; 11 of 40 plays survive including The Clouds, The Frogs, The Wasps, and Lysistrata

Greek Contributions: The Stage• A stage—performance area—central to theater• Greeks stage productions in natural settings—rocky, irregular

hillsides• Comedies & tragedies performed in open-air amphitheaters with

a bank of spectators.• Greeks would sit on stone benches and would often watch 4

productions in a row• Greek theater had 3 parts—orchestra—chorus sang and danced

in a circular area; theatron—horseshoe shaped area for audience; and skene—backdrop

• Music & dance were part of drama—chorus comes from Greek work meaning to dance; a musician played the aulos or pipe

• Actor’s use of masks took away need for makeup—they used whole head masks made of stiffened linen, sometimes with megaphones inside

Contrasts: The Theater Then & Now

• Ancient Greek dramas have influenced Western drama & are still performed today

• Walden Theatre based in Louisville, KY has produced several Greek plays, including Medea and The Trojan Women.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)• Born at Stagira, in Macedonia, the son of a physician to the royal court• At 17, he went to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy; remained there

20 yrs. as student then teacher• Undertook 1st theoretical discussion of acting in the West in his Politics• Actors in Greek theater communicated temperament & feeling through

speech & stylized gestures whose meaning was clear to spectators• Professional performers underwent a regimen of speech training &

vocal exercise• According to Aristotle, the human voice alone could register passion &

delight; he wrote that the most convincing portrayals of distress & anger were produced by performers who truthfully felt those emotions at the moment they expressed them

• Finding true feeling in the proper place & time on stage was a problem Aristotle addressed less well—he concluded acting was an occupation for the gifted or insane.

Aristotle’s Poetics—Guidelines for DramaA. Tragedy is an imitation of action, both serious & complete.B. There must be a catharsis—instilling fear & pity.C. 6 elements of tragedy:

1. Plot—action of play2. Thought—the emotions & feelings of the characters3. Characters—inhabitants of the play4. Diction—speech & dialogue of the characters5. Song—rhythm of the play6. Spectacle—technical aspects of the play such as lighting, sound, & props

D. The Unities1. Time—sunup to sundown2. Place—one location3. Action

Vocabulary for Greek Theater• Character—person portrayed in a drama, novel, or other

artistic piece• Comedy—play that treats characters & situations in a

humorous way; low comedy—physical; high comedy—verbal wit

• Isolations—control of isolated body parts; ability to control or move one part of the body independently of the rest

• Literary elements—include story line (plot); character; story organization (beginning, middle, end); plot structures (rising action, turning point, falling action); conflict; suspense; theme; language; style; dialogue; monologue

Vocabulary for Greek Theater• Performance elements—acting (character

motivation/analysis, empathy); speaking (breath control, vocal expression/inflection, projection, speaking style, diction); and nonverbal expression (gestures, body alignment, facial expression, character blocking, movement)

• Purposes– the reasons people make art—drama & include: to share the human experience (social change, universal themes, interpretation of ideas & emotions); to pass on tradition & culture (storytelling, folktales, religious ritual, ceremony); for recreation, entertainment, diversion; and as artistic expression (to communicate emotions, ideas, & information through a performance in a theatrical setting for an audience

Vocabulary for Greek Theater• Reader’s theater—dramatic presentation in which 2 or more oral

readers interpret a characterized script with the aim of stimulating the audience to imaginatively experience the literature

• Storytelling—the act of telling a story in the oral tradition• Technical elements—scenery (set); costumes; props; lights;

sound; music; makeup• Tragedy—in Greek theater, a play depicting man as a victim of

destiny; characteristics of tragedy evolved over time to include any serious play in which man is a victim of fate, character flaw, moral weakness, or social pressure; Aristotle says tragedy is to arouse pity & fear in audience & purge them at the play’s conclusion (catharsis)

• Tragic hero—central figure in a tragedy; a tragic hero is a person of basically good character who passes from happiness to misery because of a character flaw or error in judgment