Ancient Greek Theater

All the performers who would come up on stage were male professional actors, singers, and dancers and some people would help them to represent a vast variety of human and non-human characters by wonderful costumes and highly decorated face masks. The main actors and two other actors performed in all of the speaking parts. Sometimes, a fourth actor could be allowed to perform only if this actor was non-instrumental to the plot. These restrictions were to ensure the equality of the competition and to keep down the costs to the state, which funded the professional actors. The Chorus, costumes, musicians, and rehearsal time were funded by an appointed private citizen, a khorēgos, who was carrying great prestige.

The work was written around 450 BC, a time of high Greek culture where literature and drama were placed at the forefront of society. Sophocles was a key player in this movement, and his plays were performed in a widespread area across ancient Greece and beyond. However, its popularity grew immensely as time went on, especially during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period, when the fascination with the arts and the accomplishments

Theatre became important to Greek cultures when it became a part of the festival honoring the god Dionysus (The god of wine and fertility).”( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) The theater festival was founded to bring unity among the Attican tribes.( Greek Mythology in Theater by Bruce Tucker October 27, 2016) Athens was the main center of these traditions. Everyone came to sing and dance in hope for a good harvest. At one point, a Greek named Thespis began to sing praises to the god, with others responding, which led to the actor and chorus. During the festival everyone would dance and sing in a circle, in the middle of which was the altar to Dionysus. Over time the festivals started giving thanks to other themes, and eventually had nothing to do with Dionysus or any god, but began to turn into classical Greek plays. (First Ancient History, Oxford University Press 2000 pg.166)

Theatre flourished in Greece, particularly in Athens, between c. 550 BC and c. 220 BC. During its beginnings theatrical performances were part of Dionysia, a festival held in honour of the god Dionysus. The plot of the plays was always inspired by Greek mythology, a theme that is still common today. Many modern plays and movies have been directly based on or incorporated elements of Greek mythology or simply mythology in general. Every play had a chorus, though the size and importance of it varied. The

Sophocles is considered one of the greatest Greek play writers. He was the fist to add a third main character and the first to get rid of trilogic form. As a result, Sophocles had to shorten all of the “action,” therefore giving his plays a more dramatic effect.

Greek theater encompassed many aspects that reflected the moral values and ideals of society. Their customs were tightly woven into the scripts of plays. Antigone and Oedipus the King, two renowned works of the Greek playwright Sophocles, explore these values through a plot thick with corruption, virtue, and determination. These plays reveal the burdens two Theban kings, Oedipus and Creon, as their lies and poor judgment corrode the integrity of their city, their families and themselves. Possessing a strong faith in their respective gods, the characters of these Greek plays are often led astray as they try to escape the twisted hand of fate, further warping their perception of reality. As their vain

Greek drama originally started out as a ritual to honor the god of wine, Dionysus, by the cult of Dionysus. In the ritual, drunk men dressed up in goat-skin would sing and have dialogue in chorus to welcome the leader, the person acting as Dionysus (Sayre 151). In these revel-filled festivals, men dressed as satyrs, companions of Dionysus who are half-man and half-goat, while the women dressed up as maenads, the immortal followers of Dionysus. As the participants become drunk and filled with ecstasy, they “transform” into a different identity from before. Later on this behavior became the satyr play, a form of Greek drama. Tragedy is said to be originated from the Dionysian rites, where the name comes from tragoidos, which means the “goat song” from the satyrs – companions of Dionysus who are half-man and half-goat. This could be in reference to the fact that Dionysus was also the

Greek drama was performed in the late 6th century BCE in ancient Greece. Tragedians like Euripides wrote very influential and popular plays such as the Bacchae. Greek tragedies lead to Greek comedies such as Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Many of the Greek dramas have similar concepts, one of being duality. Without duality, the nature of our lives and the environment around us remains unbalanced.

Greek tragedies Oedipus the King and Euripides’ Bacchae are both timeless stories in Greek literature. The engaging plot of both is what is most rememberable however the significance of the chorus is overlooked. The chorus can be defined simply as a group of dancers and singers that participate in dramas by singing poetically and lyrically in certain pauses of the play. The music, movements and gestures of the chorus symbolically define the mood and the themes of the play as the story line develops. The flow of Oedipus the King and Bacchae are dependent on the chorus, proving their significance.

In ancient Greece festivals were mainly held at the Great Dionysia. This was the oldest theatre in Greece and many plays were performed here for example the first performance of Antigone. The patron of the theatre was the God

Oedipus the King is perhaps one of the most famous and influential of Sophocles' plays. It is a tragic play which focuses on the discovery by Oedipus that he has killed his father and married his mother. On the surface of this drama there is, without a doubt, a tone of disillusionment.

Tragedy and comedy were very important to Greek theatre. Both tragedy and comedy had the same structure. In order, we have the prologue, parodo, first episode, first stasimon, and the exodos (“Ancient”). One of the more interesting facts about ancient Greek theatre is that if a play called for a certain time of day, the play would happen during the night or day. There were around 15000 to 17000 spectators per show at the more popular theatres, although historians are not sure if women were included in the spectators.

Sophocles wrote more than 100 plays of which seven complete tragedies and fragments of 80 or 90 others are preserved. He was the first to

The theatre that you are most familiar with today generally comes via the movie version of an originally staged play. But if we go back further, we find that most of the theatre that is written and performed today can be traced back to Greek origins through various

Sophocles ' play “Oedipus Tyrannus” is an enigma. His play includes incest, murder and self-enlightenment all leading into the main theme of fate. Athenians believed that fate is not left up to man, but that is provided solely on the whims of the gods. Because of his dramatic approach to his plays Sophocles was considered one of the most brilliant and creative writers of his time.