Greek Theatre Research Paper

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.

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

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

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

I think it’s because music brings more depth to any play. There’s something about music that harmonizes with every being as it amplifies feelings or emotions that mere words alone cannot. Music is infectious, be it celebratory or sentimental, it always has that strange way of connecting people together to share the actors’ passion and excitement, such as in Ragtime, when Colehouse and Sarah shared their hopes and dreams for their son’s future in a song called “Wheels of A Dream.”

Greek tragedies have many notable characteristics, one of which is the chorus. Choral performances were the first primitive form of Greek theater. In these performances, around 50 men would dance, and sing dithyrambs that honored Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy. Towards 6 A.D., these performances began to evolve. Thespis’ interaction with the chorus is what makes him the first man to be widely regarded as an actor. Throughout the course of the drama, Thespis would talk to the choragus (the choral leader). According to Aristotle, a prominent Greek philosopher, tragedies consisted only of a chorus until Thespis created prologues and actor dialogue. Despite this, choral performances continued to constitute the majority of Greek theater. Aeschylus was the next to make a major change in the chorus. Under

     The Dionysian Festivals lasted for several days along with the drama competitions. The performances were always done during the day and the drinking at night! Little or no makeup was worn by the actors, instead they wore masks with exaggerated facial expressions. Actors were always male and played more than one role, so the masks helped portray different characters, races, and sexes. Not much scenery was used and usually the majority of the play took place in the orchestra. When attention was shifted to the actors, however, the action was played on stage.

Though both genres of theatre are closely tied to religion, Greek theatre and medieval drama have different religious motivations that impact the ways in which the theatrical event is utilized. In Greece, theatre was used to entertain or please the Gods, more specifically the God Dionysus, during the most important of the four Athenian festivals: the Great Dionysia. The first known Greek playwrights, such as Thespis and Euripides, were chosen to compete in the festival and submit three tragedies and one satyr play to be performed in front of approximately 15,000 spectators. In classical Greece, theatre was the center of citizenship and society; religious ideologies towards Dionysus were not only realized by performances, but strongly encouraged by the state. For example, if a citizen could not afford to attend the

The theater of Epidaurus was first formed in Ancient Greece around the year 340 BC. This piece of architecture was used for many celebrations including the God that it was named after. The theater was created for entertainment and to celebrate the God Dionysos. Polykleitos the Younger first built the Theater of Epidaurus. This theater could seat up to fourteen thousand people, before then the number that could be seated was only six thousand. The theater was a great way to bring people together under celebration and entertainment. The relation of the importance of the Greek theatre and the society.

It was because the Sanskrit theatre was acting-oriented that it made minimum use of dramatic properties. With massive use of prose recitations, chorus, verses and songs the Sanskrit theatre gave greater flexibility to the dramatic speech and provide a multi-level organization of communication between characters. Another form of communication used in the Sanskrit plays is announcements or conversation from the backstage which is known as nepathaya or the use of oracles called akashwanis through which supernatural beings communicate. These create audio-visual attractiveness and instantly draw the audience into the play.

          Although the origin of the Greek theater is unclear, many historians believe that it developed out of religious ritual and its performances were connected to religious festivals. The performances were used to educate and entertain. "The theater is certainly not the same as it was in ancient

Dionysus was celebrated by the ancient Greeks as the God of wine and fertility. Around 534 B.C.E., the Athenians and people from all parts of Greece started a tradition of coming together to worship Dionysus. All work and other activities in the City of Dionysia would come to a halt for a week so that the festivities could take place. The festival of Dionysus paved the way for plays and performances throughout history. For the first time actors started to be paid to rehearse their parts and perform in the contests that were formed in the honor of the God in which the festival was named. The festival allowed for playwrights to have their plays performed for the crowds and judged in order to determine whose play and performance was superior

Ancient Greek comedy was part of three principal dramatic forms that was used in theatre in Ancient Greece back in the day. While the other being tragedy. Greek comedies were usually sorted into three distinct periods: these include Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy.

In Ancient Greece religion and theater went hand in hand. The Greeks developed religion that was based on worship of many Gods. In honor of the Gods there were festivals with dancing, music, and theatrical performances. During the festivals the whole city would come to a complete stand still. All businesses were closed, politics were put on the back burner, and wars were halted. All social classes were welcome to come to the festival, and they all did. One of the most famous religious festivals is the City Dionysia, a festival in honor of the god Dionysus, god of wine, revelry, and fertility. The festival was held in ancient Athens, in March for five days, featuring dramatic competitions. These dramatic competitions consisted of dithyrambs, tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. The tragedy competition was four plays per playwright, three tragedies and one satyr play. There were two processions; the first was carrying the statue of Dionysus from the temple to the theater of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis. The second were the patrons parading through the