Ancient Greek Theater
This is where it all began:
the Theatre of Dionysos in
Athens.
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According to legend, late in the sixth century BCE
a man named Thespis first had the idea to add
speaking actors to the performances of choral
song and dance which occurred on many
occasions throughout Greece. (That's why actors
are sometimes called 'thespians'.) Masked actors
performed outdoors, in daylight, before audiences
of 12,000 or more at festivals in honor of
Dionysos, the god of theatre.
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The comedy and tragedy that developed
in Athens and flourished in the fifth and
fourth centuries BC have influenced
nearly all subsequent Western drama,
starting with that of the Romans. When
the Romans conquered Greece they
brought Greek literature back to Italy and
set about making it their own.
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The Romans, with their love of spectacle, soon
took over the existing theatres in Greece and
began renovating and rebuilding them for their
own spectacles, which included everything from
pantomime (closer to ballet than to the children's
'panto') to mock naval battles. Most of the remains
of the theatre of Dionysos which we can see in
Athens today date to Roman times and not the
fifth century BC.
The tragedies and comedies of the fifth and fourth centuries BC that remain
to us today were almost all written for performance in the Theatre of
Dionysos at Athens. The Theatre of Dionysos was first dug out of the slope
beneath the south side of the Acropolis in the late 6th century BC.
The Precinct
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The Theatre of Dionysos was only one part of the precinct of
Dionysos. Initially, the precinct contained only the Older
Temple of Dionysos and a sacrificial altar. Later a hall, or
stoa, was added, incorporating the Older Temple, and a
second temple built further south. The highest row of seats in
the Theatre of Dionysos was 125 feet above the lowest part
of the precinct, and before the construction of the stoa and
the stage building (skene), the audience could easily see the
temples and the sacrificial altars from the theatre. More
importantly, from the Athenian point of view, Dionysos himself
(represented by his cult statue, which was seated in the front
row) could observe not only the choral performances being
given in his honor but the sacrifices which were made at his
altar.
The Precinct
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Pericles also introduced the Theoric Fund
to subsidize the cost of theatre tickets for
the poor. The price of a ticket to the
Theatre of Dionysos was two obols, as
much as a laborer earned in a day.
The Players
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Because Greek tragedy and comedy originated
with the chorus, the most important part of the
performance space was the orchestra, which
means 'a place for dancing' (orchesis). A tragic
chorus consisted of 12 or 15 dancers (choreuts),
who may have been young men just about to
enter military service after some years of training.
Athenians were taught to sing and dance from a
very early age. The effort of dancing and singing
through three tragedies and a satyr play was
likened to that of competing in the Olympic
Games.
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In contrast with the chorus of 12 or 15, there
were only three actors in fifth-century Athenian
tragedy. The original word for 'actor' was
hypokrites, meaning 'answerer,' for the actor
answered the chorus. Thespis is said to have
introduced (and been) the first actor, later called
protagonistes (literally 'first competitor'). The
introduction of a second actor is attributed to
Aeschylus and the third to Sophocles.
Four Qualities of Greek Drama
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Occurred during special occasions or festivals
Competitive. Prizes offered for best plays
Use of Chorus; involved singing
Closely related to religion
Seven Qualities of Greek Tragedy
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Late Attack
Violence/death occurs offstage
Use of messengers to relay information
Continuous time of action
Setting is a single place
Based on myth or history
Focus is on psychological, not physical or
sociological
Greek Theater Masks
Masks
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The large size of the theatre (in its final form it seated 20,000
people) and the distance of even the nearest spectators from
the performers (more than 10 meters) dictated a nonnaturalistic approach to acting. All gestures had to be large
and definite so as to 'read' from the back rows. Facial
expression would have been invisible to all but the closest
members of the audience; the masks worn by the actors
looked more 'natural' than bare faces in the Theatre of
Dionysos. The masks of tragedy were of an ordinary, facefitting size, with wigs attached, and open mouths to allow
clear speech. Contrary to some later theories, there were no
'megaphones' in the masks, and their decoration and
expression was quite subtle, as vase paintings from the 5th
and 4th centuries attest.
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Theatrical masks were made of wood (like the
masks of Japanese Noh drama), leather (like the
masks of the Commedia dell' arte, or cloth and
flour paste (like many of the masks used at the
Carnival of Venice, and many masks made for
modern productions today). Various theories are
advanced in favor of each material, but no
originals remain, only stone carvings which may
have been used as mask-molds and the paintings
on pottery.
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Each set of three tragedies was followed
by the performance of a satyr play, a short
spoof of a myth related to the theme of at
least one of the tragedies. The ordinary
human characters in these plays wore
tragic masks and costumes, but the
chorus of half-human satyrs wore pugnosed, pointy-eared, bearded masks, and
furry shorts.
The masks of Greek Old Comedy were distorted caricatures, sometimes
of real people. They were meant to be ugly and silly in keeping with the
ludicrous padded costumes worn by comic actors. While tragic actors
wore elaborate pattern-woven garments which were similar to the robes
of priests and musicians.