Download Greek Theatre Notes Greek History: Because Greece is a

Greek Theatre Notes
Greek History:
Because Greece is a mountainous peninsula, Greek city-states grew up independent of
one another. Each city-state had its own government including dictatorships,
oligarchies (a small group of people having control), and in Athens direct democracy.
That being said, the Greeks did have similar cultural heritage including religion,
xenophobia (intense and irrational fear of someone from another country), and theatre.
Greece is the birthplace of Western theatre.
Origins of Greek Theatre:
Greek theatre began in Athens out of a festival to the god of wine and revelry, Dionysus.
The festival included music and dance. Dionysus is a pan, meaning he was half god
and half goat. The term tragedy actually was developed out of this festival. The English
word “tragedy” is derived from the combination of the two Greek words :tragos or “goat”
and ode meaning “song”.
Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens some years before 532 BCE, when
Thespis was the earliest recorded playwright. Thespis was a winner of the first
theatrical contest held at Athens. Prior to Thespis, all the performers sang in the
chorus, but Thespis was the first actor to step out from the chorus and deliver lines.
Because of this, Thespis is often called the “Father of Tragedy”; Thespis’s true
contribution to drama is unclear at best, but his name has been immortalized as a
common term for performer – a “thespian.”
The dramatic performances were important to the Athenians – this is made clear by the
creation of a tragedy completion and festival in the city of Dionysia. The festival was
created roughly around 508 B.C. While no drama texts exist from the sixth century BC,
we do know the names of competitors.
New inventions during the Golden Age
After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BC, the town and
acropolis were rebuilt by Pericles, and theatre became formalized and an even more
major part of Athenian culture and civic pride. This century is normally regarded as the
Golden Age of Greek drama. At the heart of Athens was the annual Dionysia, which
took place once in winter and once in spring. It was a competition between three tragic
playwrights. Each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play (a comic, burlesque
version of a mythological subject.)
Hellenistic Period
The power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the
Spartans. From that time on, the theatre started performing old tragedies again.
Although its theatrical traditions seemed to have lost its vitality, Greek theatre continued
into the Hellenistic period (the period following Alexander the Great’s conquests in the
fourth century BC). However, the primary Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but
‘New Comedy’, comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. The only extant
playwright from this period is Menander. One of New Comedy’s most important
contributions was its influence on Roman comedy, an influence that can be seen in the
surviving works of Plautus and Terence.
Characteristics of the Buildings
The plays had a chorus of up to fifty people, who performed the plays in verse
accompanied by music, beginning in the morning and lasting until the evening. The
performance space was a simple semi-circular space, the orchestra, where the chorus
danced and sang. The orchestra, which had an average diameter of 78 feet, was
situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural
theatron, literally “watching place”. Later, the term “theatre” came to be applied to the
whole area of theatron, orchestra, and skene.
In 465 BC, the playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall, which hung or stood
behind the orchestra, which also served as an area where actors could change their
costumes. It was known as the skene, or scene. The death of a character was always
heard, “ob skene” (off stage today), or behind the skene, for it was considered
inappropriate to show a killing in view of the audience. The English word ‘obscene’ is a
derivative of ‘ob skene’. In 425 BC a stone scene wall, called a paraskenia, became a
common supplement to skenes in the theatres. A paraskenia was a long wall with
projecting sides, which may have had doorways for entrances and exits. Just behind
the paraskenia was the proskenion. The proskenion (“in front of the scene”) was
columned, and was similar to the modern day proscenium. Today’s proscenium is what
separates the audience from the stage. It is the frame around the stage that makes it
look like the action is taking place in a picture frame. Greek theatres also had
entrances for the actors and chorus members called parodoi. The parodoi (plural of
parodos) were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers
entered. Located behind the skene was the deus ex machine (god machine) a large
crane used to show entrance of the gods.
Masks
The Greek term for mask is proposa and was a significant element in the worship of
Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. No physical
evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not
considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after
the performances.
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks
were able to bring the characters; face closer to the audience, especially since they had
intensely over-exaggerated facial features and expressions. They enabled an actor to
appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from
identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations helped the audience to
distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular
character’s appearance, ie. Oedipus after blinding himself.
Famous Playwrights and Their Plays
Tragedies


Aeschylus – The Oresteia (a trilogy comprising Agamemnon, the Libation
Bearers and The Eumenides.) The Oresteia is the only true trilogy that remains
from Ancient Greece.
Sophocles (c. 495-406 BC): Theban plays, or Oedipus cycle: Antigone, Oedipus
the King, and Oedipus at Colonus. Because these plays all center around
Oedipus, some people view this as a trilogy, however, Sophocles did not write
the three plays to be performed together.
o Oedipus: Is a prince of Thebes his parents take him to a soothsayer to
learn their child’s fortune, the soothsayer informs the king and queen that
their son will one day kill his father and marry his mother. Afraid for this
future, they leave Oedipus on a hillside to die. Oedipus is found and
adopted by a kind shepherd and his wife. As a young adult, Oedipus
seeks his fortune, on the way to Thebes he sees some villagers being
abused and kills the abuser. Upon entering Thebes, it is discovered that
he killed the king, and he is rushed to marry the queen to claim the throne.
After he and his now wife Jocasta have four children it is discovered that
he has killed his father and married his mother. Disgusted by the incest,
he gouges out his own eyes and later kills himself.
o Antigone: Follows up after the death of Oedipus. Oedipus’s sons have
gone to war against one another and in a tragic turn of events, have killed
each other in battle. Creon, the King of Thebes, once Oedipus’ brother in
law, declares that Eteocies was the legitimate ruler and that Polynices
caused the civil war. Because of this, Polynices will go unburied.
According to Greek mythology, if a body goes unburied, the soul of the
deceased can never cross the river Styx and enter Hades. Instead their
soul will be forced to wander the earth forever. Antigone, Oedipus’ eldest
daughter, cannot allow this to happen to her brother’s soul, plus the
bodies of her brothers were so badly wounded no one knows if the body
rotting is Eteocies or Polynices. Against Creon’s commands, Antigone
buried Polynices. For this she is entombed in a cave to starve to death.
o Euripides-Medea: The gilted woman, Medea’s husband cheats on her.
Medea in a fit of rage murders their children and cuts up the bodies and
strews the body parts along the countryside. (Remember if a body isn’t
buried the soul cannot enter Hades.) In grief from what she has done, she
later kills herself.
Comedies

Aristophanes – our leading source for Greek Old Comedy
o The Clouds – A Satire about Socrates, basically saying he has his head in
the clouds.
o Lysistrata – A farce about the women of Sparta who are unhappy about
their husbands always going to war. To retaliate, they lock themselves in
a temple and refuse to have relations with their husbands until they stop
going to war. The women win.