Download GREEK THEATRE Powerpoint

GREEK
THEATRE
The first tragic dramas
• Originally the theatre was a holy place, the
setting for the cult of Dionysus- the Greek
god of wine, fertility and revelry.
Religious rituals evolve into
Greek theatre
• Major celebrations, in honour of the Greek
god Dionysus.
• One of the elements of these celebrations
was the dithyramb, a choral ode song to
the gods by a chorus of fifty men.
• Aristotle tell us that Greek tragedy grew
out of the dithyramb.
• Held at festivals in Athens
Theatres
Theatres
Theatres
•
•
•
•
500 BC
Outside- hillsides.
Acoustics
Sunlight
Epidaurus
Plots
• The earliest Greek dramas, especially
those by Aeschylus (525-456 BC), drew
their plots and characters from Greek
myths.
• Greek mythology is the legends and
stories behind the Greek gods.
THESPSIS of Icaria
•
•
•
•
First Actor
First Playwright
Chorus + 1 actor.
Thespsis won the first Greek tragedy
contest in 534 BC.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC).
• Won 13Tragic Contests.
• Wrote 80 plays - 7 survived…including the
only complete trilogy: Oresteia (458 BC).
He added the second actor, creating the
possibility of dramatic dialogue.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Conventions
•
•
•
•
•
•
Men only
Masked
Stilts
Actor Audience
Chorus
Actors
Chorus
Chorus
• acted as a ‘character’ in the play, usually the
townspeople.
• sympathetic to the protagonist.
• presented the writer's point of view.
• the ideal spectator, their reaction to a scene
would cue the audience on how they should
react.
• broke the drama into five dramatic scenes, each
scene was separated from the next by a choral
interlude.
Sophocles(496-406 BC)
Sophocles
•
•
•
•
Sophocles won eighteen Tragic Contests.
Wrote 120 plays- only 7 have survived.
Tragedies
Added 3rd Actor
Sophocles
Euripedes
•
Tragedies
Euripedes
Euripedes
Comedy/Tragedy
Aristophanes
•
Comedies
Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristotle (384 -322 BC. )
• Philosopher & critic.
• He wrote about 100 years after Sophocles
major tragedies were produced.
Aristotle’s
Poetics
• Dramatic Theory
• Content
–
–
–
–
–
One Plot
One Story
One Time
Language, rhythm and melody
Tragedy : characters who are serious, important, and
virtuous – Climatic structure.
– Comedy: characters who are less virtuous,
unimportant, undignified, laughable. Episodic
structure.
Greek Theatre
• Is regularly performed today, and not only
in Greece.
• Still relevant to contemporary society.