Download First permanent Roman theatre built 54 AD (100

Roman Theatre Design
Theatre in Aspendos on Turkey's south coast, the best
preserved Roman theatre in the world
Comedy and Tragedy
• Included more than dramatic plays :
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acrobatics
gladiators
jugglers
athletics
chariots races
naumachia (sea battles)
Boxing
animal fights
Roman Theatre Design
• First
permanent
Roman theatre
built 54 A.D.
(100 years after
the last
surviving
comedy)
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Cavea could seat up to 25, 000
• Larger then Greek Theatres
• dressing rooms
in side wings,
Aditus Maximus
Scaena =skene
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• Stage raised to five feet
• Stages were
large –
20-40 ft deep
100-300 ft long
Roman Theatre
Roman Theatre Design
General Characteristics
• trap doors
• cooling system – air blowing over
streams of water
• awning over the audience to protect
them from the sun
Roman Theatre Design
Scaena
• “stage house”
• joined with
audience to
form one
architectural
unit
Roman Theatre Design
Scaena frons
• front/façade of the stage house
• was painted and
had columns,
niches,
porticoes,
statues
Theatre at Orange, France
Roman Theatre Design
Orchestra
• becomes half-circle
• was probably used for gladiators
and for the display and killing of
wild animals
• if entertainment permitted, people
were sat here
Roman Theatre Design
Vomitoria
• corridors
under the
seats that
lead onto
the
orchestra
Roman Theatre Design
Pulpitum
• the stage
Cavea
• the
auditorium
Roman Theatre Design
Other structures included:
Circus Maximus
Ampitheatres
Roman Theatre Design
Circus Maximus
• Primarily for Chariot racing
• Permitted 12 chariots to race at once
Roman Theatre Design
Ampitheatres
• For gladiator contests, wild animal
fights, and occasionally naumachia
• Had space with elevators below to
bvring up animals, etc.
Actors and Companies
• Festival under control of local
official who hired acting troupes
• Troupes led by dominus
• Dominus bought plays, hired
actors
• Actors = historiones,
• Mostly male – women were in
mimes
Roman Actors
• some believe actor were slaves.
• “Star" performers however could
achieve great fame and wealth
Roman Actors
Style of Acting
• Mostly Greek traditions – masks,
doubling of roles
• Six male actor, no 3 actor rule
Roman Actors
Style of Acting
• Movements likely enlarged, large
parts of the play may have been
sung
• Actors probably specialized in one
type of drama and role
Dramatic Criticism in Rome
• Like Roman drama, Roman dramatic
criticism was based on the work of
others, especially Aristotle
• The best-known writer of dramatic
theory and criticism in the Roman
world was Horace (Quintus Horatius
Flaccus)
Horace
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Horace
• Chorus – set high
moral tone
• 5 acts, 3 speaking
actors
• No gods unless
necessary
• Drama – profit and
please- entertain and
instruct.