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c.550- c.220 BC
History of Ancient Theatre
 The Greeks' history began around 700 B.C. with festivals
honoring their many gods. The revelry-filled festival was led
by drunken men dressed up in rough goat skins who would
sing and play in choruses to welcome a Greek god.
 Tribes competed against one another in performances, and
the best show would have the honor of winning the contest.
 Historians believe that the Greeks patterned their
celebrations after the traditional Egyptian pageants honoring
Osiris.
Ancient Greek theatre was a mixture of myth, legend,
philosophy, social commentary, poetry, dance, music,
public participation, and visual splendor. It began as a
religious ceremony.
The Athenian theatre focused on the God Dionysus.
Dionysus was the God of:
 fertility (main duty)
 wine
 agriculture
 sexuality
 Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters
were large, open-air structures constructed on the
slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements:
the orchestra, the skene, and the audience.
 Orchestra: A large circular or rectangular area at the
center part of the theatre, where the play, dance,
religious rites, acting used to take place.
 Skene: A large rectangular building situated behind
the orchestra, used as a backstage. Actors could
change their costumes and masks. Earlier the skene
was a tent or hut, later it became a permanent stone
structure. These structures were sometimes painted to
serve as backdrops.
Tragedy
 Thespis is considered to be the first Greek "actor" and
originator of tragedy (which means "goat song", perhaps
referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before
performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.)
However, his importance is disputed, and Thespis is
sometimes listed as late as sixteenth in the chronological
order of Greek tragedians.
Comedy
• Comedy was also an important part of ancient Greek
theatre. Comedy plays were derived from imitation; there
are no traces of its origin. Aristophanes wrote most of the
comedy plays. Out of these 11 plays survived - Lysistrata,
a humorous tale about a strong woman who leads a female
coalition to end war in Greece.
 Aeschylus was the first of the three great ancient Greek
writers of tragedy. Born at Eleusis, Aeschylus lived from
about 525–456 B.C., during which time the Greeks
suffered invasion by the Persians in the Persian Wars.
Aeschylus fought at the major Persian War Battle of
Marathon.
 Sophocles was the second of the 3 greatest Greek
writers of tragedy. He is known for writing
about Oedipus, the mythological figure who proved
central to Freud and the history of psychoanalysis.
Sophocles lived through most of the 5th century,
experiencing the Age of Pericles and the Peloponnesian
War.
 Euripides was an ancient writer of Greek tragedy -- the
third of the famous trio. Euripides wrote about women
and mythological themes like “Medea” and “Helen of
Troy”. He enhanced the importance of intrigue in
tragedy. Some aspects of Euripides' tragedy seem
more at home in comedy than in tragedy, and, indeed,
Euripides is considered to have been a significant
influence on the Greek creation of New Comedy.
 Aristophanes is the only representative of Old Comedy
whose work we have in complete form. Old Comedy
had been performed for 60 years prior to
Aristophanes, and in his time, as shown in his work, Old
Comedy was changing. Aristophanes wrote comedies
from 427-386 B.C., which gives us approximate dates
for his life. Unfortunately, we know very little about
Aristophanes, although he lived in Athens during
periods of turmoil, beginning his writing career after
the death of Pericles.
 Menander wrote over 100 plays, his first at age 22. He
is the most famous writer of what is described as
Athenian new comedy. Eight of his comedies were
prize-winners. He imitated Euripides and was in turn
adapted by Roman writers of comedy, Terence and
Plautus. Unlike the classical writers who wrote mythical
plots or political commentary, Menander chose as
topics for his plays aspects of daily life with happy
endings and themes inspired by Aristotle's Ethics.
Menander's characters, shown with psychological
realism, were stern fathers, young lovers, crafty slaves,
and more, who couldn't resort to the deus ex machina
of tragedy to settle their problems.