Download Greek Theatre

Workshop by Ryan Watkinson and David Zelek
 Festivals of Dionysus: it may refer to several celebrations
held in Athens in honor of the Greek god Dionysus: The
Dionysia, a festival of the Rural Dionysia and the City
Dionysia, the central event of which was the performance
and judging of tragedies and comedies.
 The festivals were attended by all Athenian citizens (likely
women as well as men) and visitors from throughout
Greece. In the tragic competition, each of three tragic poets
wrote, produced, and probably acted in three tragedies on a
single theme. Each poet also presented a satyr play, which
treated some heroic subject in burlesque fashion.
 Comedy: The first comedies were mainly satirical and mocked
men in power for their vanity and foolishness. The first master of
comedy was the playwright Aristophanes.
 Satyr: These short plays were performed between the acts of
tragedies and made fun of the plight of the tragedy's characters.
The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and
actors in these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect.
 Tragedy: Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss, pride,
the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men
and gods. Typically the main protagonist of a tragedy commits
some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant
he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world
crumbles around him.
 Certainly, there are many religious elements in the
surviving plays. Most of Sophocles work consists of a
retelling of religious-based myths. Many other plays make
either makes references to the Gods. During some plays the
gods of Olympus directly interact with the characters.
 Other elements reveal the religious origins of Greek
Drama:
 Ceremonial masks
 A Chorus (performers who would speak in unison)
 A religious altar on the stage
 Sophocles: Ajax , Antigone, Oedipus the King,
Trachiniae, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at
Colonus.
 Euripides: Medea, The Bacchae, Hippolytus and
Alcestis
 Aeschylus: The first great tragedian. Oresteia (a trilogy
comprising Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and
Eumenides) and Prometheus Bound (the first part of a
trilogy of which the last two parts have been lost)
 Should we follow the rule of law, or our own moral
code?
 Do we have free will?
 How should we respond to injustice?
 What do I do if I encounter a Cyclops?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRLK7SogvE
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