Download ANCIENT GREEK/ROMAN DRAMA

ANCIENT
GREEK/ROMAN
DRAMA
As long as humans have existed in communities
("tribes"), there has been a need for
entertainment to explain the natural world.
Over the course of thousands of years a tradition
of "live performance" was established.
Origins of Drama
• Began as ritualistic, tribal and religious in
nature
Communicated:
1. accumulated knowledge, traditions and
morality
2. supernatural events (the natural world)
3. history of a people (heroes, wars, events)
4. entertainment and pleasure.
Elements of tribal/ritualistic
drama
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Stories maintained as an oral tradition
Music
Dance
Speeches
Costumes
Performers/audience
“stage.”
Greek Drama Tradition
• Descended from the
lyric traditions of
Homer and epic poets
10th-8th century BC
• The center of the
growing society of
dramatic culture was
Athens
Greek Drama Tradition
Factors that helped establish
the social impulse towards
a formalized dramatic
tradition:
• advances in philosophy
• phenomena in the natural
world
• aspects of nature
• self-understanding
• self-consciousness
Greek Drama Tradition
• Ancient Greeks
combined singing,
dancing, chanting
to present narrative
• Dithyramb-group
chanted narrative
Greek Drama Tradition
• After hundreds of
years of evolution,
individuals began
chanting alone
• Legend states that
“Thespis” was the
first “actor”
Greater City
Dionysia
A six day religious festival
that commemorated the
god Bacchus/Dionysus in
order to please him for a
successful spring harvest.
What began as a purely
religious event transformed
into a massive social
spectacle over six days that
culminated in the
presentation of theatre.
• Day 1: Massive ceremonial parade
• Day 2: Dithyramb competition
• Day 3:Presentation of comedies
• Days 4-6:The Drama competition
• Each playwright presented plays
in groups of four (a trilogy or
group of three plays united by plot,
theme, or characters, and a bawdy
satyr play)
Ancient Greek Play Structure
• Prologue-introductory
scene
• Parados-first appearance
of chorus in the orchestra.
The chorus is made up of
several singers/dancers
who comment on the
actions of the play,
symbolize public reaction,
and/or present the
universal theme of the
play.
• Episode-actors play out a
scene from the play
• Stasimon-Chorus
performs
• (The episode and stasimon
alternate until the end)
• Exodos-closing scene
Presentation of ancient Greek
drama
Actors used:
• Large masks
• Elaborately colored
costumes presented
themes
• Cothurnus-wooden,
platform shoes over 1
ft. high
The Greek Theatre
• Koilon-The theater
• Diazoma-the audience
area
• Orchestra-the chorus
utilizes this area
• Parados-entrance/exit
• Proscenion-the
stage/acting area
• Scene-large building (up
to three stories) that serves
as background and
entrance/exit for actors
Ancient Greek Theatre
Stage Machines
• Eccyclema-platform
on wheels
• Machina-crane like
device that lowered
actors or other objects
Aristotle
The Poetics
Six Unities of Drama
1. Plot (action/events
of play)
2. Character
3. Diction (language)
4. Reasoning/thought
5. Spectacle (visible part
of play)
6. Sound (audible part of
play)
I am Aristotle!
Tragedy involves:
1. a tragic hero a great person
who strives to do the right
thing in a world of chaos who
eventually succumbs to:
2. tragic flaw some character
flaw such as extreme pride,
etc.
3. catharsis a purging of
extreme emotions by the end
of the spectacle.
We are Aeschylus & Sophocles!
Aeschylus (525-455 BC)
• "The father of tragedy"
• Introduced the 2nd actor
• Reportedly wrote over 90
plays; only 7 exist
• Great works: The Orestia
Trilogy; The Suppliants
SOPHOCLES (496-406 BC)
• Introduced the 3rd actor
• Shakespeare emulated
style in monologues
• Main theme-fate
• Only 7 of 123 survive
• Great works: Oedipus
trilogy; Electra
We are Euripides & Aristophones!
EURIPIDES (480-406 BC)
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Prologue and opening scene
Realism/psychological themes
Female protagonists
Most modern of Greek writers
Moral and social issues
Not popular during time
Seventeen of his plays exist
Greatest works: Medea; Trojan
Women; Alcestis
ARISTOPHONES 445-387
BC
• Primarily wrote comedies
• Style consisted of "old
comedy"
• Great works: The Frogs,
Lysistrata