Putting on a play at City Dionysus

1. Putting on a play at City Dionysus

2. City Dionysia • One week in late March • Opening of the port • Many visitors • Civic and religious event • Sponsored by the City and wealthy citizens • Huge event • Weeklong Super Bowl in a city-state

3. April • Shortly after the previous festival, writers apply to the city’s chief magistrate (Archon) • Archon listened to the selections of the play presented by the playwright • Selected 3 Tragedies • Assigned them Choruses • Assigned them a Choregos

4. Choregus • Like a producer • Responsible for • Chorus training • Costuming for Chorus • Paid musicians • Supplied properties • Extra actors • May have provided 2nd chorus

5. State Provided • Building/Theatre • Prizes • Paid actors, maybe the playwright • Some costumes • Subsidized tickets • Tickets • Bronze or lead • Looked like coins/tokens with a letter on one side, Athena on the other • Letter corresponded to the seating section

6. Rehearsals • Playwright • Acted as a director • Invented music and dances • Also often acted • Sophocles did not act • Bad voice • Played music • Didaskolos • Specialist in theatre • Instructed the chorus in speech and movement • Aristophanes did not direct his plays, hired a Didaskolos

7. March • Few days before festival • Playwrights and actors announce the subject of their play • Previews • Procession – reenactment of Dionysus coming to Athens • Dances at altars • Sacrifice a bull at altar of Dionysus

8. Five Days of Theatre • 3 days (at least) Tragedies • One dramatist a day • 3 tragedies • 1 Satyr play • Comedies • May have been up to five comedies at the festival • Possibly one a day • 2 Days of Dithyrambic Contests • 10 choruses of adult men, 10 of boys

9. Prizes and Punishments • Best Play and playwright • Best Choregus • Could erect a statue of themself at their expense • Best Actor (449 BC) • Best Chorus • Punishments were handed out 2 days after festival for bad behavior

10. Acting • Masked – three actors could play many parts • All men • Extras could be used in non-speaking parts • Early Playwrights chose actors, later city assigned actors to keep things fair

11. Judging the tragic actor • Beauty • Power and timbre of voice • Gesture and movement • Broad and stylised • Declamatory style

12. Comic actors • Wore masks • Short buskins or boots • Phalluses • Short tunics • Very physical

13. Chorus • In the beginning, 50 people • Thespis – 1 Actor, 50 Chorus • Aeschylus- 2 actors, 12 chorus • Sophocles – 3 actors, 15 chorus • Aristophanes – 3 or more actors, 24 chorus

14. Chorus • Parodos – entered the theatre, often after the prologue • Very stately • Choral passages mainly sung and danced in unison • Sometimes divided into two groups, took turns • Last ode was called the exodos

15. Chorus • Chorus moved in formal patterns during odes • Odes – song sung by choruse • Strophe – danced from stage right to left • Antistrophe – danced from stage left to right • Epode – song sung by the Chorus while standing still after singing the strophe and antistrophe

16. Visual Aspects of Performance • Scenery – conventions were different from our own • Skene – represented many places, used the doors and the roof for higher levels • Scene Painting • Aristotle credited Sophocles to adding scene painting • Roman Archetech Vitruvius claims it was Aeschylus

17. Types of scenery • Flats or flat panels- Pinakes • Triangular rotating scenery – Periakotoi • `Ekkyklema’ – “something that can be rolled out” wheeled platform or wagon • Tableau of actors • Scenes of carnage or death • Could be pushed through the central doors

18. Deux ex machina • Mechane- crane, used to swing actors on stage, to simulate flight. Used at end of Medea, often associated with Euripides, who often used the crane. • Deux ex machina is used to describe any contrived ending.

19. Costumes • Tragic actor – loose fitting ankle length tunic or chiton, high topped boots, loose fitting sleeves though sometimes sleeveless. • Symbolic Costumes • Comic actors – wore flesh colored tights, short chiton, often padding across the stomach and visible phallus. • Satyrs – goatskin loincloths with tail and phallus over spotted tights. • All wore masks • Portrait masks of famous Athenians

20. Music • Greeks regarded music and dance as mimetic • Odes sung while accompanied by a flute • Sometimes playwright wrote the music but often it was the flute player.

21. Audience • 10,000 – 30,000 people per show • There all day, probably able to buy food and drinks in theatre but also brought wine, fruit and refreshments to eat (and sometime to throw at actors) • Theatron divided into sections • Front row for priests of Dionysus. • Special sections for archons, city officials, generals, representatives of the 10 tribes, ambassadors and women • Might hiss at actors but also very responsive to tragic moments, may cry or be very silent.