Roman Theater By: tiberius

1. Roman TheaterBy: tiberius By: Tiberius

2. Roman theater: Introduction • The Roman theatre was never as popular as the other popular Roman entertainments (i.e. horse racing, gladiatorial matches, ect.) but Roman citizens did like it. To the average Roman citizen, life didn't revolve around plays, but around religion. Most plays were performed at festivals, since many festivals were performed throughout the year, the Roman people became very familiar with various acting troupes, characters, plays, and playwrights. The Ancient Roman stage set the stage for our later theatre productions.

3. Roman theater: influences • There were three major influences on the Ancient Romans' perspective of theatre, the Greeks, Etruscans, and the Oscans. The two major influences were the Greeks and the Etruscans. The Greeks were already an established culture in southern Italy when Rome was created. Because Rome and Greece's city-states in Italy were so close together, Greece strongly influenced Rome in many different ways. Rome's ideas on many things were borrowed from the Greeks, things ranging from gods to theatre construction.

4. Roman theater: Influences • The layout of the Roman theatre is very much like that of the Greek theatre. They both have an orchestra pit, a backstage area, and seating arrangements. Also, the ideas for plays were 'borrowed' from Greek plays. The plots were basically the same only the characters' names were changed and some other minor things. Even the rules on producing plays were similar to those in Greece.

5. Roman theater: majority sites[history] • The major locations for theatres tended to be around temples so various gods could look at certain plays that were either for them or about them. Later on however, theatres began to be built on hillsides (hill provided extra support and is easier to build on). All over the Roman Empire theatres were erected to entertain the masses.

6. Roman theater: Layout and design • The Roman theatre was laid out similar to that of the Greek theatre. There was a backstage area, seating arrangements for the audience, and an orchestra. The Roman stage went through many different stages before reaching the form we all recognize today. Theatres started out as simple, temporary wooden structures. The layout of the stage was the same as in later stone stages-3 doors each opening to the brothel, temple, and hero's house.

7. Roman theater: Design and layout • The stage itself was enclosed by wings at each side and the scene house had a roof. The large stone theatres seated tens of thousands of Romans. There wasn't a front curtain nor were there performances done in the orchestra pit (unlike Greek plays). The patrons to the plays sat on temporary wooden benches where there was room, ushers would direct the patrons all through out the performance.

8. Citations for the Imformation. • http://www.angelfire.com/ut/latiniii/ • ehow.com • culturaltravelguide.com • nl.wikipedia.org • flickr.com • mileskula.tumblr.com • colourbox.com • touregypt.net • worldofstock.com • shutterstock.com shutterstock.com