Greek and Roman Theatre

1. Greek and Roman Theatre By: Shannon Roark

2. Roman Theatre • Roman theatre was very similar to Greek theatre. • Borrowed Greek ideas and improved on them • Less philosophical • Encompassed more than drama : acrobatics, gladiators, jugglers, athletics, chariots races, naumachia (sea battles), boxing, venationes (animal fights) • Entertainment tended to be grandiose, sentimental, diversionary • Actors / performers were called "histriones"

3. Major influences on Roman Theatre • Greek Drama • Etruscan influences – emphasized circus-like elements • FabulaAtellana – Atellan farces (Atella was near Naples).

4. Forms of Roman Theatre • Roman Drama – there are only about 200 years that are important: • Livius Andronicus – 240 – 204 B.C. – wrote, translated, or adapted comedies and tragedies, the first important works in Latin. Little is known, but he seems to have been best at tragedy.

5. Forms of Roman Theatre (cont.) • GnaeusNaevius – 270-201 B.C. excelled at comedy, but wrote both • Both helped to "Romanize" the drama by introducing Roman allusions into the Greek originals and using Roman stories.

6. Roman Theatre Design- Buildings • General characteristics:Built on level ground with stadium-style seating (audience raised)Skene becomes scaena – joined with audience to form one architectural unit Paradoi become vomitorium into orchestra and audienceOrchestra becomes half-circle

7. Roman Theatre Design- Buildings (cont.) • Stage raised to five feetStages were large – 20-40 feet deep, 100-300 feet long, could seat 10-15,000 people3-5 doors in rear wall and at least one in the wingsscaena frons – façade of the stage house – had columns, niches, porticoes, statues – paintedstage was covered with a roofdressing rooms in side wingstrap doors were commonawning over the audience to protect them from the sun, during the empire around 78 B.C, .cooling system – air blowing over streams of waterarea in from of the scaena called the proskene (proscenium)

8. Citations: • http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/roman.ht • http://www.mce.k12tn.net/ancient_rome/roman_theatre.htm • http://www.sbceo.k12.ca.us/~vms/carlton/theatre.html