Intro. To Greek Theater

1. Intro. To Greek Theater Monday, Oct. 18, 2010

2. Greek Theater • European theater was started by the Greeks. • Plays = Tragedies and comedies • Tradition first came from choral songs that dealt with the death & return of Dionysus, god of wine & patron of theater. • Women could not perform in Greek theaters. • Only scenery in plays were sets of rocks & tombs. • Thesbis, 1st playwright & first actor given credit for introducing masks to theater & with giving actors speaking parts; 6th century BCE hence term thesbian for actors • Greek plays = outdoors

3. Greek Theater • Early Greek theaters = open areas in city centers or next to hillsides • 1st Greek theater in Athens was a large simple circle called the “orchestra” (the dancing place). • Greek comedy & tragedy flourished in 5th and 4th centuries BCE & performances were done before 12,000 or more people. • Unless revised later, plays were performed only once & in competition with other plays. • Tragedies dealt almost exclusively with stories from the mythic past. • Comedies dealt almost exclusively with contemporary figures and problems.

4. Great Greek Playwrights • “Golden Age” of Greek theaters rests on 3 tragedians: • Aeschylus (525-456 BCE)—impact on art form of plays; increased # of actors from 1 to 2; involved the chorus more in action; and emphasized dialogue; brought serious & dignified dramatic form (tragedy) into being; wrote over 90 plays, but only 7 survive—Prometheus Bound, Seven Against Thebes, and the Oresteia trilogy—Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, & Eumenides • Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE)—well-educated & accomplished actor; great innovator of Greek drama; 1st play he defeated Aeschylus in dramatic competition; contributions—added the 3rd actor; abolished trilogic form & concentrated action into one, more dramatically powerful, play; invented painted scenery; wrote over 120 plays, only 7 survive in their entirety—Antigone, Electra, Oedipus the King (masterpiece), & Oedipus at Colonus

5. Great Greek Playwrights • Euripides (485-406 BCE)—generally ignored by judges of Greek festivals because his free thinking & pacifist views were not popular; compared to Aeschlyus & Sophocles; life not happy & plays reflected grim outlook; he incorporated elements of humor in his plays breaking rigid rules of & making it easier for new forms of drama to develop; other contributions include probing a man’s psyche and introduced the common man to the stage; plays include Medea, The Trojan Women, and Bacchae

6. Greek Comedies • 5th century BCE great age of comedy • Only surviving comedies are written by Aristophones (c. 450-380 BCE) • He lived through the deterioration of Athens, the Peloponnesian War, and the fall of Athens to Sparta; plays are marked by wit, invention, & skillful use of the language as well as a satiric view of the politics of the time; 11 of 40 plays survive including The Clouds, The Frogs, The Wasps, and Lysistrata

7. Greek Contributions: The Stage • A stage—performance area—central to theater • Greeks stage productions in natural settings—rocky, irregular hillsides • Comedies & tragedies performed in open-air amphitheaters with a bank of spectators. • Greeks would sit on stone benches and would often watch 4 productions in a row • Greek theater had 3 parts—orchestra—chorus sang and danced in a circular area; theatron—horseshoe shaped area for audience; and skene—backdrop • Music & dance were part of drama—chorus comes from Greek work meaning to dance; a musician played the aulos or pipe • Actor’s use of masks took away need for makeup—they used whole head masks made of stiffened linen, sometimes with megaphones inside

8. Contrasts: The Theater Then & Now • Ancient Greek dramas have influenced Western drama & are still performed today • Walden Theatre based in Louisville, KY has produced several Greek plays, including Medea and The Trojan Women.

9. Aristotle (384-322 BCE) • Born at Stagira, in Macedonia, the son of a physician to the royal court • At 17, he went to Athens to study at Plato’s Academy; remained there 20 yrs. as student then teacher • Undertook 1st theoretical discussion of acting in the West in his Politics • Actors in Greek theater communicated temperament & feeling through speech & stylized gestures whose meaning was clear to spectators • Professional performers underwent a regimen of speech training & vocal exercise • According to Aristotle, the human voice alone could register passion & delight; he wrote that the most convincing portrayals of distress & anger were produced by performers who truthfully felt those emotions at the moment they expressed them • Finding true feeling in the proper place & time on stage was a problem Aristotle addressed less well—he concluded acting was an occupation for the gifted or insane.

10. Aristotle’s Poetics—Guidelines for Drama • Tragedy is an imitation of action, both serious & complete. • There must be a catharsis—instilling fear & pity. • 6 elements of tragedy: 1. Plot—action of play 2. Thought—the emotions & feelings of the characters 3. Characters—inhabitants of the play 4. Diction—speech & dialogue of the characters 5. Song—rhythm of the play 6. Spectacle—technical aspects of the play such as lighting, sound, & props D. The Unities 1. Time—sunup to sundown 2. Place—one location 3. Action

11. Vocabulary for Greek Theater • Character—person portrayed in a drama, novel, or other artistic piece • Comedy—play that treats characters & situations in a humorous way; low comedy—physical; high comedy—verbal wit • Isolations—control of isolated body parts; ability to control or move one part of the body independently of the rest • Literary elements—include story line (plot); character; story organization (beginning, middle, end); plot structures (rising action, turning point, falling action); conflict; suspense; theme; language; style; dialogue; monologue

12. Vocabulary for Greek Theater • Performance elements—acting (character motivation/analysis, empathy); speaking (breath control, vocal expression/inflection, projection, speaking style, diction); and nonverbal expression (gestures, body alignment, facial expression, character blocking, movement) • Purposes– the reasons people make art—drama & include: to share the human experience (social change, universal themes, interpretation of ideas & emotions); to pass on tradition & culture (storytelling, folktales, religious ritual, ceremony); for recreation, entertainment, diversion; and as artistic expression (to communicate emotions, ideas, & information through a performance in a theatrical setting for an audience

13. Vocabulary for Greek Theater • Reader’s theater—dramatic presentation in which 2 or more oral readers interpret a characterized script with the aim of stimulating the audience to imaginatively experience the literature • Storytelling—the act of telling a story in the oral tradition • Technical elements—scenery (set); costumes; props; lights; sound; music; makeup • Tragedy—in Greek theater, a play depicting man as a victim of destiny; characteristics of tragedy evolved over time to include any serious play in which man is a victim of fate, character flaw, moral weakness, or social pressure; Aristotle says tragedy is to arouse pity & fear in audience & purge them at the play’s conclusion (catharsis) • Tragic hero—central figure in a tragedy; a tragic hero is a person of basically good character who passes from happiness to misery because of a character flaw or error in judgment