Classical Greek Drama

Classical Greek Drama Background information

Four Reasons for Theater • Religion (honor Dionysis, the Greek god of wine and fertility) • Displaying loyalty to your city-state • Honoring local heroes • Entertainment

Origins • Song and dance was a way of worshipping the gods… Mortals, I command you to tell me how awesome I am! We love you!

Origins • …and celebrating the harvest.

Origins • Over the centuries, harvest dances developed into the dithyramb, a religious ritual performed by a chorus of men wearing masks.

Origins • Eventually, dithyrambs changed into literary compositions on heroic subjects, and choruses began competing for prizes (a bull or a goat).

Origins • This is Thespis. Hi everyone! I made the dithyramb better by adding a new character, separate from the chorus. • He created the first actor. We get the term “thespian” from his name.

Origins • Aeschylus added a second actor to the stage. • Sophocles added a third. • The chorus remained, but the audience became more interested in the actors and their lives and struggles.

Origins • The 5th Century B.C. was known as the golden age of Greek Drama. • A four-day festival was held in March with competitions and prizes for the best plays. • Four playwrights emerged as the greatest: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,and Aristophanes.

Origins • Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound (tragedy) • Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Antigone (tragedies) • Euripedes: Medea (tragedy) • Aristophanes: The Frogs, The Clouds (comedies)

The Theaters • The first theaters were just hillsides with a few wooden benches for the important spectators (theatron). • The orchestra was paved with stones, and was where the actors and chorus performed. • An altar for Dionysis, called the thymele, was in the center of the orchestra • The skene, a rectangular building made of wood, provided changing rooms for actors and prop storage.

The Theaters • Theater design continued to evolve. • Stone seats were added for everyone, not just the most important people. • The wooden skene was replaced by a permanent stone building with a façade called a proskenion. • The parados (plural: paradoi) was the entrance used by the Chorus.

The Theaters • Basic elements of a theater: • Circle for the actors. • Slope for the spectators with benches. • Open air for a roof.

The Chorus • Only men could be in the chorus or be actors in the play. Wait a minute… You’d never make a convincing woman! But Martin Lawrence pulled it off in “Big Momma’s House!”

Acting I’m a BIG fan of Greek theater!

THE PLAY YOU Acting • Up to 15,000 spectators could watch a performance. • Upper seats were more than 55 yards from the action below.

Acting • The actors’ gestures had to be exaggerated and dramatic so people in the back row could see.

Acting • At first, masks were fairly realistic representations of human faces and expressed emotions such as joy and sorrow. • Later, they grew in size and became less realistic.

Kinda like these guys. The Chorus • Entered at the beginning of the play. • Remained during the performance. • Announced entrances and exits of characters. • Commented on the action of the play.

The Chorus • The chorus embodied the moral ideas of society and admonished characters against breaking these moral laws. • The choragos was the leader of the chorus. • Sometimes he participated in the dialogue and represented the responses of a typical citizen.

The Stage • The violence - murder, suicide, and battles - almost always occurred offstage. CRASH! BLAM! KAPOW! Aaargh! I am stabbed! The pain is horrible!!! A messenger would appear after the event and describe in gory detail what had just happened.

The Plays • Greek drama was staged without spectacle • Scripts were written in a simple, direct manner • The Unities according to Aristotle: • Unity of Action • Unity of Time • Unity of Place

The Plays • Unity of Action: should have one overpowering action that moves the play forward (no subplots) • Unity of Time: only actions that could logically have taken place in 24 hours • Unity ofPlace: Action or events being described were limited to one locale.

The Stage • Differences between Greek and modern theater: • Continuous presence of the chorus • No intermissions • No scenery or special effects: the skene served as whatever building the play needed (palace, temple, cave) • Lighting was natural • Very few props

The Stage • “Deus Ex Machina” • Literally means “God from the machine” • The play ends with the gods intervening and/or resolving the plot. @#$%&!

The Plays • Plays retold myths, rewrote history, and ridiculed politicians. • Aristophanes wrote comic plays and got into trouble for satirizing politicians and even the gods.

The Plays • The other three masters were tragic poets. • Tragic plays captured humankind’s timeless struggle to find the purpose of life and to achieve self-understanding.

The Plays • Central to the tragedy is the fall of the great man (or woman, but her part was played by a man). • This person is called the tragic hero. • His/her fate is brought about by a flaw within his or her own character.

The Plays • The tragic hero inspired audiences to: • examine their own lives, • define their beliefs, • and cleanse their emotions of pity and terror through compassion for the character.

The Plays • Nearly 2,500 years have passed since the golden age of Greek drama, but the stage, television, or movie production we enjoy today owes its existence to that open theater, those pioneering actors, the dedicated poets, and the passionate audiences of ancient Greece.

The End!

Classical Greek Drama