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Classical Theater. Greek and Roman Comedy and Tragedy. Beginnings. Early on, two genres evolved, tragedy and comedy. It was the Greeks who, in the late 6th century B.C., invented Western drama. From Festival Origins.
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Classical Theater Greek and Roman Comedy and Tragedy
Beginnings Early on, two genres evolved, tragedy and comedy. • It was the Greeks who, in the late 6th century B.C., invented Western drama.
From Festival Origins Performances were vivid affairs, religious and civic occasions, and the entire community came to watch. Part of one’s civic duty. Plays were only performed during great festivals lasting dawn to dusk for several days at a time. Held in open-air theaters which held thousands. Contest for best play; Athenian tribes competed. Great honor to win.
Dionysus Plays were dedicated to Dionysus, god of fertility, wine, and theater. Dionysus –GreekBacchus – Roman (see also Bacchanal)
Sidekick -a satyr
Performers No women allowed on stage. Acting was highly stylized (not naturalistic). Included dancing and singing; long speeches; large, exaggerated masks; poetic language. Only three actors (plus a chanting Chorus of 12 to 15) in a tragedy; four actors in a comedy.
Thespis The origins of Greek drama are difficult to trace. According to tradition, the first dramatist was an Athenian named Thespis (fl. 530s B.C.). Thespis allegedly introduced a first actor or protagonist; originally was a member of the chorus, who stepped outside the chorus and engaged in dialogue with it. Actors are still called thespians.
The Theaters Seating for thousands Excellent acoustics; easy to hear the actors even without modern electronic sound systems.
Plays & Playwrights Sophocles Euripides Aeschylus The audiences generally already knew the plot of the play. Familiar stories involving gods and goddesses, and those who have pleased or offended them or acted with hubris (as if one was not mortal). Conflicting values/opposing forces. Athenians, 5th Century BC The Golden Age of Greece Their plays are still popular today.
Later, Aristotle wrote about and analyzed drama in The Poetics: Plot (Action), Theme, Character, Diction, Music, Spectacle Catharsis -- emotional purification through Greek tragedy: according to Aristotle, a purifying of the emotions that is brought about in the audience of a tragic drama through the evocation of intense fear and pity.
Tragedy The play’s intention is to show how the central character , an eminent man and a good one, who enjoys high status, suffers an unexpected change in fortune, falling from happiness into adversity through some catastrophe as a result of a grave mistake or a fatal flaw in his otherwise admirable character. -How to Enjoy Theater, by Phillip Cook
Comedy Dealt with the lower classes, the worst kind of men, who indulged in ridiculous or mistaken behavior but with no lasting harm or pain to others—meant to induce laughter. Crude/vulgar comedy.
Supplemental Information BBC Animated Tour of Greek Theater http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ancientgreece/classics/theatre/intro.shtml
The Roman Influence Tragedy and comedy were adapted by the Romans. The Romans’ first experience of drama may have come about by watching plays in the Greek cities of southern Italy and Sicily. Roman tragedy was often infused with a spirit of patriotism that was alien to its Greek counterpart. No Roman tragedy from the Republican era has survived.
Differing Tastes Although they were intrigued and fascinated by the theater, the Romans never entirely rid themselves of their suspicion and distrust of it. It was not until 55 B.C. that Rome finally acquired a permanent stone theater. The contrast with the Greek world, where even quite minor cities had possessed theaters for hundreds of years, could not be more pronounced.
Major differences between Greek and Roman attitudes toward the theater Though the Romans developed their own very lively theatrical tradition, they never incorporated it into the lifeblood of their community in the way the Greeks did. The Roman establishment feared that the theater could be used as a venue for expressing political and social unrest, sedition and moral degeneracy. As a result, actors were designated as infames, “without honor,” and denied full citizenship, and charged repeatedly with licentiousness. Prejudice against actors in the Roman world may well have been partly due to the fact that most of them were Greek.
More Violence, More Spectacle Although Seneca’s tragedies drew heavily from Euripides, they differ from his in characterization, extremity of emotion, and macabre descriptions of acts of appalling bloodthirstiness. (lopping limbs, cooking people, influence on Shakespeare) The Greeks wanted violence to take place off stage, but the Romans wanted it to be center stage. The Greek culture abhorred gratuitous, public violence; but remember, the Romans reveled in it.
With free bread and more than 150 national holidays per year, the Romans were easily bored.
Contributions Important changes in the theater and in theatrical productions took place under the Romans, including the elimination of the chorus, the use of the raised stage for acting, the enclosing of theatrical space, and the introduction of the curtain. Thirty-two Greek tragedies have come down to us, their survival due in part to the fact that the Romans read and studied them.
