The theatre of ancient Greece
ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BCE. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 6th century BCE), comedy (486 BCE), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity. Western theatre originates in Athens and its drama has had a significant and sustained impact on Western culture as a whole.
Etymology
The word tragoidia, from which the English word "tragedy" is derived, is a portmanteau of two Greek words: tragos or "goat" and ode meaning "song", from aeideion, "to sing".[1] This etymology indicates a link with the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults. It is impossible, however, to know with certainty how these fertility rituals became the basis for tragedy and comedy.[2] Until the Hellenistic period, all tragedies were unique pieces written in honor of Dionysus, so that today we only have the pieces that were still remembered well enough to have been repeated when repetition of old tragedies became fashion. It was considered a decline of the original, one-time-played tragedy.
New inventions during the Golden age
After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BCE, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, and theatre became formalized and an even more major part of Athenian culture and civic pride. This century is normally regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama. The centre-piece of the annual Dionysia, which took place once in winter and once in spring, was a competition between three tragic playwrights at the Theatre of Dionysus. Each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play (a comic, burlesque version of a mythological subject). Beginning in a first competition in 486 BCE, each playwright also submitted a comedy.
Aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, and that Sophocles added the third actor. Apparently the Greek playwrights never put more than three actors on stage, except in very small roles (such as Pylades in Electra). No women appeared on stage; female roles were played by men. Violence was also never shown on stage. When somebody was about to die, they would take that person to the back to "kill" them and bring them back "dead." The other people near the stage were the chorus which consisted of about 4-8 people who would stand in the orchestra, or "dancing place" between the stage and the audience.
Although there were many playwrights in this era, only the work of four playwrights has survived in the form of complete plays. All are from Athens. These playwrights are the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comic writer Aristophanes. Their plays, along with some secondary sources such as Aristotle, are the basis of what is known about Greek theatre.
Hellenistic period
The power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans. From that time on, the theatre started performing old plays again. Although its theatrical traditions seem to have lost their vitality, Greek theatre continued into the Hellenistic period (the period following Alexander the Great's conquests in the fourth century BC). However, the primary Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but 'New Comedy', comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. The only extant playwright from the period is Menander. One of New Comedy's most important contributions was its influence on Roman comedy, an influence that can be seen in the surviving works of Plautus and Terence.
Characteristics of the buildings
The plays had a chorus of up to fifty[3] people, who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music, beginning in the morning and lasting until the evening. The performance space was a simple semi-circular space, the orchestra, where the chorus danced and sang. The orchestra, which had an average diameter of 78 feet, was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural theatron, literally "watching place". Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra, and skené. The choragos was the head chorus member who could enter the story as a character able to interact with the characters of a play.
The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Mathematics played a large role in the construction of these theatres, as their designers had to able to create acoustics in them such that the actors' voices could be heard throughout the theatre, including the very top row of seats. The Greeks' understanding of acoustics compares very favourably with the current state of the art, as even with the invention of microphones, there are very few modern large theatres that have truly good acoustics. The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the ground) were wooden, but around 499 BC the practice of inlaying stone blocks into the side of the hill to create permanent, stable seating became more common. They were called the "prohedria" and reserved for priests and a few most respected citizens.
Greek theatres also had entrances for the actors and chorus members called parodoi. The parodoi (plural of parodos) were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers entered. In between the parodoi and the orchestra lay the eisodoi, through which actors entered and exited. By the end of the 5th century BCE, around the time of the Peloponnesian War, the skene, the back wall, was two stories high. The upper story was called the episkenion. Some theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres, and no plays ever merged aspects of the two. Satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic manner.
Masks and ritual
The Greek term for mask is proposa and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Most of the evidence comes from only a few vase paintings of the 5th century BCE, such as one showing a mask of the god suspended from a tree with decorated robe hanging below it and worshipers dancing and the Pronomos vase [4, which depicts actors preparing for a Satyr play. [5] No physical evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. Nevertheless, the mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theatre. [6]
Mask functions
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks were able to bring the characters' face closer to the audience, especially since they had intensely over-exaggerated facial features and expressions.[7] They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance, ie. Oedipus after blinding himself [8] Unique masks were also created for specific characters and events in a play, such as The Furies in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Pentheus and Cadmus in Euripides’ The Bacchae. Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, while representing a multi-voiced persona or single organism and simultaneously encouraged interdependency and a heightened sensitivity between each individual of the group.
Influential playwrights (listed chronologically with important/surviving works)
Tragedies
• Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BC):
• The Persians (472 BC)
o Seven Against Thebes (467 BC)
o The Oresteia (458 BC, a trilogy comprising Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides.)
• Phrynichus (~511 BC):
o The Fall of Miletus (late 500s BC)
• Euripides (c. 480–406 BC):
o Medea (431 BC)
o Hippolytus (428 BC)
o Electra (c. 420 BC)
• Sophocles (c. 495-406 BC):
Antigone (c. 442 BC)
Oedipus the King (c. 429 BC)
Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC, posthumous)
o Electra (unknown, presumed later in career)
Comedies
• Aristophanes (c. 446-388 BC), presumed father of comedy:
o The Knights (424 BC)
o The Clouds (423 BC)
o Peace (421 BC)
o The Birds (414 BC)
o The Frogs (405 BC)
Notes
1. ^ Merriam-Webster definition of tragedy
2. ^ William Ridgeway, Origin of Tragedy with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians, p.83
3. ^ Brockett, Oscar G. "History of the Theatre". Allyn and Bacon, 1999. Pp. 16–17
4. ^ Herodotus, Histories, 6/21.
5. ^ Brockett, Oscar G. "History of the Theatre". Allyn and Bacon, 1999. USA. p.17
6. ^ Paper on the Athens Theatre
7. ^ Vervain, Chris and David Wiles, “The Masks of Greek Tragedy as Point of Departure for Modern Performance.” New Theatre Quarterly 67, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004. p.255
8. ^ Varakis, Angie. “Research on the Ancient Mask,” Didaskalia, Vol. 6.1 Spring 2004,
References
• Brockett, Oscar G. and Robert Ball. The Essential Theatre. 7th Ed. Harcourt Brace, Orlando: 2000
• Ridgeway, William, Origin of Tragedy with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians, 1910.
• Varakis, Angie. “Research on the Ancient Mask,” Didaskalia, Vol. 6.1 Spring 2004.
• Vervain, Chris and David Wiles, The Masks of Greek Tragedy as Point of Departure for Modern Performance. New Theatre Quarterly 67, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004.
available in www.wikipedia.org
ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BCE. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political and military power during this period, was its centre, where it was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Tragedy (late 6th century BCE), comedy (486 BCE), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a common cultural identity. Western theatre originates in Athens and its drama has had a significant and sustained impact on Western culture as a whole.
Etymology
The word tragoidia, from which the English word "tragedy" is derived, is a portmanteau of two Greek words: tragos or "goat" and ode meaning "song", from aeideion, "to sing".[1] This etymology indicates a link with the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults. It is impossible, however, to know with certainty how these fertility rituals became the basis for tragedy and comedy.[2] Until the Hellenistic period, all tragedies were unique pieces written in honor of Dionysus, so that today we only have the pieces that were still remembered well enough to have been repeated when repetition of old tragedies became fashion. It was considered a decline of the original, one-time-played tragedy.
New inventions during the Golden age
After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BCE, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, and theatre became formalized and an even more major part of Athenian culture and civic pride. This century is normally regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama. The centre-piece of the annual Dionysia, which took place once in winter and once in spring, was a competition between three tragic playwrights at the Theatre of Dionysus. Each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play (a comic, burlesque version of a mythological subject). Beginning in a first competition in 486 BCE, each playwright also submitted a comedy.
Aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, and that Sophocles added the third actor. Apparently the Greek playwrights never put more than three actors on stage, except in very small roles (such as Pylades in Electra). No women appeared on stage; female roles were played by men. Violence was also never shown on stage. When somebody was about to die, they would take that person to the back to "kill" them and bring them back "dead." The other people near the stage were the chorus which consisted of about 4-8 people who would stand in the orchestra, or "dancing place" between the stage and the audience.
Although there were many playwrights in this era, only the work of four playwrights has survived in the form of complete plays. All are from Athens. These playwrights are the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comic writer Aristophanes. Their plays, along with some secondary sources such as Aristotle, are the basis of what is known about Greek theatre.
Hellenistic period
The power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans. From that time on, the theatre started performing old plays again. Although its theatrical traditions seem to have lost their vitality, Greek theatre continued into the Hellenistic period (the period following Alexander the Great's conquests in the fourth century BC). However, the primary Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but 'New Comedy', comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens. The only extant playwright from the period is Menander. One of New Comedy's most important contributions was its influence on Roman comedy, an influence that can be seen in the surviving works of Plautus and Terence.
Characteristics of the buildings
The plays had a chorus of up to fifty[3] people, who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music, beginning in the morning and lasting until the evening. The performance space was a simple semi-circular space, the orchestra, where the chorus danced and sang. The orchestra, which had an average diameter of 78 feet, was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural theatron, literally "watching place". Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra, and skené. The choragos was the head chorus member who could enter the story as a character able to interact with the characters of a play.
The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Mathematics played a large role in the construction of these theatres, as their designers had to able to create acoustics in them such that the actors' voices could be heard throughout the theatre, including the very top row of seats. The Greeks' understanding of acoustics compares very favourably with the current state of the art, as even with the invention of microphones, there are very few modern large theatres that have truly good acoustics. The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the ground) were wooden, but around 499 BC the practice of inlaying stone blocks into the side of the hill to create permanent, stable seating became more common. They were called the "prohedria" and reserved for priests and a few most respected citizens.
Greek theatres also had entrances for the actors and chorus members called parodoi. The parodoi (plural of parodos) were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers entered. In between the parodoi and the orchestra lay the eisodoi, through which actors entered and exited. By the end of the 5th century BCE, around the time of the Peloponnesian War, the skene, the back wall, was two stories high. The upper story was called the episkenion. Some theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres, and no plays ever merged aspects of the two. Satyr plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic manner.
Masks and ritual
The Greek term for mask is proposa and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Most of the evidence comes from only a few vase paintings of the 5th century BCE, such as one showing a mask of the god suspended from a tree with decorated robe hanging below it and worshipers dancing and the Pronomos vase [4, which depicts actors preparing for a Satyr play. [5] No physical evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. Nevertheless, the mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theatre. [6]
Mask functions
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks were able to bring the characters' face closer to the audience, especially since they had intensely over-exaggerated facial features and expressions.[7] They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance, ie. Oedipus after blinding himself [8] Unique masks were also created for specific characters and events in a play, such as The Furies in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Pentheus and Cadmus in Euripides’ The Bacchae. Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, while representing a multi-voiced persona or single organism and simultaneously encouraged interdependency and a heightened sensitivity between each individual of the group.
Influential playwrights (listed chronologically with important/surviving works)
Tragedies
• Aeschylus (c. 525–456 BC):
• The Persians (472 BC)
o Seven Against Thebes (467 BC)
o The Oresteia (458 BC, a trilogy comprising Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides.)
• Phrynichus (~511 BC):
o The Fall of Miletus (late 500s BC)
• Euripides (c. 480–406 BC):
o Medea (431 BC)
o Hippolytus (428 BC)
o Electra (c. 420 BC)
• Sophocles (c. 495-406 BC):
Antigone (c. 442 BC)
Oedipus the King (c. 429 BC)
Oedipus at Colonus (401 BC, posthumous)
o Electra (unknown, presumed later in career)
Comedies
• Aristophanes (c. 446-388 BC), presumed father of comedy:
o The Knights (424 BC)
o The Clouds (423 BC)
o Peace (421 BC)
o The Birds (414 BC)
o The Frogs (405 BC)
Notes
1. ^ Merriam-Webster definition of tragedy
2. ^ William Ridgeway, Origin of Tragedy with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians, p.83
3. ^ Brockett, Oscar G. "History of the Theatre". Allyn and Bacon, 1999. Pp. 16–17
4. ^ Herodotus, Histories, 6/21.
5. ^ Brockett, Oscar G. "History of the Theatre". Allyn and Bacon, 1999. USA. p.17
6. ^ Paper on the Athens Theatre
7. ^ Vervain, Chris and David Wiles, “The Masks of Greek Tragedy as Point of Departure for Modern Performance.” New Theatre Quarterly 67, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004. p.255
8. ^ Varakis, Angie. “Research on the Ancient Mask,” Didaskalia, Vol. 6.1 Spring 2004,
References
• Brockett, Oscar G. and Robert Ball. The Essential Theatre. 7th Ed. Harcourt Brace, Orlando: 2000
• Ridgeway, William, Origin of Tragedy with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians, 1910.
• Varakis, Angie. “Research on the Ancient Mask,” Didaskalia, Vol. 6.1 Spring 2004.
• Vervain, Chris and David Wiles, The Masks of Greek Tragedy as Point of Departure for Modern Performance. New Theatre Quarterly 67, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2004.
available in www.wikipedia.org
0 comments:
Post a Comment