Transcript Greek Theatre PPT Lecturex

Greek Theatre
Greece
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Greece, 5th century B.C., Athens was a happening
place.
Outstanding achievements
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politics, philosophy, science, and the arts.
Athens is credited for example, with being the
birth place of democracy.
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In 510 B.C., the rulers of Athens established a
democracy for free citizens, which means that all
male citizens – men who were not slaves or of nonAthenian origin – were given a voice in politics
and government.
Notice this did not include women.
Other Advances
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Greek philosophers, such as Socrates and Plato
tried to explain the world around them.
Mathematician, Pythagoras, formulated a theory
that remains one of the cornerstones of geometry.
Hippocrates wrote the physician’s oath that
doctors still take today – Hippocratic Oath.
This era also ushered in great accomplishments in
art and architecture. Columns and proportions
used to design and build the Acropolis and the
Parthenon are stilled used by architects today.
This was also a golden era for the development of
Theatre.
Origins of Greek Theatre
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precursor to Greek Theatre was the
religious ceremonies, which were a
prominent feature of Greek society:
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funeral services
festivals celebrating the seasons
and ceremonies honoring the gods.
Religion
 Greece
at this time was polytheistic.
 Polytheistic – believing in more than 1 god.
 The Greeks did not regard the gods as all-powerful
 They did believe that the gods could protect them
and reveal the future.
Greek gods
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Through the centuries, the Greeks had developed
a religion based on the worship of a group of
gods.
Zeus was the leader of this group of gods along
with his wife, Hera.
Annual festivals were held in honor of those gods
to appease them and pay honor to them in hopes
that they would guide and protect them.
Theatre became a central feature of certain
religious festivals.
Theatrical presentations were both religious events
and entertainment.
Religious Ceremonies
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These ceremonies were the beginnings of
what later became theatre.
During these original religious ceremonies
dithyrambs were performed.
A dithyramb was a long hymn, sung and
danced by a group of fifty men. Its format
may have been similar to a modern-day
choral presentation: the leader of the chorus
recited or sang and improvised story while the
other members sang a popular refrain. By
about 600 B.C. the dithyramb became a
literary form detailing heroic stories.
Thespis
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In the sixth century B.C., Thespis transformed
the dithyramb into tragedy by stepping out of
the chorus and becoming the first actor!
Thespis delivered a prologue and presented
dialogue that required him to impersonate a
character: thus a purely narrative or
storytelling form became a dramatic form in
which characters exchanged lines.
It is from the name Thespis that we get the
modern term thespian which is a synonym for
actor.
From religious ceremony to
Theatre!
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People of all social classes attended
theatrical performances.
We know that both the upper and lower class
participated because in 450 B.C. the Theoric
Fund was established to assist those who were
too poor to afford admission to the theatre.
The religious aspects of these festivals made
them far more important to people then
modern theatre is to us.
Festivals were no joke
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Business would shut down for day
Traveled from all around to see drama
competitions.
Prisoners temporarily released to see plays.
Wars ceased and political concerns were
ignored.
No good modern comparison.
The Super Bowl or the returns after a
Presidential election attract the attention of
millions of Americans.
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Life still goes on during these events.
Dionysus and the City Dionysia
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particular significance to theatre was
Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility and
the City Dionysia.
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A festival honoring the god Dionysus.
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City Dionysia was a signal event in
Athens
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End of March, when spring had arrived and
the port near Athens, which was closed for
the winter, had reopened and visitors
began pouring into the city.
City Dionysia
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The City Dionysia lasted several days.
Parades and sacrifices honoring Dionysus.
5 days were then assigned to dithyrambs and
plays.
On 2 of these days, 10 dithyrambic choruses
were presented.
3 days - tragedies and satyr plays. With one
tetrology being presented each day
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tetralogy - is 3 tragedies and one satyr play by
a single playwright.
After the Festival
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A few days after the festival, awards were given
and people who had behaved improperly or
disrespectfully were judged and penalized.
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Ex: A punishment would be given out to a
festivalgoer who used violence to prevent
someone else from taking a seat in the theatre or
who carried a whip and struck an enemy with it
while intoxicated.
The best tragic and comic playwrights were
awarded prizes.
Later they added an award for the best tragic
acting in the festival.
The modern equivalent = Tony Awards.
The organization of the Festivals
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Since theatre was both a religious and civic
event, because the festivals incorporated
both, the organization of the dramatic
presentations was undertaken by the citystate (government).
The city provided the theatre space, the
awards, and the playwrights’ and actors’
salaries.
The archon, an appointed government
official, chose the plays 11 months before the
next festival.
The Choregus
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The archon appointed a choregus, the equivalent of
a modern-day producer, for each of the playwrights.
The choregus, a wealthy individual, provided the
money himself and paid for all the major expenses
connected with the chorus:
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rehearsals, costumes, and musicians.
While it is true that a stingy choregus could hurt a
playwright’s chances of winning the contest, usually
the choregus would strive to produce a winner
because winning was a source of great prestige.
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When their productions won, for example, some
choregoi erected monuments in their own honor.
Tragedies
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The sources of the subject matter of most of the
plays written for the festivals were Greek myths.
The stories in myths provided:
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action, the characters, and the conflicts.
A myth is a story or legend – sometimes invented,
sometimes based loosely on fact – handed down
from generation to generation.
Frequently, a myth is an attempt to explain natural
and human events:
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The changing of the seasons or a cataclysmic
occurrence like an earthquake or a civil war.
Aeschylus
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During this Golden age of Theatre there were 3 big tragic
playwrights.
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He was the first to develop drama into a form separate from
singing, dancing, or storytelling.
Considered the founder of Greek drama and therefore of all
western drama.
Acknowledged master of the tetralogy – four plays which can
stand separately but are united by a single story or theme.
Before Aeschylus, a drama would have only one actor, who
interacted with the chorus. He added a second actor.
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Aeschylus was one of them!
This was an important development in theatre practices, since it
allowed for true dialogue for the first time.
He reduced the size of the chorus from 50 to 12.
Wrote 90 plays!
Sophocles
 Increased
the chorus from 12 to 15.
 Introduced a third actor.
 Told his stories as single dramas instead of
extending them into the traditional trilogy.
 Wrote over 120 plays – 7 survived
Euripides
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Was often criticized for being too modern.
His characters behaved as people do in everyday
life and such realism wasn’t considered
appropriate for tragedy.
Criticized for his diminished use of the chorus.
He mixed comedy and tragedy and critics did not
like it but it would later serve as the model for
tragicomedy and melodrama of later periods.
He created believable female characters and
showed a greater understanding of women than
his contemporaries.
18 plays still exist
Aristotle
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was a philosopher and literary critic
100 years after the golden age.
 He was NOT a playwright.
 Aristotle tried to pinpoint the
characteristics of the Greek tragedies.
 He wrote about it in a book called, The
Poetics.
 The Poetics is not a play. It is a literary
criticism.
Aristotle’s Six Elements of Drama
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According to Aristotle, there were six elements
of drama, which he ranked in order of priority.
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1. Plot – the arrangement of dramatic incidents.
2. Characters – the people represented in the
play.
3. Thought or theme – the ideas explored.
4. Language – the dialogue and poetry.
5. Music
6. Spectacle – scenery and other visual
elements.
Pattern of a Greek Tragedy
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Prologos – opening scene, this sets the action and
provides background information.
Next comes the Parados, in which the chorus
enters.
This is followed by the first episode, a scene in
which the characters confront each other and the
play starts to develop.
Next there is a choral ode performed by the
chorus. Throughout the body of the play, episodes
alternate with choral odes until..
The exodus, the final scene, in which all the
characters exit from the stage.
More from Aristotle
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Aristotle said that every tragedy contained:
a katharsis – a Greek work translated as
“purgation.”
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It means to have some kind of emotional release
during a play. (could be tears, fear,
laughter…etc)
Protagonist – The tragic hero, who is usually a royal
figure. Why does the tragic hero suffer?
According to Aristotle, it’s because the hero suffers
from some tragic flaw, or hamartia, in his or her
character.
Many times this tragic flaw was hubris, or excessive
pride.
Comedies
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Comedies of this period were called Old Comedies.
Old comedy always makes fun of society, politics, or culture,
and frequently its characters are recognizable contemporary
personalities.
In The Clouds, for example, the philosopher Socrates is shown
as a character suspended in midair in a basket – in other
words his head is always in the clouds.
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A modern day example would be when SNL makes fun of
President Bush or Obama.
Old Comedy used fantastical and improbable plots to
underline its satire.
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In Lysistrata, Aristophanes uses a comic premise in order to
condemn the Peloponnesian Wars, which were then raging in
Greece. The Greek women in this comedy go on a sex strike,
refusing to sleep with their husbands until the men cease warring.
Miraculously, the scheme works.
Comedy vs. Tragedy
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Old Comedies also had a chorus, but the
chorus was only 24 men.
The chorus was also unique in that it was a
double chorus, meaning it was 2 groups of 12
men.
Old Comedies have sections similar to those
in tragedy; prologos, episodes alternating with
choral odes, and the exodus. They also have
additional sections.
Additions to Old Comedies
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agon, a scene with a debate between the two
opposing forces of the play – each representing
one side of a social or political issue.
parabasis, a scene in which the chorus speaks
directly to the audience, makes fun of the
spectators and specific audience members.
Religious and political officials attended dramatic
festivals and were seated in the front row of the
theatre; during the parabasis, the chorus would
single them out for ridicule.
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A counterpart today would be television or
standup comics who attack their audience.
Satry Plays
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Satyr Play - comical plays that poked fun at
honored Greek institutions, including religion
and folk heroes.
Had a chorus of satyrs, mythological
creatures who were half-goat and half-man.
Satyr plays were not family friendly shows and
often had elements of vulgarity. For example
these plays often included explicit sexual
material.
The only complete satyr play still in existence is
The Cyclops by Euripides.
The Greek Amphitheatre
 Since
tragedies, comedies, and satyr
plays were offered at religious festivals,
huge theatres were necessary.
 accommodated
15,000
to
17,000
spectators.
 Greek
theatres
were
outdoor
amphitheaters.
Parts of the Greek Theatre
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were four separate parts in a Greek
theatre:
 Theatron
 Orchestra
 Skene
 parados
Theatron
 Translated
means, “the viewing place.”
 It is where the audience sat.
 Greeks built their theatres into hillsides
which provided naturally sloped seating
and excellent acoustics.
Orchestra (the stage)
 The
orchestra, or playing area, was
surrounded on three sides by audience.
 It is believed that the orchestra was a
circle that was approximately 66 feet in
diameter and paved with stone.
 In the center of the orchestra was the
altar – a reminder that Greek drama was
a part of religious rituals.
Skene
 scene
building, which was located
behind the orchestra.
 The skene contained: dressing space for
the actors who needed to change
costumes and was used to store props.
 It is also believed that the skene building
was used as the basic setting for all plays.
Parados
 Entrance
chorus.
to the theatre used by the
Amphitheatre
Lighting
 Amphitheaters
were outdoors and
electricity had not been invented.
 illumination was provided by the sun.
 The Greeks were often resourceful in
use of natural lighting in their dramas.
play required a “sunrise effect,”
example, it would be presented as
first drama of the day, at dawn.
the
If a
for
the
Costumes
 Tragedies:
Tragic characters wore a very
ornate tunic with a long or short cloak.
 Old Comedies: were based on everyday
clothing and were short tunics.
 Satyr Plays: very short, tight tunics.
Masks
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All Greek performers wore masks which
covered the entire head and included hair,
beards and other distinctive facial features.
Usually the masks were made of linen, wood,
or leather. Human or animal hair was also
used.
The eyes were fully drawn but in the place of
the pupil of the eye was a small hole so that
the actor could see
Why Did They Need Masks?
 These
helped the audience identify
characters
 allowed the actors to perform multiple
roles.
 Since there were no female actors masks
made it possible for men to play women.
 Amplification so the audience could hear
the actors better.
Masks
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For tragedies the masks were not highly
exaggerated and all the chorus members
had the same mask.
The Chorus in Tragedies represented every
day people.
Comic choruses, on the other hand, often
required unusual masks.
The chorus in Old Comedies represented
fantastical creatures.
We know that in two of Aristophanes plays the
chorus members were frogs and birds.