THE2000:Notes:2-28-07

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Intro

• Dionysus: God of wine and revelry
• Thespis: A performer who told stories instead of singing. He still had a singing chorus, however.
• Thespian: a performer

Theatre and Religion

• Festivals were held honoring the gods and performance became central to certain festivals
• City of Dionysia: honored the god Dionysus
• Satyr play: 1 of the 3 types of classical Greek dramas
  • Satyr � a mythological creature, torso of a man, legs of a goat
  • Satyr play � last play of the day at a festival
• Playwrights were directors as well
• A choragus was equivalent to a modern day producer

Theatre and Myth

• Myth: a story or legend handed down from generation to generation; the source of the stories told in the plays of the festivals

.*Greek myths furnished the stories of Greek dramas.

Tragic Dramatists

Aeschylus, Sophocles, & Euripides

Aeschylus

• Considered the 1st important Greek dramatist
• Introduced the 2nd actor.
• Chorus reduction (50 to 12)
• Master of trilogy: three tragedies that make up a single unit

Sophocles

• Built on the dramati form that Aeschylus used.
• Raised the chorus from 12 to 15
• Introduced the 3rd actor
• 3 actors wore masks and played up to 8 different characters

Euripedes

• Most modern
• Sympathetic portrayal of women
• Increased realism
• Mixed tragedy with melodrama & comedy
• Skeptically treated the gods
• Wrote Medea

Function of the chorus

• Identifier (reacted how the audience might react)
• To provide background info
• To represent balance
• To offer philosophical observations & draw conclusions
• All chorus passages were sung and danced
• All chorus members were male.

Greek Comedy

• Old Comedy: Political, social, and cultural satire.
• Only surviving Old Comedian**Aristophanes
• New Comedy: End of 4th Century BC � dealt with romantic and domestic problems

Theater Production in Greece

• Performances took place in ampitheaters:
  • built into hillsides
  • 1st example of a thrust stage
  • sat between 10k and 17k people
  • Orchestra: circular playing area
  • Parados � aisle through which the chorus entered
  • Theatron � audience seating
• Standard setting: greek palace
• Characters were played by men
• Major element in greek costuming: the mask

Dramatic Criticism in Greece

• Aristotle:- Author of The Poetics, the first significant work of dramatic criticism
  • addressed 6 main elements of theater

Later Greek Theater

• Hellenistic Age: two centuries after Aristotle
  • Focus on acting and the actor
  • Intro of enlarged masks
  • Larger stages for performance
  • Artists of Dionysus theater guild was created
  • 40 new theater spaces were built