Ancient Greek Influence On Modern Day Theatre

Theatre

Theatre is the activity or profession of acting in, producing, directing, or writing plays. It has greatly developed since ancient Greek times to the theatre we are accustomed to now. Theatre was created in the 6th century B.C by the Greeks during a festival for the god Dionysus, the god of theatre and wine amongst other things. The festival was a way for the greeks to have fun and be creative and expressive as well as honor the gods. People who pursue a career in theatre are called actors or thespians. Modern day theatre is influenced by the ancient Greeks because it uses the same terms and basic play structure for performances.

A lot of languages now still use words, terms, phrases and roots from the ancient Greek language.
“The oldest play still in existence is The Persians by Aeschylus from 472 BC.” (Ross, Ancient Greek Theatre Facts) Aeschylus wrote at least 90 plays, but only 7 have survived to modern times. In ancient Greek plays, when the plot had developed so many threads that there was no easy or short way to wrap them up, the playwright would write in the appearance of a god to reveal what needed to be revealed in order to quickly bring the play to conclusion, usually the actor playing the god was lowered in on a rope from above or rose out of a trap door from below. In today's modern entertainment usually a phone call, note, or piece of dialogue is used to fill in that vital piece of information that allows the plot to come to a conclusion thus a modern version of 'deus ex
Only the Greeks would come up with a way of showing appreciation through a lot of noise. “Actors also wore masks that contained megaphone style mouthpieces which would help amplify the actors’ voices to the back of the theatre” ( Hemingway, The Metropolitan). Now, actors wear small microphones close to their mouths, an idea created by the greeks, connected to speakers so the whole audience can hear them. The first actors union was in 4th century BC, to protect the rights of performers. This included the right to be excluded from military service and the right to travel through enemy territories without hindrance in order to give performances. Today, actors still have a hard time being successful and respected in their field. In Greece, the chorus acted as the voice of the people. They spoke the different thoughts and feelings of the people of the time and in that civilization. They provided you with a sense of place, time, and culture surrounding the events of the play. If you look at any modern sitcom or drama you will see and hear thoughts and feeling on the main action from some of the minor characters surrounding the action. Many of the ancient Greek theatre traditions created back then are still being used