Greek Theatre

|Greek Theatre |The origins of drama started with hymns called ‘dithyrambs’ and were|
|‘Drama’ comes from the Greek word ‘Dran’ meaning ‘to do’ |sung in worship of the god ‘Dionysus’. |
|‘Theatre’ comes from the Greek word ‘Theatron’ meaning ‘the seeing |The hymns progressed to ‘choral’ (group of people) processions. This|
|place’ |progressed into ‘Theatre of Dionysus’ and the festival ‘City |
| |Dionysus’ |
|The festival was a competition and the most famous winner was a man |There were three types of plays ‘comedies’ which mocked men in |
|called ‘Thespis’ which later became the word ‘Thespian’ the actor. |power. |
|It was a time of a ‘free thinking’ society. |‘Tragedies’ that focused on human attributes and moral decisions. |
|All of the actors were men and women weren’t allowed to take part. |‘Satyr’ are the names of short plays performed between acts or |
|Actors played multiple parts ‘masks’ were worn to show change in a |tragedies. |
|character or mood. |‘Sophocles’ won 24 contests. |
|The ‘chorus’ were 3-50 men who would sing and dance and would judge |Concerned with the relationship between ‘humans’ and ‘gods’. |
|the action. They were seen as the ideal ‘spectator’ and would react |Importance on ‘free will’ and ‘moral choice’ |
|the way the playwright would want the audience to react. |He added a third actor and scenery. |
| |Wrote ‘Oedipus’ and ‘Antigone’ |
|All of the action would take place offstage and the new would be |Parts of the Greek Theatre stage. |
|brought by a ‘messenger’ type character. No action or violence took |Theatron- the seeing place |
|place on stage. |Orchestra- the chorus |
|Dionysus was the god of ‘wine’, ‘fertility’, and ‘theatre’. |Parodos- wings |
| |Skene- stage |
| |Ancient Greek Theatre was very sophisticated for it’s time with |
| |complex characters, character motivation with the emphasis on the |
| |choice of people. |