A History of Greek Theatre
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Transcript of A History of Greek Theatre
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A History of Greek Theatre
With some random historical facts thrown in
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Theatre of Dionysus, Athens 2010
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The Battle of Marathon• In the year 490 B.C., the
Athenians defeated an overwhelming force of Persians at the Battle of Marathon
• The result of this upset was one of the largest flowerings of creativity the world has ever seen
• Interesting fact: a Greek runner ran about 26 miles to carry the news to Athens
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The Golden Age of Greece
After the Battle of Marathon, Greece enters a Golden Age during the 5th century B.C.•Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Argos are the citystates•Greece forms a democratic government •Every male citizen has the right to vote; however, women and slaves are not considered citizens •A woman is considered the property of her husband
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Greek Drama and Religious Worship
• Drama begins as a form of religious worship of the Greek god Dionysus
• Earliest forms of worship included religious chants and songs performed by the chorus
• The chorus would walk back and forth on the stage chanting religious hymns
• Tradition states that Thespis, a choral leader, stepped out of a chorus and spoke to the chorus; thus he is known as the first actor
• This is where we get the word for an actor, “thespian”
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Dionysus• Dionysus is the god of wine
and vegetation• He was worshipped by the
Maenads or Bacchantes female devotees who roamed the wilderness is ecstatic devotion to him
• Dionysus was believed to die each winter and was reborn in the spring
• The cyclical revival, accompanied by the renewal of the fruits of the earth, embodied the promise of ressurection
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Dionysian Festival• The Greater Dionysia was
held for 5 days during the spring
• Each writer would present 3 tragedies and a satyr play
• A satyr play is a farcical and bawdy parody of the gods and their myths
• 15,000 people would watch the plays and vote for their favorite by casting stone ballots
• Winners would receive a laurel wreath
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The Greek Theatre• Theatres were built into
hillsides• The Greek actors were all
men• The actors wore larger
than life masks, which indicated the nature of the character
• If a character was happy, the mask would have a smile, etc.
• Each mask also contained a megaphone so the voice would project
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Sophocles, 496 B.C.- 406 B.C.• Sophocles was one of the
three great dramatists of Athens
• He was the most successful playwright at the greater Dionysia, winning at least 20 times
• Of the 100 plays he wrote, only 7 survive today
• Oedipus Rex and Antigone are 2 of his most acclaimed plays
• His plays often deal with the pain and suffering caused when a person defies divine will
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Aristotle and Greek Drama• Aristotle was the first
literary critic and thinker
• He defines a tragic hero as one who comes from nobility, has a tragic flaw, has a great fall (a reversal of fortune), has recognition
• His 6 elements of drama are:
1. Plot2. Character3. Theme4. Music5. Spectacle (scenery
and visual elements)6. Diction/language
(dialogue and poetry)
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Aristotle’s Play Structure
• Inciting moment• Rising action• Climax • Falling action• Denouement/resolution
• Today this is also known as Freytag’s Pyramid