GREEK THEATRE. The first tragic dramas Originally the theatre was a holy place, the setting for the...
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Transcript of GREEK THEATRE. The first tragic dramas Originally the theatre was a holy place, the setting for the...
GREEK THEATRE
The first tragic dramas
• Originally the theatre was a holy place, the setting for the cult of Dionysus- the Greek god of wine, fertility and revelry.
Religious rituals evolve into Greek theatre
• Major celebrations, in honour of the Greek god Dionysus.
• One of the elements of these celebrations was the dithyramb, a choral ode song to the gods by a chorus of fifty men.
• Aristotle tell us that Greek tragedy grew out of the dithyramb.
• Held at festivals in Athens
Theatres
Theatres
Theatres
• 500 BC
• Outside- hillsides.
• Acoustics
• Sunlight
Epidaurus
Plots
• The earliest Greek dramas, especially those by Aeschylus (525-456 BC), drew their plots and characters from Greek myths.
• Greek mythology is the legends and stories behind the Greek gods.
THESPSIS of Icaria
• First Actor
• First Playwright
• Chorus + 1 actor.
• Thespsis won the first Greek tragedy contest in 534 BC.
Aeschylus (525-456 BC).
• Won 13Tragic Contests.
• Wrote 80 plays - 7 survived…including the only complete trilogy: Oresteia (458 BC). He added the second actor, creating the possibility of dramatic dialogue.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Conventions
• Men only
• Masked
• Stilts
• Actor Audience
• Chorus
• Actors
Chorus
Chorus
• acted as a ‘character’ in the play, usually the townspeople.
• sympathetic to the protagonist. • presented the writer's point of view. • the ideal spectator, their reaction to a scene
would cue the audience on how they should react.
• broke the drama into five dramatic scenes, each scene was separated from the next by a choral interlude.
Sophocles(496-406 BC)
Sophocles
• Sophocles won eighteen Tragic Contests.
• Wrote 120 plays- only 7 have survived.
• Tragedies
• Added 3rd Actor
Sophocles
Euripedes
• Tragedies
Euripedes
Euripedes
Comedy/Tragedy
Aristophanes
• Comedies
Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristotle (384 -322 BC. )
• Philosopher & critic.
• He wrote about 100 years after Sophocles major tragedies were produced.
Aristotle’sPoetics
• Dramatic Theory• Content
– One Plot– One Story– One Time– Language, rhythm and melody– Tragedy : characters who are serious, important, and
virtuous – Climatic structure.– Comedy: characters who are less virtuous,
unimportant, undignified, laughable. Episodic structure.
Greek Theatre
• Is regularly performed today, and not only in Greece.
• Still relevant to contemporary society.