Ancient and Greek Theater

By: Mrs. Bone

Origin of Theater

•Dance

• Storytelling

•Ritual

•Myth

Egyptian Theater

• First recorded script

• Came from the Egyptians

•Memphite Drama

•Abydos Passion Play

•Pyramid Texts

• Ikernofret- priest who recorded drama: known as the first stage manager

Greek Theater

• Theater Types/Genres

• Tragedy

• Euripedes, Sophocles, Aeschylus

• Comedy

• Aristophanes

• Satyr Plays- short comedic plays between tragedies

• Our modern word for satire comes for these plays

• Tragic Hero has a flaw that leads to their downfall

Greek Tragedy Festival

•Held from sun up to sun down

• The prize winner received a goat

• Thespis- was the first recorded actor

•Held in honor for the god of theater, Dionysus

Theater Structure

• Theater Structure:

• Raked audience

• Round stage (orchestra)

• Skene (back ground)• Deus ex machine- flying machine

• Ekkyklema-wagon

• Example: Acropolis

Costumes

• Masks

• Wigs

• Oversize limbs and shoes

• Chiton- like a Greek toga

Aristotle

•Greek philosopher who classified Greek drama

•In his book The Poetics

Greek Chorus

• Started with 15- priests

• In the later part of Greek Drama there were 50 chorus member

• Spoke in unison, storytellers

• The conscience of the show, they re-acted how the author wanted the audience to re-act

• Beginnings of ensembles in theatre

Three Unities

• All Greek plays use the 3 unities in their plot structure

• Unity of TIME, ACTION, and PLACE

• All action happened in real time and in one location

• So if the action took an hour, the performance would last an hour

• If a play took place during the day, there would not be a night scene

• There were no scenes that took place the next day