An Introduction to Greek Theatre

An introduction to Greek Theatre

• Greek tragedy looks at suffering and pain
• their themes are so universal and are so relateable to today day and age and people still suffer
• Aristotle - 4th Century Greek Philosopher - Came up with a formula- the hero's of tragedy needed to be good but not so good that you couldn't relate to them
• Harmatia- the error of judgement is actually about real people making bad decisions and mistakes often for good reasons
• Greek tragedy is about that we live in a flawed world full of suffering, injustice and misery. But it also shows that these things happen from our actions
• Almost all the plays sees someone die during the play
• Many characters are usually dressed as the sun or in representational colours and is used as a metaphor 
• Greek theatre is a stylised genre
• It has a fairly fixed structure: starts with prologue setting the scene and then chorus come on and sing
• The plot to these plays are innovative and are made for everything to happen in the play in less that the time between a sunrise and a sunset. Clear skillful writing 
• Aristotle talks about Catharsis which is cleansing/purity
• After watching a tragedy you feel pity and fear and almost cleansed in a sense- it is emotionally draining as it's traumatic but also a good feeling
• Tragedy is about confronting suffering and death, mourning and loss- it enables us to find reflections in our own lives and see that the feelings and ideas are shared
• The first plays in the world were held in Amphitheatres all around Greece 
• Greek Theatre started between 525 & 550 BC
• Theatres were in a semi circle
• Greek theatre looks at mythical heroes 

Actors of Greek theatre 

• Division between actors and chorus
• There are very few actors and it is a very professional activity
• Actors would change masks and costumes and body language to play characters
• Started off with 3 actors as it was a high professional skill
• Actors had to be prepared to play both men and women, old and young
• Chorus members are not professional actors but are ordinary villagers of the town
• Athens was alive with song and dance in the beginning time of Greek Theatre
• Vases from the Greek perios give us some ideas from their paintings of costume and choreography of that time
• Tragedy and Comedy Masks became a big part of the theatre
• They wore masks to be properly visable - improvisation
• Masks gives the skills to deliver characters and improvisation
• All of the actors were originally men
• The actors didn't wear makeup but they used hand held masks so they could show more emotions and so they could act as women
• There were around 1000 actors in one play
• A theatre could hold up to 18000 spectators

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[Accessed: 07/10/14]