Questions on Greek Theatre

Questions on Greek Theater

1. When were ancient Greek plays performed?

2. How many years ago was this?

3. What different types of plays were performed?

4. What is a traditional Greek Theatre called?

5. What shape was the theatre?

6. Find a picture of a traditional Greek Theatre for your blog.

7. Why were the theatres built this way?

8. What different scenic elements are there?

9. Who sat on the seats at the front?

10. Could women take part in, or attend the plays?

11. Name some of the Greek playwrights and their plays.

12. What did the audience throw at the actors who performed badly?

13. What did the actors wear?

14. How did the audience sat at the back of the large theatre hear anything?

15. Who is Dionysus?

16. Why is he important to Greek Theatre?

17. What is a Greek chorus?

18.  What purpose to the Chorus have in the performance?

19. How and why were masks used?

                                                               

20. What were the masks made of?

1.    The ancient Greeks first began performing theatre productions to honour their various gods during religious festivals. However it was eventually developed in to a way to express people opinions and views on the current issues in the society and its state. This rendered theatre production performed on a regular basis and became a recognized part of Greek culture.

2.    The most recognized and well-known form of Greek theatre was “Greek Tragedy”. Greek tragedy originated from Athens approximately about 532 BC so about “Thespis” was the earliest recorded actor.

3.    The Ancient Greeks took their entertainment very seriously and used drama as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human. The three genres of drama were comedy, satyr plays, and most important of all, tragedy. Comedy: The first comedies were mainly satirical and mocked men in power for their vanity and foolishness. The first master of comedy was the playwright Aristophanes. Much later Menander wrote comedies about ordinary people and made his plays more like sit-coms. Tragedy: Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Typically the main protagonist of a tragedy commits some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world crumbles around him. The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'. Satyr Plays: These short plays were performed between the acts of tragedies and made fun of the plight of the tragedy's characters. The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors in these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect. Few examples of these plays survive. They are classified by some authors as tragicomic, or comedy dramas.

4.    A traditional Greek theatre is called an “Amphitheatre”.

5.    In the centre of the theatre was a circular dancing floor (orchestra), with an altar for sacrifices dedicated to Dionysus. The stage was a raised area within this circle.

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7.    The shape of the theatres gave everyone in the audience excellent viewing and also meant they could hear the actors well too.

8.    The skene or stage house had a facade that usually represented a palace or royal house; a “machine” lowered the gods from the roof of the stage house (the term deus ex machina, meaning “god from the machine,” refers to a contrived plot device that resolves a tangled situation; it originates from this practice of lowering the gods in at the end of an ancient Greek drama to solve the conflict).  A 3-sided column called a periaktoi could be rotated to show different scenic pictures.

9.    The front seats of the theatre were reserved for the priests, especially the high priests of Dionysus.

10. The women were not allowed to attend the performances nor be cast in them.

11. Some of the most highly esteemed Greek playwrights and their plays were Sophocles-"Oedipus Rex", Aeschylus-“The Persians”, Euripides-“Medea” and Aristophanes-“Frogs”.

12.  Whenever the actors’ performance was of poor standard, the audience would throw rotten food or any other items they can find so long as they were not scared of the gods.

13.  Masks were commonly used, as men often played the part of women. By       using a mask the crowd could not see the person behind. It also meant that the facial expressions used were much more exaggerated to the back of the audience as the masks did this.

14.  When sat at the back of the large theatre, the audience would hear the performance through the actors’ obvious gestures.

15. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and parties.

16. Dionysus is important to Greek theatre because the theatre was where the Greeks honored and worshiped him. He was also the patron of the arts.

17. A Greek chorus is a homogeneous, non-individualized group of performers in the plays of classical Greece, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. This is similar to an ensemble.

18. The chorus offers a variety of background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance. It comments on themes, and shows how an ideal audience might react to the drama. It also represents the population in any particular story, in sharp contrast with many of the themes of the ancient Greek plays which tended to be about heroes, gods and goddesses.

19. Since, in Greek plays, there were usually one to three actors and a chorus. The masks could be used to show a change in character, since there were not enough actors to play all the parts. Masks were also used to show a physical change in a certain character. For example, in Oedipus, after he stabs his eyes out, a mask could have been used to represent this physical change (the lack of eyes).The masks were also made to help project the voices of the actors. Many of them had a type of 'megaphone' shaped mouth which allowed the voice to project to the farthest reaches of the Amphitheater.

20.  None of the original Greek masks have survived time to be studied, but records indicate that the masks were made from organic materials like stiffened linen, bark, wood or leaves. The masks that exist today are made of terracotta and were not worn by actors. The terracotta versions were put outside the theaters for decorations or were put on temples as offerings to the gods.