Greek Theatre

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Greek Theatre
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Neanderthals established the earliest rituals -
Bears
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Masks
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Music 50,000 y.a.

• Drum 60,000
• First instrument with tones was the flute.
• Both were used for music and communication

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Storytelling

• Origin is unknown
• Existed before written language
• Shaman Telling stories to preserve history,
  mythology or to reflect important values
• Accessible to an illiterate majority

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Dance

• Tied to both ritual and entertainment.

• Dance in India dates back 5000 years

• Left - Bronze Statue of a DancerMohenjo-daro
  Civilization, 2nd millenium B.C
• Nataraja -- the cosmic dance of Lord
  Shiva Ellora, Maharashtra

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Dance

• Before recorded history. Records of dance through
  other arts
• Greece and Egypt had dance

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Entertainment

• Popular Entertainment
• Singing, dancing, juggling, acrobatics, sketches,
  storytelling
• Humans like to entertain and be entertained
• Sometimes called non-text based theatre
• When traditional theatre dies, popular theatre
  often survives.
• What is TV like now? Do we like popular theatre?

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First Poems

• Indian Vedas (1700 1200 BCE)
• Zoroasters Gathas (1200 900 BCE)
• Homers Odyssey (800 BCE)

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Abydos Ritual

• 2500 550 BC
• Mystery Play
• Tells the story of Osiris
• Married Isis, his sister
• His brother Seth was jealous, killed him
• Osiris was torn into pieces but resurrected
• God of afterlife.
• Tale is virtually universal
• Acted out episodes of the story

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Classical Greece

• 510 323 BCE
• Establishment of democracy 510 BCE
• War with Persia until 449 BCE
• Death of Alexander the Great 323 BCE

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Greek Religion and Rituals

• Greek Religion

• Myths Oedipus and the Sphinx

• Polytheistic Many Gods
• Each god controlled different aspects of life
• Many temples for the different gods
• Oracles sacred sites where religious heads
  could pray and received answers from gods, often
  through signs in nature. E.g. Zeus and Dodona
  Rustling of oak trees
• Sacrifices at the temples
• Festivals for the gods that included singing,
  music, dancing, parades and later theatre.

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Dionysus

• God of wine, fertility and revelry.
• AKA Bacchus mad one
• Female followers - Bacchae or Bacchantes Mad
  women

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Dionysus Rituals

• Aspects of Dionysian Rituals
• Oreibasia (mountain dancing) dancing that led
  to trance
• Sparagmos tearing to pieces found small animals
  and teared them (on vase right)
• Omophagia (eating raw flesh) eating the animals
  made the worshippers one with Dionysus and
  natures forces

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Arion Early 6th Century

• Created or contributed to the dithyramb
• Made it dramatic by including spoken elements

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Dithyramb

• Long hymn sung and danced by a chorus of 50 men.
• Competitions developed
• Developed as a literary form
• Laid foundation for what became Greek Chorus

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Thespis

• Credited as being the first actor (Thespians)
• Stepped away from the chorus and performed as a
  character
• First writer of tragedy
• Greek word for actor was hypokrite answerer
  showing give and take between actor and chorus

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Other theories of origin or Greek Theatre

• Story telling
• Story tellers added to dithyramb
• Aristotle human desire to imitate
• Mimesis imitation of nature

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Public, Private and Religious Event

• City provided funds for the performance and
  organized the event as part of religious festival
• Rich individuals sponsored aspects of production
  Choregus
• Theatre was part of the religious celebrations
• Theatre was also political ex. Antigone, Medea,
  etc.

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The Dinagyang is a religious and cultural
festival in Iloilo City, Philippines
http//dinagyangsailoilo.com/
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Mardi Gras and Carnival
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Ash Wednesday and Lent
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Pompe Greek Processions
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Goddess of religious procession, Pompe with Eros
prepare for procession to celebrate Dionysus
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City Dionysus Festival starts with Phallika

• Still runs at Tyrnavos Phallus Festival

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Displayed Weapons
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Bull Sacrifices
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Komos
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Komos

• Ritualistic drunken progression
• May have worn Mask and costume
• No choral leader, script or rehearsal
• Music
• All night - May have used torches
• komos and ??µ?d?a - komoidia or "comedy" are
  etymologically related

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Proagon

• Preview Next day playwrights announced their
  plays
• Judges chosen by lottery
• Praise was given to selected citizens and
  foreigners who had served Athens.
• Orphaned children from war paraded

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Edinburgh Festival / Fringe
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City Dionysus lasted several days

• Couple of days for parades and sacrifices
• 5 days of Dithyrambs and plays
• 2 of 5 10 choruses
• 1 day for men, 1 for boys
• 3 days of tragedy and satyr plays by one
  playwright tetralogy

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Aeschylus-525 456 B.C.E

• founder of Greek drama
• director actor and playwright
• Possibly wrote 90 plays only 7 exist
• Credited with developing new stage scenery,
  painted scenery and elaborate costumes.
• first to develop drama as an art form separate
  from singing, dancing and storytelling.
• Reduced the size of the chorus from 50 to 12.
• Before Aeschylus one actor and chorus
• Aeschylus added second actor first true dialogue

• Roman mosaic of Aeschylus directing actors

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Sophocles 496 406 BCE

• Added third actor (so more characters on stage at
  one time)
• had a chorus of 15
• Strong Plot Construction
• More than 120 plays,7 survive
• First prize 18 times, never less than 2nd
• Wrote single dramas instead of trilogies

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Euripides c. 480 406 BCE

• 92 plays, 5 survive
• Believable female characters (Medea)
• Considered most modern
• Portrayed gods as human skeptical treatment

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Criticisms of Euripides

• Mixed tragedy and comedy model for tragicomedy
  and melodrama
• Weak plots
• Deus ex machina god of the machine
• Sensational subject matter
• Very influential on latter playwrights

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Comedy added later

• Possibly five plays on one day added to the five
  days of the festival.
• Each play by a different playwright

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After the festival

• Awards for best plays, tragic and comic and for
  best tragic acting
• Choregus (producer) of winning play could erect a
  statue of himself, at his expense.
• Those who misbehaved were punished.
• Fighting over seats
• Drunken violence

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