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Greek Theatre

Classification of Theatre Arts

Writers, directors and producers play a vital role in the building of the storyline of a play. The script modeled by them encompasses various kinds of arts to be taken into consideration to bring out the true essence of the story. The various factors considered helps to classify the genre of theater into various subcategories like comedy, tragedy, musical, drama, and action.

In a musical theater the story is narrated by signing, which can be accompanied by dialog delivery or dance or both. This type of conveyance of art was adopted especially during the Greek times. Later on background instrumental music was also added to it.

The word comedy originated from the Greek word "Komos" meaning celebration or merrymaking. Comedy plays may not actually go by the literal meaning of comedy that is the whole play can be funny or there can be plays with some adversities to start with but at the end could have a joyous finishing. Comedy too can be further classified as pantomime, comedy of situation, romantic comedy, black comedy and comedy of manners.

The type of theater dedicated entirely to entertain the children is known as pantomime. Usually a musical drama accompanied with dance and comedy is brought during the holiday season exclusively for the kids.

Comedy of situation as the name suggests begins with a messy situation which leads to a problem which they concentrate to resolve on throughout the rest of the play.

Comedy can also be flavored with romance to give a nice feeling to the spectators and to take them into dreams of fascination. The focus is on the love story between the leading actor and actress which is sparked with canny plots, calculated coincidences which ultimately results in them getting together and living happily ever after.

Although morally acceptable, black comedy has ghastly experiences with some comical elements in contrast with it.

Comedy of manners is dependant on a serious note but with a light outlook. Dramatic comedy is made a part of the play which revolves around the social standards and mannerism which is expected to be respected by the actors during the play.

Commedia dell'arte, native to Italy, includes an array of comical events which are created on the spur of the moment.

Melodrama is the typical stereotype dramas where there is a hero and a heroine who suffer at the hands of a villain and in the end they gain triumph over the evil-doer.

Play comprising of bitter events and which result in sorrowful consequences is know as tragedy. The word tragedy has been derived from the Greek word "Tragos" which means goat. It has been derived from this word because the blood of goat is used as a replacement to bring a real feeling to the bloodshed during the play.

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who was the first actor EVER in ancient greek theatre?

ive tried to find out who it is, but i cant, help please?

http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/Arts/Architec/AncientArchitectural/GreekArchitecture/GreekBuilding/Theater.htm

The Origins of Theater

The roots of ancient Greek theater lie in the cult of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility, one of the Olympian deities honored in the Greek world. In myth, Dionysus' followers were satyrs, drunken half-animal, half-human creatures, and maenads, or "mad women". In ancient Greek times, Dionysus' followers sometimes assumed these roles (pretended to be satyrs or maenads) in their religious rituals, resulting in much singing, drinking, and dancing in honor of their god

The Playwrights

The first actor and playwright was a man named Thespis, who lived in the sixth century BC in the village of Icaria. However, only a few works of five of the ancient Greek playwrights survive to this day. These include the tragedies written by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the comedies of Aristophanes and Menander. All of these men's plays were written for presentation at the City Dionysia.
The earliest of these, Aeschylus, lived from 525 to 456 BC, during which time he composed about eighty plays, including both satyrs and tragedies. His play "Persians", written in 472 BC, is the oldest surviving play. According to Aristotle, Aeschylus was responsible for introducing a second actor into the format of the theater, resulting in dialogue that could develop much more freely. Up until that point, there had always been only one actor, and therefore the only spoken dialogue took place between a representative of the chorus, a group of dancing singers who formed the core of the dramatic performance, and the actor. Aeschylus was also responsible for the improvement of the theater by introducing a definite actor's apparel. This apparel included the three essentials of the tragic costume - the mask, the long-sleeved robe, and the tall buskins (high boots with very thick soles).

Sophocles, who lived from 496 to 406 B.C., wrote about one hundred and twenty dramas, seven of which have survived. Sophocles was an extremely successful man, who learned much from both his predecessor Aeschylus and his successor Euripides. The most famous of his works is Oedipus the King, which was considered by Aristotle to be the model drama, and Oedipus the model hero. Sophocles was responsible for the invention of skenographia, or scene painting, therefore becoming the first playwright to put a defined background behind the actors in his plays. Sophocles was also responsible for the addition of a third speaking character into the format of theatrical productions.

Euripides lived between 484 and 406 BC, during which time he wrote about ninety plays, eighteen of which still survive, including seventeen tragedies and one satyr play. Euripides was educated as a free thinker, and as a result, he approached the traditional myths as raw material that he could change and shape as he pleased. However, in order to keep within the lines of the established features of the myths, it became necessary for Euripides to use the idea of supernatural intervention in his plays, resulting in scenic changes. Mechanical devices had to be invented that allowed the gods to appear and disappear quickly.

Aristophanes, a comic writer who lived between 450 and 385 BC, composed about forty plays in his lifetime. His plays were all comedies, usually addressing very serious political and social issues in direct and crude ways, which, like much of today's comedy, is what made them funny for the audience to watch. Many comedies would go as far as mocking members of the audience or making personal attacks upon contemporary political personalities.

Approximately at the time of Alexander the Great, about 330 BC, a new type of comedy replaced the traditional type. It was during that period that Menander, who lived from 342 to 290 BC, wrote over one hundred comedies. The new style of comedy focused on the humor that was found in Athenians' daily life, rather than concentrating on political issues. This change was partially due to the fact that freedom of speech, which Aristophanes had taken advantage of so well in his comedy, was no longer a right under the domination of Macedonia. Therefore, during this late period in Greek theater, the everyday joys, sorrows, manners, and peculiarities of individual citizens took center stage in Menander's comedies.

The Performance Space

Because no complete structures of Greek theaters remain intact, most of the information that we have about the structures come from other sources, although some does come from the ruins of the theaters themselves. Much of what we know comes from literary evidence, including the works of Vitruvius, a Roman architect of the first century AD who wrote a book about architectural styles, as well as from the texts of the plays that were performed in the structures. However, there are no stage directions written into Greek plays, and therefore we have very

History of Theatre 1 - From Ritual to Theatre