History of Theatre – 09/11/17

 Dance
o There was dance, probably pantomimic in some way
o Dances for tragedy were much more serious and more religious
o Dances for comedy and satyr were more burlesque with lewd pantomimic
action, especially in the satyr plays
 Kind of forms basis for Commedia Dell’Arte
 Costumes
o Sleeved, highly decorated tunic (chiton), usually full-length for the tragic actors –
derived from vase paintings
o Chiton is the important part
o Used properties like spears, branches, wreaths, etc.
 Used to identify characters
o Costumes were referenced in some plays
o Kothornos was a thick sole shoe that elevated the actor; we don’t know when it
was used for sure, though.
 Comic Costumes
o Flesh colored tights that were padded and included an oversized phallus
 Sexuality was important, especially in comedy; comes from Dionysus
o Wide range of female characters had sexual attributes exaggerated
o In the Satyr plays
 They wore goatskin loincloths with phallus in front and horse-like tail
behind with other body parts nude
o Everyone wore masks except the flute player
 Made of linen, cork, or wood, and covered entire head; included
hairstyle, beard, ornaments
 Became more important and exaggerated after the 5th century
 Stages
o Constructed on public land
o Often associated with temples or public marketplace (agora)
 Theatre of Dionysis in Athens
o Began with the orchestra (dancing place)
o Audience stood on hillside to watch the dithyrambic contest
o During the 6th century a terrace formed at foot of hill on which orchestra was
laid out
 66’ in diameter and never changed until the Christian Era
o There is always a thymele in the orchestra (which is an alter)
o From the very beginning, the theatre was a place of worship
o A hut or tent (“skene”) is of later origin than the orchestra and was probably
used for a dressing room and later incorporated in the action: Aeschylus’s
Oresteia (458) is the first play to require a building as a background.
o Appearance of skene cannot be determined, so there are many possible
arrangements guessed by scholars
 Odeion of Pericles
o Built by Pericles in the probably the 440s, just before the Peloponnesian war
o Known as the odeion or roofed theatre
o Square or rectangular indoor theatre used for musical or public events; build for
opening events of the City Dionysia and built adjoining the Theatre of Dionysus
o Historians thought ten grooves for wooden posts were used to help support a
skene (4th or 5th century? We don’t know)
 Historians think a new skene was built each year during the 5th century (458 on)
o Had one or more doors to acting are; upper level for appearance of gods or
windows for comedy
 If this is true, we have no permanent evidence for the 5th Century
theatre, the great era of drama – there was no permanent theatre
 Use of scenery
o Pre-skene
o There were demands in plays for scenery, but we don’t know how they were
done (caves, grove of trees, army camps, etc.)
o Aristotle in Poetics credits Sophocles for creating the first scenery
o Vitruvius (Roman scholar) credits Aeschylus with the first scenery
 Historians guess it was between 468 and 456 when their careers
overlapped scenery was starting to be used
 Scene Painting
o Pinakes – closest thing to modern painted flat
 Figure they were attached to the grooves in the skene and changed when
needed
o Periakoi – three-sided flats mounted on pivots and revolved to change scenes;
unknown if used in the 5th C.
 Believe is trilogy plays would each use on setting of the periakoi
 Stage Machinery
o Ekkyklema: devise for revealing tableaux (like dead bodies) was a platform on
wheels that rolled through central door of skene
o Mechane (crane) showed characters in flight or above the earth in a chariot, on
backs of birds, etc.
 Swung out over acting area; used for appearance of gods; in comedy:
parody tragedy; used by 430 or earlier; overuse by Euripides lead to deus
ex machina (god from the machine) for contrived ending
 Properties
o Used to make a dramatic point and not the illusion of reality
o Altar: used in plays but placement was unknown
 Auditorium
o Spectators stood or were seated on slope of the acropolis and saw not only
theatre but he sea in the distance making theatre part of a larger world
o Skene and auditorium were separate architectural unites separated by orchestra
and parodoi (entrance to orchestra for both audience and chorus plus
occasionally an actor – change to vomitoriums in Roman theaters)
o Was called the theatron (“seeing place”) – were our name for theatre comes
from.
o Originally probably wooden benches; around 498 hillside was graded, then went
back to a slope in 440s, used temporary seats (wooden benches)
 Stone seating completed between 338-326, distinctly in the 4th century
o Theatre of Dionysus
 Seated 14,000 and 17,000 limiting number of population allowed into the
theatre; tickets and admission fees established by middle of 5th century
 No reserved seats
 Thought theatre was divided into sections for the difference city states
 Men and boys attended; not known if women and slaves attended or not
 Reserved seats for state officials, ambassadors, honored citizens, etc.
 Violence during run of play was punishable by death
 Long performances lead to coming and going with much eating and
drinking
 Audiences expressed opinions noisily and hissed audiences off the stage
 Aeschylus had to take refuge on the altar to escape the wrath of
the audience according to tradition
o 5th Centruy
 Vigorous institution with a high reputation with general populace and
with authorities
 Drama was most prized form of literature and theater as the most
popular of the arts
o After the 5th Century
 After P. war, economic prosperity returned along with old forms of
government; internal dissentions increase; Sparta lost power to Thebes,
which in turn lost power to Macedonia
 Athens continued as cultural center beyond 5th century, but no extent
works exist
o 4 Century
th

 Athenian plays in demand outside Attica

 Output of tragedy continued after 400 BCE, but no scripts extent
 EXCEPT plays and fragments of plays from Aristophenes’
comedies
 Satyr play declined in popularity and after 341 only one satyr play was
produced a year
 COMEDY increased in popularity, thought
o Divided into Old (500-404), Middle (404-336), and New
(The Hellenistic Period, Alexander the Great)
o Middle Comedy
 A transitional type
  Moved away from personal invective and political social satire toward
events based on contemporary life and matters or on mythological
burlesque
 Know about 50 names of playwrights who wrote comedies, but only have
some fragments from Aristophanes’’ two plays
 Begins to show some questions about whether the chorus existed in
middle comedy
o Changes in Dramatic Festivals in the 4th century
 Old plays were produced at the City Dionysia
 Comedy gained in popularity, and comic actors were given a contest for
best actor at the City Dionysia
 By 350 professional singer-dancers replaced amateurs in both tragic and
comic choruses; rehearsed by professional trainers
 Actors became more important than the playwright; by 350 BCE leading
tragic performers at the City Dionysia were required to appear by one
play by each of the competing dramatists
o Summation
 Theatre of Dionysus became a permanent stone building by 325 BCE,
which was when Athenian theatre was losing its privileged position.