ARTS

History of Theatres ROMAN THEATER

THEATER: “place of seeing” (3RD CENTURY B.C)

Began from: Art Forms:

 Myth  Festival Performances of street

theatre
 Ritual
 Acrobatics
 Ceremony
 Staging of comedies of Plautus
Moved to:  Tragedies of Seneca

 Habit Triumvir Pompey- first permanent theatre

 Tradition in Rome
 Ritual
Quadriporticus- columned quadrangle
 Ceremony due to human desire and
entertainment Scaenae fron- decorated background of
theatre stage
GREEK THEATER
THEMES:
(700 B.C)
 Chariots races
 The Cult of Dionysus (In honor of
 Gladiators
Dionysus---- God of wine and fertility)
 Public executions
 3 WELL-KNOWN PLAYWRIGHTS:
-Sophocles COMEDY was popular.
-Euripides
-Aeschylus MEDIEVAL THEATER
 3 TYPES OF DRAMA
(3RD CENTURY B.C)
-Tragedy (“tragos”–goat, “ode –
song, MOST admired, Thespis-
“Father of Tragedy”
-Comedy (imitation, Aristophanes
wrote MOST of comedy plays:
Lysistrata, Cyclops- adventurous
comedy by Euripodes)
-Satyr- serious play with happy
ending

TERMS:

Theatre building- THEATRON, large, open

air structures constructed on the slopes of
hills. Elements:

Orchestra: circular/rectangular area at the

center part of the theatre where the play
took place.

Theatron: viewing place on the slope of a

hill

Skene: stage

Parados: side entrance