The Theater In Clasical Greece

The theater in its full form came into being in Classical Greece. At that time, the theater was part of a religious festival and so included a number of ritual elements, several of which have been modified for use in theater ever since. The revival of classical learning in the Renaissance included a revival of Greek plays and certain ritual elements in different form. The theater of today is often profit-centered and secular but still makes use of Greek dramatic principles in many cases. The physical theater has changed greatly, as has the

relationship between the theater and the society of which it is a part.

By the time the Greek drama we know today was offered, the theater had developed into a full-fledged entity, with much of its earlier history lost. The Classic era of Greek theater was in the fifth century B.C. There are certain things we know from the accounts left to us. We know that productions took place in the open air. The plays included a chorus that chanted and danced about an altar. At this stage, there were only three speaking actors. They wore masks and doubled roles as needed. While there are not ruins of theaters from this early period remaining, it is assumed that they were circular in shape, with the audience rising in rows curving a little more than half around it. Archaeologists have found a different sort of theater in ruins at Knossos and Phaetos on the island of Crete, and in these there is a long straight row of steps joining a short

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f them, showing them in long robes, with heads lightly thrown back, wreathed with ivy, carrying the thyrsus--a long staff of narthex with a pine-cone on its end. Thus attired they ran rather than danced, accompanied by flutes, drums, and tambourines (Ker�nyi 260). Three kinds of plays were presented in the theaters of Greece--tragedies, dealing with heroic legends and often using gods for convenient endings; satyr plays which burlesqued the same legends and indulged in bawdy humor; and comedies, dealing in a farcical way with contemporary life: All three were performed at fixed ceremonies of a religious and civic nature. All three employed a chorus in interludes between scenes of action and often within those scenes. All three were written in verse. All three used masks. And all three seem related in one way or another to what might be called fertility-ideas (MacGowan and Melnitz 3). These ideas again relate to the celebration of Dionysus. The other key fact about the presentation of the plays during the festivals was that the plays were part of a competition. Three poets were selected by the state for presentation of tragedies, and five for comedies. Ten judges selected from the citizenry sat in places of honor and m

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