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 shorter one at right angles, each facing a paved area that may have been used for ritual dances and ceremonies. From the Classical era, we have only 44 plays still extant, with perhaps hundreds more lost. Much of our knowledge comes from the writings of Aristotle from a century later, but he concentrates largely on aesthetics and says little about the theater itself (MacGowan and Melnitz 1-2).
We do know that the theater developed as part of the celebration of...