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Religious Festivals In honor of Dionysus – god of wine, food,
fertility Dionysia--city where festival was held in the
spring Festival lasted for 4 days; ended with
awards given to best plays. Competitive dances, songs and choral
hymns performed to honor the gods, esp. Dionysus
Choric storytelling evolves into re-enactments of legends of Greek culture
Greek Drama The Ancient Greeks took their
“entertainment” very seriously and used drama as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human.
Greek Drama Wealthy citizens would sponsor
plays by paying a tax called the choregia.
Many hoped the success of the play they sponsored would provide them with a way into politics.
Tragedy Themes -- love, loss, pride, the abuse of
power and the fraught relationships between men and gods.
Main protagonist commits some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world crumbles around him.
The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
Tragedy Aristotle argued that tragedy
cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.
Satyr Plays Short plays performed between
the acts of tragedies that made fun of the plight of the tragedy's characters. The satyrs were mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors in these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect.
Thespis Father of Drama/First Actor astounded audiences by leaping
on to the back of a wooden cart and reciting poetry as if he was the characters whose lines he was reading
“Thespian”
First PlaywrightsAeschylus introduced a second actor, creating DIALOGUESophocles introduced a third actor, as seen in Oedipus Rex, which allows for dramatic complexity.
Classic Greek Theatre Theatron
Seeing place where audience sat. Held up to 20,000 people.
Orchestra Circular dancing
place where actors and chorus performed
Thymele Altar to Dionysus,
center of orchestra
Classic Greek Theatre Skene
Building used as dressing room
Proskenion Façade of the skene
building which served as backdrop
Parados Entrance to the
theatre used by chorus audience
Actors & Acting A play could have many characters
but had to be divided among three actors
Unlimited number of extras or mutes. Stage could have a dozen or more soldiers or village maidens without violating the rule of “three”
All roles were played by men
Costumes & Masks Long flowing robes
Symbolically colored
High boots, often with raised soles
Larger than life masks Made of linen,
wood, and/or cork Exaggerated
features
Masks—Persona Male vs. female Young vs. old Grief stricken vs.
hopeful The “open
mouth” on the mask increased the resonance of the actor’s voice
Serve as a barometer of popular opinion
Add beauty (theatrical effectiveness) through song dance
Give background information Divide action & offer reflections on
events Questions, advises, expresses opinions
—usually through chorus leader
Function of the Chorus
Conventions Unities1. Action—simple
plot2. Time—a single
day3. Place—one
scene throughout the entire playTemple at Delphi
Conventions Messenger Tells news
happening away from the scene
Reports acts of violence not allowed to be seen
Limitations Continuous
presence of the chorus
No intermissions: continuous flow of action and choral odes
No lighting or curtains
Tragic Hero Tragic Flaw—Hubris
Excessive Pride; arrogance Fatal errors in judgment which
contributes to the downfall Tragic Realization
Accepts responsibility for the outcome Perceives before the fall how he/she
has contributed to his/her own destruction
Irony The awareness—by the author,
character, or reader—of a contrast or an incongruity between appearance and reality
Verbal Irony Words that appear to mean one
thing really mean the opposite
Irony Dramatic irony
What appears true to a character is not what the audience or reader knows to be true
Situational Irony What appears likely to happen is not
what actually happens
Paradox A statement or a situation that at
first seems impossible or self-contradictory but that may actually be true, either in fact or in the figurative sense.
Deus ex machina 'dA-&s-"eks-'mä-ki-n& Function: noun Etymology: New Latin, a god from a machine, translation
of Greek theos ek mEchanEsDate: 1697
1 : a god introduced by means of a crane in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome
2 : a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty