The Greeks had denizens excelling in all kinds of trade and they had a habit of excelling in their respective fields irrespective of whatever constraints are presented to them. Despite the fact that the Greeks were recognized to be great warriors and athletes they had been also excellent in artistic fields for instance theater, pottery and philosophy. Athens was the scholastic epicenter of ancient Greece and was named after the goddess of wisdom, Athena. Theaters of Greece flourished during 500-300 BC which has an effect on theater arts till this date.
Theater was symbolized by two masks which represented the masks worn in the course of comedy and tragedy. They also depicted the dual nature of life. The tragic mask had a painful and mourning expression and also the comedy mask had a joyful and smiling expression.
Festivals were held to honor the theater arts. Every year at the Theater of Dionysia named right after the Greek god of wine and fertility Dionysus, festival was held for ten days to please the gods. Writers and poets from all over Greek gather to perform. The schedule consisted of plays based on tragedies or comedies which were followed by a short farce. It was from the poetry of Aristotle. He wrote songs, known as dithyrambs, to praise god Dionysus out of which tragic stories began evolved.
In 500 BC, another theater art was discovered by Thespis. It involved a single actor playing a variety of roles by wearing distinct masks to differentiate between the characters. Apart from him there were narrators and commentators on stage with whom the actor utilised to collaborate. This kind of theater arts was recognized as tragedy which meant goat skin in Greek. It was either named immediately after the event of sacrificing goat to gods or after the goad skin worn by the performers. Competitions were being conducted in festival at theater of Dionysia. Thespis was the very first identified actor of ancient Greek.
Aeshylus, in 471 BC, introduced plays having two actors who interacted with each other using dialogue. A third actor was introduced by Sophocles in 468 BC and thus the plots too became complex. But each and every actor was to enact distinct characters wearing mask accordingly. The masks had been so large that it covered the entire face of the actor which includes his hair. The mask was carved with care since that increased audibility of the actor's voice. These masks had been created out of linen or cork, that is the reason why the archeologist couldn't uncover a trace of them. The sculptured statues and paintings depicted actors wearing mask this was how the details was collected. Props weren't still were restrained from usage since the size of the theater had been so big, it diminished the visibility of the spectators seated on higher levels. To create up for this, Pantomime was employed by the actors. This also meant that the actors wore bright dresses and loud makeup to attract the attention of the audience. Together with that the actors wore high heeled boots and huge gloves to create them much more vividly visible. Stories not only revolved around Dionysus but also had been based on other Greek mythological characters.
The structure of the theater at that time was recognized as Theatron. They were open-aired and had been constructed on the slopes as the seating arrangement for the spectators was within the type of ascending circles. The Theaters had been developed such that the voice of the performers could reach the highest seated audience. Within the theater at Epidaurus 1 can hear the sound of a dropped pin from the highest row. The three essential elements of the theater, in Greece, had been orchestra or the platform, on which performance was done, the Skene, was a building which acted as the backstage also as the background of the play and also the last element will be the audience.
The audience and performers at all Theaters were only men as at that time ladies had been considered to be the downtrodden sect. The actors also as the chorus could speak dialogue or even sing as needed. Detailed costumes and substantial mask had been worn whilst enacting the roles and was the trademark of Greek theater.
Author Resource:
The InterTheatres.co.uk site gives information on uk theatres and an extensive theatre glossary .coupon host gator
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