Greek Theatre Homework

The Greeks gave many things to theatre. They were the first people to use a chorus, the chorus were a group of people who back then represented societies views and in most Greek plays they had the same view on political themes. The chorus is still used today in contemporary theatre, but in a much different way, most contemporary pieces will allow the chorus to interact with the main actors and to compile their own view on the subject at hand. The Greeks also gave theatre the actor Thespis who is believed to have been the first actor ever, and is why Actors today are also referred to as Thespians.

Greeks had quite a unique way of staging their theatre. They staged all their plays in the round which meant that they would perform on a stage and have the audience to their left, right and in from of them in a semi circle type formation. This is much like the Laurence Olivier Theatre, as that is in the round derived from the Greeks. The Greeks also most of the time put the Theatres so that they had a lovely scene behind. For example the festival of Dionysus was built into a rock so there could be a nice scene for the audience to see as the backdrop.

The function of the chorus is to show the feelings and views of the society on different issues and subjects at the time. Most of the time the chorus would all have one view on the subject at hand but there were few cases where they split off to show two different views or even more.

The function of the mask was to hide the identity of the actors as they would sometimes mock the government and they wouldn't want to get in trouble. They also had masks so 1 actor could play several different characters.

Greek Theatre is quite different from modern theatre, as the chorus who were regularly used in Ancient Greece aren't used that much any more. There is also many more actors on stage where as in Ancient Greece there were only a few. Theatre in Greece was also quite a big thing, people from all over the world would come see the Theatre of Dionysus whereas nowadays not as many people are as interested.

The reason I think so many people attended the theatre was because it was a tradition to attend and there wasn't much entertainment. It was also heavily sponsored by the government and people who were rich so people would find out about it that way.

There are many stereotypical themes in Ancient Greece and fate is the biggest one of them all. Most performances have this theme in them as the hero would be stuck with an irreversible hindrance. For example in Oedipus his fate is that he will marry and have kids with his mother. Oedipus' father is told this and disowns his son. Fate plays a massive theme in most Greek plays.