Ancient Greek Theatre Essay

The Ancient Greek theater in 6th century BCE Athens began with festivals honoring their Gods. Through the performance of tragedy and religious festivities. These, in turn, inspired the genre of Greek comedy plays.

Thespis is the first Greek actor of tragedy.(Ancient Greek Theatre). Greek tragedy was a popular form of drama performed in theaters across Ancient Greece. Tragedy plays were performed in an open air theater. Most of the plots of the tragedy were inspired by episodes from Greek mythology that were often apart of Greek religion. No violence was allowed on stage. The death of a character had to be offstage and not visible to the audience. In early stages of the tragedy, poets could not make comments or political statements throughout

A prop maker would provide the actors with these materials. Props were also used as a symbol. The red carpet Agamemnon walked on it when he returned home from war, signifying the blood at Troy. Some special props used would be a large wheel platform that they would wheel on and off the stage. They would also use a crane-like device that would be used to lift the actors to allow them to portray a scene as though they were flying. They usually used this to represent a God or Gods flying. (City Dionysia - Masks, Costumes, and Props)

The comedy was one of the two principal dramatic forms of ancient Greek theater. The Athenian comedy was traditionally divided into three eras: New Comedy, Middle Comedy, and Old Comedy. Old comedy arose from the obscene jests of Dionysus revelers, composed of virulent abuse and personal vilification. Comedy used techniques of a tragedy such as masked actors, choral dances, its meters, its scenery, and the elegance of the Attic language. Middle Comedy omitted the chorus and transformed from a single personage to human foibles in general. New Comedy developed during the fourth century B.C.E.(Ancient Greek