Have you ever wondered who came up with the idea for theatre? It was the Ancient Greeks (more than 2,500 years ago) ! It prospered between 550 BCE to 220 BCE and is the foundation for western theatre today.
The areas of the Greek Theatre included:
The Theatron - the seeing-place (where the viewers sat)
The Orchestra - the acting-area (usually circular)
The Skene - the costume building
The Parados - the entrance and exit
The Cavea - the banks of seats in the theatre
The Diazoma - the passageway which separated the lower banks of seats from the higher banks of seats
The Kerkis - the banks of stone seats of the cavea
The Thymele - the mid-point of the Orchestra. It may have been highlighted by a stone or platform
The Paraskenion - the wings on both sides of the skene
The Proedria - the seats at the front of the theatron reserved for important people ( including the priest of Dionysus)
The Logeion - the place where performers could speak (e.g. raised platform)
The Parados - the Orchestra's two side entrances
The Periaktoi - the backdrops (3-sided revolving mechanisms placed each side of the stage painted with scenery)
In the huge theatres, instead of the actors changing their faces to show emotions, they wore masks and made bold gestures using parts of their body (e.g. arms). These masks were made from various fabrics and cloths, and then stiffened with plaster. The colours depended on the type of performance - actors would wear masks with bright colours for comedies and dark colours for tragedies. Because the audience was so far away, it did not matter that the performer's faces did not change expression much. The masks also let an actor play different roles in the same play.
Up to 20,000 people could be seated in Greek theatres. The audience could hear the tiniest sound, even if they sat in the back row. This is because the theatre was cleverly designed by the architects to let the sound travel a long way.
Only men were allowed to act in the plays. Nobody is even sure if woman were permitted to watch the performance!
An essential part of the play was the chorus. They had flamboyant costumes that were meant to stand out, and could represent almost anything. The chorus nearly always played a group character - meaning that the men spoke or sang in unison. They described and commented upon the main action of a play with song and dance, working with movement and the voice. The chorus consisted of 5 - 50 actors (all male). They were not professional, in fact, they were usually ordinary people of the city. They just had a lot of practice, which was paid for by the choregos who was a very wealthy citizen. When the play had ended, it was conventional for him to treat the chorus to an extravagant feast to celebrate.
A theatre performance was made a success or failure by how the audience reacted (much like it is today). If the show was a success, the audience would cheer and clap. If the show as a failure, the audience would throw food and stones. This may have been because the acting wasn't good enough.
The showing of death and violence was strictly prohibited due to the Greek belief that an audience watching a killing being performed was improper. Therefore, if a character died, it would only be heard, as the character would be behind the scenes - often in the skene.
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