Greek Theatre

The Greek theatre was built in the open air and were usually quite large; the Theatre of Dionysus at Athens , for example,

had more than 17,000 seats. The theatres were usually built in hollowed-out hillsides, and despite their size had excellent acoustics, so that words spoken by the performers could easily be heard in all sections as the sound travelled upwards into the space of the audience.

The theatron was the area in which the audience sat. It was shaped like a horseshoe and had rows of stone seats rising upward and backward in tiers. In the first row were stone thrones for the principal citizens and the priest of Dionysus.

I gathered this information from Justice Antigone, Greek Theatre,  http://resources.mhs.vic.edu.au/creating/justice/pages/greektheatre.htm [Last Accessed 9th September 2014]. This information gave me an understanding of how the Greek stage and audience is usually designed. It also gained me keywords which widen  my vocabulary. It also gave me an understanding about the size of the theatres, which I only could have gained from resources or going to Greece itself.

The city-state of Athens became a significant cultural, political, and military power during this period. It was institutionalised as part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus. Three genres within theatre became established at this festival these 3 genres were tragedy which came about in the late 6th century BC, comedy which is thought to have established in 486 BC, and the satyr play. Athens exported the festival to its numerous parts of Greece in order to promote a common cultural identity. At the end of the performances in the Dionysia festival the actors would give their stage masks to this god as a sign of recognition.


As i  was not around in the ancient greek times i had to gather some research together so i could explore the boundaries that the greeks went to within the theatre. I gathered my information from Wikipedia, Theatre of Ancient Greece, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece [Last Accessed 9th October 2014]

 MASKS

 The Ancient Greek term for a mask is prosopon and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Most of the evidence comes from only a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC . No physical evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. Nevertheless, the mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theatre. Even though most masks got destroyed some got saved which allowed us to see an insight to what the Greek masks looked like.

In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks were able to create a sense of dread in the audience creating large scale panic, especially since they had intensely exaggerated facial features and expressions. They would usually get an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, this prevented the audience from identifying the actor to one exact character. Their changes in characters help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance, these conventions are portrayed with the masks, and that's how the audience would distinguish these features.  Only 2-3 actors were allowed on the stage at one time, and masks allowed quick transitions from one character to another, when on stage. There were only male actors, but masks allowed them to play female characters.
The actors faces were never allowed to be revealed to the audience if wearing a mask as they thought this totally ruined the effect of why the mask was their in the first place to hide that actors identity, creating the character from the mask.
The masks allowed the audience to see facial features which you would lose from sitting far away from the stage. This meant that the narrative and storyline would not be lost to the audience, it helped them engage with the theatre productions. The researched helped me gain knowledge but also allowed me to realise the use of the masks, and their importance. 
I gathered my information from Wikipedia, Theatre of Ancient Greece, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece [Last accessed 9th October 2014]

Photo 1:http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Theater.html
Photo 2:http://www.lhsdramaclub.com/greek-theatre.html
Photo3:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece