Ancient Greek Theatre Architecture

We all look for our beginnings. Whether we look for them in our personal life or in our professional life, we still look for them. As I was looking around the theatre recently, I was looking at and wondering where the idea of the theatre came from. Rather, who built it and why it is built the way it is. Who made the first one? Where do the roots of the theatre lay? All very good questions that I hope will be answered.

In the beginning of time, man did not understand the complex workings of the universe. To compensate for this not understanding, man created mythical gods that held the power to cause nature to be nature. People who performed extraordinary accomplishments, like win wars, would be elevated to a god. Prehistoric man would perform rituals to please the gods. The gods, in turn having been pleased, would ensure the success of the land and hunting as well as protect them from their enemies. These rituals were performed in many places. At times, these rituals would involve the entire community. At other times, small groups would perform for the rest of the community. From that time until the present, every type of performance has created its own environmental conditions of performer-audience relationship, and these have varied from a patch of beaten earth to complicated built structures (Leacroft 1).

The various Greek tribes worshipped many different gods. Dionysus, or Bacchus, was an important god for the Thracians, a tribe who lived in the northern part of Greece. When the Thracians discovered how to make beer, they thought intoxication divine and gave honor to Bacchus, and when they came to know wine, they thought even better of him. Greek songs honoring the god of wine, Dionysus, which were originally sung by masked choruses, developed later into a singing exchange between a leader and the choruses. During the fifth century BCE, music, costumes, and dancing all became more elaborate, and antiphonal singing between leader and chorus evolved into dramatic dialogue.

Everywhere in Greece, the festivals were regarded as public acts of worship, but only in Athens did these crude beginnings develop into tragedy. The tragic performances of ancient Athens presented a magnificent spectacle. All citizens could attend freely, for the festivals were still regarded as public acts of worship. Everybody could easily respond to the rhythms of dance...

... middle of paper ...

...d and given life to help the playwrights tell the stories of their day. It provided that “visual actuality'; that imposed an emotional response. If we sit back and say that it is nothing more than just a building, then we are guilty of having no passion for the art that we love so much. As sophisticated as theatre is today, most of what we know started almost two thousand years ago.

Notes:

1. The spelling of the Greek terms varied from resource to resource. I tried in vain to use the spelling that occurred most often.

Bibliography

Bangham Jerry, Greece-Turkey 1999, 8/15/99, 10/19/1999,

Brockett, Oscar G., History of the Theatre. 2nd edition, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1974

Brockett, Oscar G., History of the Theatre. 4th edition, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 1983

Dukore, Bernard F. Dramatic Theory and Criticism. New York, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. 1974

Foundation of the Hellenic World, the Theater, 1997, 10/19/1999,

Norwich, John Julius, Great Architecture of the World. New York, Bonanza Books, 1982

Leacroft, Richard and Helen, Theatre and Playhouse. London, Methuen, 1984

Rawl, Mariam F. “The First Theaters.'; Calliope. November 1997: 12-17