Gender Roles In Greek And Elizabethan Theatre

Today, actors have a new way of living. They do not realize how different their lives would have been if they lived during the Greek and Elizabethan time period. Acting has changed throughout history based off of gender roles, how the performances were conducted, and the social status of the actors and audience.

In the beginning of theatre acting, woman were an outcast of society. They were not allowed to attend the performances or even be an actress. All the plays were made up of men. It showed the masculinity and power of the actor. Men had to dress up like women when they needed a lady part. The image of women did not change much because they appeared as male actors. (Gender Roles: The direction, development, and drama of women in live theater).

They threw festivals for him. In 500 BC, a dramatist named Thespis implemented a solo actor, and he told speeches about each of the characters, and he changed his masks depending on which character was talking. He would talk to the narrator which was the chorus. In 471 BC, another dramatist named Aeschylus created a second actor which allowed dialogue between them on stage. Only three years later, Sophocles came up with an idea that would make a complex dramatic situation by adding a third character. They still kept the same ideas when there was only one actor on stage such as, switching characters means switching masks. The chorus itself acted like another character and not always a narrator. Because there were more actors on stage, they were able to expand their plays to the entire group of Greek mythology and not just the theatre god Dionysus (Ancient Greek Theatre). As time progressed, the acting industry started to form into modern day acting. They started to have more actors talking to actors instead of them talking to the chorus (Ancient Greek Theatre). Instead of having the audience surrounding the actors completely, the audience is now seated in front of them and slightly on the side. Back then, the actors purpose was to talk to the audience. They would talk to the audience more than they would talk to each other. Nowadays, the actors talk to each other, and they do not speak to the audience for the most because if they do, it would be out of character. The lines today are meant to be a real life scenario. It was not meant to argue with each other and try to get the audience on their side. Back then, they had a core group of actors, and they played together for several years. It was the same cast for each play. There are no new cast members. They had to perform a new play almost everyday, so they did not have a lot of time to rehearse. Today, the