How Did Theatre Influence The Greek Theatre

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Recommended: Effects of Greek civilization on our modern world

Kenneth Jacobs-DeLeon
Dr. Warnes
Humanities 01
22 July, 2015
Theaters Influence
The Greeks were known for many things such as their mythology, architectural beauty and their democracy, but the most interesting thing they were known for was their theater. The theater was perhaps their best form of entertainment that the Greeks had encountered and has lived on from ancient times to modern day, completely affecting just about everything that we do related to entertainment. The way that the Theater was built is still a commonly used blueprint for today’s seating arrangements. There are also several Greek tragedies and comedies that are reenacted today by Colleges and art schools that came from some of the most marvelous and entertaining men of …show more content…

Theater was loved by all, and not just because most of the population of Athens was celebrating with drink and song, but because the performances of the plays had created entertainment and inspiration for many other play writers out there. Sophocles created around 123 plays, however only seven have survived. The tragedies that Sophocles had written happened to have a strong focus on the relationships between man and the gods, or man and nature. One of his most famous plays happened to be the Oedipus Rex, where the people of Thebes have been plagued with pestilence and Oedipus seeks to serve the gods. This was one of his most famous plays however it never won in the competition of Dionysia because he had believed that it was too ahead of his time. He was a very serious man and his tragedies had portrayed his personality. Aristophanes however, was known to be a goofball and also one of the greatest comedians of his time. During his lifetime he had written almost forty-four plays, with eleven surviving today. The plays that he had written made fun of just about anybody, it didn’t matter the sex or status of the people in the plays. This is shown by his play Lysistrata, where a female Athenian woman happens to take over the acropolis and assumes the position that is known for men only in means to end the Pelloponisian war. Unfortunately his sense of humor did not sit well with everyone, this can be assumed because he had only placed first in the competition of Dionysia three times. Sophocles and Aristophanes were considered genius’s because of their ability to create such amazing works of art through theater. And still to this day they are inspiring students of theater because there are several modern reenactments of their

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