Today’s lesson was an introduction to Greek theatre; we
learned that the Greeks used a traditional ‘Greek Theatre’, which consisted of
a Theatron (auditorium), Orchestra (stage) and two Parados either side of the
Orchestra where the actors and chorus use to move on and off stage.
Tragedies and comedies were the most common types of theatre
in Greek Theatre, and they used masks to amplify the sound and so that people
at the back of the Theatron could see their facial expressions and emotion.
They had a Dionysus festival where 3 playwrights would compete against each
other.
There were three actors, who multi rolled, and there was no
woman in the cast, the men played the women; there is a chorus and they sing
and dance to put more life into the performance and help the story progress.
A Greek Tragedy
A Greek tragedy focuses on an event, and the tragedy occurs
generally after an attack or a violent action (it is generally a death). Greek
tragedies frequently use messengers to relate information, and they play takes
place usually in one location over the same continuous time frame.
This is different to comedies whereby they focus more on
characters rather than an event. Greek tragedies generally dealt with themes
such as love, loss, abuse of power and the fraught relationship between Men and
Gods. The main protagonist of the story would usually commit a terrible without
realising how careless and arrogant he has been, then once he realises, his
world crumbles around him. The three main tragedy playwrights were Sophocles, Aeschylus
and Euripides.
A Greek Comedy
Greek Comedies were not admitted to the Dionysus festival
unto 487-486 B.C, and they first comedies often mocked men in power for their
foolishness and vanity. Aristophanes was the first master playwright of
comedies and he wrote plays such as ‘The Clouds’, “The Frogs’ and ‘The Birds’.
Order:
1.
Prologue – a leading character would enter and
put forward a ‘happy idea’
2.
The chorus would then enter
3.
There would be a debate amongst the chorus with
people for and against the ‘happy idea’.
The chorus of Greek
Theatre
The main role of the chorus in a ancient Greek play is to
bring the play to life. They do this by:
·
Working together as one creating and portraying
movement.
·
Reacting to the main action, as the playwright
would hope the audience would.
·
Setting the mood and keeping the dramatic
atmosphere.
Today’s task
We were asked to work as an ensemble on a chorus dialogue – we
were taught that in modernised Greek theatre the chorus would have dialogue
between them but it would be scripted as if it is a monologue for one actor;
but there is often argument or change of topic or opinion with the speech, so
it is broken up and shared between the chorus. We were given the task of
splitting up a piece of chorus dialogue by change of tone, topic or opinion and
then to bring it to life with movement and staging.
/Wonders are
many, yet of all
Things is Man the most wonderful./
/He can sail on
the stormy sea
Though the tempest rage, and the loud
Waves roar around, as he makes his
Path amid the towering surge./
/Earth
inexhaustible, /ageless,/ he wearies, as
Backwards and forwards, from season to season, /his
Ox-team drives along the ploughshare./
He can entrap the cheerful birds,
Setting a snare, /and all the wild
Beasts of the earth he has learned to catch,/ and
Fish that teem in the deep sea, /with
Nets knotted of stout cords;/ of
Such inventiveness is man./
Through his inventions he becomes lord/
Even of the beasts of the mountain: the long-haired
Horse he subdues to the yoke on his neck, /and the
Hill-bred bull, of strength untiring. /
And speech he has learned, /and thought
So swift, and the temper of mind /
To dwell within cities, and not to lie bare
Amid the keen, biting frosts /
Or cower beneath pelting rain;
/Full of resources against all that comes to him
Is Man./ Against Death alone
He is left with no defence./
But painful sickness he can cure
By his own skill./
/Surpassing belief, the device and
Cunning that Man has attained,
And it bringeth him now to evil,/ not to good./
If he observe Law, and tread
The righteous path God ordained, /
Honoured is he; /dishonoured, /the man whose reckless heart
Shall make him join hands with sin:/
May I not think like him,/
Nor may such an impious man
Dwell in my house
Once we divided the lines up and shared them out between us,
we began to block it. I found it very interesting how we were able to
incorporate little movements to some of the lines as one, and it was very
interesting to see how a simple piece of dialogue was brought to life so
quickly.
I think it could look even better if we considered facial expressions; this would entail us really understanding the text and possibly building a character around it.
For next lesson, I will look over the dialogue and think
about any specific movements I could add in to do individually and/or as a
company.
