Freshmen Drama Notes

Greek Theater

  • The Golden Age of Greece: A period of remarkable achievements in Athens, also known as the classical period.
  • Dionysus: The god of wine, fertility, and revelry.
  • Dithyramb: A lengthy hymn honoring Dionysus, sung and danced by a group of fifty men.
  • Thespis: Credited with transforming the dithyramb into tragedy by stepping out of the dithyrambic chorus and becoming an actor.
  • The theater was an amphitheater, usually located in the mountains.
  • It included an orchestra in the middle, a skene on the stage, a proskenion, and parados on both sides. Seating was in the back.
  • The style of theater was very religious, predating comedy and farces.
  • The center of the orchestra contained an altar, highlighting the theater's role in religious celebrations and sacrifices.

Roman Theater

  • Two types of curtains were introduced:
    • Auleum: A front curtain that was lowered into a trough at the front of the stage in early theaters and raised above the stage on ropes in later theaters.
    • Siparium: Hung at the back of the stage to provide a background; its appearance (painted or not) is unknown.
  • Pantomime: A dramatic entertainment originating in Roman mime, where performers express meaning through gestures accompanied by music.
  • Roman scaenae typically included three doors at ground level, with the center one being ornate for grand entrances.
  • The façade of many scaenae was recessed to allow for the illusion of eavesdropping.
  • The stage itself, called the pulpitum, included versurae (wings), each with an entrance.

Roman Playwrights:

  • Terrence: Focused on characterization, subtlety of expression, and elegant language.
  • Plautus: His physical comedy influenced works by playwrights like Shakespeare (Comedy of Errors) and Sondheim (Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum).
  • Seneca: Known for his thirst for gore; his plays featured characters like Thyestes, who would eat the flesh of his children in full view of the audience.

Roman Critics:

  • Horace: Stated that drama was used “to profit and to please”. He also stated that the writer had a responsibility to entertain as well as instruct the audience. Decorum was something he believed of good use during writing.
  • Naumachia: Julius Caesar held the first known naumachia in Rome in 46 BC as a victory celebration.
    • Involved approximately 2000 combatants and 4000 rowers, all prisoners of war, fighting on a flooded basin near the Tiber.
  • Romans adapted Greek drama, carrying over features like depicting a city street with entrances to private homes or public shrines.
  • Wing exits represented routes to town and the harbor, or to the market and the country.
  • Theatrical productions escalated in expense and grandeur.
    • In 99 BCE, Claudius Pulsher displayed a scenas frons that had been elaborately painted.
    • In 70 BCE, awnings (vela) were added above the cavea of a Roman theatre to protect viewers from the elements.
    • In 58 BCE, Marcus Aemilius Scavrus produced a three-tiered scenas frons made of marble, glass, and gilded wood.
    • Gaius Curio built back-to-back hemispherical theatres that could be rotated to form an amphitheatre.
  • Vomitorium: A passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheater or stadium, allowing large crowds to exit rapidly.
    • The word derives from the Latin vomere, meaning