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.