|
Greek Theatre: The Athenian Festival, Theatre, Architecture, Costumes The
Athenian Festival: The
City Dionysia (Dionysus
Eleutherius) occurred in March in anticipation of spring planting at
the Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus
in Athens. On
the first day of the festival, a magnificent procession brought the image of
Dionysus to the theatre. Everyone in the city participated: state officials,
priests, citizens, young dancers, jugglers, and musicians. The leaders of the
city sacrificed goats, sheep and cattle for great feasts. The citizens
participated in sports and revelry. In the evening the people were introduced
to the playwrights and performers who planned to compete in the dramatic
contest. On
the second day, after a procession, ten dithyrambic choruses competed for a
prize. Days
three through five were given over to theatre. Each playwright had composed a
cycle of three tragedies followed by a satyr play. Then a comedy by another
writer was performed. The audience came to the theatre early in the morning
and watched plays all day. On
the sixth day, the judges would meet to determine the winner and crowned the
victors with ivy. The tragic poet received the traditional goat, and the
comedy winner received wine and figs. Frequently, the city fathers invited
the winners of the competition to serve in important government positions
during the following year. The
Physical Theatre:
All Greek theatres were unique because they
were built into the hillsides surrounding the city. The earliest theatres
were created for wholly religious ceremonies. Worshippers gathered on the
hillside around a flat area, perhaps a threshing floor, to watch ceremonies,
sacrifices, and dancing and to listen to revel songs. In time, wooden seats
were added to create a theatron
(viewing place) and an orchestra
(flat, circular dancing area). An altar (thymele) was placed in the orchestra. During the first half
of the fifth century b.c. a skene was added: a long, low
building erected along the open side of the orchestra with wings to frame the
performance area, (the proskenion).
The skene was used as a
dressing room. Eventually, a crane was put up on the skene’s roof to provide for spectacular entrances of gods (deus ex machina). At special
moments in the action doors in the skene were flung open to reveal
spectacular tableaux (like Jocasta hanging from her bed-post).
The
Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus in Athens
was huge. It seated fourteen thousand spectators, enough room for every one
in the city (including the slaves- but no women); its orchestra was sixty feet in diameter. Of course, all Greek
theatres opened to the sky, and beyond the skene the audience could see a magnificent panorama of the city
and distant mountains. The audience filed in through the paradoi, the passage between the theatron and the ends of the skene. There were special seats
for high officials and priests. At the moment of catharsis the audience could
sense the presence of Dionysus himself
in the audience.
Implications of theatre architecture on
performances: Tragedy
was performed in a huge structure under an open sky. Therefore, the play had
to be presented in bold, broad, and simple lines. There
was little intimacy of dialogue or action; therefore, the acting style was
broad and not realistic. The performances were formal, ritualized and larger
than life.
To
be seen and heard, the actors wore full masks, much larger than life, highly
stylized with voice projection devices built into them. They wore colorful,
flowing robes with long sleeves and long trains. They also wore huge platform
shoes which made them appear to be well over six feet tall: “The costume covered the whole person from head to foot,
with the Originally,
only two actors played all the speaking roles. (Sophocles added the third.)
So parts were doubled, and actors portrayed both men and women. An actor had
to have extraordinary voice control and projection as well as an imaginative
sense of stage movement to convey different characters. Scenery
was limited to the skene:
three doors and a roof. Sophocles was the first real stage designer. He would
paint the skene to suggest locations. He also introduced the use of periaktoi, three sided columns
that could be turned to suggest a different scene. He also created elaborate
tableaux effects when doors in the skene
would be opened. He would compose a scene behind the doors, and when the
doors opened, the tableaux would roll out toward the audience on special
platforms called eccylema.
Entrances of gods, hoisted on those cranes from above, became more elaborate
as well.
|
