Greek Drama

 

The Beginning

I bet you didn't know that Ancient Greeks were a big part of drama, there version of drama was pretty close to ours,but there were just a few differences. I'm going to tell you about the Greeks and their version of drama.
Drama was a very important part of the Greeks life's. The worlds first theaters and performances were done during religious ceremonies and some were done for entertainment. Not all of the people on the stage were actors,some were called the chorus, a group of people would stand behind the actors in a semi-circle and repeat the important lines in the play. The reason for this was because there weren't any microphones or speakers so it would be hard for the audience to hear, the chorus would repeat ant of the important lines that needed to be said.
The props and costumes that were used then were a little different then what we use now. The colors that the actors wore where a big part of their character. Royalty would where the color purple, someone in pain would were black or gray, if anyone was in love they would wear red. The costumes would describe what was happening to the characters. The average actor would have eight costumes.
Greek theater was not enjoyed by everyone. Women were never allowed to act on stage. Back in those days women were second class citizen. People thought that women would get scared to go out on stage on the day of the play. So then who would play the women in the plays? Little boys would! Boys would perform as the women of they play. They would get as boy before we went into puberty, because the young boy's voice was still was high pitched and not deep and low like a man's was.

 

Greek Drama Timeline

6th Century B.C.

536-533- Thiespis put on tragedy at festival of the greater Doinysia in Athens.

525- Aeschylus was born.

511-508- Phrynichus's first victory as a tragic playwright.

496- Sophocles was born.

485- Euriipides was born.

484- Aeschylus first dramatic victory.

468- Aeschylus was defeated by Sophocles in a dramatic competition.

456- Aeschylus died.

450- Aristophanes was born.