When dwelling upon the main developments of the theatre, one turns to look at the origins of its birth, therefore focusing upon the Ancient Greeks. A lot of the theatre in which is established today comes from the activities of Greek Worship. The Greeks worshipped their Gods, including ‘the worship of Dionysus; the God of fertility and wine. ‘ (Gascoinge; History of Theatre, 2001 ongoing. ) The Greeks worshipped their Gods through the use of sculpting, painting, music and literature, alongside this they incorporated dance, music and drama.
As many of the Athenian’s were illiterate, Greek Theatre was used to explain to the communities the literature in which was written, allowing them through ‘reading artistic signals’ (Michael Walton, J; The Greek Sense of Theatre, Pg. 4) to understand ‘the world about them, their fellow men and their Gods. ‘ (Michael Walton, J; The Greek Sense of Theatre, Pg. 4) Sophocles was one of the playwrights within 430BCE. Sophocles wrote approximately 120 plays in total however, only 7 survived, one in which is the Greek tragedy ‘Oedipus’.
Oedipus’ is considered to be Sophocles’ ‘masterpiece’. Sophocles writes upon personal and complex themes, in which represent things which happen in everyday life, we can see this within ‘Oedipus’, when it is mentioned ‘And to our suffering plague-tormented country’, (Sophocles; Oedipus, pg. 32) suggesting that the Kingdom of Thebes, would do anything to stop the suffering from the plague. Which is similar to the way in which, the Athenians were suffering from a plague just a year previous to which ‘Oedipus’ was written.
The Greek stage is evidently the first stage that was built, however there is little physical evidence of the nature of the space. However, the evidence we do have shows that, the Greek theatres were open-air structures on the slope of a hill. These structures were originally built on a very large scale. It has been suggested that there are ‘three main elements’ (Ancient Greek Theatre) to Greek Theatre; ‘The orchestra, the skene and the audience’ (Ancient Greek Theatre). The Orchestra was either a large circular or a large rectangular area, which was situated at the centre of the theatron.
The theatron being the seating area for the audience, this was ‘usually part of the hillside which overlooked the orchestra,’ (Parts of Greek Theatre). The orchestra was the main acting area, however, it was also used for play, dance and religious rites. The orchestra within ‘Oedipus’ was used as the acting area however it was also used for dancing by the chorus. The orchestra was originally made from hard earth, however this developed into the orchestra being ‘paved with marble and other materials.
When the play ‘Oedipus’ was first performed, it was performed on the bottom of a hillside, situated upon the downward slope there were low wooden grandstands for seating, these grandstands held 15,000 audience members. The skene was a low but long rectangular building which was situated at the back of the orchestra. When Greek theatre first began the skene was either a tent or a wooden hut, but as the years went on and Greek theatre became more popular, the skene became more permanent with a stone structure.
The skene acted as both a dressing room and as a conventional backdrop for the action, as unlike today, the Greeks did not have access to sets and flats. The Ancient Greeks also did not have access to lighting, therefore their performances occurred within the daytime. Upon the skene, a scene would often be painted to illustrate the environment the actors were in. Within ‘Oedipus’ ‘Sophocles used the skene house to represent the palace in which Oedipus was born. ‘ (Williams, G. J. ; Theatre Histories, pg. 95)
The Greeks also introduced the use of the chorus. The chorus allowed the Greek plays to have a dynamic structure. The chorus is an anonymous collective, a collective in which tells the story of the play and sometimes foreshadows the plot. The majority of the time also to chorus is a representation of the citizens. As mentioned previously the chorus was sometimes a group of dancers, who performed in the orchestra, which was used as the dancing place and not the place for musicians as the word ‘orchestra’ is used for today.
The choral dancing can be seen as a style of theatre today called ‘musical theatre’. The purpose of dance within ‘musical theatre’ is to entertain the audience, much like in Greek theatre. However, choral dances, along with music and drama, within musical theatre are combinations in which create the story line or the plot, however, within Ancient Greece these choral dances were used to keep the audience interested in the drama, much like the Shakespearean Jig. Consequently, there are many other aspects that the Ancient Greeks introduced into the world of theatre.
Over time these contributions have been taken and adapted to create the theatre that many people know and love today. However, unlike in Ancient Greece; there are more than two styles of theatre today and not just by the means of the theatre types, for example; a proscenium theatre or theatre in the round, but the acting styles as well, such as Naturalistic, Non-Naturalistic, Epic theatre, Absurdism etc. These are seen as a collaboration of the developments of the theatre through out the different time periods and the practitioners of different ages.
