Greek Origins

           Theater, to learn more about where it came from we have to go all the way back to ancient times. The Ancient Greeks; they really got the ball rolling to create theatre as an art-form. A festival the was called Dionysia, which of course was a festival to honor the god Dionysus, was where they held these plays, which don't seem like the plays we see today. Here is were Tragedy, Comedy, and the Satyr plays were to be created.  Thespis, which many of you might not know, was the first recorded playwright. He was the first winner of the theatrical contest, which was held during the festival of Dionysia. Thespis is often called the, "father of tragedy".
            During the early Greek festivals, actors, directors, etc were mostly all the same person. After a while, a whopping number or only 3 actors could preform on stage, and only males could, which means when there was a women role, a men had to play that.  Because there was a limit to the number of actors on stage, they developed a chorus, which was a great part of Greek theatre. Music was played a lot when the chorus said there lines.
            Now of course, this is only a small amount of information that is said about Greek Theatre, there is so much more to learn. There are always a infinite amount of resources you could use to learn more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQOPFxuiaWQ  <-- Click here, this tell a lot more about the ancient Greek theatre. There are more links you can click to learn more about this topic.

Masks like these were often used in Greek Theatre, here is a great site to learn more just about ancient Greek theatre.

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/greece/theater/playersProps.html

Introductions.

Hey everyone!


              My name is Danielle, and I will be blogging in the future about theatre. Theatre is a passion I have had, and it's not really noticed by many people, not to mention lots of kids from schools who don't appreciate it and what people put into in the wonderful world of theater. Now I'm just a young adult, sharing my knowledge, with other young adults who want to know more about theater. 


                So basic question: What exactly is theatre? Well let me answer that; Theatre is a subdivision of preforming arts. It's really designed for live performances, so it's not being an actor in a movie. I like to think of it as a live story book, so you don't have to imagine what's going on you can see it with your own eyes. Which speaking of the term theater comes from the Ancient Greek word theatron which means "the seeing place". Theatre can combine all sorts of things (also help and improve) such as speech, music, dance, and much more. So there's just a little window into the world of theater, and I hope you learned something new. I will be posting new things I learn while in school productions and classes, to share with everyone (well with whoever reads this blog). 

Lets add a picture shall we? Here is a picture of the Hellenic Theatre at Epidarus in Greece, which is where Theater took it's shape and form.


                                                               Enjoy! - Dani


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidaurus If you'd like to learn more about Epidarus and it's involvement in theater, click the link. There are of course tons of other websites you can visit.  It's also where I got my picture.