Putting on a play at City Dionysus City

Putting on a play at City Dionysus

City Dionysia • • One week in late March Opening of the port Many visitors Civic and religious event Sponsored by the City and wealthy citizens Huge event Weeklong Super Bowl in a city-state

April • Shortly after the previous festival, writers apply to the city’s chief magistrate (Archon) • Archon listened to the selections of the play presented by the playwright • Selected 3 Tragedies • Assigned them Choruses • Assigned them a Choregos

Choregus • Like a producer • Responsible for – Chorus training – Costuming for Chorus – Paid musicians – Supplied properties – Extra actors – May have provided 2 nd chorus

State Provided • • • Building/Theatre Prizes Paid actors, maybe the playwright Some costumes Subsidized tickets Tickets – Bronze or lead – Looked like coins/tokens with a letter on one side, Athena on the other – Letter corresponded to the seating section

Rehearsals • Playwright – – Acted as a director Invented music and dances Also often acted Sophocles did not act • Bad voice • Played music • Didaskolos – Specialist in theatre – Instructed the chorus in speech and movement – Aristophanes did not direct his plays, hired a Didaskolos

March • Few days before festival – Playwrights and actors announce the subject of their play • Previews – Procession – reenactment of Dionysus coming to Athens • Dances at altars • Sacrifice a bull at altar of Dionysus

Five Days of Theatre • 3 days (at least) Tragedies – One dramatist a day • 3 tragedies • 1 Satyr play • Comedies – May have been up to five comedies at the festival – Possibly one a day • 2 Days of Dithyrambic Contests – 10 choruses of adult men, 10 of boys

Prizes and Punishments • Best Play and playwright • Best Choregus – Could erect a statue of themself at their expense • Best Actor (449 BC) • Best Chorus • Punishments were handed out 2 days after festival for bad behavior

Acting • • Masked – three actors could play many parts All men Extras could be used in non-speaking parts Early Playwrights chose actors, later city assigned actors to keep things fair

Judging the tragic actor • Beauty • Power and timbre of voice • Gesture and movement – Broad and stylised • Declamatory style

Comic actors • • • Wore masks Short buskins or boots Phalluses Short tunics Very physical

Chorus • • • In the beginning, 50 people Thespis – 1 Actor, 50 Chorus Aeschylus- 2 actors, 12 chorus Sophocles – 3 actors, 15 chorus Aristophanes – 3 or more actors, 24 chorus

Chorus • Parodos – entered theatre, often after the prologue • Very stately • Choral passages mainly sung and danced in unison • Sometimes divided into two groups, took turns • Last ode was called the exodos

Chorus • Chorus moved in formal patterns during odes • Odes – song sung by choruse – Strophe – danced from stage right to left – Antistrophe – danced from stage left to right – Epode – song sung by the Chorus while standing still after singing the strophe and antistrophe

Visual Aspects of Performance • Scenery – conventions were different from our own • Skene – represented many places, used the doors and the roof for higher levels • Scene Painting – Aristotle credited Sophocles to adding scene painting – Roman Archetech Vitruvius claims it was Aeschylus

Types of scenery • Flats or flat panels- Pinakes • Triangular rotating scenery – Periakotoi • `Ekkyklema’ – “something that can be rolled out” wheeled platform or wagon – Tableau of actors • Scenes of carnage or death • Could be pushed through the central doors

Deux ex machina • Mechane- crane, used to swing actors on stage, to simulate flight. Used at end of Medea, often associated with Euripides, who often used the crane. • Deux ex machina is used to describe any contrived ending.

Costumes • Tragic actor – loose fitting ankle length tunic or chiton, high topped boots, loose fitting sleeves though sometimes sleeveless. • Symbolic Costumes • Comic actors – wore flesh colored tights, short chiton, often padding across the stomach and visible phallus. • Satyrs – goatskin loincloths with tail and phallus over spotted tights. • All wore masks – Portrait masks of famous Athenians

Music • Greeks regarded music and dance as mimetic • Odes sung while accompanied by a flute • Sometimes playwright wrote the music but often it was the flute player.

Audience • 10, 000 – 30, 000 people per show • There all day, probably able to buy food and drinks in theatre but also brought wine, fruit and refreshments to eat (and sometime to throw at actors) • Theatron divided into sections • Front row for priests of Dionysus. • Special sections for archons, city officials, generals, representatives of the 10 tribes, ambassadors and women • Might hiss at actors but also very responsive to tragic moments, may cry or be very silent.