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Greek Theater & Western Civilization
Before you listen to the audio interview
with
writer and scholar Frank Marrero
you might want to re-educate yourself
about the origins of Western theater via this brief summary.
 Western theater was born in Athens, Greece
twenty-five hundred years ago, two thousand years before
Shakespeare.
Between 600 and 200 BC the ancient Athenians created a theater culture, whose form, technique and terminology have lasted
more than two
millennia; they created plays that are still considered
among the greatest works of world drama.
At that time Greece was divided into city/states,
separate nations centered in major cities and regions. The most
prominent city-state was Athens, where at least 150,000 people
lived. It was here that the
Rites of Dionysus evolved into what
we know today as theater.
The Theater of Dionysus
at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens could seat 17,000
people. Plays were performed in the daytime and almost
always by a chorus and three actors. Actors wore no makeup;
instead, they carried masks with exaggerated facial expressions.The spectators sat in the theatron, literally
"viewing-place. The orchestra, literally
"dancing space," was circular, frequently with an altar
in the middle. The
orchestra of the Theater of Dionysus was about 60 feet in
diameter.
By the time of
Sophocles'
death in 406 BC the golden era of Greek drama was waning. Athens,
whose freethinking culture had spawned the birth of theater,
would be overrun in 404 BC by the Spartans.
Later that great city would be torn apart by frequent wars
with other city/states, eventually falling under the dominion of
Alexander the Great and his Macedonian armies. Theater
continued, but it would not return to the same creative heights
until Elizabethan England two millennia later.
To experience present day epic theater
we recommend the critically acclaimed
Mummery Book
by Adi
Da Samraj
Three performances this
fall in
Clearlake, California:
October 13th/14th
November 10th/11th
December 8th/9th
For
tickets and information contact (707) 928-4853
www.mummerybook.org
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Ecstatic Art & Theater Project
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