The origin and history of acting in Greece Essay

Athens brought acting to Greece. It started with singing and then acting started to emerge. The word theatre comes from the word theatron, meaning a place for seeing. &#61692
The reason why they acted was to entertain people, for religious reasons and to honour the god Dionysus. &#61692
There are two main types of plays they performed. They are called tragedy and comedy. Tragedy was very serious plays, the ending were usually sad. The characters were gods or kings to whom terrible things occurred, like accidentally killing ones own father. Comedies were humorous plays with happy endings. In comedy plays they would usually make fun of gods or important people. The two faces that you have most likely seen before shows comedy and tragedy. That is how they got the two faces from the Greeks. &#61692
These four men are popular Greek play writers. Aristophanes was a writer that wrote comedy plays. He wrote about 54 plays. His most popular plays are Birds, Wasps and frogs. Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus are writers of tragic plays. Sophocles wrote 120 plays. The most popular ones are antigone, electra and oedipus rex Euripides wrote about 90 plays. [His] The most popular plays are Medea, The Trojan woman, Orestses and The Bacchae. Aeschylus wrote at least 70 plays. His most famous ones are The Persians and Prometheus Bound.
The costumes that they wore were mask, padded costumes and platform shoes so the audience could see them. The masks were the main thing that the Greek actors wore. They used the mask to show their characters feeling and they had to play all different characters. They even played animals. &#61692
People could act as many things. They could act as animal and they would have an animal mask. They could act as male and female. An actor wearing highly decorated stage boots, carrying a sword and is showing a mask is most likely to be playing as a king.
No, women were not allowed to act to act, Men played all the characters. They had to play men and woman. They even wore wigs to show they are female.
People acted in theatres. The theatres were built on hillsides in the open air and could often hold more than 18,000 people. One of the most popular theatres in Greece is a huge theatre which is the one in the picture and it is in Epidaurus. Another really popular theatre is in Athens. This theatre would hold over 10,000 people. &#61692
People performed in summer, Greeces dry season and they also performed in spring festivals. These festivals last for a week. People would watch people act all day and pack their own lunch and watch on the stone seats. They would come to the theatre as soon after sunrise.
Yes, they did have to pay. They paid with obols, They paid 2 obols. If anyone was too poor to pay the state would pay for the person out of a special fund for festivals so everyone would watch. &#61692