1. Ancient Theatre
Egyptian, Greek, and Roman

2. How do we know history
happened?
Someone thought it was important
enough to write down.

3. First recorded performance
Passion Play of Abydos
2500 BCE
Ancient Egyptian Myth of Horus
Ikhernofret Stela

4. Greek Theatre
City Dionysia - 600 BCE
Honored the God Dionysus
God of Wine

5. Dionysian Festival
Started as a singing
competition between
tribes.
Tragos - Goat; Ode - Song
(literally Goat Song)
Eventually evolved
toward play performance
competition.
Mask of Dionysus

6. Thespis
Credited as the first
actor.
Stepped out the Chorus
and began responding
to them.
As the festival evolved
the rules limited the
number of actors
outside of the chorus.

7. Three Major Tragedians
Sophocles - Theban Plays
Aeschylus - Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound,
Libation Bearers
Euripides - Madea, Trojan Woman, Hippolytus
Euripides added intrigue to stories

8. Greek comedy
Made fun of society. Comes much later than tragedy.
Aristophanes - The Clouds, The Birds, Lysistrata

9. Greek Theatre Architecture
Usually an outdoor
amphitheater.

10. Aristotle
Greek Philospher
Poetics - Outlined what makes a good story and in
turn what makes a good play.
Six elements of Drama - Plot, Character, Theme,
Language, Rhythm, Spectacle

11. Elements of Drama
Plot - The events of a
story
Character - Persons or
things involved in those
events
Theme - Idea the story
represents

12. Elements of Drama
Rhythm/Music
Language/Diction
Spectacle

13. PaperMan

14. Roman Theatre
Mostly copied the
greeks.

15. Surviving playwrights
Terrence - Comic Playwright, Adelphoe(The
Brothers)
Plautus - Comic Playwright, Manaechmi
Seneca - Tragedy, adapted greek tragedies for Roman
Audience.

16. A Roman Culture evolved
Rome moved from a
Republic to an Emperor
As this happened their
tastes moved from live
theatre toward more
violent entertainments
Bloodsport, gladiators,
and Chariot races.