The Birth of Theatre
Worship ceremonies, festivals, and gatherings had defined social interaction from prehistoric life to the Mesopotamian age. But although performance and ritual has existed since the beginning of human civilization, formal, dramatic theatre as we know it was introduced by the ancient Greeks in the 5th century BCE.
In many ways, dramatic theatre can be directly linked to religious ritual. Some historians believe that theatre stemmed from a particular worship ceremony for the Greek god Dionysus, in which people would wear masks and chant a song, the trag-odia, during the sacrificing of goats.
A priest of Dionysus, Thespis, was the first person to ever perform a “play” on stage, while acting as a character. Due to this significant precedent set, today, actors still refer to themselves as “Thespians.”
Early ancient Greek plays were constructed of a single actor who would change costumes and masks throughout the performance in order to portray different characters, as well as a chorus, a group of speakers/singers acting as either a common crowd, or occasionally the gods. Each play was performed within an open-air theatre (in Greek - theatron: theater was literally “the people in a show” and -tron was the suffix for a “place”).
As plays gained popularity, casts grew slightly larger, allowing up to three actors in the performance. However, three speaking actors was considered the limit on stage, in order to ensure that each poet was given an equal chance for competition (plays were often written for competitions). Non-speaking actors, on the other hand, performed in large quantities alongside the speaking actors, in order to create a more spectacular production.
Today, Greek plays have not only influenced our own theatrical works in structure and plot, but they themselves have also lasted. Ancient plays such as “Antigone” and “Ajax” by Sophocles have been reproduced in recent years by U.S. based theater company, Theater of War, and have been attributed to helping veteran’s PTSD as well as addressing important social issues like Black Lives Matter.
Greek culture continues to live on in all sorts of ways, but no doubt in large part thanks to its theatrical works and literature.
Bibliography:
Antigone in Ferguson - Theater of War
theater | Origin and meaning of theater by Online Etymology Dictionary