Theatrical performances in ancient Greece initially served as the execution of a religious cult. Near the theaters there were often cemeteries, and in the center of the place for performances was an altar. Later, the theater began to be used as a place for presenting laurel wreaths to honorary citizens, and then for civilian performances. Until the V century, the Greeks used mobile scaffolds, which often collapsed during the performance. After that, the theaters became solid architectural structures.
Instruction manual
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The first experience of building a Greek theater was the Athenian theater of Dionysus. It looked exactly impossible to establish what it looked like, since the building was repeatedly rebuilt, partially destroyed and rebuilt. In Greece, theaters were usually built on hillsides. This significantly reduced the cost of their construction. Each theater had a space for spectators in the form of benches located in several tiers in a semicircle (amphitheater), a place in front of the orchestra (skena) and a flat platform for actors.
2
Behind the theater you can see the sea and the island of Aegina. The orchestra looked like a free platform on which the choirs were housed. In the center was the altar of Dionysus and the throne of his priest. There was no scene in the usual form of modern man. Instead, viewers saw a narrow podium against the backdrop of Dorian columns. If a civil festival was held in the theater, then it was not decorated, and if there should be a dramatic production, then a light partition with a door was placed behind the podium. Painted decorations were hung on the partition, and actors could pass through the door. All staging scenes were conditional, and the scenery was quite primitive.
3
In the Roman era, the location of the choir changed. Now it was located on the podium, and the audience could watch the performance from the orchestra platform. Naturally, the width of the rostrum also increased. The theater became so popular entertainment that the altar was liquidated. To improve the audibility of the voices of the choir and the actors, they began to make the wall of the stage stage higher.
4
In ancient Greek theaters there were curtains. Scientists suggest that they were hollow rods that easily entered one into the other. The rods were fastened in a special recess in front of the proscenium and, if necessary, were advanced. It is possible that the fabric curtain on the rods closed the stage only from spectators sitting in the front rows.
5
To improve the acoustic properties of the stage, many theaters (for example, in Arles and Pompeii) had recesses in the form of a concave reflector. The shutters on the back of the stage were arranged so that the voice sounded more loudly. During the performance, the actors repeatedly turned to them to amplify the sound. In order to improve acoustics, the Greeks came up with another "focus". An array was removed from under the benches (in those theaters where they were static), and instead of it there were vases that served as resonators. Moreover, such vases caught and made louder only the main sounds with musical accompaniment. This is explained by a special music repository in which the notes of the tetrachord (4-note harmonies) were harmoniously arranged in the order of their value. Acoustic vases were not used everywhere. Experts have found that most often they found application in the Aizani Theater and the Sagunta Theater.
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Classical Greek theaters are considered:
- Theater in Epidaurus;
- Theater of Heronya (places for citizens were carved into the rock);
- Theater in Delphi (its main feature is a mobile stand);
- Theater in Syracuse (above the benches of the upper row was a waterfall).
In addition, in Greece there were also covered "odeons" - small theaters designed for chamber productions.
