Research Portfolio: Ancient Greek Theatre

Introduction:

The origins of Physical Theatre had begun with the style of Ancient Greek performances.
The theatre of the Ancient Greeks had really flourished in the time span of 550BC to 220BC.

The festivals the Ancient Greeks had ran once a year for 5 days in Athens was in the honor and celebration of the Greek God called Dionysus.  The three genres of theatre the Ancient Greeks had come up with were Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr.  There were some Greek plays that were written for 2 combined genres, these were mostly Tragicomedies.

Who Have The Ancient Greeks Influenced?

Western Theatre had gained it's roots from the Ancient Greeks with the plays that had originated from them.  Some modern day plays, such as 'Death Of A Salesman' by Arthur Miller, has followed the same concept and materiel's of theatre used by the Ancient Greeks.

I seem to think that the Physical Theatre practitioner named Jacques Lecoq may have drawn some inspiration form Ancient Greek Theatre because of his works in masks and bodily movement over speech. This inspiration then follows onto another Physical Theatre practitioner named Steven Berkoff whom had produced a more grotesque and robotic type of movement within his plays.

The Style Of Ancient Greek Performance:

Going back to the topic of the origins of Physical Theatre and how it may have come from the Ancient Greeks, the role of the chorus that had appeared in their plays are one of these associated roles.

I had come to the conclusion that the chorus, in a performance, is a collective body which mobilizes communal wisdom and communal memory towards the actors on-stage.  They do not simply interact with the actor in any way, but they will present a background story to go alongside with the lines being announced by each actor in a scene.

I had also considered that the chorus, in Ancient Greek performances, were generally the 'main part' for each play being presented.  I say this because, at the time, there were only three main actors on-stage projecting themselves as certain characters associated with the play, meanwhile the chorus had a group size of over 10 people which was the main focus for the audience so they could get an understanding of what's going on in the performance being shown due to them explaining the story between the characters through physical body language.

This also brought the question as to how the members of the chorus were able to show their reactions towards certain situations that could happen in the performances to the audience members, which were at least in the 1000's.  This brought on the discussion of full face masks that the Ancient Greeks had used in their performances which was meant to show the audience how they felt towards certain characters in the play.  They had used face masks because since the audience for each play were ranged in the 1000's, they wouldn't be able to see what facial expressions/reactions they gave towards the characters.  They had used the element of using the masks and also to project it further in terms of gestures.  This information ties into Physical Theatre and how historical texts may think it had originated from the Ancient Greeks because of how they had used them in performance.

There was one quote of interest that I had received from this lesson about Ancient Greek Tragedy plays: "Ancient Greek Tragedy is simply inconceivable without the chorus!".  Since the person who gave this quote said that Ancient Greek Tragedy plays would be inconceivable without the chorus, meaning that without the chorus they wouldn't be able to show off a good performance, does tie in with my idea that the chorus is, in reality, the 'main part' of each play that was presented.  Of course the acting would be there with the characters but there would be no development of the main story that the chorus presents to the audience if they were not there to show it physically.

Conclusion: What Do I Think About The Ancient Greeks?

The Ancient Greeks are something that I love to talk and learn more about. This is the very starting point of what we call "Physical Theatre" and it has evolved constantly over 2000 years through many different sources all around the world.

I think that if we didn't have Ancient Greek Theatre, then we may not have had any Physical Theatre at all in modern age - either that or it wouldn't be as advanced with it's many adaptations as it is now.

I hope in the future of my acting career that I'll be able to have more experience in the art of Ancient Greek Theatre as it is also one of my top favorite styles of theatre out of all that I've studied so far.