Strategy for Business

Greek theatre

The playwrights

There were many playwrights in ancient Greek theaters, but only a few of the works from a few of the playwrights managed to survive for centuries and were still available now. Below are 4 of the most important and famous playwrights:

• Thespis: Apart from being a celebrated playwright, Thespis was also a stage director and producer, and the first to be actor in the theatre. Before that, Greek theatres were only performed by a group of chorus.
• Aeschylus (525-455 BC): He was credited for over 80 plays, but only 7 of them survived till now. He won a lot of top festival honors, and was the first to introduce the 2nd actor to the stage. He also performed as an actor on the stage. Famous works include The Persians and Oresteia, which are both tragedies.
• Sophocles (497-405 BC): He wrote 123 plays but only 7 have survived in a complete form, including the tragedies Antigone, Electra and Oedipus Rex. He was the one who introduced the 3rd actor to the stage, fixed the no. of chorus members to 15, and the first to use scene painting. Before him, playwrights would themselves perform on the stage; Sophocles was the first to exclusively write, rather than perform, the plays.
• Euripides (480-407 BC): He wrote 72 works, of which only 18 tragedies and 1 comedy have survived, including the tragedy Medea, which was famous for the strong female main character. His plays had more social commentary involved.
• Aristophanes (450-385 BC): Aristophanes was a leading source for Greek old comedy. 11 out of his 40 plays have survived. His famous works included The Frogs, which was so well-received that it won an unprecedented second performance in another year’s festival. His comedies, unlike tragedies, interact directly with the audience.

The actors

In the early form of Greek theatre called Dithyrambs, plays were performed by chorus groups, led by the choregos and accompanied by auletes (the pipe player). Traditionally, playwrights also played the main character. Thespis was the first actor to appear on stage, who also introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus. Aeschylus was the one who introduced the 2nd player to the stage, while Sophocles introduced the 3rd. As mentioned, Sophocles also fixed the no. of chorus members to 15. Actors changed their costumes and masks to perform different characters and let the audience identify them. Costumes and masks allowed the same actor to perform multiple characters and also represented the social status and gender of the character. The masks had exaggerated facial expressions to let the audience see clearly.