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Ancient Greek Theater
Imagine this following scene: You are sitting in a dark, fairly crowded large room. There are hundreds of other people, in hundreds of other seats surrounding you. In front of you, there is a large stage, with people acting out a play. Lights, music, and different sound effects set the mood of the play for you to understand more clearly what is going on. With these certain conventions, viewer can get a real grasp of a story in which several actors are trying to portray. However, it hasn’t always been this easy to enjoy a play in a theater. Theatre and plays go back as far as “b.c.” times.
In the Greek theater, the conventions are very different. Unique Greek performances, which were performed hundreds of years ago, were put on to please the god Dionysos. In these performances, artificial light was impossible and there were no footlights to illuminate the faces of the actors. Spectators had to have a great imagination to create a mood themselves. The actors had to project their voices even more, and they used numerous masks, to reveal different characters. Plays were done in an amphitheater, which was a circular type theater, so that projection was very loud, and the actors could be heard all around. The actors were less active and effected less emotionally but still with their costumes, masks and roles, they belonged to the characters rather than to the audience.
Today, we are accustomed to a sharp division between the dark world of the auditorium and the over bright world of the characters. On the contrary, the Greeks were familiar with audience, chorus, and characters, all united under a dazzling sun
(Webster 2). For the most part, the Greek dramatist had to rely far more on words and less on the limited technical means at his disposal. For example, in Sophocles’ Antigone (526) the chorus describes the tears running down Ismene’s face and her cheeks as ugly red with weeping. The mask worn by the actor obviously could not reveal this effect.
There were three obvious limitations that the Greek “producer” had to deal with. First, lighting effects were impossible, so the play could not expose sunlight, dawn, dusk, or evening. Except if the play was shown early in the morning, or late in the evening. Secondly, changes in scenery were extremely limited. They usually had no more than four scenes, but even then it was scarce. Thirdly, the size of the Greek theater introduced a limitation of another kind. The distance from the front of the stage, across the orchestra to the front row of spectators, was 60ft. The back rows, were about 300 feet from the stage. So an actor of 6 feet, looked about 3 and a half tall inches to spectators in the back rows. In order to make up for this, the exaggerated acting and voice production kept spectators coming back to watch more plays.
Plays were performed to portray many daily events that happened in the Greek life. Such as political rises and downfalls, stories of hero’s, stories that portrayed fears of the gods, or even success with the gods were just some events that were portrayed in the theater. Many plays were just stories that a “producer” created himself.
Plays were basically started in the time when aristocrats were taking over different city-states, and running dictatorships, or very unfair governments. There was a small majority of the aristocrats who were highly amused and into the theatre. It was these certain aristocrats who made it a point to have certain theatres built and shows put on.
There were two basic forms of production, comedy and tragedy. Comedies were mostly sung, with strong instruments to back up the chorus. Tragedies usually followed the same pattern, opening with a prologue and followed by a parodos, (in which the chorus enters singing). The last “stasimon” provides the closing scene as the chorus and actors depart. Antigone is a great example of an early Greek tragedy.
The theatres built had three major areas, the viewing place for spectators, the orchestra which is where the chorus and actors performed, and then a scene building which basically provided a scenic backing. The earliest scene buildings were very simple wooden structures. The most common method for seating was to bring in native stones to serves as seats for spectators.
Over the past centuries, theater has come a long way. It went from silly or rather gruesome masks, rocks for seats, a lack of scenery, no lighting, and characters that look 3 and half inches tall, to something so much more amazing. However, perhaps the ancient theater involved more acting and more imagination. The benefits of both ancient and present day theaters are endless. But it’s all in the eye of the beholder, as many plays have to be, in order to be appreciated to the highest degree.
Bibliography
Aylen, Leo. The Greek Theater. New Jersey: Associated University Press, Inc., 1985.
Butler, James H. The Theater and Drama of Greece and Rome. San Francisco:
Chandler publishing Company, 1972.
Green, Richard, Handley Eric. Images of the Greek Theatre. Austin: University of
Texas Press, 1995.
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Abortion is one of the most controversial issues discussed in today’s society. This issue has caused a great deal of turmoil in the world. Some protestors have even killed other human beings over the issue. People’s religion has had some input on this issue, but this should not be the only factor when looking at this serious controversial debate. There are many questions that one must ask him or herself when deciding to be either for or against abortion. In this position paper I am going to talk about some issues that may not be black and white. My position on this issue is against abortion, and I am going to attempt to show that. Abortion is wrong in many instances. It is wrong anytime except in the case of a dying mother, incest or rape. It is wrong because people choose to have sex. They know the consequences before they had sex. For example, a person is playing Russian Roulette. This person knows that there is a possibility that they may die from this. In the case of pregnancy, the people that choose to have sex, they know that there is a chance at getting pregnant. The people that have an abortion when they have become pregnant by there own choice, not by incest, rape or threatening the mother’s life, are using it as a birth control method, which is wrong. One of the major issues is determining whether or not the fetus is a person, and if so, when? My view is that it becomes a person at the time of conception. At that specific time, it has 46 chromosomes and is determined whether or not is it going to be a boy or girl. Furthermore, all other characteristics are decided at that moment. One of the issues discussed in class was the time of conception. A point mentioned in class was that any time a sperm or egg was destroyed or killed, then abortion was occurring, for example, masturbation or menstruation. The point that is trying to be made is that if killing the fetus at conception is wrong, which has potential to be a person, then killing the things that have potential to become a person, like sperm and eggs, is wrong also. I do not agree with this point. My reasoning is the sperm or egg does not have all 46 chromosomes, it has only half. Half of the chromosomes does not make a person. Alone, the sperm or egg cannot become a person, but at the time of conception it is possible. I cannot sufficiently rebut the idea of the potentiality of the sperm or egg. I do understand that these both have the potential to become a person. A point related to the previous one is the use of contraceptives. The use of contraceptives brings up the issue of why aren’t these as wrong as an abortion. This raises again the idea of the potentiality of a person. As I previously mentioned, I do not see something with half of the chromosomes needed to become a human, a human. John Noonan says that the fetus is a person, therefore it is wrong to kill it. The problem with this is that all people do not believe a fetus is a person, therefore it is okay to kill it. For example, Mary Anne Warren does not believe the fetus is a person. She thinks that there are certain traits or characteristics that an organism must have in order to be characterized as a person. These are: (1) “consciousness (of objects and events external and /or internal to the being), and in particular the capacity to feel pain; (2) reasoning (the developed capacity to solve new and relatively complex problems); (3) self motivated activity (activity which is relatively independent of either genetic of direct external control); (4) the capacity to communicate, by whatever means, messages of an indefinite variety of types, that is, not just with an indefinite number of possible contents, but on indefinitely many possible topics; (5) the presence of self-concepts, and self awareness, either individual or racial, or both.” The problem with these traits as determining the time at which a fetus becomes a person is that these traits describe things that are not just human, but also children that are two and three years of age. For instance, these characteristics say that a new born baby that is alive and breathing on its own, is not a person and therefore it is okay to kill it. This seems highly ludicrous to say that a new born baby is not a person. Also, as I said before, these traits include other things than the species Homosapiens. I am referring to the monkeys, chimpanzees or gorillas. I do not see these animals as humans, even though many scientists believe that we evolved from monkey or chimps. There is also evidence of monkeys or chimps speaking to other humans. This is a whole other issue. Regardless of whether or not these chimps are our ancestors, which I believe not to be these characteristics may also characterize other organisms to be humans. Another issue raised is who has more right to life or right to choose, the mother or the potential baby. I have no complete feeling about this issue because I have not researched it enough to come to an educated decision. I do lean toward the right of a fetus. I can see the opposition’s view though. Why should some potential human being be able to tell me or anyone else what to do? I do think that they should have some say in there own life. Although, in the case of a mother dying if she continues on with the pregnancy, I do not see a problem with terminating the pregnancy. I do believe that they should explore all the options first.
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