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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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Satanism Sociology/Psychology I am hoping I can somehow make this seem like a psychological report without making it lose any of it's important details. My goal in writing this paper is to hopefully make people understand and agree that Satanism is not a Devil Worshipping, animal mutilating, child scarifying cult organization. The psychological thing comes in when people say Satanism is wrong or evil, they hear the word Satan and automatically assume that it must be bad. They make these assumptions without even taking the time to find the facts and understand them. I'll start off by saying that Satanists do not worship the devil! A Satanist believe that he or she as an individual rule their own destiny and are the god of their own lives. Satanism is a religion based on the reality that man is an animal, like all others. They choose to separate themselves from a society where natural behavior is suppressed and the strong support the weak. The average Satanist disagrees with much of Christianity. In many ways Christians are considered the enimies. Christians say Satan is a fallen angel, not a God. All religions have gods and demons, some of which are forbidden by a typical society. Satan is one among these, originally conceived by the Hebrews, long before the birth of Jesus. Most Satanists are familiar with the teachings of Christianity, and have read the Bible or part of it. They simply consider the Bible to be false and disregard it much like Christians would disregard books which represent the foundation of another religion. Satanism is not considered a religion for the white race and should not be confused with or grouped together with skinheads, The KKK, Nazi's, Neo-Nazi's, or people who support white power. Satanists are not teenage vandals, not gang murderers, not psychopathic murders, not child molesters or vicious rapists. Satanists do not sacrifice young children or animals. The ninth and tenth of the Eleven Satanic Rules of The Earth forbid this, in fact, animal sacrifices are primarily used in the Afro-Caribbean syncretistic religions such as Voodoun, Candomble', and Santeria. Child Sacrifices are used in Television and by journalists to improve ratings. A Satanist does not practice baby breeding or child molestation. Evidence does not support what is said to occur. If the number of murders said to be committed by Satanists' was accurate some bodies would have been found by now. Members of the Church of Satan are involved and advanced exactly as their own desires, abilities, and accomplishments dictate. There are no set activities, meetings, or contacts. A new member comes into the organization ideally with his or her own goals and plans of achieving them. When being brought to the church of Satan new members are told to not let anyone tell you what to believe or what to do. Advice or recommendations are one thing; orders or commands quite another. Remember that you are a free being, not a pawn in someone's power fantasy. They believe the weaker elements of society should serve the stronger elements of society or perish. Satanists support any means of returning to the order of Darwin's Natural Selection Process, this is inclusive of elimination of welfare to selective sterilization of those weaker elements. Weak elements are determined by performance and intelligence, not race or religion. So where does Satan come into all of this? Satanists believe Satan (and other gods) is not so much an entity as a force of nature. These gods are not all concerned with the life of mortals. Satan is a very powerful word that serves as an isolation between Satanists and society. It is this separation that a true Satanist appreciates and holds dear. the separation of a society where the strong and willing work for what they need and want but are forced to support the weak through welfare and charity. Satanists' know their opinions may not be politically correct, but they still obey the laws governing man on this planet and they expect the same protection under the laws as other minorities, races and religions. There are several divisions of the believe systems of various Satanic groups. Satanism has changed so much from it's original form. For instance a group that are sometimes referred to as The Dabblers adopt Satanic beliefs for a brief period of time, usually for entertainment rather than serious purposes. Many modern youths fall into this category. A Promethian Gnostic believe that the creator of the world (Jehovah) is the evil deity. They look at Satan as the bringer of life; a beneficent god. Then there is the Dark Gnostic who worships the dark force of nature. These type of groups follow a Capricious god. A Secondary Satanist would not consider themselves as being Satanic and actually should not be defined as Satanists. Hellfire Clubs were a phenomenon of the 18th century. The first of those was founded in the early 1700's. Members of a Hellfire Club were dedicated to political intrigue and some occasional occult activities. Many would be suprised to know that Benjamin Franklin was a very active member of this club. Those are just a few examples of different Satanic groups. There is one thing that all groups do agree on and that is the Satanic Bible. The Satanic Bible is a describing book by Anton LaVey, founder of the church of Satan. I hope your views of Satanism have been verified. In the end you are free to believe what you want and understand. I would like to state that this paper is not written on my personal views, opinions, or religion
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