Characteristics of the buildings
The Ancient Theatre of
Delphi.
The plays had a chorus from 12 to 15
[10]
people, who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music,
beginning in the morning and lasting until the evening. The performance
space was a simple circular space, the
orchestra, where the
chorus danced and sang. The orchestra, which had an average diameter of
78 feet, was situated on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the
slope of which produced a natural
theatron, literally "watching
place". Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area
of theatron, orchestra, and skené. The
coryphaeus was the head chorus member who could enter the story as a character able to interact with the characters of a play.
The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to
accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large
number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Mathematics
played a large role in the construction of these theatres, as their
designers had to be able to create
acoustics
in them such that the actors' voices could be heard throughout the
theatre, including the very top row of seats. The Greeks' understanding
of acoustics compares very favourably with the current state of the art.
The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the
ground) were wooden, but around 499 BC the practice of inlaying stone
blocks into the side of the hill to create permanent, stable seating
became more common. They were called the "prohedria" and reserved for
priests and a few most respected citizens.
In 465 BC, the playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall,
which hung or stood behind the orchestra, which also served as an area
where actors could change their costumes. It was known as the
skênê (from which the word "
scene" derives). The death of a character was always heard behind the
skênê, for it was considered inappropriate to show a killing in view of the audience.
[citation needed]
Though there is scholarly argument that death in Greek tragedy was
portrayed off stage primarily because of dramatic considerations, and
not prudishness or sensitivity of the audience.
[11] In 425 BC a stone scene wall, called a paraskenia, became a common supplement to
skênê
in the theatres. A paraskenia was a long wall with projecting sides,
which may have had doorways for entrances and exits. Just behind the
paraskenia was the proskenion. The proskenion ("in front of the scene")
was beautiful, and was similar to the modern day
proscenium.
Greek theatres also had tall arched entrances called
parodoi or
eisodoi,
through which actors and chorus members entered and exited the
orchestra. By the end of the 5th century BC, around the time of the
Peloponnesian War, the
skênê, the back wall, was two stories
high. The upper story was called the episkenion. Some theatres also had a
raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.
Kolum, literally “putting on a character,” is a masked folk drama
with chanted poetry, dialogue, song and dance. Dancers wear imaginative
and outrageous masks, some of an enormous size, representing gods,
demons and mythical creatures of Sinhalese folklore. The Kolam is
essentially a burlesque of life in the simple setting of a village.
Performances occur at night under the light of coconut torches in a
circular space, usually with a structure of palm leaves erected on one
side to serve both as a backdrop and as a dramatic entrance. A narrator
and two drummers stand by the side of the entrance.
