Friday, September 23, 2016

Greek Drama

After researching on the topic of Greek drama and its history, I think it's interesting how much of the theater world today evolved from those early Greek plays. Many plays took place in an amphitheater which are still found around today for theater performances. In addition, Greek tragedies seemed to be the most popular play genre and consisted of many tragic tales of love, mistaken identity, etc. Many of these themes are similar to those preformed today and still keeps the audience engaged despite the idea of such a story coming from many centuries beforehand. I find it interesting that the greeks popularized such a magnificent form of art that it is still present in current day.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with Rickeia and think it's very interesting that many of the most popular and renowned plays are the ones that originated from Ancient Greek drama. In my research, I was able to uncover the meaning behind why people sometimes call the performing arts groups "thespians" because of the first Greek actor, Thespis. Also, I really like how the Greeks seemed to depict cultural issues in their plays whether that be in tragedies, comedies, or satires that ultimately critiqued their society. I also enjoy the connection to mythology in Greek drama and how the Greeks initially used plays as a way to honor the gods (Dionysus). I think decoding the meaning behind these plays helps give insight in the mindset of these Ancient Greek writers and the reasons why they wrote what they did.

Unknown said...

The evolution of Greek plays is definitely an intriguing and crucial topic. Playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus, and Aristophanes paved the way for modern plays and other works like nothing else had ever done. I believe this is because the time period of this play was one of the first times that a large amount of works survived throughout time. Therefore, writers have been using these ancient plays as models for their own works for centuries. The longevity of these major themes really demonstrates how attractive and engaging the plays of ancient Greece were. Playwrights such ashort the four mentioned above successfully experimented to make their plaus stand out from the norm and last the test of time.

Unknown said...

I agree that Greek drama still has a huge impact on modern art. However, one difference is the chorus. Aristotle said that the Chorus is hugely important. In modern time it is very rare to see a chorus. Most often it is an orchestra.