City Dionysia Festival

Throughout our flash research for our Greek drama presentations, the City Dionysia Festival really stuck out to me because so much of the origins of Greek theater began there. The festival helped cultivate the works of so many playwrights and drove them to experiment with new techniques. It motivated people to think outside of the box to create a more meaningful display of emotion and to, hopefully, earn the coveted first place prize. The competition and thrill of the event inspired so many advances in drama, such as the addition of more actors and a larger chorus. This tradition of competition and the strive for recognition has carried on and is evident through the many awards presented nowadays for advancement such as the Nobel Prize, Grammys, and Academy Awards. In addition, the festival brought so many of the most influential playwrights, such as Sophocles and Euripides, together. It's pretty cool how dramatic the influence of this one festival has had on the progression of theater over time.