Theater. Ruins and Recreations

The Greek Stage
According to tradition, the first tragedian, Thespis, performed his plays on wagons with which he travelled, and seats were set up for performances in the agora or market place of Athens. By the end of the sixth century BC, however, a permanent theatron of ‘watching place’, was set up in the precinct of Dionysuson the south slope of the Athenian Acropolis. Since at first any construction above ground was made of wood, and since the theatre was later rebuilt many times, the surviving remains of this earliest Theatre of Dionysus are extremely scanty. It has therefore to be reconstructed on the analogy of other Greek theatres and on the evidence of the plays performed there. The only features which necessarily existed in the early fifth century are wooden seats for spectators on the hillside, and a level earth-floored orchestra, or ‘dancing area’ in the centre. The orchestra is usually believed to have been circular, like a threshing floor. The orchestra at Epidaurus, for example, has a diameter of just over 20 metres. If the spot chosen necessitated another shape, it could be rectangular like that at Thoricus.

Most of the surviving plays also make use of a building, the skene or scene building. This was used as a changing-room for actors and as a sounding board, but also served to represent the palace or house in front of which most plays are set. At first, it must have been a temporary building re-erected each year (skene means merely ‘tent’ or ‘hut’). The number of doors in its facade is disputed; most tragedies require only one, but it most likely that there were in fact three. Actors and chorus could enter by paths, called parodoi or eisodoi, to the right and left of the skene. Chiefly they made these entrances on horse-drawn chariots. The roof of the building could be used as an acting area, for watchmen, gods and others. There is some oblique suggestion in two texts of the period that permanent screens with architectural images were used, not ‘sets’ for specific plays, but permanent fixtures. It is conceivable, too, that there was some rather underground passage, allowing ghosts to appear from below.

There have been many disputes as to the existence of a stage (logeion) in front of the skene, raising the actors above the orchestra where the Chorus performed. The evidence is sparse, but is probable that this stage existed, although it will not have been so high as to prevent easy interaction between actors and Chorus. Other features of the orchestra were a central altar several images of gods, which could be noticed in the plays, when required.

(fromThe Ancient Greek Theater Page)

the theater of Dionysos (recreation)