Greek theatre
Hillside performance venue
Greek theatre refers to the dramatic tradition that originated in ancient Greece, encompassing tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays performed in open-air amphitheaters.
The term also describes the distinctive semicircular venues with tiered stone seating built into hillsides: The acoustics of Greek theatre allowed actors to project without amplification.
Modern usage sometimes evokes the theatrical conventions—masks, chorus, elevated language—that defined these performances.
- SophoclesClassical Athenian playwright
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
- dramatic ironyAudience-character knowledge gap
- DionysusGreek deity of wine
- chorusSingers performing together
masks · comedy · amphitheater · open air · theatron · hubris · polis · mythology · orchestra · skene · deus ex machina · Euripides · Aeschylus · tragic hero · Aristophanes · catharsis · prologue · ancient Athens
- Greek dramacomedy, tragedy, Dionysus, tragic hero, Sophocles
- Greek comedyAristophanes, Old Comedy, The Birds, comedic plays, Dionysian
- Calabria historyCroton, Roman conquest, Norman conquest, Spanish rule, Pythagoras
- Magna GraeciaCroton, Syracuse, Taranto, Naples, southern Italy
Greek theatremodern theatre
Recent centuries' staged performance
contemporary drama · Broadway musical · West End theatre · method acting · experimental theatre
Greek theatreblack box theatre
Minimalist, reconfigurable performance space
Victorian theatre · movie theatre · opera house · concert hall · television studio
Greek, theatre, Greeks, Grecian, theater, theaters, theatres, theatrical, theatrically