Who invented theater

There are those, such as various historians and also Aristotle, the Ancient Greek philosopher, who believe that theater has its roots in the Ancient Greek religion.

It is here that many believe the idea of the theater blossomed. Since witnessing religious ceremonies was a normal part of their worship, it appears as if the progression into formalized theater was fairly natural. In fact, Greek mythology regularly made its way into the plays that were written. Most historians trace the formal development of theater to the city-state of Athens. It is largely thought that the Ancient Athenians had a flair for drama that extended into things like religious ceremonies, weddings, funerals, and more.

Over time, people began creating plays that were to be performed at theaters. They were written down so that the performance could be repeated over and over again. It took major strides across hundreds of years for theater to become what it is today. The First Actor Live theater began with a man and his love for stories. Some believe he was also a priest for the Greek god of food and wine, Dionysus. Actors also had to make their performances memorable, with most plays only performed once.

According to a Greek chronicle of the 3rd century BC, Thespis is also the first winner of a theatrical award. He takes the prize in the first competition for tragedy, held in Athens in BC.

Theatrical contests become a regular feature of the annual festival in honour of Dionysus, held over four days each spring and known as the City Dionysia. Four authors are chosen to compete. Each must write three tragedies and one satyr play a lascivious farce, featuring the sexually rampant satyrs, half-man and half-animal, who form the retinue of Dionysus.

The performance of the plays by each author takes a full day, in front of a large number of citizens in holiday mood, seated on the slope of an Athenian hillside. The main feature of the stage is a circular space on which the chorus dance and sing. Behind it a temporary wooden structure makes possible a suggestion of scenery. At the end of the festival a winner is chosen. The Greek tragedians: 5th century BC. Only a small number of tragedies survive as full texts from the annual competitions in Athens, but they include work by three dramatists of genius.

The earliest is the heavyweight of the trio, Aeschylus. Aeschylus adds a second actor, increasing the potential for drama. He first wins the prize for tragedy in BC. He is known to have written about eighty plays, of which only seven survive.

One of his innovations is to write the day's three tragedies on a single theme, as a trilogy. By good fortune three of his seven plays are one such trilogy, which remains one of the theatre's great masterpieces - the Oresteia , celebrating the achievement of Athens in replacing the chaos of earlier times with the rule of law. Sophocles gains his first victory in BC, defeating Aeschylus. He is credited with adding a third actor, further extending the dramatic possibilities of a scene.

Whereas Aeschylus tends to deal with great public themes, the tragic dilemmas in Sophocles are worked out at a more personal level. Plots become more complex, characterization more subtle, and the personal interaction between characters more central to the drama. Although Sophocles in a very long life writes more plays than Aeschylus perhaps about , again only seven survive intact. Of these Oedipus the King is generally considered to be his masterpiece.

The youngest of the three great Greek tragedians is Euripides. More of his plays survive 19 as opposed to 7 for each of the others , but he has fewer victories than his rivals in the City Dionysia - in which he first competes in BC. Euripides introduces a more unconventional view of Greek myth, seeing it from new angles or viewing mythological characters in terms of their human frailties.