Acting was a total shocking novelty to the Greeks. The idea of becoming another character was just downright odd to them, capturing another identity. One actor was once asked if he was “ashamed to tell such lies in the presence of so many”, and you can imagine Mathesar from Galaxy Quest being the one to do it. I'm not sure if any of us can understand the downright creepiness of it, used as we are.
Its roots were probably in the live performance of epic poetry, which despite lacking the visual dimension of plays, would involve the poets putting on fake voices for their characters. And indeed, though I am getting ahead of myself here, when Greek drama took off it was still about the voice.
Athens quickly capitalised on drama, turning it into a civic thing. Contrast, say, with Elizabethan England who quickly exiled it across the river and went aaaaah danger acting!. For Athens, it was an inextricable part of religious life and civic calendar, as part of the ritual of Dionysus. The theatre was close to the Acropolis.
Today's chief aim: learn to spell Dionysus. It can be done. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out that reservoir had an "r" in the middle - I guess I just got to a point where I was using the word a lot. Hmmm, funny that.
So the chief play-performing event was the City or Great Dionysia, – massive international civil affair, public holiday and spring festival in Attic month of Elaphebolion (end Mar)– in honour of Dionysus Eleuthereus. The second most important festival after the Panatheneia. It was controlled from the top, organized through the city, and had a definite whiff of promoting ideology.
The Eponymous archon - there were three archons in Athens, and this one was the one who gave his "onema", name, to the year - ran the festival. A little fake-fan-canon, but considering it's other Greek debts, I bet Gallifrey has Archons.
Plays were not allowed to be performed independantly, so the archon's first task was to pick 3 tragic, and later 5 comic, poets. His second task: finance the performance, via wealthy citizens. This was particularly handy for funding the chorus of 13-15 members who mediate between audience and actors. This wealthy citizen was known as the Choregos, and his task was seen as a public duty. If the play won, he collected the prize along with the playwrite.
Immediately before the plays, ceremonies would take place. A libation would be poured by 10 generals and 10 of the most important archons - incedentally, libation is one of my least favourite words. A herald would announce the names of citizens who had benefited the polis, encouraging onlookers to do the same. Then would be the parade of young men orphaned by war as they came of age, wearing full hoplite armour. Taking care of heroes, honouring the dutiful, showing off military might: the works. Finally, in the theatre, there would be a display in the theatre that Athens' allies were paying to the Delian league. Day 1 included a huge procession on, complete with costume, model phalluses, bulls sacrifice, meat feast, the works.
Minor acting festivals included the Rural or Lesser Dionysia or Dionysia in the fields, and The Lenaea in the Attic month of Gamelion (late Jan). This had a more subdued international presence, probably due to bad sailing. Drama can mock the city, thus there tended to be more comedy. Aristophanes claimed in Acharnians, that Cleon had claimed he was slandering the city by jokes at the previous Dionysia.
Initially, all involvement had to be Athenian citizens – actors, creators etc. At the same time, plays were being repeated outside the City Dionysia: not everyone could make it to the centre.
Popular plays thus went on tour. The Ancient Greek equivalent of Deadheads would follow their favourite actors, poets and plays across the country. Sometimes new plays, not just reruns, would be performed outside the city. Competition is so fierce for the main festival, that naturally not everyone would be able to get in.
Thus it expanded from the purely civic. Hieron of Siracuse in Sicily started hankering for drama, and attracted poets to his court, including Aeschylus, who reperformed his Persae. Women of Aetna was written for him, not an Athenian audience or cause. Large theatres have been found in 5th Century Sicily, along with vase paintings of actors/masks from the same place and time. Increasingly, great actors spilled in from Italy and Sicily.There was universal respect for plays – Plutarch recalls that Euripides was so much in demand that captives were released who could recite a verse. That's probably bull, but the idea that it could be plausible is what is important.
I've a brilliant quote from Plato about how things were run there, in which he argues:
Oh yes, Plato would have loathed Britain's Got Talent...
Dramatists and actors
In 5th Century Athens, the poet was not so much script author as producer – their name came not graphein, to wriote, but poein, to make. Writing a play wasn't so much about putting it on paper, as crafting the whole live performance.
So imagine the roots of Athenian drama resembling our rendition of Fellowship of the Ring. The poet taught actors, composed music, devised choreography, oversaw masks and props. Furthermore, they were also initially the principle performer. Soon a second, then third actor were added: all Greek plays can be played by this many, ignoring the chorus.
So the poet had full control, but this gradually lessened. As the focus on acting increased, so the content became less important. Much of this module is shocking in it's modernity, so cast your mind to any of your favourite films: who plays the main character? Right, now who wrote the script? If you can't tell me, then you'll understand exactly the problem that Greek poets started to have. There is evidence too that, like modern scriptwriters, poets did write for specific actors - but this changed in mid 5th Century as the Archon started allocating actors by lot.
And then there was the introduction of the acting awards, the nail in the coffin for the Poet-producer. Thus was the beginning of the professional actor. Actors could still win an award for a losing play, so poet and actor are no longer so dependant on one another. It was a big difference from the one-man show of the past. You can imagine there were arguments, as gradually actors came to control the show. Actors became responsible for re-runs outside of the city, financing them and all. They didn't need to reply on contemporary poets, when they could repeat old roles and build up a repetoire. Actors started to specialise - Hugh Grant, here are your predecessors! Look at Timotheus of Zacynthos, who was known as "The Slayer" for his performance of Ajax. Um, hello "The Duke" or "Man of a Thousand Faces"? This was exacerbated by the diversification of tragedy. Soon, actors would perform a short monologue or song at banquets, allowing them to have special repetoires and take requests. The singer Neoptolemus was asked at a banquet by king Philip to do something relevant to the campaign against the Persians, and chose something which apparently belittled them.
Performance!
Actors themselves have a problem of sources - we obviously cannot analyse their performances. Certainly, if you read written accounts, their aims appear to be very similar to those of modern actors. The aim of any classical actor was to get his audiences in tears, as attested by many sources. There's a cute story about the tyrant Alexander of Pherae sending Theodorus a message after his performance of The Women of Troy, apologising for departing half way through - but he was a great leader, who had never felt remorse for his actions, and did not wish to be seen weeping before his people.
This highly emotional style evolved into the first method actors! A story of the actor Polus claims that when he played Electra, he let rip with his genuine grief for his dead son, and carried his ashes in the scene where Electra carries her brother's remains. Again, maybe not true, but it must have been plausible to its readers.
Other acting requirements are doubtless familiar to you - Lucian complains about actors playing Creon whose voice is too humble for Hecuba, and criticises others for portraying Hercules so effeminately that he wonders whether Hercules would smash him to pieces! Because Greek drama was masked, there was naturally a greater emphasis on the voice than today. They were also up for verisimilitude, and praised actors for being true to life: "attempting to persiuade the audience in the theatre not that he is in the process of imitating others, but that he really is by nature the object of his imitation" as Choricius puts it.
Not everyone thought this was so good an idea - Mynniskos referred to Callipides as "an ape" on account of his over-acting, and indeed Callipides appears to have got a lot of rap for being too realistic in portraying lower class women, at which point I can't help but think Terry Jones of Monty Python. Aristophanes, cattily, remarks "like Callipides, I am sitting upon the floor sweepings"
Furthermore, as acting was a relatively new creature, the ancient Greeks tended to worry about the barrier between reality and imitation of such collapsing. So what's changed. Lucian recites the story of an actor playing Ajax who was so raving mad in his madness, that he appeared to be genuinely mad, almost killing Odysseus in the process.
In all these things, the most striking thing is how modern all these aspects are, and the cash is no different: Greek actors were rolling in it. As an example, when the Temple of Apollo was being rebuilt, Theodorus the actor contributed 70 drachmas - no other private contribution exceeds 15. In all, little different from today: rich, iconic and recognisable catagory independant from poets. They were so revered they took on the job of ambassadors - think Cloony'n'Jolie trying to save the world with their names.
The formation of the guild Artists of Dyonisis made things even cushier, negotiating rare rights for members. This included freedom of travel, and from imprisonment, exemption from taxes and military service and front seats at spectacles.
As Nostradamus, via Al Stewart, puts it "the more it changes, the more it stays the same". Stay tuned for more revision-blogs soon. But I'm off to do Latin instead now.
Its roots were probably in the live performance of epic poetry, which despite lacking the visual dimension of plays, would involve the poets putting on fake voices for their characters. And indeed, though I am getting ahead of myself here, when Greek drama took off it was still about the voice.
Athens quickly capitalised on drama, turning it into a civic thing. Contrast, say, with Elizabethan England who quickly exiled it across the river and went aaaaah danger acting!. For Athens, it was an inextricable part of religious life and civic calendar, as part of the ritual of Dionysus. The theatre was close to the Acropolis.
Today's chief aim: learn to spell Dionysus. It can be done. You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out that reservoir had an "r" in the middle - I guess I just got to a point where I was using the word a lot. Hmmm, funny that.
So the chief play-performing event was the City or Great Dionysia, – massive international civil affair, public holiday and spring festival in Attic month of Elaphebolion (end Mar)– in honour of Dionysus Eleuthereus. The second most important festival after the Panatheneia. It was controlled from the top, organized through the city, and had a definite whiff of promoting ideology.
The Eponymous archon - there were three archons in Athens, and this one was the one who gave his "onema", name, to the year - ran the festival. A little fake-fan-canon, but considering it's other Greek debts, I bet Gallifrey has Archons.
Plays were not allowed to be performed independantly, so the archon's first task was to pick 3 tragic, and later 5 comic, poets. His second task: finance the performance, via wealthy citizens. This was particularly handy for funding the chorus of 13-15 members who mediate between audience and actors. This wealthy citizen was known as the Choregos, and his task was seen as a public duty. If the play won, he collected the prize along with the playwrite.
Immediately before the plays, ceremonies would take place. A libation would be poured by 10 generals and 10 of the most important archons - incedentally, libation is one of my least favourite words. A herald would announce the names of citizens who had benefited the polis, encouraging onlookers to do the same. Then would be the parade of young men orphaned by war as they came of age, wearing full hoplite armour. Taking care of heroes, honouring the dutiful, showing off military might: the works. Finally, in the theatre, there would be a display in the theatre that Athens' allies were paying to the Delian league. Day 1 included a huge procession on, complete with costume, model phalluses, bulls sacrifice, meat feast, the works.
Minor acting festivals included the Rural or Lesser Dionysia or Dionysia in the fields, and The Lenaea in the Attic month of Gamelion (late Jan). This had a more subdued international presence, probably due to bad sailing. Drama can mock the city, thus there tended to be more comedy. Aristophanes claimed in Acharnians, that Cleon had claimed he was slandering the city by jokes at the previous Dionysia.
Initially, all involvement had to be Athenian citizens – actors, creators etc. At the same time, plays were being repeated outside the City Dionysia: not everyone could make it to the centre.
Popular plays thus went on tour. The Ancient Greek equivalent of Deadheads would follow their favourite actors, poets and plays across the country. Sometimes new plays, not just reruns, would be performed outside the city. Competition is so fierce for the main festival, that naturally not everyone would be able to get in.
Thus it expanded from the purely civic. Hieron of Siracuse in Sicily started hankering for drama, and attracted poets to his court, including Aeschylus, who reperformed his Persae. Women of Aetna was written for him, not an Athenian audience or cause. Large theatres have been found in 5th Century Sicily, along with vase paintings of actors/masks from the same place and time. Increasingly, great actors spilled in from Italy and Sicily.There was universal respect for plays – Plutarch recalls that Euripides was so much in demand that captives were released who could recite a verse. That's probably bull, but the idea that it could be plausible is what is important.
I've a brilliant quote from Plato about how things were run there, in which he argues:
"true judge must not learn from the audience, and be thrown off his balance
by the noise of the multitude...the present practice of handing over to the mass
of spectators and deciding the winner by a show of hands has corrupted the
poets, because they regard the vulgar pleasures of their judges as a standard
and let the audience be their teachers. It has also corrupted the audience's own
pleasures".
Oh yes, Plato would have loathed Britain's Got Talent...
Dramatists and actors
In 5th Century Athens, the poet was not so much script author as producer – their name came not graphein, to wriote, but poein, to make. Writing a play wasn't so much about putting it on paper, as crafting the whole live performance.
So imagine the roots of Athenian drama resembling our rendition of Fellowship of the Ring. The poet taught actors, composed music, devised choreography, oversaw masks and props. Furthermore, they were also initially the principle performer. Soon a second, then third actor were added: all Greek plays can be played by this many, ignoring the chorus.
So the poet had full control, but this gradually lessened. As the focus on acting increased, so the content became less important. Much of this module is shocking in it's modernity, so cast your mind to any of your favourite films: who plays the main character? Right, now who wrote the script? If you can't tell me, then you'll understand exactly the problem that Greek poets started to have. There is evidence too that, like modern scriptwriters, poets did write for specific actors - but this changed in mid 5th Century as the Archon started allocating actors by lot.
And then there was the introduction of the acting awards, the nail in the coffin for the Poet-producer. Thus was the beginning of the professional actor. Actors could still win an award for a losing play, so poet and actor are no longer so dependant on one another. It was a big difference from the one-man show of the past. You can imagine there were arguments, as gradually actors came to control the show. Actors became responsible for re-runs outside of the city, financing them and all. They didn't need to reply on contemporary poets, when they could repeat old roles and build up a repetoire. Actors started to specialise - Hugh Grant, here are your predecessors! Look at Timotheus of Zacynthos, who was known as "The Slayer" for his performance of Ajax. Um, hello "The Duke" or "Man of a Thousand Faces"? This was exacerbated by the diversification of tragedy. Soon, actors would perform a short monologue or song at banquets, allowing them to have special repetoires and take requests. The singer Neoptolemus was asked at a banquet by king Philip to do something relevant to the campaign against the Persians, and chose something which apparently belittled them.
Performance!
Actors themselves have a problem of sources - we obviously cannot analyse their performances. Certainly, if you read written accounts, their aims appear to be very similar to those of modern actors. The aim of any classical actor was to get his audiences in tears, as attested by many sources. There's a cute story about the tyrant Alexander of Pherae sending Theodorus a message after his performance of The Women of Troy, apologising for departing half way through - but he was a great leader, who had never felt remorse for his actions, and did not wish to be seen weeping before his people.
This highly emotional style evolved into the first method actors! A story of the actor Polus claims that when he played Electra, he let rip with his genuine grief for his dead son, and carried his ashes in the scene where Electra carries her brother's remains. Again, maybe not true, but it must have been plausible to its readers.
Other acting requirements are doubtless familiar to you - Lucian complains about actors playing Creon whose voice is too humble for Hecuba, and criticises others for portraying Hercules so effeminately that he wonders whether Hercules would smash him to pieces! Because Greek drama was masked, there was naturally a greater emphasis on the voice than today. They were also up for verisimilitude, and praised actors for being true to life: "attempting to persiuade the audience in the theatre not that he is in the process of imitating others, but that he really is by nature the object of his imitation" as Choricius puts it.
Not everyone thought this was so good an idea - Mynniskos referred to Callipides as "an ape" on account of his over-acting, and indeed Callipides appears to have got a lot of rap for being too realistic in portraying lower class women, at which point I can't help but think Terry Jones of Monty Python. Aristophanes, cattily, remarks "like Callipides, I am sitting upon the floor sweepings"
Furthermore, as acting was a relatively new creature, the ancient Greeks tended to worry about the barrier between reality and imitation of such collapsing. So what's changed. Lucian recites the story of an actor playing Ajax who was so raving mad in his madness, that he appeared to be genuinely mad, almost killing Odysseus in the process.
In all these things, the most striking thing is how modern all these aspects are, and the cash is no different: Greek actors were rolling in it. As an example, when the Temple of Apollo was being rebuilt, Theodorus the actor contributed 70 drachmas - no other private contribution exceeds 15. In all, little different from today: rich, iconic and recognisable catagory independant from poets. They were so revered they took on the job of ambassadors - think Cloony'n'Jolie trying to save the world with their names.
The formation of the guild Artists of Dyonisis made things even cushier, negotiating rare rights for members. This included freedom of travel, and from imprisonment, exemption from taxes and military service and front seats at spectacles.
As Nostradamus, via Al Stewart, puts it "the more it changes, the more it stays the same". Stay tuned for more revision-blogs soon. But I'm off to do Latin instead now.
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