Essay

For the first half terms of the course we had studied Greek Theatre to learn about the structure and factors that were different from current drama performances. Furthermore we had performed ‘Oedipus’ where we had made our own interpretations on the play which had also tested our ability to adapt to a different type of genre in the drama industry. In the second term we had also read over the script was ‘Our Country’s Good’, which is another genre compared to Greek Theatre.

Background to Greek Theatre

What is Greek Theatre                                                                                                                              

In Greece, there were many religious festivals which were in need of theatres. In result, in almost every Greek City, many theatres were built in order to support these festivals.

What is the Theatre of Ancient Greece?

The Theatre of Ancient Greece was built in 700BC and is located in the City of Athens. It is a significant cultural, political and military powered theatre at this period of time and is part of a festival called Dionsysus.

What is the structure of the Theatre?

The Theatre of Ancient Greece consists of a number of buildings which are called theatrons and they were very large with open air structures on the slopes of hills. The structure of the Theatre is mainly structured in to three parts. One part is the orchestra, a large circular or rectangular area at the centre part of the theatre where plays, dancing, religious rites and acting take place. Another part of the theatre is the skene, which is used as backstage. Finally, the audience is considered to be the most important part of the theatre due to the fact that they may represent an actor as well.

Elements of Theatre of Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greek term for a mask is prosopon, in other words 'face' which was seen as a significant element in the belief of Dionsysus at Athens, which is mostly used in ceremonies and celebrations. Masks are often used when they are only a few actors in the performance. The actors are usually more than one character and are needed to use masks to portray another character. The actors in these plays that had tragic roles wore boots called cothurni that elevated them above other actors. Actors with comedic roles only wore a thin soled shoe called a sock. 

Playwrights
The Theatre of Ancient Greece had many playwrights which had provided the numerous theatres with life, such as Aeschylus. Aeschylus was born in 525 BC and died in 456 BC. The plays written consisted of The Persians (472 BC), Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), The Suppliants (463 BC), The Oresteia (458 BC) and Prometheus Bound. Within these performances consisted of different actors; one of them which were considered to be an actor was called a Chorus.

What is the Greek Chorus?

The Greek Chorus acts as thoughts aloud, fears and hidden secret, which can be portrayed through singing, dance and acting. A chorus can range in size from as little as 12 people to a mass of 50. They can be argued to be an actor in itself as it normally voices on dramatic action. In addition, they can be also be considered as the audience of the play due to the fact that there are reacting to anything significant event that occurs within the performance.

Masks

In Greek performances, masks are often use for particular purposes. One is that actors may have had to learn more than one character role, masks would have been a beneficial factor and in result we knew that we had to portray each of our characters well as some of us played the same characters. Furthermore we did not have masks so we had to ensure that the people in our class with the same characters had to portray the characters consistently to make their character more convincing to the audience that although it was a different person being the character, the personality of that character must be the same.

Themes in Greek Theatre

With the play we had been given to explore and perform, during the process of rehearsal, we had to make our interpretations on the type of performances that may have taken part back in Ancient Greek. For example, due to the monologue I had to learn as the chorus myself, the main theme of it was love and relationship, especially between Haemon and Creon. Throughout the scene I had taken part in was a feud between them and it revealed the rigidness in the relationship between father and son. In addition, this may also suggest that the closest people that take care of you may also be the ones that hurt you the most; this is shown in the scene where there is an argument between Oedipus and Creon where Oedipus calls him a traitor. Another clear theme of Greek plays which is shown in this scene as well is death and tragedy due to the fact that someone had been murdered at three cross roads.

Additional themes that can be suggested is identity as Oedipus did not know who he really was as he was told that he was found as a bay in Kithairon by shepherds and was raised by King Polybus and Queen Merope in the City of Corinth.

Our Country’s Good

For our second main production for what we had to explore the techniques of Stanislavski, we had to perform Our Country’s Good. Written in 1988 play by Timberlake Wertenbaker which was also later adapted to a novel called the Playmaker by Thomas Kenally.

The play shows the different classes between people back in the 1780's. It also arises various themes such as sexuality and punishment. My part was Captain Arthur Phillip who is considered to be intellectual, understanding and authoritative who has an obvious patience and understanding towards the convicts, especially Liz Morden.

With my group, we had been asked to discuss the objectives of our character with a brief read through of the scene. So far I had understood that Ralph, who in this scene wants to stop the play, however my character wants to convince him to go ahead. Ralph's objective is to discuss reasons why he wants to go ahead with stopping the play. We had then been asked to label every line with a particular action or emotion that would make that line unique to every other line. For example, when I say 'Are you afraid?’, then we had made the interpretation of the line is imitating the joker.

After seeing all of the different scenes and the other group’s interpretation of the text, I had come up with information about my character based on what others said about them. In result this gave me a clearer understanding on what my character may be off stage and what he does clearly has an impact on other scenes. From Stanislavski’s theory, this case clearly portrays that my objectives change as the scenes progress. However, although I am only acting in the last scene, the way others portray him as, I need to successfully sustain their interpretations of him in mine as well as my own.

Themes in Our Country’s Good

Humanity plays a big part as a theme in this play as it personally affects my characters thoughts, feeling and emotions towards convicts. This means that he has a belief that convicts have the ability to change, although having what they have done to result being a convict, they can still change. Between the animal is a human with feeling, thoughts and emotions as everyone else, everyone is equal. Another of Stanislavski’s techniques, Emotional Memory, I can closely relate to this as a personal opinion or view of mine is that I see everyone as equal and this plays a key role in making putting a part of me in Captain Phillip. This results in a more convincing character due to my character development and understanding of his views that may correlate with mine.

In the play is a play put together by Lieutenant Clarke and Second Lieutenant Ralph where the play offers a view of life through symbolic events, and how each of the different types of people presented. For example it can relate to us actors, that each of us take on a new ‘perspective’ by impersonating something we read in a script, using our own interpretations to portray our ideas extracted from the text we have been given. In other words it is almost like an illusion we created after the image society defined as being “perfect” in the eyes of the generation. In the play each of the cast members receive a portraying a part of their personality through their given character, that when combined will create harmony between the role and actor, and the ‘perfection’ of blending the two together, even if done for a few scenes.