Roman Theatre
By Riley Morgan and Georgia Giddens
Early Times
- Rome conquered Greece by 146 B.C.
- Romans had a great deal of time, they didn't spend time trying to make money
- They were a society that loved many forms of entertainment
- Romans enjoyed performances of short comedies or sitcoms
- Comedies were more popular than tragedies
Greeks and Romans
- Most of the surviving Roman plays were based upon plots of Greek plays
- The Roman writers did more than copy the Greek's ideas, they made some important changes in dramatic form
- They eliminated a chorus, a company of actors who comment on the action in classical Greek/Roman play, and added music to underscore the dialogue; Romans didn't limit their writers to any set of number of appearances
- A specific famous structure called a circus maximus was built to accommodate chariot races, equestrian shows, etc.
- The play write, Seneca, was closely associated with tragedy
- The play writes Plautus and Terence were closely associated with comedy
Stage Settings
- The stage setting for Roman comedies was always the same city and street regardless of play being produced
- The backdrop was a permanent stone structure known as the Scaenae Frons; the backdrop always represented the front of several houses
- The doorways represented the houses of the main characters as they entered and exited
- For tragedies the backdrop would represent a palace or temple
- Greek's didn't permit violence to be shown onstage
- The structure facing the audience was called a skene
Designs and Masks
- They had a strong sense of design which is reflected in their theater buildings
- Theatre buildings were free standing structures three stories high
- Masks played an important part in many ancient plays
- The mask was large and covered the entire head including the hair
- Design on the masks were very simple
- Made out of cheap material like linen or cork
- Large holes for the eyes and mouth
- The faces were exaggerated
- The masks could be seen from the back of the theater
- Masks helped people be heard from the back of the theater
- When preforming tragedies, masks had sad or feared expressions
- Comic performances had masks with smiling or happy looking expressions
- Plays were performed in amphitheaters
- The audience sat in a Theatron (Greek term)
- Masks were used because women weren't aloud on stage
- Masks were worn because people expected to see stock
Cited Websites
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Rome
- http://blog.oup.com/2014/05/roman-conquest-greece-slideshow/
- http://www.tribunesandtriumphs.org/roman-life/roman-masks.htm
- http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/roman-theatre-1st-century-with-the-consuls-palace-in-the-news-photo/607221653
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/9793231/Roman-era-graffiti-found-on-Colosseum.html
- Game: https://www.superteachertools.net/speedmatch/speedmatchfromj.php?gamefile=1413466890#.VwVxXpwrLcs