Another stimulus material was the use of masks. My class was put in pairs and in pairs we were asked to choose two masks (both expressing different emotions) and improvise a scene. Mask were used at the time of ancient Greece, they were mainly used for visual aid, because the theatres in ancient Greece were very large the people at the back can not see very well so the use of masks were used to exaggerate their emotion.
I thought that using masks was a different experience because my facial expression did not change on the account of the mask so I had to make sure that my body gestures would co-operate with my mask. For example I would have a mask on that expresses anger, but yet I would jump and ship around without a care in the world. The body played a big part in Greek theatre because people at the back of the theatre may not be able to see the mask so large body gestures were used to express what they are feeling. The exercise was very interesting because you had to find a way to make the emotion of the mask you are using work effectively with your partner’s masks emotion.
The Greek theatre or Greek drama is a theatrical tradition that became much more popular in 550 and 220 BC. Athens was the center of ancient Greek theatre. Tragedy, comedy and satyr plays were some of the earliest genres of plays to come from the Greek world.
Western theatre has developed over the years to mainly have no comparison to Greek theatre, but Western theatre was founded by Greek theatre and some modern plays still use some of Greek theatre’s techniques. It was mainly a state festival to honor the god Dionysus, but then grew out of popularity. The Athenian city then exported this festival to many neighboring countries to give Greece a common name for its self.
Another section of Greek theatre that has I big impact on the audience is the Chorus. The Chorus is very unique to the whole idea of Greek theatre; the Chorus is usually consisted of 5-8 men
Which would through out the play would give a brief explanation to what was go in the storyline and give an unbiased opinion to what was going on, to soon later to become a narrative in modern day drama. The Chorus is unique to Greek theatre because of the explanation what is happening is spoken rhythmically.
I think while I studied Greek theatre I gained a lot, in how the Greeks composed their plays, how the events at the time influenced the content of their plays, why Greek theatre was so popular at the time. I have also learnt that the use of Chorus and masks can have a huge effect on the audience if used correctly.
For the audience to see one side of a storyline and then have the Chorus express an unbiased out look on the play can completely change the audiences out look on the play. This can cause the audience to feel empathy or to look on current issues in society, which I think, is a very powerful tool. Using techniques such as these can give the play more a complex storyline which can cause the audience to look at the play in a different way.
As an actor myself, I can say that when creating, writing or acting in a play using these techniques can be quite difficult and frustrating, but when used correctly I notice a different reaction from the audience. Using masks is very useful; it directly shows a character emotion which can portray the characters feelings about a certain situation and who the character is in terms of the storyline. Prop manipulation has helped me quite a bit and has given me the chance to display different objects in different ways which is also useful because I know that I should not restrict myself to using the exact object.
Greek theatre has many differences to modern day theatre.
Modern day theatre plays are most likely about some ones or a group of people’s lives during a certain situation in their lives or a certain occurrence situation in society, and the plays are trying to put a message across to the audience, while being as politically accurate as possible. You could say that Greek theatre is different but that would only be for the use of different techniques. The Greek tragedy is less realistic than modern day theatre, but this was the way the Greeks questioned issues in society at the time, so I some ways they are quite similar.
For a performance we were asked to perform an extract from the Greek play “Antigone” by Sophocles with a partner in the form of a duologue. The scene was stared the new king Creaon and his niece Antigone, who had broken his law and was sentenced to death. Creaon was questioning why she was disobeyed his orders. No props were used for our performance. The techniques that were used were Freeze Frame, Vocal expression, Thought tracking and Monologues.
