Greek Theatre Performance An Introduction [Hardcover]

Specially written for students and enthusiasts, David Wiles introduces ancient Greek theatre and cultural life.David Wiles introduces ancient Greek theatre to students and enthusiasts interested in knowing how the plays were performed. The book examines how the actor used the resources of story-telling, dance, mask, song and visual action to create large-scale events in Athenian cultural life. The book assumes no prior knowledge of the ancient world, and is written for those who want to know how the plays were performed, what they meant in their original social context, and what can be learned from and achieved by performances of Greek plays today.David Wiles introduces ancient Greek theatre to students and enthusiasts interested in knowing how the plays were performed. The book examines how the actor used the resources of story-telling, dance, mask, song and visual action to create large-scale events in Athenian cultural life. The book assumes no prior knowledge of the ancient world, and is written for those who want to know how the plays were performed, what they meant in their original social context, and what can be learned from and achieved by performances of Greek plays today.In this book, David Wiles introduces ancient Greek theater to students and enthusiasts interested in knowing how the plays were performed. Theater was a ceremony bound up with fundamental activities in ancient Athenian life and Wiles explores those elements that created the theater of the time. Actors rather than writers are the book's main concern and Wiles examines how the actor used the resources of story-telling, dance, mask, song and visual action to create a large-scale event that would shape the life of the citizen community.1. Myth; 2. Ritual; 3. Politics; 4. Gender; 5. Space; 6. The performer; 7. The writer; 8. Reception; Notes; Further reading; Chronology. In the last decade David Wiles has published two brilliant studies on ancient drama in performance: The Masks of Menander (ClS(