Living Theatre

Living Theatre

Question 1

Most actors and actresses in ancient Greek tragedies depended on costumes that are elaborate to distinguish them from each other. Each costume depicts the nature of the deity’s character. In addition, they provide specific details on the part they were playing. For example, the Greek deity was represented by various costumes that like large face masks. Large masks were mainly employed to depict a god and the part was mainly played by a large performer. In addition, the actors that played the part of the deity normally wore the chiton going down to their ankles. For instance, the costumes of the patron god Dionysus were more elaborate in style and formed from robes that were saffron colored. Traditionally, in ancient Greek tragedies, male actors mostly played the part of female characters(Wilson& Goldfab 32). Their costumes mostly emphasized the illusion that they were women to their audience. Actors playing high rank goddesses wore robes that were wither golden or purple in color.

Question 2

Most old comedies were either personal or political satires. For instance, Aristophanes is the only surviving plays that exist in this time. These works had a lot of scatological and sexual insinuation (Wilson& Goldfab 45). Furthermore, political satire that is very strong. Both old and new comedies are the periods that Athenian comedy occurred. New comedies are mostly known for their Menander papyrus fragments that are substantial. The New comedy was able to last in the entire reign of the rulers of Macedonia and ended about 260 BC. It is mostly similar to the comedy of manners or situation comedy. Unlike the old comedy, this new type of comedy commenced immediately after the Alexander the Great in 323 BC up to 260 BC. The three most successful play writes of this period were Diphilus, Philemon and Menander. The New comedy was greatly influenced by literature from the Western world mainly Plautus.