Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction

by David Wiles

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.

Genres: Theatre, Nonfiction, History

243 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2000

Reviews

[Phillip]

This is a pretty comprehensive and very readable intro to Greek theatre. Wiles gives a lot of info about different aspects of how the plays worked in ancient Greece and how they are received today or in relatively recent history. The big focus seems to be on the original context of production, which is super useful for both classicists, literature people, and theatre artists to understand because the Greeks' background, context, and artistic influences/constraints tell us a lot about why these plays are written the way they are and what how we should understand them from the perspective of the Greeks.

[Heidi]

Kirjoittajan näkökulma on antiikin Kreikan teatterissa ja sen esittämisessä. Teatteritieteellinen kokonaisuus, jossa käsitellään mm. myyttiä, rituaalia ja politiikka (kontekstia) ja itse esityksien toteutusta kuten: esitystila, esiintyjät plus kirjoittajia ja antiikin teatterin myöhempää ”vastaanottoa” eli antiikkia myöhempiä prodiktioita. Akateeminen, informatiivinen.