Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor
Greek Tragedy and the Contemporary Actor

Author: Zachary Dunbar

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-11-11

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 3319954717

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This book offers a provocative and groundbreaking re-appraisal of the demands of acting ancient tragedy, informed by cutting-edge scholarship in the fields of actor training, theatre history, and classical reception. Its interdisciplinary reach means that it is uniquely positioned to identify, interrogate, and de-mystify the clichés which cluster around Greek tragedy, giving acting students, teachers, and theatre-makers the chance to access a vital range of current debates, and modelling ways in which an enhanced understanding of this material can serve as the stimulus for new experiments in the studio or rehearsal room. Two theoretical chapters contend that Aristotelian readings of tragedy, especially when combined with elements of Stanislavski’s (early) actor-training practice, can actually prevent actors from interacting productively with ancient plays and practices. The four chapters which follow (Acting Sound, Acting Myth, Acting Space, and Acting Chorus) examine specific challenges in detail, combining historical summaries with a survey of key modern practitioners, and a sequence of practical exercises.

Objects as Actors
Objects as Actors

Author: Melissa Mueller

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-01-13

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 022631300X

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Objects as Actors charts a new approach to Greek tragedy based on an obvious, yet often overlooked, fact: Greek tragedy was meant to be performed. As plays, the works were incomplete without physical items—theatrical props. In this book, Melissa Mueller ingeniously demonstrates the importance of objects in the staging and reception of Athenian tragedy. As Mueller shows, props such as weapons, textiles, and even letters were often fully integrated into a play’s action. They could provoke surprising plot turns, elicit bold viewer reactions, and provide some of tragedy’s most thrilling moments. Whether the sword of Sophocles’s Ajax, the tapestry in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon, or the tablet of Euripides’s Hippolytus, props demanded attention as a means of uniting—or disrupting—time, space, and genre. Insightful and original, Objects as Actors offers a fresh perspective on the central tragic texts—and encourages us to rethink ancient theater as a whole.

Acting Greek Tragedy
Acting Greek Tragedy

Author: Professor Graham Ley

Publisher: Royal College of General Practitioners

Published: 2015-03-26

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 085989973X

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Acting Greek Tragedy explores the dynamics of physical interaction and the dramaturgical construction of scenes in ancient Greek tragedy. Ley argues that spatial distinctions between ancient and modern theatres are not significant, as core dramatic energy can be placed successfully in either context. Guiding commentary on selected passages from Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides illuminates the problems involved with performing monologue, dialogue, scenes requiring three actors, and scenes with properties. A companion website - actinggreektragedy.com - offers recorded illustrations of scenes from the Workshops. What the book offers is a practical approach to the preparation of Greek scripts for performance. The translations used have all been tested in workshops, with those of Euripides newly composed for this book. The companion website can be found here: www.actinggreektragedy.com

Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre
Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre

Author: Peter D. Arnott

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-09-11

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 1134924038

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Peter Arnott discusses Greek drama not as an antiquarian study but as a living art form. He removes the plays from the library and places them firmly in the theatre that gave them being. Invoking the practical realities of stagecraft, he illuminates the literary patterns of the plays, the performance disciplines, and the audience responses. Each component of the productions - audience, chorus, actors, costume, speech - is examined in the context of its own society and of theatre practice in general, with examples from other cultures. Professor Arnott places great emphasis on the practical staging of Greek plays, and how the buildings themselves imposed particular constraints on actors and writers alike. Above all, he sets out to make practical sense of the construction of Greek plays, and their organic relationship to their original setting.

A Vehicle for Performance
A Vehicle for Performance

Author: Margaret Dickin

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13:

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"Just as naturally happens with actors in tragedies where he who wears the mask of a messenger or servant gains glory and takes the lead while he who bears the crown and sceptre is not listened to when he speaks..."--Plutarch This book investigates the transformation of the Tragic Messenger, traditionally a minor supporting character in Greek drama who brought news from off stage, into one of the leading acting roles in ancient drama. It examines the features of Messenger speeches which made them attractive acting roles, reviews the Tragic Messenger in vase paintings, and analyzes the distribution of acting roles in the extant fifth-century tragedies. The technique of masked actors playing multiple roles in the same drama permitted 'metatheatrical' linkages between these acting roles. When these linkages involved Euripides' very vivid Messenger speeches, they allowed the Tragic Messenger to become an indispensable and stereotypical part of the drama. This was not only important in the development of the tragic genre itself, but may also have led to the stock role of the Running Slave in comedy.

Acting Like Men
Acting Like Men

Author: Karen Bassi

Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 0472106252

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Examines the concept of gender in relation to Greek drama

A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater
A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater

Author: Graham Ley

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 022615467X

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Contemporary productions on stage and film, and the development of theater studies, continue to draw new audiences to ancient Greek drama. With observations on all aspects of performance, this volume fills their need for a clear, concise account of what is known about the original conditions of such productions in the age of Pericles. Reexamining the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, Graham Ley here discusses acting technique, scenery, the power and range of the chorus, the use of theatrical space, and parody in their plays. In addition to photos of scenes from Greek vases that document theatrical performance, this new edition includes notes on ancient mime and puppetry and how to read Greek playtexts as scripts, as well as an updated bibliography. An ideal companion to The Complete Greek Tragedies, also published by the University of Chicago Press, Ley’s work is a concise and informative introduction to one of the great periods of world drama. "Anyone faced with Athenian tragedy or comedy for the first time, in or out of the classroom, would do well to start with A Short Introduction to Ancient Greek Theater."—Didaskalia

How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today
How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today

Author: Simon Goldhill

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2007-11

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 0226301273

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Space and concept -- The chorus -- The actor's role -- Tragedy and politics : what's Hecuba to him? -- Translations : finding a script -- Gods, ghosts, and Helen of Troy

A Companion to Greek Tragedy
A Companion to Greek Tragedy

Author: Justina Gregory

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1405152052

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The Blackwell Companion to Greek Tragedy provides readers with a fundamental grounding in Greek tragedy, and also introduces them to the various methodologies and the lively critical dialogue that characterize the study of Greek tragedy today. Comprises 31 original essays by an international cast of contributors, including up-and-coming as well as distinguished senior scholars Pays attention to socio-political, textual, and performance aspects of Greek tragedy All ancient Greek is transliterated and translated, and technical terms are explained as they appear Includes suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, and a generous and informative combined bibliography

The Greek Sense of Theatre
The Greek Sense of Theatre

Author: J. Walton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-07-04

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1134374100

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First published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.