Greek Theatre Research Paper

638 Words2 Pages

Theatre, like other mediums of art, has many forms. Although they all have things in common, they also have many differences. These forms can be recent on ancient. For example, two very different forms of theatre are ancient Greek theatre and musicals.

A big difference between the two is where the form originated. Greek theatre is from ancient Greece, as the name implies. Musicals, on the other hand, originated in America. Greek theatre is ancient, one of the first forms of theatre that we know of. It was a precursor of modern theatre. Greek theatre, though modified, is still performed today. Musicals are fairly recent, however dating back to the 1900s.

Another thing setting the two apart would be the way the forms have evolved. Musicals were born from Vaudeville, an old variety show with eight acts. Ancient Greek theatre originated from an old ritual. It involved 50 drunk men dressing as satyrs, singing and playing choruses as a respect to Dionysus, the god of wine and sexuality.

The two are performed very differently as well. Ancient Greeks wore masks to show the character’s main emotion. They usually would put their everything into their performance out of respect. The Greeks would perform …show more content…

They are usually dressed in fairly normal or believable costumes. Musicals encompass any genre. They are, on average, much less tense and serious than ancient Greek theatre. The defining trait of musicals, as the name gives away, is the plethora of song and dance numbers performed. In the early days of musicals, the songs may have loosely related to the plot, but for the most part, were simply in the performance for the sake of singing and dancing. The dances used in musicals were choreographed, and the songs were rehearsed previously. In recent cases, attractive or well-liked actors who did not have pleasing singing voices had been dubbed over and lip synced with the

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