Classical drama

1. Drama

2. Classical or Greek Drama Greek drama was religious The dramatic performance was viewed as a worship act. The plots dealt with the activities of gods and goddesses The purpose of such plays is to draw moral lessons from them. The classical playwright used well known stories and legends and offer an individual interpretation of the story

3. Classical or Greek Drama The three best known classical dramatists are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides They used the same stories and draw different lessons from them The theatre used by Greeks was an open-air stage. The stage has its three sides rows of seats capable of accommodating several thousand of people. The plays weren’t divided to acts or scenes. The performance was a continuous act

4. Classical Drama Plays were performed in broad daylight. The chorus consists of approximately 9 to 12 singers stood apart from the actors and sings songs that provide comments on the story.

5. Classical Plays’ conventions: No more than 3 actors are allowed on the stage They must a pply the rule of unities( time- place and action) Unity of place= no movement from one place to another Unity of time= single revolution of the sun ( one day action ) Unity of action= one story a beginning – middle – end

6. The prologue Because it was difficult to maintain the three unities, the Greek dramatists invented the prologue. The background events of the story is explained by an actor on the stage but the whole story starts from a central point around which the whole action is organized.