B Direction and Production I

(B) DIRECTION AND PRODUCTION : (I) Modern Tendencies, (a) In considering the form of the modern theatre building, its physical aspect, and in tracing the origins and development of that form from the earliest known theatres of Europe, the investi gator does well to keep constantly in mind the basic meaning of the word "theatre." From the Greek it means roughly "a place for seeing." In a short survey of the subject it is not necessary to mention pre-Greek theatres, beyond saying that there is no known connection between those of earlier civilizations and the playhouse with which the history of drama in the Western world is generally supposed to start—the theatre of Dionysus at Athens.

Greek Theatre.

The first Greek theatres, according to those who have studied the sub ject most thoroughly, were little more than marked-out dancing circles, each around an altar, at the foot of hillsides on which spectators stood or sat. From this natural form the first built theatres took their main outlines: a circle or orchestra ('oPV'ia rpa) for the chorus and actor or actors, and rising tiers of wooden seats, built against a hillside for the spectators. These seats extended usually around two-thirds or more of the orchestra, since at this time dancing or movement was more important than acting, and there was no stage for the spectators to face. The type of the first built theatres is shown in fig. I. It should be kept in mind, however, that in no period were any two Greek theatres exactly alike, and exceptions to this general type were common.

Taking the theatre of Dionysus as an example, one notes that the temple of Dionysus Eleuthereus appeared in relation to the theatre approximately as indicated in the diagram (all within the precinct sacred to Dionysus on the south-eastern side of the Acropolis). One conjecture is that the architectural form of this 6th century temple helped to determine the shape of the stage building which was later to be added at the edge of the circle opposite the seats. But the more widely accepted theory is that out of necessity a hut or tent (aKrivii) was added at the edge of the orchestra as a retiring-room for the actors, for changes of costume, etc. ; and that the stage

building was in all later ages an elaboration of this rude shelter— dressed, in the Greek period, with those beautiful architectural forms with which the Athenians adorned all their important struc tures.

Just when this skene became truly a stage building, with definite and studied relationship to orchestra and auditorium, is a matter of conjecture. As a step in the development of the larger theatre form, we may think of the three parts of the theatre as developing gradually into a set arrangement as shown in fig. 2.

Here one sees the accretion of the three features that character ized theatre building through many succeeding centuries: (I) Narpov, or auditorium; (2) orchestra; and (3) scene, names which persist even to-day. But at this time players appeared only in the orchestra, the scene remaining an architectural background to the action and a practical retiring-house for the actors, struc turally separated from the auditorium, by entrances or runways, called irapahot (Lat. parodi).

Such was the theatre form when the 5th century B.C. dawned, and such it remained, with only slight changes, in all probability, during the period of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The architectural features and the height of the skene are still only to be conjectured, though recently excavated foundations at Athens indicate clearly the plan and limits of an early stage build ing, wider than the dancing circle and with ends projecting for ward toward the auditorium.

Archaeologists have waged one of their bitterest battles over the question as to when the raised stage made its first appear ance, but in the "high" period of Greek drama it is now almost unanimously agreed that there was no platform stage. The theatre at Athens had taken this general form, with probably a portico at the front of the scene building, between the paraskenia (fig. 3).