Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Sophocles

-he wrote Oedipus Rex
-first prize-winner for writing tragedies-- Thespus (he also introduced first solo-speaking actor instead of chorus)
  • used masks

-Euripides & Aeschylus (Father of Tragedy) aslo famous playwright
-Aristophenes (writer of The Frogs, The Birds, The Insects, The Clouds)
-going to theatre wrapped everything all in one- football game, rock concerts, play- all combined into one social event

  • sometimes even a church service in there
  • skipped work for a week
  • like community theatre

-chorus: provides commentary on/accompaniment to the action of the play
-playwrights wrote about both pleasurable experiences of life and the unalterable causes that lead to death

  • causes conflict in plays

-hubris: protagonist with ego taht leads to downfall

-text:

  1. prologue-- introduction
  2. parados-- entrance to the chorus
  3. episode-- action of the play
  4. stasismon-- general comment/reflection on play, usually from chorus-- strophe and antistrophe
  5. exodus-- summarizes the moral, chorus leaves

-parabasis: the spot in the play where the playwright blatantly tells his audience his opinion/purpose for the play

-deus ex machina: when the Gods save the day; everything works out

-orchestra: center of stage

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