Greek Theatre
A group of actors who describe and comment upon the main action of a play.
What is a Chorus?
This is the event that hooks the audience into the story and sets everything else that happens into motion.
What is the inciting incident?
This is a play in which the protagonist, usually a person of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a tragic flaw and events in the play
What is a tragedy?
A fancy word for an actor, named after Thespus, the first actor
What is a thespian?
This man was the King of Thebes, killer of the Sphinx, married his mother, killed his father, blinded himself after his fate was revealed
Who is Oedipus?
The overbearing pride which leads humans to follow a paths or projects which lead to certain self-destruction
What is hubris?
This means "the seeing place" in Greek. Sounds like the name of a Transformer.
What is theatron?
This is a lyrical poem sung by the chorus
What is an ode?
This is the principal opponent of the main character
Who is the antagonist?
This is the story's point of highest tension or drama
What is the climax?
This is the front wall of the stage, where we get the word "proscenium"
What is the proskene?
This is the part of the tragedy where the chorus gives us the backstory of the main action of the play.
What is the parados?
This is the earliest surviving book of dramatic theory written by Aristotle
What are the Poetics?
This is the God of wine, revelry, and entertainment
Who is Dionysus?
This is the beginning of the tragedy where the chorus speaks to the audience about the themes of the play and what they will learn from the tragedy
What is the prologue?
This is the playwright of "Oedipus Rex" and "Antigone".
Who is Sophocles?
This is a building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks and costumes but eventually became the background of the plays. Where we get the word "scene".
What is the skene?
This is a small altar to Dionysus standing in the middle of the orchestra of a theater
What is a thymele?
This is the circular space used by the chorus in front of the proscenium in an ancient Greek theater.
What is the orchestra?
This means "Tragic flaw" in Greek
What is hamartia?
Latin for "God in the machine", any situation where something unexpected or implausible is brought in to the story line to resolve situations or disentangle a plot.
What is deus ex machina?
Greek for "realization", this is the startling discovery in a tragedy that produces a change from ignorance to knowledge
What is the anagnorisis?
This was a light-hearted, naughty play that offered comic relief to the audience after the tragedies. It's from where we get the word "satire".
What is a satyr play?
This is a French word meaning the final resolution of the intricacies of a plot
What is the denouement?
This means the purification and purging of emotions
What is catharsis?