History of the European Theatre Art Research Paper

History of the European Theatre Art - Research Paper Example The history of the development of theatre performances in Europe can be traced back alongside the Greek history, which began around 700 B.C. The Greece had numerous festivals in honour of their gods such as Dionysus in whose honour; the festival of the city Dionysia was performed. People involved themselves in revelry during these times while the festivities of the whole occasion were always led by drunkards who would hide their identities by wearing goatskins as they performed. These ceremonies were usually flowered with fierce competitions from the different Greek communities in attendance and the winning communities would always enjoy the honour of being crowned the winners of the festivals. Most plays that were presented during this time in Greek were majorly tragic- comedies that were based on love and romance as viewed in the context of the people of that time, the term ‘tragedy’ originated from the Greek name for ‘goat skin’ that were worn during thes e performances. Collin notes that most of theses plays owed their main thematic origins from the Greek mythologies and the histories about the human personal life and expressed man’s quest to relate the meaning of life and the nature of their gods. Their performances followed a specific format whereby they were usually accompanied by songs introducing a period of paradox, the time during which the characters were introduced, the mood for the plays set in the minds of the viewers and the expositions made concerning the nature of the plays. Some of the very common plays that were performed during this time in the Greek theatres include Sophocles and Euripedes that were common in the fifth century performances. A Writer such as Aeschylus, a performer at shows in Dionysia at around 499 B.C., was among the first writers of this kind and whose writings are among the oldest in the Greek history of theatre arts. Others include Sophocles with his famous works such as Antigone Electra and the Oedipus Rex. Aeschylus (525- 456 B.C) and Sophocles (496- 406 B.C) added major contributions into the Greek theatre by introducing the second and the third actors to the stage respectively. Moreover, they led to the improvement of the quality of the songs and increasing the number of singers on stage thus giving theatre performances a more realistic dimension and giving the viewers what they liked most (Brockett 2003). The new dimension had more impact on the viewers as