City Dionysia: The Ancient Roots of Modern Theater

Overview

City Dionysia: The Ancient Roots of Modern Theater is an engaging Web interactive focused on the historical development of theater in Ancient Greece. Designed to support high school studies of theater, literature and world history, the site leads students though the development of Ancient ideas and contemporary theater practice, then on to write and stage their own original play while demonstrating an understanding of the rules and structure of Greek tragedy.

Suggested Use

Students are encouraged to explore the entire site, start to finish, before attempting the “Stage your own Tragedy,” as there is information important to understanding the interactive throughout the site.

• Prologue – discuss with your students the origins of the Festival of Dionysis, and its importance as a social event as well as a performing arts competition. Note how the importance of the festival helped preserve many of the plays written for the competition. Compare how modern arts festivals bring people and the performing arts together.
• The Theaters – discuss how the architecture of Greek theaters influences the performing arts venues throughout history. Evaluate other types of structures as performance spaces.
• The Players – Review the evolution of the performers in Greek theater, including dancers, chorus and actors, and discuss how Greek playwrights would have used each. Discuss how masks and costumes were used to create characters, and how modern type-casting helps today’s actors communicate their characters to their audience.
• The Playwrights – Explain how ancient Greek playwrights would incorporate social commentary into their work, and how modern playwrights frequently do the same.
• The Plays – review the structure of ancient Greek tragedies, comedies and dithyrambs, focusing on the purpose of each part of the tragic structure. Watch the video clips and discuss contemporary examples of ancient Greek theatrical concepts like hubris, etc.

“Explore the Tragic Structure” in the Plays section contains information critical to successfully demonstrating an understanding of ancient Greek tragedy via the “Stage Your own Tragedy” interactive. Additionally, the Players section will help them make informed selections of props and costumes, and the Playwrights section will assist them in understanding their role as playwright.

When students have completed staging their tragedy, they can either print it or email it to a teacher or classmate for review. If students require additional time to work on their project, they can email a link to themselves that allows for further editing.

Technical Requirements

This interactive requires the Flash Player 9.124 (or more recent). Speakers are needed for audio (headphones are recommended for use in group settings like libraries or computer labs). Connection to a printer is necessary for printing student creations.