Greek Actors :: essays research papers

GREEK dramatic play the actorsThe actors in ancient tragedies were hired and paid by the state and delegate to the tragic poets probably by lot. By the middle of the fifth coulomb three actors were required for the performance of a tragedy. In descending state of importance of the roles they assumed they were called protagonist &8216first actor&8217 (a term as well as applied in youthful literary criticism to the central role of a play), Dueteragonist &8216second actor&8217 and tritagonist &8220third actor&8217. The protagonist took the tile of the most important character in the play while the another(prenominal) twain actors played the lesser roles. Since most plays have more than two or three characters (although never more than three speaking actors in the same seen), all three actors played multiple roles.In modern literary criticism, the term protagonist refers to the central character of the play, not the actor. Since wo hands were not allowed to take part in dramati c productions, male actors has to play effeminate roles. The playing of multiple roles, both male and female, was made possible by the use of masks, which prevented the audience from identifying the face of any actor with one particularized character in the play and helped eliminate the physical incongruity of men impersonating women. The masks with subtle variations also helped the audience identify the sex age and hearty rank of the characters. The fact that the chorus remained in the orchestra throughout the play, and sang and danced chorale songs between the episodes. Allowed the actors to exit after an episode in order to flip-flop mask and costume and assume a new role in the next episode without any illusion-destroying interruption in the play.