Greek theater flourished between 550 and 220 BC in Athens, with three main genres emerging: tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. Tragedies by playwrights like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides dealt with profound themes and featured a protagonist who commits an error and faces destruction. Comedies by Aristophanes mocked those in power, while later comedies by Menander focused on ordinary people. Satyr plays made light of tragic characters while featuring actors in goat-like costumes. The Greeks developed the first theaters and used performances to debate important issues.

2. Greek Theater
a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece
between 550 and 220 BC.
Athens
Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and
the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to
emerge there.
Tragoidia=tragedy

3. AmpitheAter
5700-seat
Located at the Griffith park(Los Angeles,
California)
It was built in 1929 on September 29 of that
year
Griffith J. Griffith

4. The Different Types of Greek Drama
The three genres of
drama were comedy, satyr
plays, and most important
of all, tragedy.

5. Comedy
The first comedies were mainly
satirical and mocked men in power for
their vanity and foolishness. The first
master of comedy was the playwright
Aristophanes. Much later Menander
wrote comedies about ordinary people
and made his plays more like sit-coms.

6. Tragedy Plays
Tragedy: Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss,
pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships
between men and gods. Typically the main protagonist of
a tragedy commits some terrible crime without realizing
how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly
realizes his error, the world crumbles around him. The
three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides.
Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through
pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and
worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in
suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.

7. Satyr Plays
Satyr Plays: These short plays were performed
between the acts of tragedies and made fun of the
plight of the tragedy's characters. The satyrs were
mythical half-human, half-goat figures and actors in
these plays wore large phalluses for comic effect. Few
examples of these plays survive. They are classified
by some authors as tragicomic, or comedy dramas.

8. Importance
The Greeks were responsible for beginning many
things in civilisation, and theatre is one of them.
They were the first society to create a stage (an
'amphitheatre') - outside, with no roof, and space to
seat thousands (usually around 18,000) of people.
They used this forum to present plays which helped
them to decide important issues with regards to
politics & their government. Performances were the
culmination of a festival.

9. They divided their performances into Comedy and
Tragedy. They introduced the idea of using masks
into their performances, as the auditorium (seating
space) was so large that those at the back couldn't
see the actor's faces properly - masks were simply an
exaggeration of the emotions the characters were
portraying. The acoustics, however, were astounding
- someone on the back row of an amphitheatre could
hear an actor talking (without shouting) perfectly.

10. Theatre created debate, and was
watched by everyone that could fit it, as
it was seem as a very important tool to
solve problems of the day. Perhaps this
aspect of theatre, essential to the
Greeks, should become more important
to us nowadays, as it was the reason for
its creation.