Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1971 - 23

tion between the actors and chorus was easy, (2)
that a practicable door faced the audience, (3) that
a high platform existed, (4) that the crane could be
used, and (5) that scenery was painted. 11

We also have evidence that panels which moved
and were positioned between pillars were painted.
The background of the high stage was formed by
large panels set in wide openings and surrounding
the three practicable doors (or masking doors which
were not needed). They probably gave a better
field for illusionistic painting than anything that had
been known in the theatre before, and in some
theatres, which had a specially long stage building,
additional openings incorporated further panels
which could be revolved; sometimes only the panels
turned, sometimes they took a section of the stage
with them. 16

The three basic elements of the Greek physical
theatre: the orchestra, skene, and theatron, were
three separate units. The skene found its first
temporary form in the late classical period, and
was developed into a permanent stone building
during the Hellenistic period.
The rebuilding of the Athenian theatre by Lykourgos about 330 [B.C.] marks more than an architectural change. The spatial relations between actors, chorus, and audience remained the same, but
the stage buildings, wings and background, were
now reconstructed in stone, and this must have
been more obtrusive than the preceding wooden
structures and more difficult to mask with screens 12

The Lycurgean theatre marks the end of the
classical period. Even though the skene was made
of stone, the first paraskenia were wood and were
two stories high to correspond to the skene house.
The paraskenia provided more possibilities for entrances than had been available before.
This led to the removal of the action from the
low stage connected with the orchestra to a high
stage some thirteen feet above the orchestra. This
destroyed for the first time the link between the
audience and the actors, and confined the actors to
a distinct world of their own. The high stage became possible when the large chorus disappeared,
and during the Hellenistic period classical tragedies were acted with a reduced number of chorus
membersY Bieber agrees with Webster on this
point:
I myself think that the development of the logeion [stage terrace or platform above the columns]
followed slowly upon the new literary ideas. The
theatre of Lycurgus was certainly the realization of
a purely classical tradition ... I consider the combination of the skene with a proskenion, equal in
height to the first story, to be a compromise which
met the needs of the lyrical choruses and the old
classical tragedies with a rich background building,
as well as the needs of the New Comedy with a
raised stage. 14

Certainly the Hellenistic theatre building did not
happen overnight. There must have been experimentation over many types of plays and many performances to determine the best kind of arrangement for the elements of the physical theatre
building. Wooden structures to test practicability
of the arrangement, must a Iways have preceded the
stone structures.
The orchestra, a creation of the pre-classical,
ritualistic period, decreased in size as the usefulness of the chorus decreased. The theatron became a part of the elements of the physical theatre during the classical period, and the stage certainly was developed during the Hellenistic period.
From the time of the Hellenistic period, through
the Greco-Roman period when all three elements
of the structure were finally joined in one assembly, the solution to the problem of theatrical presentations has been the use of some kind of platform so that spectators cou Id see the performers.
Reason and knowledge of the theatre would seem
to detemine that the chorus never left the ground
and the actor never left the stage.
1 Margarete Bieber, The History of the Greek and Roman
Theater (Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey,

1961l.p.54.

2/bid.,p.54.
3/bid., p. 62.
4 Glenn Hughes, The Story of the Theatre (Samuel French,
New York, 1928), pp. 7-11.

5 Peter Arnott, Greek Scenic Conventions in the Fifth Century B.C. (Oxford University Press, London, 1962). pp. 43-

44.

The chi ef advantage of the change to the physical theatre is that the actors could be better seen
and heard from the high stage. This .vas based upon a fundamental change in the form of the drama.
The favorite drama of the audience during the
Hellenistic period was New Comedy. "In this the
aim of the poet was not, as in Old Comedy, the
ridiculous and grotesque situation but the portrayal and clear delineation of the individual characters."15 This was more easily accomplished on
the raised stage.

USITT

THEATER DESIGN AND TECHNOlOGY

DECEMBER, 1971

6 T.B. L. Webster, Greek Theatre Production (Methuen and
Co. Ltd., London, 1956), p. 7.
70.0. cit., Bieber, p. 60.
B/bid., p. 57.
90.0. cit., Webster, p. 13.
1 °0.0. cit., Bieber, p. 59.
110.0. cit., Webster, p. 7.

12/bid., p. 168.
13/bid., p. 170.
14

0.0. cit., Bieber, p. 115.

15/bid., p. 108.
16

0.0. cit., Webster, p. 171.

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