A Brief Look of Where It All Started
The study of theatre is a long one. There is so much to it and many eras where it evolved to make it what it is today. I honestly believe that no one person can know the whole history of theatre. It is an area where we are always learning new things, whether from the the past or for the future. Let's look at how it all started and the audience that attended.
Jaques Burdick writes, “The history of theater in Europe begins in Athens more than five and a half centuries before the birth of Christ. There, in a tiny, bowl-like hollow, their backs protected from the cold winds of Mount Parnes and the bright morning sun, Athenians celebrated those rites of the god Dionysus that were to evolve into theater-one of the greatest cultural accomplishments of the Greeks. Indeed, this new art was so intimately associated with Greek civilization that every major town and colony possessed a theater, the quality of building itself being an index of the settlement’s importance” (7).
Just by that paragraph we can see that theatre came about to celebrate the gods. Who celebrated the gods, though? Who attended the performances? Seeing as the worship of any god is open to anyone and everyone, I do believe that the audience back in Greece at the start of theatre was made up of all the townspeople. Even Burdick states, “Athenian audiences were avid playgoers” (13). Later, there was class separation, but not limitation when it came to the attendees. Burdick goes on to say “It has been estimated that the pre-Periclean theater, with its rude seating, could accommodate between 15,000 and 17,000 people, the less privileged spectators perching wherever they could” (15).
Class always plays a role in everything as time goes on and art forms become popularized, but in Greece, there was nothing stating that the poor could not go. Every one in the city wanted to attend to celebrate their god. After Pericles built a bigger and better theatre, “Seating was firmly regulated” (Burdick, 17). There was a way that they were seated, but they did not have to pay; the performances were free.
As time went on and theatre evolved, so did the standards of the audience. Payment became involved and class status was even more prominent. Audiences were now socially constructed based on the time period. Plays became more about real life situations, and no working class member wanted to sit through a play about noble class problems, shifting the social class of the patrons. The higher the station you were, the more likely you were to attend a performance.
Jaques Burdick writes, “The history of theater in Europe begins in Athens more than five and a half centuries before the birth of Christ. There, in a tiny, bowl-like hollow, their backs protected from the cold winds of Mount Parnes and the bright morning sun, Athenians celebrated those rites of the god Dionysus that were to evolve into theater-one of the greatest cultural accomplishments of the Greeks. Indeed, this new art was so intimately associated with Greek civilization that every major town and colony possessed a theater, the quality of building itself being an index of the settlement’s importance” (7).
Just by that paragraph we can see that theatre came about to celebrate the gods. Who celebrated the gods, though? Who attended the performances? Seeing as the worship of any god is open to anyone and everyone, I do believe that the audience back in Greece at the start of theatre was made up of all the townspeople. Even Burdick states, “Athenian audiences were avid playgoers” (13). Later, there was class separation, but not limitation when it came to the attendees. Burdick goes on to say “It has been estimated that the pre-Periclean theater, with its rude seating, could accommodate between 15,000 and 17,000 people, the less privileged spectators perching wherever they could” (15).
Class always plays a role in everything as time goes on and art forms become popularized, but in Greece, there was nothing stating that the poor could not go. Every one in the city wanted to attend to celebrate their god. After Pericles built a bigger and better theatre, “Seating was firmly regulated” (Burdick, 17). There was a way that they were seated, but they did not have to pay; the performances were free.
As time went on and theatre evolved, so did the standards of the audience. Payment became involved and class status was even more prominent. Audiences were now socially constructed based on the time period. Plays became more about real life situations, and no working class member wanted to sit through a play about noble class problems, shifting the social class of the patrons. The higher the station you were, the more likely you were to attend a performance.