Drama's Origin and Its Appeal Term Paper

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Origin and Appeal of Drama

A generally accepted theory is that drama's origins lie in prehistoric human beings and their rituals which contained music, dance, masks, costumes, a specific performance area, and a division between audience and performance. Later, in Egypt about 4,000 BC texts were written on tomb walls with plot, characters, and stage directions for enacting the body's resurrection. Between 3,000 and 2,000 BC other plays developed which were performed at the coronation of the pharaoh (coronation plays), celebrated pharaoh's 30th year on the throne (jubilee plays), and which were part of religious festivals (passion plays).

Western drama as we know it today started about 600 BC in the ancient city-state of Athens when a Greek poet named Thespis got the idea for an innovation to music. At that time a Greek chorus, with a leader, sang songs about legendary heroes. Thespis, who was probably the leader of the chorus, began to impersonate a character in dialogue with the chorus of singers and called it tragedy.

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Later, the people of Athens began to hold an annual contest in tragedy at the festival for Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fertility and revelry, and Thespis won the first prize at the first competition. After Thespis developed tragedy with one character and a chorus, Aeschylus came along and started using two characters. This made it possible to act out conflicts. Aeschylus explored the relationship between men and the gods in his plays. Then, Sophocles increased the number of actors to three (Ancient Drama web site) and explored themes about the true nature of man. Later, Euripides wrote plays in which human beings were portrayed more realistically and questioned social conditions. Aristotle wrote the first book Poetics about this literary form between 335 and 322 BC (Theatre History Thru Renaissance web site).

The word drama comes from a Greek word that means action because there are parts for actors….....

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