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Theatre was at the very heart of culture in Graeco-Roman civilizations and its influence permeated across social and class boundaries. The theatrical genres of tragedy, comedy, satyr play, mime and pantomime operate in Antiquity alongside the conception of theatre as both an entertainment for the masses and a vehicle for intellectual, political and artistic expression. Drawing together contributions from scholars in classics and theatre studies, this volume uniquely examines the Greek and Roman cultural spheres in conjunction with one another rather than in isolation.
Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Series Preface
Introduction: Cultural History and the Theatres of Antiquity
Martin Revermann, University of Toronto, Canada
1 Institutional Frameworks: Enabling the Theatrical Event
Martin Revermann, University of Toronto, Canada
2 Social functions? Making the Case for a Functionless Theatre
Sean Gurd, University of Missouri, USA
3 Sexuality and Gender: Off-Stage and Centre-Stage
Ian Ruffell, University of Glasgow, UK
4 The Environment of Theatre: Experiencing Place in the Ancient World
David Wiles, University of Exeter, UK
5 Circulation: Theatre as Mobile Political, Economic and Cultural Capital
Patrick Hadley, University of Utah, USA
6 Interpretations: the Stage and its Interpretive Communities
Martin Revermann, University of Toronto, Canada
7 Communities of Production: Pied Pipers and How to Pay Them; or, the Variegated Finance of Ancient Theatre
Jane Lightfoot, University of Oxford, UK
8 Genres: Drama and Its Many Unhappy Returns
Donald Sells, University of Michigan, USA
9 Technologies of Performance: Machines, Props, Dramaturgy
Peter von Möllendorff, Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany
(translated from German by Martin Revermann)
10 Knowledge Transmission: Ancient Archives and Repertoires
Johanna Hanink, Brown University, USA
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Martin Revermann is Professor of Classics and Theatre Studies at the University of Toronto, Canada.
Summary
Theatre was at the very heart of culture in Graeco-Roman civilizations and its influence permeated across social and class boundaries. The theatrical genres of tragedy, comedy, satyr play, mime and pantomime operate in Antiquity alongside the conception of theatre as both an entertainment for the masses and a vehicle for intellectual, political and artistic expression. Drawing together contributions from scholars in classics and theatre studies, this volume uniquely examines the Greek and Roman cultural spheres in conjunction with one another rather than in isolation.
Each chapter takes a different theme as its focus: institutional frameworks; social functions; sexuality and gender; the environment of theatre; circulation; interpretations; communities of production; repertoire and genres; technologies of performance; and knowledge transmission.
Foreword
The definitive overview of the cultural history of theatre in the ancient world.
Additional text
This book surely makes a significant contribution to the study of the theatrical experience of ancient Greeks and Romans … Scholars from classics, theatre history, or performance studies can find fresh and compelling interventions in this collection.
