Research Guides: Theatre Appreciation (43-101): Ancient (Greek and Roman)

Greek theatre (500-200 B.C.)

A Cultural History of Theatre by Jack Watson
Chapter 2 Classical Athens(4 hour loan) This is good for:
- Cultural influences of art and society
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Art ideas and social ideas common to that country and time
- Connections: Developed tragedy and comedy, use of orchestra playing space, scene building and scene painting, use of costumes and masks, integrated music into performance, added spectacular theatrical effects to visualize dramatic action
Western Theatre: revolution and revival by Patti P. Gillespie
(4 hour loan) This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Chapter 2 Theatre and Drama in Ancient Greece
- Introduction/The Dramatic Festivals of the Fifth Century (Culture and Society)
- Tragedy in the Fifth Century/Satyr Play/Greek Comedy in the Fifth Century (Representative plays and playwrights)
- Play Selection and Financing (Directing)
- Theatre Architecture/Auditorium and Audience (Theater Design and Stage Design)
- Actors and Acting
- Masks and Costumes
- The Chorus/Music and Dance
Theatre: a history of the art by Jerry V. Pickering
(4 hour loan) This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Chapter 2 Theatre and Drama in Ancient Greece
- Introduction/The Dramatic Festivals of the Fifth Century (Culture and Society)
- Tragedy in the Fifth Century/Satyr Play/Greek Comedy in the Fifth Century (Representative plays and playwrights)
- Play Selection and Financing (Directing)
- Theatre Architecture/Auditorium and Audience (Theater Design and Stage Design)
- Actors and Acting
- Masks and Costumes
- The Chorus/Music and Dance
Period Style for the Theatre by Douglas A. Russell
(2 hour loan) This is good for:
- Theater design, costumes, acting, society and culture, representative playwrights and plays
- Chapter 2 Greek Style
- Art and Culture/Life and Cultural Ideals (Culture and Society)
- Ornament, Interiors, Furniture/The Theatre (Stage Design and Theater Design)
- Costume and Accessories
- Movement/Acting the Plays
- The Plays (Representative plays and Playwrights)
Theatre Past and Present: an introduction by Milly S. Barranger
(4 hour loan) This is good for:
- Acting, performance, costumes, stage design, theater design and technical innovations
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Influence on modern or contemporary theater
History of the Theatre by Oscar G. Brockett
(4 hour loan) This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Chapter 2 Theatre and Drama in Ancient Greece
- Introduction/The Dramatic Festivals of the Fifth Century (Culture and Society)
- Tragedy in the Fifth Century/Satyr Play/Greek Comedy in the Fifth Century (Representative plays and playwrights)
- Play Selection and Financing (Directing)
- Theatre Architecture/Auditorium and Audience (Theater Design and Stage Design)
- Actors and Acting
- Masks and Costumes
- The Chorus/Music and Dance

Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
Greek theatre in context by Eric Dugdale
Call Number: 882.0109 D86g
ISBN: 9780521689427
Publication Date: 2008
The genres of performance. Dithyramb -- Tragedy -- Satyr-play -- Comedy -- Drama outside Athens -- The festivals. Rural Dionysia -- City Dionysia -- Lenaea -- Organizing the performances -- Rehearsals -- The proagon -- Judges -- Victor lists -- The theatre. The Theatre of Dionysus at Athens -- Other theatres -- Greek theatre and the proscenium theatre -- Elements of the theatre -- The chorus. The chorus in tragedy -- The chorus in satyr-play -- The chorus in old comedy -- The chorus in new comedy -- Music -- The actors. Dramatic action -- Stage props -- Masks -- Costume -- Actors and the rise of the acting profession -- The audience. Audience size -- Audience composition -- Seating arrangements -- The City Dionysia as an international event -- Playing to the audience -- Audience response -- Theatre and everyday life -- The playwrights. Aeschylus -- Sophocles -- Euripides -- Aristophanes -- Menander
Tragedy in Athens [electronic resource] : performance space and theatrical meaning by David Wiles
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780585000541
Publication Date: 1997
A Guide to Greek Theatre and Drama by Kenneth McLeish, competed by Trevor R. Griffiths
Greek Theatre Performance: an introduction by David Wiles
A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater by Graham Ley
Understanding Greek tragic theatre by Rehm, Rush
Call Number: 882.01 R34g 2017
ISBN: 9781138812628
Publication Date: 2017
The social and theatrical background. The performance culture of Athens -- The festival context -- Production as participation -- The theatre of Dionysus -- Conventions of production -- Exemplary plays. Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy -- Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus -- Euripides' Suppliant women -- Euripides' Ion.
The dramatic festivals of Athens by Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur Wallace,
Call Number: 792 P59d
Publication Date: 1953

The Origin of Theatre in Athens
ISBN: 9780761860037
Guide To Greek Theatre And Drama
ISBN: 9780413720306
Reperforming Greek Tragedy : Theater, Politics, and Cultural Mobility in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC
ISBN: 9783110561166
Publication Date: 2017
Greek theatre in the fourth century B.C.
ISBN: 9783110337556
Publication Date: 2014
Performing Greek Comedy
ISBN: 1139336770
Publication Date: 2011
Greek Tragedy
ISBN: 9780415289641
Greek Theatre Performance : An Introduction
ISBN: 9780521640275
Publication Date: 2000
Euripides Our Contemporary
ISBN: 9781408112045
Performance in Greek and Roman Theatre
ISBN: 9789004244573

Library catalog subject search:

Follow these links to locate Owens Library Books

Core books on Greek culture & society:

Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks by Robert Garland
A Brief History of Ancient Greece by Sarah B. Pomeroy; Stanley M. Burstein; Walter Donlan; Jennifer Tolbert Roberts; David Tandy
The Greeks by Kitto, H. D. F. (Humphrey Davy Findley)
Call Number: 938 K62g 1957
Publication Date: 1957

Influence of Greek theatre on contemporary theatre:

Aristophanes in Performance, 421 BC-AD 2007: peace, birds and frogs by edited by Edith Hall and Amanda Wrigley
Call Number: 792.2309 A71a
ISBN: 9781904350613
Publication Date: 2007
Shaw, Plato, and Euripides [electronic resources]: classical currents in Major Barbara by Sidney P. Albert; foreward by R. F. Dietrich
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780813040547
Publication Date: 2012
*The Long Shadow of Antiquity: what have the Greeks and Romans done for us? by Gregory S. Aldrete and Alicia Aldrete
Call Number: MOBIUS PLace a hold
ISBN: 9781441162472
Publication Date: 2012
(Must request through Mobius)

Online Full Text of Plays From Drama Online

Online Full Text of Plays From Google Books

Lysistrata
ISBN: 9780413669001
Full text Online from Drama Online
Oedipus
ISBN: 9780571205875
Full text online from Drama Online

SOPHOCLES
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
"Author Biography" of the ancient Greek playwright SOPHOCLES c. 409 B.C.
ARISTOPHANES
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
"Author Biography" of ancient Greek playwright ARISTOPHANES 411 B.C.
EURIPIDES
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
"Author Biography" of ancient Greek playwright EURIPIDES 405 B.C.

Streaming Video:

Greek Drama: From Ritual to Theater (57:00) [videorecording]
The Role of Theatre in Ancient Greece (23:00) [videorecording]
Women in Classical Greek Drama (38:00) [videorecording]
The Changing Classical Audience for Theatre (21:00) [videorecording]
Theatrical Devices in Classical Theatre (20:00) [videorecording]

Roman theatre (450-100 B.C.)

A Cultural History of Theatre by Jack Watson
This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design, and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Influence on modern or contemporary theater
- Representative plays and playwrights
- Chapter 3 Rome
- Social Ideas/Art Ideas (Theater and Society)
- Roman Theatre – Occasion, Location, Performers, Audience, Imperial Theatre – c. 200 ce, Trip to the Roman Theatre (stage design and theater design), Standards of Judgement (Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations, audience)
- Dramatic Literature – Plautus, Terence, Seneca (Representative plays and playwrights)
- Connections: (Influence on modern or contemporary theater)
- Comic characters endure throughout western history to modern television
- Television comedy – stock characters developed in the Roman era
- Modern comic forms – based on comic devices from Plautus and Terence
- Idea of theatre a secular diversion rather than religious spectacle
Western theatre: Revolution and revival by Patti P. Gillespie
This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design, and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and playwrights
- Chapter 4 Roman Theatre 240 B.C. – ca A.D. 476
- Origins of Popular Tradition – Etruscan Influences, Oscan Influences, Western Greek Influence, Literary Tradition, Festivals (Theater and Society)
- The Theatres (stage design and theater desing)/The Audience/The Performers/Masks and Costumes (Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations)
- Permanent Theatres (Stage Design and Theater Design)
- Playwrights and Plays (Representative plays and playwrights
Theatre: a history of the art by Jerry V. Pickering
This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design, and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and playwrights
- Chapter 3 The Roman Theatre
- The Roman World/Etruscan Dance and Drama/Roman Festivals/Atellan Farce/The Mimes (Theater and Society)
- The Golden Age of Roman Drama/Plautus/Terence/Drama Under the Empire/Seneca/Horace (Representative plays and playwrights)
- The Roman Actor (Actors and Acting)
- The Structure of the Roman Theatre/Stage Settings (Theater Design and Stage Design)
- Costumes and Mask (Costumes)
Period Style for the Theatre by Douglas A. Russell
This is good for:
- Theater design, costumes, acting, society and culture, representative playwrights and plays
- Chapter 3 Roman Style
- Art and Culture/Life and Cultural Ideals (Culture and Society)
- Ornament, Interiors, Furniture/The Theatre (Stage Design and Theater Design)
- Costume and Accessories
- Movement/Acting the Plays
- The Plays (Representative plays and Playwrights)
History of the Theatre by Oscar G. Brockett
This is good for:
- Acting, performance, stage design, theater design and technical innovations
- Theater and society
- Representative plays and dramatists of the time
- Chapter 3/Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Theatre
- Roman Context/Roman Festivals/Other Entertainments (Theater and Society).
- Drama Under the Romans (Representative plays and playwrights)
- Production Arrangements (Audiences and Performances)
- Roman Theatre Architecture/Other Structures for Entertainments (Theater Design and Stage Design)
- Actors and Acting

Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
Call Number: 700.9 A79a 5 vol.
ISBN: 9780787656959
Publication Date: 2005
Performance in Greek and Roman Theatre by George Harrison (Editor); Vayos Liapis (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9789004245457
Publication Date: 2013
Drawing on insights from various disciplines (philology, archaeology, art) as well as from performance and reception studies, this volume shows how a heightened awareness of performance can enhance our appreciation of Greek and Roman theatre.
Roman theatre by Timothy J. Moore
Call Number: 792.0937 M82r
ISBN: 0521138183
Publication Date: 2012
The origins of Roman theatre -- Roman comedy in performance -- Plautus -- Terence -- Tragedy in the Roman republic -- Mime -- Pantomime -- Seneca -- The legacy of Roman theatre
Roman Republican Theater by Gesine Manuwald
Call Number: 872.01 M29r 2015
ISBN: 9781107696099
Publication Date: 2015
Theatre flourished in the Roman Republic, from the tragedies of Ennius and Pacuvius to the comedies of Plautus and Terence and the mimes of Laberius. Yet apart from the surviving plays of Plautus and Terence the sources are fragmentary and difficult to interpret and contextualise. This book provides a comprehensive history of all aspects of the topic, incorporating recent findings and modern approaches. It discusses the origins of Roman drama and the historical, social and institutional backgrounds of all the dramatic genres to be found during the Republic (tragedy, praetexta, comedy, togata, Atellana, mime and pantomime). Possible general characteristics are identified, and attention is paid to the nature of and developments in the various genres. The clear structure and full bibliography also ensure that the book has value as a source of reference for all upper-level students and scholars of Latin literature and ancient drama.
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman theatre by edited by Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton
Call Number: 882 C17c
ISBN: 9780521834568
Publication Date: 2007

A Primer in Theatre History : From the Greeks to the Spanish Golden Age
Call Number: Chapter Two: Rome
ISBN: 9780761860037
Roman Republican Theatre
ISBN: 9781139045278
Publication Date: 2011
Performance in Greek and Roman Theatre
ISBN: 9789004245457
Publication Date: 2013
Roman Laughter : The Comedy of Plautus
ISBN: 9781423735885
Publication Date: 1987

Ancient Roman Theatre 450-100 B.C. : Subjects

Library catalog subject search:

Follow these links to find the location of Owens Library books.

Ancient Roman Culture & Society Core Books:

Life in Ancient Rome by Casson, Lionel
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781612309149
Publication Date: 2015
Daily life in the Roman city : Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia by Gregory S. Aldrete
Call Number: 937.6 A36d
ISBN: 9780313331749
Publication Date: 2004
Offers an in-depth overview of the cultural, political, economic, and spiritual structure of three of ancient Rome's most prosperous cities, Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia
Life and leisure in ancient Rome by J.P.V.D. Balsdon
Call Number: 937.06 B19L 2002
ISBN: 1842125931
Publication Date: 2002
Leisure and Ancient Rome by J.P. Toner
Call Number: 306.4812 T66L
ISBN: 0745614329
Publication Date: 1995
Life in Ancient Rome by F.R. Cowell
Call Number: 937 C87L 1980
ISBN: 0399503285
Publication Date: 1961
The city of Rome -- Growing up in ancient Rome -- Family life -- Slavery -- Earning a living -- Leisure hours -- Religion -- Chronological summary

Links to the full text of plays for ancient Roman theatre 450-100 B.C.

The Haunted House by Plautus, Titus Maccius
ISBN: 9780413772961
Online Full Text from Drama Online
The Eunuch by Terrence
ISBN: 9780413772961
Online Full Text from Drama Online

Arts and Humanities Through the Eras by Edward I. Bleiberg, James Allan Evans, Kristen Mossler Figg, Philip M. Soergel, and John Block Friedman
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
Publication Date: 2005
"Author Biography" of ancient Roman playwright TERENCE c. 193 B.C.E.–c. 159 B.C.E.
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras by Edward I. Bleiberg, James Allan Evans, Kristen Mossler Figg, Philip M. Soergel, and John Block Friedman
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
Publication Date: 2005
"Author Biography" of ancient Roman playwright TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS c. 250 B.C.E.–c. 184 B.C.E.
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras by Edward I. Bleiberg, James Allan Evans, Kristen Mossler Figg, Philip M. Soergel, and John Block Friedman
Call Number: electronic resource
ISBN: 9780787656959
Publication Date: 2005
"Author Biography" of ancient Roman Playwright SENECA THE YOUNGER c. 4 B.C.E.–65 C.E.

Streaming video:

Covers apsects of drama, theater design and stage setting, acting, costumes, culture, and audiences.
These streaming videos also have a text transcript of the video content.

Staging Classical Comedy (36:00)

Theater Design

Ancient Theaters of Greece and Rome (23:00)
Theatrical Devices in Classical Theatre (20:00)

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