What were Greek theatres like?(costumes, characters and set)

Nearly every Greek and Roman city of note had an open-air theatre, the seats arranged in tiers with a lovely view of the surrounding landscape. Here the Greeks sat and watched the plays first of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, and of Menander and the later playwrights.

Originally, in the ancient Greek and Roman world, costumes were heavily exaggerated so as to convey each character to those observing the production from as far as 300 feet away. Bright colours and heavily overdone features helped to portray gender and size as well as and most importantly, emotion. In fact, men would also often have to wear oversized fake penises. This was very popular in comedy plays.

The actors entered from either side and from a central door in the skene, which also housed the ekkyklema, a wheeled platform with sets of scenes. A mechane, or crane, located at the right end of the stage, was used to hoist gods and heroes through the air onto the stage.

Skene - a sort of building that would be based right behind the stage. Used to contain costumes and other things, also where actors would change.

ekkyklema - this was a place in the skene which would be used to reveal dead bodies. E.g Hippolytus' body in the last scene of Euripides.

Mechane/crane - Made of wooden beams and pulley systems, the device was used to lift an actor into the air, usually representing flight.

Lastly, the actors in Greek theatre were semi-professionals. They were paid for their performances, but acting was not their full time occupation. There were no actresses on the Greek stage. All the female roles were played by men. There was also the chorus which was like a modern day ensemble. Their purpose was to help relate the story to the audience and to show the sequence of the events.