t reveal this effect. There were three obvious limitations that the Greek producer had to deal with. First, lighting effects were impossible, so the play could not expose sunlight, dawn, dusk, or evening. Except if the play was shown early in the morning, or late in the evening. Secondly, changes in scenery were extremely limited. They usually had no more than four scenes, but even then it was scarce. Thirdly, the size of the Greek theater introduced a limitation of another kind. The distance from the front of the stage, across the orchestra to the front row of spectators, was 60ft. The back rows, were about 300 feet from the stage. So an actor of 6 feet, looked about 3 and a half tall inches to spectators in the back rows. In order to make up for this, the exaggerated acting and voice production kept spectators coming back to watch more plays. Plays were performed to portray many daily events that happened in the Greek life. Such as political rises and downfalls, stories of heros, stories that portrayed fears of the gods, or even success with the gods were just some events that were portrayed in the theater. Many plays were just stories that a producer created himself. Plays were basically started in the time when aristocrats were taking over different city-states, and running dictatorships, or very unfair governments. There was a small majority of the aristocrats who were highly amused and into the theatre. It was these certain aristocrats who made it a point to have certain theatres built and shows put on. There were two basic forms of production, comedy and tragedy. Comedies were mostly sung, with strong instruments to back up the chorus. Tragedies usually followed the same pattern, opening with a prologue and followed by a parodos, (in which the chorus enters singing). The last stasimon provides the closing scene as the chorus and actors depart. Antigone is a great example of an early Greek tragedy. The theatre...
