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also served as another "hidden stage". At times some of the action went on inside, in which case it was up to the audience to decide what was happening based on the noises coming from the inside. It was a convention of the dramas of the classic period that characters never died on stage, instead
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means 'tent' or 'hut', and it is thought that the original structure for these purposes was a tent or light building of wood and was a temporary structure. It was initially a very light structure or just cloth hanging from a rope, but over the course of time the
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in 31 BC. As
Ancient Greece began to change from a culture consisting of ethnic and city-state Greeks to one governed by large monarchies, theatre architecture to include the stage buildings began to experience significant changes. In the 4th century BC, the
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became a permanent stone structure and the stage was raised off the ground. In surviving examples this stage seems to have been raised by 2.5β4 m above the orchestra, and to have been 2β4 m deep, terminated by the
237:('god-speaking'), from which one might assume that its primary use was for the advent of deities, either at the start or close of the drama." Most theatres still standing today date from the Hellenistic period.
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At some point at Athens in the
Classical period a small stoa colonnade was constructed behind the scene-building with its back to the theatre and would have provided a permanent backdrop for the action."
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no longer supported painted sets in the Greek manner, but relied for effect on elaborate permanent architectural decoration and consisted of a series of complex stone buildings. To each side there was a
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declined in importance compared to a smaller group of main actors, the chorus remained in the orchestra to perform, while the main actors generally performed from the stage on top of the
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itself became increasingly elaborate, and was also available as a place for actors to declaim from, so that the performers between them had three levels available. "The roof of the
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underwent fundamental changes. First, it became a permanent building, whose roof could sometimes be used to make speeches, and as time passed it was raised up from the level of the
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with three or more doors, and sometimes three stories. The evolution of the actor, who assumed an individual part and answered to the chorus (the word for
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facade remained normally outside the view of the audience, and fulfilled the original function as a changing room and place for props.
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behind the orchestra β where the performers acted, played, and danced β broke what is thought to have been the original
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was as elaborate as its Roman development, which dispensed with the orchestra altogether, leaving a relatively low
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had become a large and complex, elaborately decorated, stone building on several levels. Actors emerged from the
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in Athens is thought to have been the first purpose-built theatre. Around the middle of the 5th century BC, the
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and could use its steps and balconies to speak from. It was also where costumes were stored and to which the
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began in the 6th century BC and traces its origins to religious rituals such as the
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was behind the orchestra and provided a space for supporting stage scenery.
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549:. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. p. 39.
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281:facade, often decorated, and a wide stage or
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487:Epidaurus
323:episkenion
300:hypokrites
277:proscenium
234:theologian
216:proskenion
168:to do so.
133:dithyrambs
88:proskenion
76:proskenion
38:See also:
335:thyromata
113:periaktoi
71:orchestra
532:Perseus.
490:Argolis
370:Country
305:episodes
284:pulpitum
493:Greece
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440:Athens
437:Athens
390:MΓ©rida
373:Notes,
361:Period
341:logeion
320:. The
209:As the
107:parodoi
44:In the
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559:Grove.
468:Libya
465:Khoms
459:Roman
418:Syria
415:Bosra
409:Roman
393:Spain
384:Roman
307:. The
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26:Jordan
22:Jerash
575:ed.,
511:Notes
347:skene
329:skene
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295:actor
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