![]() As these treatises appeared several hundred years after classical theatre, however, the accuracy of their descriptions is questionable. Detailed literary accounts of theatre and scenery in ancient Greece can be found in De architectura libri decem, by the 1st-century- bce Roman writer Vitruvius, and in the Onomasticon, of the 2nd century ce, by the Greek scholar Julius Pollux. Developments in ancient Greece Visual and spatial aspectsĭuring the earliest period of theatre in ancient Greece, when the poet Thespis-who is credited both with inventing tragedy and with being the first actor-came to Athens in 534 bce with his troupe on wagons, the performances were given in the agora (i.e., the marketplace), with wooden stands for audience seating in 498, the stands collapsed and killed several spectators. Eventually, however, the priestly caste and the performer became physically set apart from the spectators. The transition from ritual involving mass participation to something approaching drama, in which a clear distinction is made between active participants and passive onlookers, is incompletely understood. ![]() They were used as places of assembly at which a priestly caste would attempt to communicate with supernatural forces. Karnak in ancient Egypt, Persepolis in Persia, and Knossos in Crete all offer examples of architectural structures, purposely ceremonial in design, of a size and configuration suitable for large audiences. Studies in anthropology suggest that their forerunners were the campfire circles around which members of a primitive community would gather to participate in tribal rites. ![]() The civilizations of the Mediterranean basin in general, the Far East, northern Europe, and the Western Hemisphere before the voyages of Christopher Columbus in the second half of the 15th century have all left evidence of constructions whose association with religious ritual activity relates them to the theatre.
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