Info on the Greeks!

The Ancient Greeks and Mask Theater

The ancient Greeks were one of the first people ever to record what they had done in terms of drama. They were really the foundation of all known drama today. The ancient Greeks were also the first people to record the use of masks in their theater. There were a few recorded cases of neutral masks but the masks were mainly used so that the audience could see who the character was and what emotions they are feeling. For instance an angry god would be portrayed by a man wearing a mask resembling Zeus and the mask would have a very angry expression on it's face.

The areas where the Greeks preformed their plays were usually very large and so the actors had to project their voice out a lot. This however was very difficult. The Greeks devised an ingenious way of fixing this problem. They developed masks that were quite big and extravagantly painted. These masks were big so that the Greeks could fit pipes inside them. This meant that the actors voices could be head with great clarity and without hurting the actors lungs.
I found this to be the most interesting aspect of the work the Greeks did with their masks. It interests me personally because I quite like engineering and this was a very smart idea which involved engineering.