Performing Greek Comedy
Cambridge University Press, 11/30/2011
EAN 9781107009301, ISBN10: 1107009308
Hardcover, 328 pages, 23.5 x 23.5 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Alan Hughes presents a new complete account of production methods in Greek comedy. The book summarises contemporary research and disputes, on such topics as acting techniques, theatre buildings, masks and costumes, music and the chorus. Evidence is re-interpreted and traditional doctrine overthrown. Comedy is presented as the pan-Hellenic, visual art of theatre, not as Athenian literature. Recent discoveries in visual evidence are used to stimulate significant historical revisions. The author has directly examined 350 vase scenes of comedy in performance and actor-figurines, in 75 collections, from Melbourne to St Petersburg. Their testimony is applied to acting techniques and costumes, and women's participation in comedy and mime. The chapters are arranged by topic, for convenient reference by scholars and students of theatre history, literature, classics and drama. Overall, the book provides a fresh practical insight into this continually developing subject.
1. Comedy in art, Athens and abroad
2. Poets of Old and Middle Comedy
3. Theatres
4. The comic chorus
5. Music in comedy
6. Acting, from lyric to dual consciousness
7. Technique and style of acting comedy
8. The masks of comedy
9. Costumes of Old and Middle Comedy
10. Comedy and women
11. New Comedy
Catalogue of objects discussed
vases, terracottas, other media
Bibliography.