1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class as a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:11,320 --> 00:00:14,520 Speaker 1: a show that raises the curtain on everyday history and 4 00:00:14,600 --> 00:00:18,759 Speaker 1: lets it take about I'm Gay, Bluesier. And in this episode, 5 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: we're talking about one of the most influential performers of 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,520 Speaker 1: all time, a new kind of actor, who said, you 7 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,240 Speaker 1: have played a vital role in shaping the way that 8 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:43,159 Speaker 1: stories were told. The day was November four BC. An 9 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: ancient Greek performer named Thespis became the first known actor 10 00:00:47,360 --> 00:00:52,040 Speaker 1: to portray a character on stage. His performance took place 11 00:00:52,120 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: during an Athenian festival called Dionysia, which was an elaborate 12 00:00:56,200 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: celebration of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. As 13 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:04,720 Speaker 1: part of the festivities, a chorus would sing ancient hymns 14 00:01:04,760 --> 00:01:09,319 Speaker 1: called dither rams in the deity's honor. The performers recounted 15 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:13,920 Speaker 1: the god's amazing exploits and abilities on stage, sometimes while 16 00:01:13,959 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: wearing masks and costumes, but they weren't meant to portray 17 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 1: specific characters in the story. That supposedly changed on what 18 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:26,280 Speaker 1: would later be known as November twenty three, thirty four, 19 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:30,920 Speaker 1: the traditional date assigned to the festival. Thespis is said 20 00:01:30,959 --> 00:01:33,640 Speaker 1: to have shaken things up that year by stepping out 21 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: from the chorus, donning a new kind of mask, and 22 00:01:37,240 --> 00:01:41,440 Speaker 1: performing the role of Dionysus himself rather than just singing 23 00:01:41,520 --> 00:01:46,120 Speaker 1: his praises. Many in the crowd considered the action blasphemous, 24 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 1: but the majority were too captivated to care. Thespis had 25 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,160 Speaker 1: added a new exciting element to the early art of drama, 26 00:01:54,560 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: and the world would never be the same. The sixth 27 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: century edition of care after acting to choral processions was 28 00:02:02,560 --> 00:02:07,320 Speaker 1: brought about indirectly by a tyrannical politician named pizza Stratus. 29 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,600 Speaker 1: After seizing power in Athens in the five sixties, pizzas 30 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: Stratus established a host of new public festivals, including Dionysia. 31 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:21,480 Speaker 1: That citywide festival featured plenty of revelry and plenty of wine, 32 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,680 Speaker 1: but there were more highbrow offerings on hand as well, 33 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 1: including artistic competitions devoted to music, dance, singing, and poetry. However, 34 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,919 Speaker 1: in five thirty four it said that pizza Stratus wanted 35 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,880 Speaker 1: to change things up by adding a drama competition to 36 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: the festival's offerings. At the time, that would have taken 37 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: the form of a choral presentation with dramatic and narrative elements, 38 00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 1: not too far off from what we call a play today. 39 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: The difference was that the performers were all just narrating 40 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,920 Speaker 1: in the third person, rather than exchanging dialogue as characters. 41 00:02:57,720 --> 00:03:00,440 Speaker 1: That was the kind of entertainment Thespis and is Troop 42 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,119 Speaker 1: were expected to perform at Dionysia, but the actor had 43 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,760 Speaker 1: something else in mind. Although little is known about his 44 00:03:07,800 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: early life, it's believed Thespis was born in Acaria, which 45 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 1: at the time was a city in southeastern Greece. Later 46 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: in life, he moved to the ancient Greek metropolis of Athens, 47 00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:21,760 Speaker 1: where he got involved in the fledgling art of theater, 48 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,920 Speaker 1: perhaps as a traveling performer. He was later credited as 49 00:03:25,960 --> 00:03:28,640 Speaker 1: a talented playwright as well, but since none of his 50 00:03:28,680 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: alleged works exist today, it's unclear whether or not that's true. 51 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,920 Speaker 1: What we do know for certain is that Thespis was 52 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: active during a time when the artistic world was changing. 53 00:03:39,720 --> 00:03:43,760 Speaker 1: Stories that had once been exclusively oral were increasingly being 54 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,720 Speaker 1: written down and preserved. That shift began to change the 55 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: way some artists approached storytelling Before, there had been an 56 00:03:51,920 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: almost stifling sense of continuity. Performers were reciting or enacting 57 00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,640 Speaker 1: the stories of their culture as a kind of ongoing 58 00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:02,920 Speaker 1: rich ul But with the advent of writing, a story 59 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: could endure without the need of other people constantly retelling it. 60 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,880 Speaker 1: And if that was the case, then the performance of 61 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: stories on stage could be new and different too. By 62 00:04:14,080 --> 00:04:17,359 Speaker 1: all accounts, Thespis was the first to take advantage of 63 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:21,040 Speaker 1: that newfound freedom. There is no record of what exactly 64 00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:23,839 Speaker 1: he and his troop performed that day, but since the 65 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:27,240 Speaker 1: festival was devoted to Dionysus, it's safe to assume it 66 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,159 Speaker 1: was a scripted story that revolved around him. That theory 67 00:04:31,279 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 1: is also supported by a passage in Aristotle's Poetics, a 68 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:39,040 Speaker 1: book of theatrical criticism written about two hundred years after 69 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:44,840 Speaker 1: Thespis's alleged performance. According to Aristotle, Thespis broke from tradition 70 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:47,800 Speaker 1: by jumping out from among the chorus and assuming the 71 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,839 Speaker 1: role of Dionysus. He then proceeded to exchange lines with 72 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: the leader of the chorus, and even took on the 73 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:58,560 Speaker 1: role of other characters, swapping between different masks to represent 74 00:04:58,640 --> 00:05:03,760 Speaker 1: each one. The performance apparently impressed the crowd, as Thespis 75 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:06,240 Speaker 1: and his crew are said to have won the competition 76 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: that day. That said, there is a healthy debate among 77 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:14,000 Speaker 1: scholars about Thespis and his true role in the development 78 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,640 Speaker 1: of Greek drama. What exactly should we credit him for. 79 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:21,720 Speaker 1: It's often implied that he invented acting, at least in 80 00:05:21,760 --> 00:05:24,440 Speaker 1: the Western world, but if we think of acting as 81 00:05:24,520 --> 00:05:27,480 Speaker 1: pretending to be someone else for the purpose of storytelling, 82 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: it's likely that somebody somewhere had already done that by 83 00:05:31,200 --> 00:05:35,719 Speaker 1: the time of Thespis. Still, there are enough contemporary stories 84 00:05:35,760 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: surrounding him to suggest he did have a transformative effect 85 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: on ancient Greek theater. We can see that just in 86 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: the act of stepping out from the chorus. By distinguishing 87 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:49,680 Speaker 1: himself as the main character of the story, Thespis helped 88 00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 1: establish the importance and effectiveness of the protagonist in drama, 89 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:57,560 Speaker 1: and by speaking with the chorus, he tied it directly 90 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:01,719 Speaker 1: to the stories plot, effectively make it a character as well. 91 00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:06,359 Speaker 1: Those ideas were further developed by other writers, including the 92 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:11,760 Speaker 1: playwrights Escalus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Their plays are the earliest 93 00:06:11,839 --> 00:06:16,240 Speaker 1: preserved Greek tragedies written in the century after Thespis, and 94 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,239 Speaker 1: each one builds on storytelling features credited to the actor. 95 00:06:21,040 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 1: Most notably, they added a full cast of characters meant 96 00:06:24,640 --> 00:06:28,200 Speaker 1: to be portrayed by more than one actor. Will never 97 00:06:28,320 --> 00:06:32,359 Speaker 1: know if Thespis really was the world's first actor, but 98 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:35,480 Speaker 1: he was clearly influential enough to be written about with 99 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,880 Speaker 1: reverence by the likes of Aristotle, Plutarch, and a host 100 00:06:38,920 --> 00:06:43,760 Speaker 1: of others. His likeness was also represented in mosaics, frescoes, 101 00:06:43,839 --> 00:06:48,480 Speaker 1: and sculptures found throughout ancient Rome, particularly in theaters and 102 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:52,719 Speaker 1: in temples dedicated to Bacchus, the Roman equivalent of Dionysus. 103 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:57,760 Speaker 1: That admiration continued for more than a thousand years, all 104 00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,320 Speaker 1: the way up to the time of Shakespeare, and he 105 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:05,000 Speaker 1: and other English theater types began calling themselves Thespians in 106 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:09,119 Speaker 1: his honor. In that way, it almost doesn't matter whether 107 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: Thespis was the first actor or not. Like the deity 108 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,760 Speaker 1: he portrayed in his breakout role, he's more of a 109 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:20,240 Speaker 1: concept now than a real person. He's transcended the specifics 110 00:07:20,280 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 1: of his life to become the embodiment of acting. The 111 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:27,240 Speaker 1: God of theater and his disciples pay him tribute to 112 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:31,320 Speaker 1: this day in the most appropriate way possible by bringing 113 00:07:31,360 --> 00:07:36,560 Speaker 1: the art of storytelling to life right there on the stage. 114 00:07:37,360 --> 00:07:40,720 Speaker 1: I'm Dave Lousier and hopefully you now know a little 115 00:07:40,760 --> 00:07:44,760 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can 116 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:48,680 Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook, 117 00:07:48,680 --> 00:07:53,080 Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show, and if 118 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,680 Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, you can pass them 119 00:07:55,720 --> 00:08:00,320 Speaker 1: along by writing to this Day at ihart media dot com. 120 00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:03,119 Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler Mace for producing the show, and thanks 121 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 1: to you for listening. I'll see you back here again 122 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:08,840 Speaker 1: tomorrow for another day in history class.