The plays had a chorus of up to 50 people, who performed the plays in verse accompanied by music. The performance space was a simple circular space, where the chorus danced and sang. The orchestra, which had an average diameter of 78 ft. Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area, including the theatron, the orchestra, and the skene, or scenery.
The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand. Mathematics played a large role in the construction of these theatres, as their designers had to able to create acoustics in them so that the actors' voices could be heard throughout the theatre, all the way to the highest seat. The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the ground) were wooden, but around 499 BC inlaying stone blocks became much more common.
In 465 BC, the playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall, which hung or stood behind the orchestra, which also served as an area where actors could change their costumes. It was known as the skene (scenery). In 425 BC a stone scene wall, called a paraskenia was used. A paraskenia was a long wall with sides, which may have had doorways for entrances and exits. Just behind the paraskenia was the proskenion. The proskenion was columned, and was similar to the modern day proscenium. Today's proscenium is what separates the audience from the stage. It is the frame around the stage that makes it look like the action is taking place in a picture frame.
Greek theatres also had entrances for the actors and chorus members called parodoi. The parodoi (plural of parodos) were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers entered. In between the parodoi and the orchestra lay the eisodoi, through which actors entered and exited. By the end of the 5th century BC, around the time of the Peloponnesian War, the skene, the back wall, was two stories high. The upper story was called the episkenion. Some theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.
The oldest surviving play in history is The Persians, created by Aeschylus. The play is about, you got it, The Persians, in their capital.... Persia. Unlike most tragedies, this one begins with the chorus, when usually the chorus comes much later in the play. Queen Mother Atossa is waiting for the news of King Xerxes (Ex-irks-ees) expedition against the Greeks. A messenger arrives bringing news of the defeat, and the persian leaders who have been killed. Fortunately, King Xerxes has escaped and is returning. Also, all the battle is explained in all its gore and glory, then the messenger states the battle cry of the Greeks:
And I quote: "Forward, sons of the Greeks, liberate the fatherland, liberate your children, your women, the temples of your ancestral gods, the graves of your forebears: this is the battle for everything".
A ghost appears in the tomb of Darius, the ghost being him. He appears and tells them about the battle and who's fault it was. During his speech, he makes a reference to the Battle of Plataea, a Greek victory.
The play has been repeated, translated and rewritten a large number of times now, and it was the first in history to have used Tragedy as the dominent storyline.
