Thespis' car, relief of the Giotto's Belltower in Florence, Italy, Nino Pisano, 1334-1336

Thespis (1965), bronze sculpture by Robert Cook, commissioned for the opening of the Canberra Theatre

Thespis of Icaria (present-day Icaria) (6th century BC) is claimed to be the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor in a play, although the reality is undoubtedly more complex. Giotto’s bell tower ( Campanile) stands on the Cathedral square (Piazza del Duomo in Florence, Italy Florence ( Italian: Firenze Florentia and Fiorenza) is the Capital City of the Italian region of Tuscany Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Nino Pisano (fl 1349 &ndash 1368 was an Italian sculptor the son of Andrea Pisano. Bronze is any of a broad range of Copper alloys, usually with Tin as the main additive but sometimes with other elements such as Phosphorus The Canberra Theatre Centre is the Australian Capital Territory ’s central Performing arts venue and Australia ’s first performing arts centre the first For the Utopian place see the entry for Étienne Cabet Icaria, also spelled Ikaria (Ικαρία locally Nikaria The 6th century BC started the first day of 600 BC and ended the last day of 501 BC. An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first actor in addition to the chorus. ^[1]

According to Aristotle, writing nearly two centuries later, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs (songs about stories from mythology with choric refrains). Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The dithyramb was originally an ancient Greek hymn sung to the god Dionysus. A refrain (from Vulgar Latin refringere, "to repeat" and later from Old French refraindre) is the Line or lines that are Thespis supposedly introduced a new style in which one singer or actor performed the words of individual characters in the stories, distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks.

This new style was called tragedy, and Thespis was the most popular exponent of it. Eventually, in 534 BC, competitions to find the best tragedy were instituted at the City Dionysia in Athens, and Thespis won the first documented competition. Events and trends 539 BC — Babylon is conquered by Cyrus, defeating Nabonidus; noted in such documents as that of Africanus The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedies Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's

It is implied that Thespis invented acting in the Western world, and that prior to his performances, no one had ever assumed the resemblance of another person for the purpose of storytelling: In fact, Thespis is the first known actor in written plays. Acting is the work of an Actor or Actress, which is a person in Theatre, Television, Film, or any other Storytelling The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings He may thus have had a substantial role in changing the way stories were said and inventing theater as we know it today. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one In reverence to Thespis, actors throughout western history have been referred to as thespians (cf. International Thespian Society). The International Thespian Society is an honorary organization for high-school and middle-school theatre students located at more than 3600 affiliated secondary

It must be stressed, however, that there is very little concrete information about Thespis and the origins of Greek theatre, and all of the above may be more legend than reality.

In theatrical myth (or superstition), Thespis is said to exist now as a mischievous spirit, and when things go wrong in performances it is often blamed on his ghostly intervention. Superstition ( Latin superstitio, literally "standing over" derived perhaps from standing in awe used in Latin as a unreasonable or excessive belief Like many superstitions, this belief ranges in different cases from being considered a humorous legend to being taken very seriously, with various charms and rituals being employed to either invite his approval or defend against him.

Thespis in popular culture

"Thespis" was the title of an episode of the TV series Sports Night, in which it was mentioned that he became the first actor on November 23, and also that he became a mischievous spirit, as noted above. Sports Night is an American Television series about a fictional Sports news show (also called Sports Night) and the people who

The Gilbert and Sullivan opera Thespis is a burlesque of the orignal myth, with Thespis being warned that should he fail at the job assigned him, he shall be named Father of the Drama - and thus responsible for all the awful theatre in existence. Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian era partnership of Librettist W Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old, is an Operatic Extravaganza that was the first collaboration between dramatist W

At La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, CA, to join the Thespian society, one must write an Ode to Thespis. Statistics 2548 students were enrolled at La Costa Canyon High School in 2007 with a senior class of about 700

See also

• Phrynichus
• Aeschylus
• Sophocles
• Euripides
• Aristophanes
• Aristotle
• Dionysia

References

Bibliography

• Buckham, Philip Wentworth, "Theatre of the Greeks", 1827.
• Gaster, Theodor, H., "Thespis: Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East", Henry Schuman Publishing, New York, 1950. Theodor Herzl Gaster (1906 - 1992 was a British -born American Biblical scholar known for work on Comparative religion, Mythology and the ISBN 0877521882.