Aeschylus’ Role in Formation and Promotion of the Ancient Greek Scenic design From a Playwright to a Professional Scenographer

If we consider the concept of ritual ceremonies and festivals throughout the history of theatre, the birth and core of all productions begins with ancient Greece and Aegean civilizations and the influential number of tragedies and comedies, such as the plays of Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes and others, which have come to us from that time. There have been many continuous studies on Greek theater, ritual ceremonies, myths, Philosophy and so on; however previous studies focused more on the content, concepts, structures and philosophy of Greek plays while fewer studies have been conducted and focused on the modality of the scenic designs of these works. For example, construction of stage, styles of stage design, the painting of Pinakes (flats) and Priaktoi (Three dimensional volumes and prisms used on the stage), the most famous of stage designers and painter of scenes. Because of the nature of set designs and theatrical scenery which with the completion of each show is dismantled, there are limited written and visual resources and documentations in this field. However, by investigating the plays production venues, available limited resources and new discoveries of archeological sites, we can reach discern significant and relevant results in this regard. Aeschylus was considered as one of the greatest ancient Greek playwrights as a poet who according to many scholars was the first tragedy writer in the history of the theater. Many scholars of theater have known Aeschylus only as a tragedy writer even though he is credited with several innovations in regards to directing and dictating complete details in his plays. Increasing the number of actors from one person to two, reducing the importance of the singers’ presence in the plays and bringing up dialogs between actors are considered totally as Aeschylus’ innovations. However, by checking the scenes of his plays and paying attention to the fact that Aeschylus draws his own plays on stage, perhaps he could be considered one of the first scenic designers in theater history. Whereas in ancient Greece there was no scene designer and the artist was known as the scene painter. This study tries to explore Aeschylus’ role in the development and promotion of the ancient Greek theater design via review and research of his plays and written references around him and Greek theater; a known form of scenery that continued alongside the Classic and Hellenic architecture for centuries and its structures and systems continued up to the Renaissance and even centuries later. In this study, several articles and books written in this field have been applied and identify Aeschylus in the scenery of the Greek theater as one of the first scene writers for theater history, while studying the role of and attempting to emphasize his importance in regards to play writing and introducing a new face to his audiences. In this research, historical and analytical methods have been used to direct us to the magnificent of the Ancient Greeks and the continuous credit and influence that they continue to have on modern theatre.