How Did Roman Theater Influence Greek Theatre

According to Paoli, there has always been an interest of acting in Rome, so it isn’t surprising that they had some of the most iconic play styles. Rome shouldn’t get all the credit however, a lot of their ideas were actually borrowed from the Greeks. Plays weren’t very popular at first but soon, they had caught the attention “among the better educated classes, [so] it’s not hard to imagine the attraction they had for the man in the street” (Carcopino), and this shows how interested the romans were in acting over time. Theatre was a key source of entertainment in both Greece and Rome and they heavily influenced each other.
Theatres were a very popular form of entertainment in Rome at the time. Theatres were a form of entertainment where actors …show more content…
According to Paoli, plays were held almost every day and were usually held in the afternoon unless it was a special occasion, then it that case it would be held at night. There didn’t seem to be a cost since it was open to the public, however, aristocrats and public officials sat in the very front, while the less wealthy and common people sat in the back. Plays were very popular and multiple plays were held in one day, and this was because “dramatic writing flourished most brilliantly in Rome” (Paoli 258) at the time. As the demand for plays rose up, people were more excited and wanted to get decent seats, so they started to attend very early and give up sleep. This is similar to how people today camp out overnight or come very early to sporting events or concerts. There didn’t seem to be many ways to get involved in the plays since there were only one to three actors at the time and it was usually up to the playwright to decide who they cast. However, that didn’t stop wealthy citizens from sponsoring plays. Those citizens were called Patrons, and this is very similar to an art service today called Patreon which lets people (also called Patrons) sponsor and donate to their favorite