Thespis' Little Helper (Those Pesky Theatre Terms Series)

It has been expressed that perhaps a little background, a touch of credentials, and the like may be desirable as I shower you with these delightful "Pesky Theatre Terms". I suppose we might be well-served to begin with Thespis. As you may have gathered, the word "thespian" is derived from Thespis. "But why?!" You may ask. Well, for one, he was the first winner of the Great Dionysia in 534 B. C. (But I won't bore you with the details of all that. For you eager beavers out there, feel free to Google and learn more. For the rest of you, suffice to say that is the greatest honor bestowed upon any actor in ancient theatre [somewhat akin to our modern Tony awards, but much more prestigious, although perhaps just as political].)

He also introduced a slew of incredibly delightful innovations: masks, costumes, make-up (and we all know there a great many actors that we do not want to lay our eyes upon lacking any one of those three things...except maybe Daniel Ratcliffe in that titillating revival of Equus in London's West End, which we can only hope will transfer to the Great White Way).

So that's Thespis. And then there's me. It seems that every great being must have an apprentice to carry on his/her work: Stanislavski had Uta Hagen, Batman had Robin, and George Sr. has George Jr. So now there's me. Here to carry on the great Thespis' work. "Thespis' Little Helper" and my little corner of the Blog World here on Barksdale Theatre's website. I hope you're delighted! I know I am.

So I hope you'll come back from time to time and take a bit of knowledge and hopefully quite a nice chuckle in our great, fantastic, sage series "Those Pesky Theatre Terms" !!!