U N I T 1 LOOKING AT THE STAGE ??? THROUGHOUT THE CENTURIES ??? Scenography concerns the study and practice of design for performances. It requires particular skills to create movable sets, or illusions of environments, in order to be able to construct an event with lighting, atmosphere and costumes. A. STAGE DESIGN THE ORIGINS AND SCENOGRAPHIC ART The term scenography is of Greek origin (skené, meaning stage or scene building ; grapho, meaning I describe ) originally described within Aristotle s Poetics as skenographia . What skené was at the time is difficult to say: the term probably referred to a tent or booth. This was a covered structure, originally a temporary wooden building, where the actors stored their masks and costumes, and performed quick changes out of the sight of the audience. We know very little about the skené in the 5th century; however, there was probably some type of stage building by the time Aeschylus Oresteia was first produced (458 BC), since these plays require central doors and an upper platform. The wooden stage buildings of the 5th century were replaced by more permanent stone structures in the 4th century; stone foundations reveal the outline of the stage building at the theatre of Epidaurus. It is thought that the original stage buildings were relatively low, rectangular structures with large central doors, possibly two other doors flanking the central one, a flat roof on which actors could appear, and possibly a higher platform above this roof . There may have been projecting wings on either side of the stage building (the paraskenia, beside the skené ), and between these two wings there may have been a low platform or stage, connected to the orchestra by only a few steps (the proskenion, in front of the skené ). On either side of the stage building were long ramps, called eisodoi or parodoi, that led into or away from the orchestra, the core of any Greek theatre, the dancing place of the chorus and the chief performance space. Within continental Europe, the term has been closely associated with the professional practice of scénographie and is synonymous with the English language term theatre design or set design . Classical tragedy (Agamemnon by Aeschylus) in Syracuse theatre. 264