Comedy & Tragedy
Tragedy 
Dithyramb-became central part of City Dionysia
Chorus
Made up of 15 ordinary citizens
Each chorus had a leader who spoke individual lines in dialogue with actors
Accompanied by a musician who played an aulos (reed instrument similar to an oboe)
Role of Chorus
Actor - Chorus usually part of the action, often portraying local townsfolk
Scene setting - Choral songs often gave audience important background information
Commentator - Chorus often stepped back from actors and offered a commentary or moral opinion on the events of the play
Wider Context - Chorus often put events of play into broader context by connecting them to other myths or through their moralising commentary - helps to bridge gap between play and audience
Background Mood - The chorus also offered a background setting to action, acting much like a soundtrack today - could build suspense before an act of violence or lament after a tragedy
Scene-break - Most practical use of chorus was to create a break between scenes, allowed actors to leave stage and change if needed
Mask, Costumes & Props
Facial expression redundant as many spectators wouldn't have been able to see face of actors. Masks were slightly larger than life - painted with tragic expressions. Made of linen, cork or wood and openings for eyes and mouth. Masks provided practical benefits, allowed actor to take multiple roles. Different masks for same characters
A distinct mask and costume helped audience identify different characters as soon as they arrived. Tragic actors costumes based on a Chitōn - a full length robe, often ornately decorated and a himation - a cloak reaching down to the knees. Costumes closely fitted and were ornate and colourful. Some roles required specific costumes. On their feet actors wore Kothormoi - soft leather boots which reached up to the thigh
Music - Playwrights used choral odes to heighten emotional intensity
Monody - solo song by actor often sung at moments of great distress
Kommos - A formal song at moments of heightened emotion involving dialogue between actor and chorus
Themes and Cultural Context
Tragedy focused on life deepest questions - why do people suffer and to what extent can they control their own destiny.Many plays leave hero in intense pain unresolved - audience invited to suffer with tragic hero (Greek sympathein from which we get sympathy. Some tragedies do end on happier notes, however these still have the hero some great suffering
Tragic playwrights often set their plays in world of myth (Fall of Miletus is an example of an exception). Only only 1/32 surviving tragides depict a historical event (Persians by Aristophanes .Audience knew outline of plots set in myth and instead focused on how the playwright interpreted it
World of myths allowed playwrights to challenge audience with difficult issues - most commonly tragedy engaged with themes like relationships within family, between sexes, mortal and immortals, individual and polis and the conduct of the polis in its home and foreign affairs.
Aristotle on Tragedy
"Tragedy is, then, a representation of an action that is heroic and complete and of a certain magnitude—by means of language enriched with all kinds of ornament, each used separately in the different parts of the play: it represents men in action and does not use narrative, and through pity and fear it effects relief to these and similar emotions"
The Tragic Hero - "This is the sort of man who is not pre-eminently virtous and just, and yet it is through no badness or villainy of his own that he falls into the fortune, but rather through some flaw in him"
The plot - "The successful plot must then have a single2 and not, as some say, a double issue; and the change must be not to good fortune from bad but, on the contrary, from good to bad fortune, and it must not be due to villainy but to some great flaw in such a man as we have described, or of one who is better rather than worse."
Comedy
Komos (revel) - men came out onto street singing, dancing and drinking in hour of gods. Key feaure of komos was human phallus. Comedy emerged from songs and dances of the komos (Komoidia)
Actors and Chorus
4 Actors on stage instead of 3. Chorus consisted of 24 members instead of 15, each side representing different part of argument in play. 4th wall breaks fairly common
Comedy masks and costumes designed to look ridiculous. Short tunic , cloak reaching just below waist and tights. Thickly padded costume -especially around midriff and backside. Made actor shorter and rounder, enabled him to fall and roll around. Oversized leather phallus -could be used for humour
Facial features on mask greatly exaggerated and mouths ridiculously large. Some plays satirised public figures and masks often parodied real looks
Humour and comic techniques
“Farce” or “fantasy” might be more appropriate descriptions of what Aristophanes created. Old Comedy depends not on a complicated plot of intrigue or a subtle interaction between characters, but on the working out of a great idea, the more bizarre the better. Imagine a fantastic idea, wind it up and let it run, watch the splendidly “logical” conclusions unfold, and let the whole thing end in a riotous final scene.
Tragedy set in world of myth, but comedy set in everyday Athenian life - usually public figures or character stereotype. Henceforth audience unaware of comic plot -comic prologues longer to introduce plot and characters
Aristophanes often used crude and obscene words and used Greek equivalent of English 4 letter words to describe sex, bodily functions and for his characters to make fun of each other. He also composed beautiful monodies and choral lyrics and made up words
Themes and cultural context
Aristophanes plays centred on Athenian public life and made fun of politics and public figures. He enjoyed parodying poets and depicting gods as cowardly and ridiculous as opposed to awesome and powerful