THEATER OF STONE
All the people in a city can’t fit into a theater at the same time to
see a movie or a play. Movies and plays are usually shown more than once
so that everyone who wants to see them has a place to sit.
But long ago, when plays were first put on in the country that is now
Greece, there was only one performance of a play.
So the theater had to be large enough to hold all the people who wanted
to see the play.
In the picture, you see one of the first theaters—the Theater of
Dionysus, named in honor of one of many gods that people used to
worship. The word theater comes from a Greek word that means “a place
for seeing.” The stone seats of the old Greek theater look somewhat like
the bleachers of a football stadium.
The Theater of Dionysus in Athens, Greece, is now in ruins. Weeds poke
through the seats and stage. But even the ruins of the theater remind us
of the days when Greek plays, like those of Sophocles and Aristophanes,
were performed there.
