Ancient Greek Masks - Masks used in Greek Drama

Greek Masks Everyone involved in a tragedy or comedy, except for the flute player, was supposed to wear a mask. The sad and happy greek masks that are a common sight in every drama school have their roots in Ancient Greece. The reason no theatre masks have been saved is that they were made of linen or other flexible material together with terra alba, which meant that they deteriorated pretty easily. Another question that may arise is, why did ancient Greeks have to wear masks? In modern theater we rarely do that! Well, the comedy and tragedy masks were used so that the audience could be made aware of the emotions of the character. They were sitting too far away to notice any facial expressions of the actors, hence the big grins or extremely sad faces of the ancient greek masks. Also, since there weren't many actors available for each small part, the same actor (did you know there were no actresses either?) could portray two or more different characters by wearing a different mask. Hope you enjoyed this page about ancient greek masks. I got the info directly from my school book and translated it into English. Relevant paid links about Ancient Greek Masks