The manager of a production (dominus gregis) provided for all costs, including props (ornamenta), costumes, and occasionally the feasts after an exceptional performance. These managers also hired actors for their troupe (grex), and, in an effort to minimize production costs, hired as few actors as possible. Consequently, actors played many characters (dramatis personae) and costumes served as a means to represent the different characters. Garment color described the age or social status of these characters: white for an old man, multicolored for a youth, yellow for a courtesan, purple for the rich, and red for the poor. Composed of all-male actors, casts used brown and white colored masks to differentiate the sex of a character. In terms of makeup, actors playing women wore face paint. Actors performed in various wigs to further differentiate between the multiple characters an actor played.
PRODUCTIONS
THE ROLE OF THEATRE IN ANCIENT ROME
THE ROLE OF THEATRE IN ANCIENT ROME
Actors often played multiple characters, so masks, such as this one made of bronze, differentiated parts.
Walls decorated with masks, Romans theaters differed greatly from the minimalistic Greek syle by adorning their theaters with elaborate carvings such as this.
19