Poet from Icaria. He is said to have been the first to win a prize for tragedy at a festival in Athens (c.534 BC). According to Aristotle, he was the first to use single actors to deliver speeches in stage work, as well as the traditional chorus.
Thespis of Icaria (6th century BCE) is claimed to be the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor in a play although the reality is undoubtedly more complex.
According to Aristotle, writing two hundred years later, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs (songs about stories from mythology with choric refrains). Thespis supposedly introduced a new style in which one singer or actor performed the words of individual characters in the stories, distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks.
This new style was called tragedy, and Thespis was the most popular exponent of it.
It is sometimes implied that Thespis invented acting in the Western world, and that prior to his performances, no one had ever assumed the resemblance of another person for the purpose of storytelling.
It must be stressed, however, that there is very little concrete information about Thespis and the origins of Greek theatre, and all of the above may be more legend than reality.
In theatrical myth (or superstition), Thespis is said to exist now as a mischievous spirit, and when things go wrong in performances it is often blamed on his ghostly intervention.
In theatre and acting craft, there is a minor school of thought known as "anti-thespian," which posits that it is inappropriate or artistically flawed to assume a character other than yourself.
Thespis in popular culture
Thespis was the title of an episode of the TV series Sports Night, in which it was mentioned that he became the first actor on November 23, and also that he became a mischievous spirit, as noted above.
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