Give students the background they need to understand how Greek tragedy worked before they begin reading the play itself. This classroom-ready lesson introduces the performance space, actors and masks, the chorus, dramatic structure, and essential tragedy terms through a coordinated presentation and guided-notes packet.

WHAT STUDENTS LEARN
• how Greek tragedy developed from public religious performance
• the parts of the Greek theater: theatron, orchestra, skene, and parodoi
• how actors, masks, and the chorus shaped performance
• the basic movement of a Greek tragedy: prologue, parodos, episodes, stasima/odes, and exodos
• useful tragedy terms including tragic hero, hamartia, hubris, catharsis, anagnorisis, and peripeteia
• what a Greek audience already knew and expected when watching a tragedy

WHAT'S INCLUDED
• 21-slide teaching presentation in PowerPoint and PDF
• 7-page student guided-notes packet in PowerPoint and PDF
• 7-page teacher answer key in PowerPoint and PDF
• 4-page teacher guide in PowerPoint and PDF
• 2-page teacher source notes in PowerPoint and PDF

THE STUDENT NOTES
The guided notes follow the presentation closely while leaving students enough room to write. The theater-map page gives the performance space the attention it deserves, and the packet was designed to remain clear when printed or photocopied in black and white.

BEST FOR
• Sophocles' Antigone
• Greek tragedy or drama units
• introductory background before reading a Greek play
• grades 9–12
• approximately 35–45 minutes, or two shorter class periods

TEACHER NOTE
The lesson is meant to give students the background they need for the play—not to turn the opening of a literature unit into a survey of ancient Greece.

Teaching Antigone? This resource is also included in my Antigone Bundle, along with pre-reading context, a mythology/allusions project, and a post-reading tragic hero analysis.