THEATER. Authors actors masks of the ancient scene

The exhibition at the Ara Pacis Museum entitled THEATER. Authors, actors, masks of the ancient scene, dedicated to theatrical performances, actors and all aspects of the "ludi" of ancient Rome, gives us an important insight into the life of the Latin world.

The exhibition, with an original approach, offers visitors a living reconstruction, in which the protagonists of the ancient scene - present in films shot specifically for the exhibition - involve the public in the atmosphere of 2000 years ago, where among the large steps of the great Roman theatres, divided by orders, housed the various social hierarchies of republican and imperial Rome.

In this way a story unfolds which, starting from the Greek, Magna Graecia, Etruscan and Italic origins of the Roman theatre, where the close connection with the religious festivals of the "ludi" and the first performances on wooden stages is underlined, reaches up to to the flowering and splendors of the imperial age, characterized by the frons scenae of the great theaters intended for tens of thousands of spectators; architectures which - just like the other public buildings of the forum, monumental temples, amphitheatres, basilicas and arches - characterized the forma urbis in a uniform way.

Photo credits: courtesy of the Ara Pacis Museum official site