Moreover, the Gaiety normally only ran productions for two or three weeks ; the run of Thespis was extraordinary for the theatre.

The productions have been: The Invention of Love ( Tom Stoppard, directed by Mary-Kay Gamel, produced by Judith Hallett ), The Heavensgate Deposition ( based on Apocolocyntosis by Seneca the Younger, adapted by Douglass Parker, directed by Amy R. Cohen, produced by Thomas Jenkins ), The Golden Age ( by Thomas Heywood, directed by C. W. Marshall ), Iran Man ( based on Persa by Plautus, directed by Mary-Kay Gamel ), Thespis ( by W. S. Gilbert and A. S. Sullivan, with new music by Alan Riley Jones, directed by John Starks, produced by John Given ), The Birds ( by Aristophanes, directed by Thomas Talboy ), Cyclops ( by Euripides, directed by Laura Lippman and Mike Lippman ), Thersites ( perhaps by Nicholas Udall, directed by C. W. Marshall ), Thesmophoriazusae ( by Aristophanes, directed by Bella Vivante ) and The Jurymen ( by Katherine Janson, directed by Amy R. Cohen ).

The operas are The Last of the Just, with a libretto by Gerald Walker, based on the novel by Andre Schwarz-Bart ( 1980 ); That Pig of a Molette ( 1988 ) and A Question of Faith ( 1990 ), both with Sheldon Harnick, which were presented as a double-bill under the title Love in Two Countries at St. Peter's Church Theatre, in New York City, by Musical Theater Works in 1991 ; and a score for the lost music of Thespis, which was first produced in concert in June 2008 by the Blue Hill Troupe in New York City.

In addition, Hollingshead had committed the company to perform a pantomime at The Crystal Palace on 21 December, which included many of the performers who would be in Thespis.

A recording of the Rees / Morton version of Thespis was issued on LP records, which included the original " Little maid of Arcadee " and " Climbing over rocky mountain ": Spencer, Roderick, conductor ( 1972 ).

The musical score to Thespis was never published and is now lost, except for one song that was published separately, a chorus that was re-used in The Pirates of Penzance, and the Act II ballet music.

Sullivan's manuscript for Pirates contains pages removed from a Thespis score, with the vocal parts altered from their original context as a four-part chorus.

Some scholars ( e. g. Tillett and Spencer, 2000 ) have offered evidence that Gilbert and Sullivan had planned all along to re-use " Climbing over rocky mountain ," and perhaps other parts of Thespis, noting that the presence of the unpublished Thespis score in New York, when there were no plans to revive it, might not have been accidental.

No musical score of Thespis was ever published, and most of the music has been lost.

", which focused on a character travelling back to 1871 to rescue the score to Thespis before Sullivan could destroy it.

In Sullivan's autograph score for the later work, the first part of " Climbing over rocky mountain " is actually taken from a Thespis copyist score, with the Thespis words cancelled and the new words written in, which raises the question of why Sullivan had a Thespis score to hand, if not for that purpose.

As most of the music to Thespis is lost, there is no complete recording of the original score.

Before The Sorcerer, Gilbert had constructed his plays around the established stars of whatever theatre he happened to be writing for, as had been the case with Thespis and Trial by Jury.

Also in 1871, Sullivan wrote his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, Thespis.

At the end of 1871, the impresario John Hollingshead commissioned Sullivan to work with W. S. Gilbert to create the burlesque-style comic opera Thespis for the Gaiety Theatre.

Carte knew that Gilbert had worked with Sullivan to create Thespis in 1871, and he now suggested that Sullivan could write the music for Trial by Jury.

According to Aristotle, writing nearly two centuries 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.

Also in 1871, at the Polytechnic, he performed three more sketches, The Puddleton Penny Readings, Theatricals at Thespis Lodge and The Silver Wedding ( including what would be one of his most popular songs, " I am so Volatile ", with words by his father ).

Plans for a collaboration for Carl Rosa in 1875 fell through because Gilbert was too busy with other projects, and an attempted Christmas 1875 revival of Thespis by Richard D ' Oyly Carte failed when the financiers backed out.

Because of these, Thespis is often called the " Father of Tragedy "; however, his importance is disputed, and Thespis is sometimes listed as late as 16th in the chronological order of Greek tragedians ; the statesman Solon, for example, is credited with creating poems in which characters speak with their own voice, and spoken performances of Homer's epics by rhapsodes were popular in festivals prior to 534 BC.

Both Thespis and Thespiae, however, are cognate with the verb thespízein ( θεσπίζειν ), " to institute "; these words as well as the related thesmós ( θεσμός ), " institution ", and thesis ( θέσις ), " position ", are ultimately derived from the verb tithénai ( τιθέναι ), " to put in place ".

The story follows an acting troupe headed by Thespis, the legendary Greek father of the drama, who temporarily trade places with the gods on Mount Olympus, who have grown elderly and ignored.

In retaliation, Nicemis flirts with her old suitor, Thespis, but he declines to flirt back.

Jupiter asks Thespis whether he is impressed with the father of the gods.

Each actor takes the place of one of the gods, with Thespis himself replacing Jupiter.

The subject of Thespis is unquestionably funny .... Mr. Arthur Sullivan has entered with heart into the spirit of Mr. Gilbert's fun, he has brightened it up with the most fanciful and delightful music ".

Clary, the original Sparkeion, for whose benefit the last performance of Thespis with the original music was givenAs they would do with all their operas, Gilbert and Sullivan made cuts and alterations after the first performance.

After the production of Thespis, Gilbert and Sullivan went their separate ways, reuniting three years later, with Richard D ' Oyly Carte as their manager, to produce Trial by Jury in 1875.

Titles of some plays have been attributed to Thespis.

Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens some years before 532 BC, when Thespis was the earliest recorded actor.

Mercury informs Thespis that the substitute gods have received many complaints from mortals because some are not performing their functions, and others ' ill-judged experiments have wreaked havoc in the world below.

Both Gilbert and Sullivan recalled that Thespis was written in some haste.

The plot of Thespis, with its elderly gods tired of their life in Olympus, is similar to some of Offenbach's operas, notably Orphée aux Enfers ( Orpheus in the Underworld ).

Vanity Fair thought that " the music in the piece itself is charming throughout, and promises for the first time a rival to Offenbach .... Thespis is quite as good as Orphée aux Enfers.

* Thespis: Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East by Theodor Gaster.

The piece was an extravaganza in which the classical Greek gods, grown elderly, are temporarily replaced by a troupe of 19th-century actors and actresses, one of whom is the eponymous Thespis, the Greek father of the drama.

Remembering Thespis, Carte reunited Gilbert and Sullivan, and the result was the one-act comic opera Trial by Jury.

Encouraged by the success of Trial by Jury, Carte made attempts in 1875 – 76 to raise money for either a revival of Thespis or a new piece.

Thespis ( 1965 ), bronze sculpture by Robert Cook, commissioned for the opening of the Canberra Theatre

Tradition attributes to Thespis the first tragic representation, took place in 534 BC during the Dionysia established by Peisistratus.

Pamphlets in reply to Thespis are: Anti-Thespis ( 1767 ); The Kellyad ... ( 1767 ), by Louis Stamma ; and The Rescue or Thespian Scourge ... ( 1767 ), by John Brown-Smith.

Illustration of Thespis by D. H. Friston from The Illustrated London News, 1872, shows Apollo, Mars, Jupiter, Thespis and Mercury ( r .)