Hellenistic theatre

The great Hellenistic theatre at Epidaurus had what is believed to have been a high, two-level stagehouse.

…is the magnificent theatre at Epidaurus. This theatre provided seats for some 12,000 people, and its circular orchestra is backed by a stagehouse and surrounded on three sides by a stone, hillside-supported bank of seats. Both chorus and actors performed in the orchestra, but only the actors used the two…

Some of the theatres were similarly colossal. Hieron II’s 3rd-century modifications of the rock-cut theatre in Syracuse and the theatres at Megalopolis and Ephesus accommodated more than 20,000 people. There were changes of design, initiated at Athens with the emergence of New Comedy, which eliminated the chorus