Proskenion
Proskenion
(1) In the Greek theater of the classical era (fifth and fourth centuries B.C.), the wooden facade of the skene or a special decorative wall erected in front of it. In a tragedy, in which the action often took place in front of a palace or temple, the proskenion usually represented a roofed colonnade of such a building. In a comedy, it usually represented the facade of a dwelling.
(2) In the theater of the Hellenistic era (fourth through first centuries B.C.), the proskenion was a stone structure attached to the skene in the form of a colonnade or portico with a flat wooden roof. Plays were presented on this roof, and the word proskenion came to signify not just the structure but the acting space itself.