Chorus

Chorus, in the theatre, a group of singers and dancers who take part in a drama and are accompanied by music. The term chorus was used originally by the ancient Greeks in Attic drama of the 6th and 5th centuries bc and referred to the group of actors who described and commented on the action of the play in the form of song, dance, and recitation. The word was also applied to the parts of the composition itself that the singers performed. At pauses in the acting the chorus sang lyrical passages and performed dance movements, which contributed to the progress of the drama or served as comment on the play itself. In Elizabethan drama the name chorus was given to a single character whose role was to comment on the action of the play, usually in a prologue or epilogue, as in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. In the modern theatre the chorus is a group of singers and dancers who provide a suitable accompaniment for the action of a musical play. It has also been used by modern playwrights such as Eugene O'Neill in Mourning Becomes Electra (1931) and T. S. Eliot in Murder in the Cathedral (1935). See Drama and Dramatic Arts.