Jonas Bergmann:
Case No. 11: Roman Theaters:
How are you defining "Roman"? Many "Roman" theatres were orginally Greek... some of these were significantly altered to encompass the different theatrical traditions of Rome whilst others remained essentially as they were,
And what about "authenticity "? Orange underwent significant 19th C reconstruction and is rather "stand alone". The, on first viewing, rather fine "fully" Roman theatre at Sabratha was significantly rebuilt under the order of Mussolini - thus enabling him to attend a triumphal production there .
I personally prefer historic structures still situated within their overall site - even if that is largely a ruined one.
You will probably exclude the theatre at Pergamon from consideration as being almost entirely Greek in form ... but its location is unsurpassable.
The location of theatre at Ephesus shows its Greek origins but what remains is primarily a Roman structure and sits nicely within the wider ruins.
If it has got to be "good enough" for a contemporary performance then it is going to need a reasonably complete Skene of Roman design... Bosra meets that and is both large and totally "Roman"...as well as being still in an original authentic state.... but its location in Syria isn't very "convenient" for performances at the moment! Which takes us back to Aspendos I guess.....only a bit Greek.... quite large....not too restored by the Seljuks.....some other ruins around... still has live performances.....
Actually I wonder if the concept of a "Dream List" is actually a "Nightmare List" in which all potential assessment criteria have to be "compromised" in order to reach what could be described as a "lowest common denominator" which optimises across the criteria without actually being "best" at any?
I am sure you know the "domain" very well and that you have already made up your mind regarding your "Dream list" selections! I see that the Wiki
List of Roman Theatres contains 76 Rows - including all the examples I have referred to above. We have visited all those examples and many of the others on the Wiki List and could find some further "value" among the others before reaching the "Theatred out" stage! I think my personal number for "Interesting Greco-Roman theatres" would level out at around 10 and that one would need to be a "specialist" to continue finding value further down ! Nevertheless - I have come across an even more comprehensive list titled the "
Ancient Theatre Archive Project" covering both Greek and Roman theatres via an interactive Map (though it does currently rather run out of steam in detailed coverage of sites in N Africa and the Middle East beyond Turkey!)