Every spring a festival was held to honor Dionysus, the good of fertility and wine. On the first day, there was a great procession. On the second day, ten choruses performed, and on the third five comic poets presented their plays. The last three days were devoted to tragedies. Each poet produced four plays. Three of them formed a trilogy, which is a series of three plays usually on the same general theme. The winners in the competition, the names of the plays, and the names of the protagonists were written in stone.
In the fifth century, there were three actors and fifteen singers in the chorus. The actors used masks, which also served to project the voice to the audience. Simple painted panels were used as scenery. When a god intervened in the affairs, he/she was lowered by a crane above the stage.
Eighteen thousand individuals attended the performances at the Theater of Dionysus on the Acropolis.