Proskenion

proskenion

In the ancient Greek theater, a building before the skene; the earliest high Hellenistic stage; later, the front of the stage.

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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.