Dionysus to Kokopelli: the sacred circle of 'theater in the round'

WBEZ: "Notwithstanding the 20th Century development of 'theater in the round'--which often is in the square or oval--Western culture abandoned the circle as a primary theatrical shape some 2200 years ago, when the rising Roman civilization co-opted the waning Greeks. The most obvious feature of a Greek theater was the perfectly circular space at the very center of things, a space the Greeks called the orchestra, or 'dancing place.' It had nothing to do with a group of musicians playing instruments (although they were there, too), but with the chorus who sang, chanted and danced."