Editing Plautus (section)

===The importance of the ''ludi''===
{{main|Ludi}}
Roman drama, specifically Plautine comedy, was acted out on stage during the ''[[ludi]]'' or festival games. In his discussion of the importance of the ''ludi Megalenses'' in early Roman theater, John Arthur Hanson says that this particular festival "provided more days for dramatic representations than any of the other regular festivals, and it is in connection with these ''ludi'' that the most definite and secure literary evidence for the site of scenic games has come down to us".<ref>J. A. Hanson, ''Roman Theater—Temples'', (Princeton, NJ, 1959), p. 13.</ref>  Because the ''ludi'' were religious in nature, it was appropriate for the Romans to set up this temporary stage close to the temple of the deity being celebrated. S.M. Goldberg notes that "''ludi'' were generally held within the precinct of the particular god being honored."<ref>Goldberg, 1998, pp. 1-20.</ref>

T. J. Moore notes that "seating in the temporary theaters where Plautus' plays were first performed was often insufficient for all those who wished to see the play, that the primary criterion for determining who was to stand and who could sit was social status".<ref>T.J. Moore, "Seats and Social Status in the Plautine Theater," ''The Classical Journal'' 90.2 (1995), pp. 113-123.</ref>  This is not to say that the lower classes did not see the plays; but they probably had to stand while watching. Plays were performed in public, for the public, with the most prominent members of the society in the forefront.

The wooden stages on which Plautus' plays appeared were shallow and long with three openings in respect to the scene-house. The stages were significantly smaller than any Greek structure familiar to modern scholars. Because theater was not a priority during Plautus' time, the structures were built and dismantled within a day. Even more practically, they were dismantled quickly due to their potential as fire-hazards.<ref>M. Bieber, ''The History of the Greek and Roman Theater'', (Princeton, NJ, 1961.), p. 168.</ref>