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Both Greek and roman theatres were open air structures for very large audiences. The excavated area was a semi circle of stone benches providing seating or the audience, this sloped down to a flat arena. Although the age of Greek playwriting was confined to 5th century bc the theatre continued to be important to Greek life. Plays of the classical period continue to be performed, although the fancy full comedies lost popularity to a new style of comedy. As the works of Plautus and Terence, the pre-eminent Roman dramatists, suggest, Roman drama drew heavily upon the Greek, and followed the Greek style of dividing drama into comedies and tragedies (the satyr play completely disappeared). Although tragedy was popular in Rome, only ten tragedies have survived, all from the time of the Empire. Nine are by the stoic philosopher Seneca and the author of the other, Octavia, is unknown. This specific era of theatre interested me as the places where the first pieces of western theatre were performed are still here today and it’s so interesting to look at. While abroad i visited the Greek amphitheatre with my family where i learned a lot about how it was built and saw where old plays were performed

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During the period of the song dynasty while the puppet theatre opera are becoming established as major theatrical forms in China the first known post classical dramatic works were being created in Europe. In the 10th century Saxon nun wrote six plays modelled on Terence. During the same period sections of church ritual began to be converted into short religious plays. During the following century, these Spread throughout most of Europe with the most most important exception of Spain as it was then a Muslim territory. in 1311 a major new impetus for the development of drama especially in England was given by establishment of Corpus Christi festival. It became customary for the English guild associations of Crossman to present a series of biblically based plays on the occasion. By 1370 record show the regular performance of the groups place called cycles in a number of British towns and during the next century the expanded across England into Europe becoming major Civic events lasting several days.

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Religious dramas with flourishing in northern Europe in the 15th century rediscovered of classical learning called the renaissance was taking place in the Italian courts. This had major implications for theatre for both the drama and on stage. In the drama, this began with the red discovery of classical theory most importantly I Aristotle who is writing interpreted in various ways has remained the bedrock of Western dramatic theatre. Upon reading the works of Aristotle French theories the doctrine of Neoclassicism which dominated western theatre until the 19th century This doctrine insisted upon the strict separation and tone characters, subject matter and arc of action between comedy and tragedy, Equally important with the so-called three unities of time place and action meaning of plot should ideally take place in a single location within most 24 hours.

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The impact of the Renaissance upon the concept of the physical theatre was equally revolutionary. Most importantly, the Italian Renaissance theatre, created for the Renaissance courts, was from the beginning primarily an intimate, indoor activity, far different from the huge, open-air democratic classical performances. The first permanent theatre built during the Renaissance the Teatro Olympico, built in 1585, attempted to recreate a small Roman stage and auditorium within an enclosed building, but it inspired no imitations. Subsequent theatres developed the familiar plan still sometimes called the ‘Italianate stage’, which traditionally involves an interior, rectangular space, divided between audience and performance space , and the stage elevated and framed by a proscenium arch (first used at the 1618 Teatro Farnese in Parma, Italy). Closely associated with the development of this new indoor theatre was the use of perspective scenery, derived from the keen interest of Renaissance artists in this technique. The production of the first new comedy of the Renaissance, Ariosto’s Cassario, in 1508, utilized perspective scenery. The single-point perspective remained the basic design for proscenium theatres in Europe until around 1700, when Fernandino Galli-Bibiena, connected to two of Europe’s best-known design families, introduced multiple perspectives. A century later Romanticism introduced more complex and dimensional stage arrangements, but the basic proscenium style arrangement remained and is still today the most familiar architectural form of Western theatre; during the period of European colonization, it was spread by the European colonial powers to other theatre cultures around the world, where it is now often spoken of as the ‘Western’ or even the ‘modern’ stage.

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The opening years of the 17th century, when Spanish and English drama were at their peak of achievement, saw also the appearance of one of the best-known Asian theatrical forms, the Kabuki, in Japan. This new form of dance drama was first performed in 1603 by a female performer, and remained a solely female form until 1629, when it was banned as immoral. After a brief and no more successful attempt with boy actors, the Kabuki by mid century had become a form for adult males, playing both genders, as it has remained ever since. The Kabuki entered its period of greatest flourishing in the late 17th century, but still remains a significant part of the Japanese theatre, while the Noh is today a respected but much more infrequently presented form.The third great Japanese theatrical form appeared later in the century, in 1684, when a Kabuki playwright, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, collaborated with a professional storyteller, Takemoto Gidayu, to create a new style of puppet theatre, which became known as Bunraku. From this point on, Chikamatsu wrote primarily for the Bunraku, creating the first serious plays in Japan dealing with the merchant class. He is generally considered Japan’s greatest playwright, although the great age of Bunraku was during the first half of the next century.

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Although the 18th century in Europe did not produce dramatists of the stature of Shakespeare, Racine, or Caldéron, interest in theatre expanded in the continent and important contributions were made. In Italy, Carlo Goldoni built upon commedia dell’arte traditions to create a modern literary Italian drama. In Denmark Ludwig Holberg’s comedies helped to lay the foundations of modern theatre in Scandinavia. In Germany Caroline Neuber founded a company dedicated to establishing a German literary theatre instead of the crude farces that had dominated the German stage before. The scattered German states struggled to establish a significant German theatre, a project finally realized at the end of the century by Goethe and Schiller at Weimar. The late 17th century also saw European-style theatre established on two new continents, in Australia for the cultural improvement of the British convicts deported there, and, more respectably, in the British colonies in North America, creating a new world theatre on the British model.

Another development of the later 18th century was an increased interest in moving the subject of serious theatre from the kings and heroes of the past to middle-class subjects.

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The rise of romanticism in Europe in the early 19th century theatre effectively ended the previously dominant neoclassic system. It did not result in major changes in theatre architecture, but profoundly affected almost every other aspect of the art. Acting, scenery, and playwriting became more ‘realistic’, but it was on the whole a rather flamboyant and emotional realism, against which the ‘realists’ of the later 19th century would react. Playwrights sought situations of extreme emotion, most notably in the melodrama, a highly popular form developed at this time. Actors move from neoclassic restraint to specialize in scenes of madness and frenzy. Scenic designers left the simple classic interiors of Racine to move out into nature, presenting erupting volcanos and other spectacular phenomena.

During the romantic era Europe also saw the rise of modern nationalism, to which theatre made a major contribution. As previously subordinate linguistic and cultural communities in Europe from Albania to Norway sought to solidify their cultural identity and in many cases to go on to establish independent states, the establishment of a theatre devoted to their language and history was often a key part of the project. As European colonialism spread around the globe, it not only took with it the concept of Western theatre but also that of the theatre as an expression of national culture, an idea carried on as former colonies sought independence, with the result that national theatres, founded on the European model, can be found throughout the world today.

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Many of the major Western dramatists of the next century, among them Anton Chekhov, Bernard Shaw, and Arthur Miller, worked in this form, but despite its dominance Ibsenesque realism was almost immediately challenged by non-realistic forms. The most important of these in Europe were symbolism at the turn of the century, expressionism during and after the First World War, both inspired in part by the works of Ibsen’s major contemporary, August Strindberg in Sweden, the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht, and the theatre of the absurd, led by French dramatists Eugene Ionesco and Samuel Beckett. Another important counter-force to modern Western realism was the search in many former European colonies for indigenous theatre forms to blend with or counteract this dominant European style.

Each of these challenges to realism brought with it stage designs that sharply departed from Ibsen’s realistic living rooms, but the staging of even Ibsen underwent a radical change in the 20th century with the rise of the director. At least since Max Reinhardt, at the opening of the 20th century, modern directors, except in England and the United States, have experimented widely with the interpretations and visual styles of their plays, so that the dominant figure in the modern European theatre is no longer the actor or the playwright but the director.