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550BC-220BC

The highlight of the dramatic calendar in the fifth century BC was the ‘City Dionysia’ held in Athens every year at the beginning of spring.

This festival in honour of the god Dionysus lasted about a week, and over half of that time would be dedicated to back-to-back theatrical performances – up to seventeen plays over the course of four days.

In the days leading up to the festival, the whole city would be buzzing with excitement. Workmen brought in by the cartload would begin building the rows and rows of wooden benches on the southern slope of the Acropolis (there was no permanent theatre in Athens until the mid-fourth century).

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It started 1st Century BC and ended 3rd Century AD

Middle comedy lasted from about 400 BC to 323 BC

They would hit you down if you made fun of rulers or kings

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12th Century to Present

Martial art demonstrations or shows were popular and, as elsewhere in Asia, in China, too, many of the movements employed by dances originated from the martial art techniques.

Before the beginning of our era it was customary at the court and at public festivities to organise grand-scale spectacles called baixi (pai-shi) or a hundred entertainments or hundred games circus.

Early dramas combined mime, stylised movement and a chorus. The chorus described the action which was enacted by dancer-actors.

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Late 14th Century-present

1. A noh stage is 600 sq meters/ noh is for more wealthy people

2. Kabuki is like noh but without masks and is instead makeup, everyone can see the plays.

3. Puppet theatre, one guy voices all the puppets instead of the actors moving the puppet.

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Sanskrit Theatre started around 1 AD to the 15th century

Only two-dozen plays survived time

The Natyastra is also a 6000 verse poem

Most Sanskrit plays end happily

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5th century-15th century

It had 3 main sections that being Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays

The plays stuck closely to the Bible

Each play was around an 1hr long but there were also 40 plays

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1562-1642

Renaissance theater often took up themes and subjects from medieval times. Theater companies performed a different show every night of the week.

Renaissance theater was entertainment, but in its highest forms, it elevated the human spirit and provided insight into the nature of love and conflict. Renaissance playwrights are remembered as the greatest to ever walk the earth.

The rise of the Puritans and the outbreak of civil war brought theater grounding to a halt. It wasn't until after the Restoration that performances launched once again.

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1562 to 1603

The cheapest place was in front of the stage where ordinary people stood.

A flag would be flown from the top of the theatre to show a play was going to be performed.

The themes of plays changed during Elizabeth’s reign and English playwrights began to write comedies and tragedies.

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1801-1900

Beginning in France after the theatre monopolies were abolished during the French Revolution, melodrama became the most popular theatrical form of the century.

Theatre in the nineteenth century was noted for its changing philosophy, from the Romanticism and Neoclassicism that dominated Europe since the late 18th century, to Realism and Naturalism in the latter half of the 19th century, before it eventually gave way to the rise of Modernism in the 20th century.

heatre Halls were numerous and performances were regularly given by theatre troupes, ventriloquists, hypnotists, poets, comedians, choirs and orchestras.

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1750-present

Before Broadway became the famous and glorious theater district we know today, the street was a commercial street that got its name during the Dutch settlement. In fact, the Dutch term “brede weg” literally means “Broadway.”Before Broadway became the famous and glorious theater district we know today, the street was a commercial street that got its name during the Dutch settlement. In fact, the Dutch term “brede weg” literally means “Broadway.”

New York's first significant theatre presence arose about 1750, when actor-managers Walter Murray and Thomas Kean established a resident theatre company at the Theatre on Nassau Street in Lower Manhattan, which held about 280 people.

The first theatre piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical, adding dance and original music that helped to tell the story, is considered to be The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866.