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1046 BC - 1949

The Pear Garden was a very important theater during the rule of the Tang Dynasty. It was the first known royal performing arts and musical academy in China.

Most plays often spanned over months or years. This was so they could develop characters better, as well as create a better plot for the story.

There are 2 kinds of stories in Beijing Opera: civil and military. Civil plays focused on singing and often told stories of romance. Military plays focused on action like battles or displays of martial arts.

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525 BCE - 385 BCE

The English word “tragedy” is derived from the Greek words for “goat” and “song.” “Goat translates to “gida” in Greek, and “song” translates to tragoúdi.”

In Greek theaters, a skene was a changing room for the actors. We get the term “scene” from this word.

Ancient Greek theaters could seat up to 14,000 people. The biggest Broadway theaters today only sit up to a max of 2,000 people.

Theatre was often used as a prescription for someone who was sad or depressed. They were told to go enjoy a play to make them feel better.

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364 BCE - 533 AD

Roman theatre had very low standards when in came to comedies. There was typically a lot of death and sensual content, which isn’t particularly funny for the most part. Unless someone dies in a funny way?

There were 5 stages of evolution for Roman theatre.

1. Dances to flute music

2. Obscene improvisational verse and dances to flute music

3. Medleys of dances to flute music

4. Comedies with story lines and sections of lyric poetry to be sung (most likely with flute music in the background)

5. Comedies with story lines and song with an additional, often comedic, performance to be tacked onto the end

Some of the earliest forms of plagiarism took place in Roman plays. They copied a lot of what the Greeks used in their performances.

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400s - 1400s

Pope Innocent III declared that plays were not to be performed in public. He believed that if they were not church related, they should not be performed.

There were certain performances called “cycle plays” which depicted the basically the whole Christian universe.

Small, moveable sets were called mansions. These were used for plays to be able to travel and perform in different places.

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1300s - 1867

There were 3 main styles of Japanese theatre: Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki.

Noh stages were traditionally built with very precise measurements to enable the actors to perform better. They were able to know how many steps to take in a certain directions and better focus on the character. They would always know the measurements for the particular part because the stage measurements were all the same.

Bunraku plays used detailed wooden marionettes as characters. The puppeteers wore all black, and the audience was meant to inhnore them and focus on the puppet. The lead puppeteer wore no black covering on his head so the audience would know who the leader was.

Kabuki plays were more melodramatic and musical the other two. The actors wore wooden masks, all of which had different colors and facial expressions on them. These colors were used to portray different beings, such as demons, and facial features were used to express emotions like anger or sadness.

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Early 1400s - 1500

Choruses of frogs were used in earlier plays. Instead of musical instruments, frogs were used to create background noise.

The Natyashastra was a very detailed sort of handbook for drama performers to follow. It described in great detail the ways that certain characters or emotions were to be portrayed.

Plays were defined by their different kinds of moods, rather than genres. The mood is what the audience would feel while observing the play.

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1562 - 1642

The Renaissance was the rebirth of art and knowledge after the Dark Ages. Music and plays began to become popular, as well as studying science and mathematics.

Shakespeare style plays began to make an appearance in the renaissance era.

Before being performed in buildings, play were often shown in inns. Theaters became public venues, rather than just entertainment places for wealthy nobles, as they had been in the past.

Several plays would be performed for multiple years. This was so audiences could enjoy them for long periods of time.

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1576 - 1658

If you didn’t like the actor that was performing, it was acceptable for you to actually yell at them. Hopefully they could find a better actor next time.

Don’t expect to see female actors. If there was a female character in the play, they were typically played by younger boys. Male characters were played by older men.

It was typical for fights to break out after shows. Audience members would often have disagreements on something about the show. Things would get physical and cast members would sometimes have to break up fights.

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1690 - 1775

One of the first scripted performances was in Canada. It was called Theater of Neptune. It was a play composed to celebrate the return of an important personage.

The Puritans believed that theatre was sinful. Their chief complaint was that secular entertainments distracted people from worshipping God. They also believed that the theater’s increasing popularity symbolized the mortal iniquity of city life.

After America’s freedom from Britain, most plays involved bad guys being portrayed as British, and good guys as American.

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1890 - present

Some of the most important figures in modern theatre history are Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, and Loraine Hansberry. Tennessee Williams was an American playwright and screenwriter. Arthur Miller wrote many plays. Some of his most famous ones are All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and A View from the Bridge. Loraine Hansberry was a famous playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway.

Musicals have changed theatre as we know it. Making stories using music was a game changer for theatre.

The very first American musical was called The Black Crook. It was about a young girl who was married off to an evil man, and he handed her previous fiancé off to  an ancient master of black magic.