Today's theatre is a mix of many styles that have been popular for hundreds of years.

In this lesson,
learn how each time period contributed to what we now see during a live, dramatic performance.

Introduction to Theatre
When you're analyzing or interpreting a piece of literature, it's useful to know something about the
time period during which the work was written. This information can help you identify patterns,
anticipate forms and predict themes. Looking at drama is no different. If you know a little bit about
the history of the theatre, you will have a better chance of understanding the context of a play before
you even begin reading it.

Primitive Theatre
Since this is a brief history of drama, you're probably subconsciously asking yourself, 'When did
people begin acting out plays?' Well, I hate to tell you, but I don't know. Actually, no one knows for
sure. What we do know is that all drama is simply an imitation of actions or ideas, so many theories
suggest that the first dramatic stories were probably told by primitive tribes who would return from the
hunt and reenact the events for the rest of the tribe.
Over time, it may have become a ritual, and the performance might have taken place before the
hunt. Like most rituals, the shaman, the religious leader of the tribe, would have eventually overseen
it, and it would have become a sort of religious or spiritual celebration. This could have set the stage
for theatre for the next several hundred years.

Greek Theatre
And while we aren't quite sure where or how it all began, we do know that the Greeks embraced
theatre as a means to worship their mythical gods. In doing this, they transformed drama from a
ritual into sort of a ritual-drama and held festivals in honor of the Greek god of wine and fertility,
Dionysus. Think of this sort of like spring break in Miami - everyone gets together in the spring,
drinks a lot, dresses up, celebrates fertility and then has a three-day contest in which three
playwrights would compete. Okay, that last part doesn't quite fit, but you do have excessive amounts
of drunk, over-sexed people spending three days watching plays - it's bound to get a little bit rowdy.
These early plays were performed by a group of men and boys called a chorus. The chorus worked
as a group to provide commentary on the action of the story. But even with the introduction of
individual actors, the chorus still remained in the background, acting as narrators providing insight to
the action on stage and the characters' thoughts.
In fact, there were very few people on stage in general, which meant that everyone had to play
multiple parts. The drama masks that so many of us associate with theatre were used for exactly this
purpose. The smiling comedy mask and the frowning tragedy mask were visual representations of
Greek muses and were used to enhance the songs and actions on stage.

With this development of drama, it's no surprise that many famous plays came from this time period.
Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides are all well-known playwrights from this time, though it is
believed that many of their works were never recovered.

The Middle Ages

Theatre continued to be popular through the fall of the Roman Empire. With the onset of the Middle
Agesfrom 500-1500 A.D., however, the Church had different views of the mythological gods and saw
theatre as evil. Most theatre was outlawed, and drama was only performed by traveling groups of
actors.
Eventually, though, the Church saw the value of the ritualistic nature of drama, and began to reenact
short Bible stories during mass. Mystery plays were stories from the Bible. Miracle plays focused
on saints. Over time, these plays transformed into something known as morality plays. These plays
promoted a godly life, but they did not teach the Bible stories exclusively. Instead, the morality plays
worked as an allegory, which is a literary device where the characters or events represent or
symbolize other ideas and concepts.
Morality plays, which featured a hero who must overcome evil, were allegorical in nature. In the
case of the morality plays, the hero represented mankind. The other characters served as
personifications of many things, including the Seven Deadly Sins, death, virtues and even angels
and demons - anything that wanted to take over mankind's soul. In the end, the hero would choose
the godly route.
An example of a 15th century English morality play is Everyman. In the play, God sends Death to
strike down the sinners who have forgotten him. Death finds the main character, Everyman, and tells
him he is to begin his journey from life to death. Everyman asks if he can bring someone with him,
and Death agrees. Unfortunately, Everyman cannot persuade any of his friends, who include
Fellowship, Beauty, Kindred, Worldly Goods, to go with him on his journey. Finally, Good Deeds says
that she will go with him. Together they go into the grave and ascend into heaven. The moral of this
story is that good deeds will help every man get into heaven. It is a subtle turn from the straight
biblical stories, but it allowed for more secular forms of drama during the Renaissance.

The Renaissance
You might already know the word Renaissance means 'rebirth'. In the case of drama, the
Renaissance, which lasted from approximately 1400-1700, was the rebirth of interest in theatre
across Europe. In fact, the Renaissance introduced many of the elements we still think of when we
imagine a theatre: indoor theatres, an arched stage, a curtain dropped between scenes, more
elaborate set design. All of these changes were implemented during the Renaissance. More
importantly, however, the purpose of drama transitioned from stories told by the Church to stories
made primarily for entertainment for both royalty and commoners.

Usually when we hear the word Renaissance, especially in conjunction with drama, we think of
Shakespeare's England. What most people don't know is the Renaissance actually began in Italy,
where music, song and dance were implemented into the plays produced in the new indoor theatres.
From there, the rebirth of the arts moved to other countries in Europe. The French imitated Italian
theatre and boasted the talent of playwrightMolire, whose plays poked fun at the people in
important positions.
In Spain, they kept some of the religious dramas, but also began performing action-based plays. It
wasn't until later that the Renaissance was embraced in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth
I and continued through the reign of King James I and King Charles I. Theatre flourished during this
time, producing several great playwrights. These included Christopher Marlowe, who was known
for writing tragedies, and Ben Jonson, who was known for writing comedies. Of course, most well
known of all was William Shakespeare, who wrote both and is still popular today.

Romanticism and Realism

Theatre remained popular with a few minor changes after the Renaissance and during the
Reformation, when women began