Theatre Historical Timeline

• Ancient Greek Thater (600-400 B.C.)- Ampitheraters

  open air; on the sides of mountains; semicircular

  • Orchestra (area in front of the stage)
  • Chorus/dance and music
  • Auditorium
  • Simple scenery
• Ancient Greek (600-400 BC) Playwrights

  Sophocles (tragedy: heroes glorified but with tragic flaw, influenced of gods)

  Euripides
• Violence took place off stage (true from Ancient Greek through Elizabethan age)
• Thespis


  The first actor
• Dionysus Festivals

  • Tragedies
  • Comedies
  • Satire

  Plots came from legends
• Greek theater

  • Influence of central actors and dialogue

  Masks were used to show age and emotion
• Women were barred from acting but could be spectators in Ancient Greek theater
• Greek tragedy was not associated with theatre staging today (it was part of a trilogy)
• Roman Theatre (300 BC- AD 500) contained Latin versions of Greek plays that were less influenced by religion
• Roman theatre introduced the subplot
• Women were allowed minor parts in Roman theatre
• Roman Theatre characteristics:

  • Spectacles of the Coliseum
  • Mass appeal/ impressive theaters
  • Raised stage replaced Greek amphitheaters (stage was built on ground level with raised seating area)
• By the later Roman period, Christians disapproved of low comedy and pagan rituals
• In Medieval Times (500-1400), theatre groups evolved into town guilds
• In Medieval Times (500-1400), genres included passion plays, miracle plays, and morality play with themes of religious loyalty
• Medieval Theatre (500-1400)

  Dramatic form to illustrate religious holidays to illiterate population; “Everyman”; allegory
• Medieval Therate (500-1400)

  church/ liturgical dramas: written in Latin/ Bible stories; intended to educate regarding religious events, not to entertain
• Medieval Theatre (500-1400)

  Theatre buildings were not permitted; minstrels, traveling groups, and jugglers from Greek-Roman period; open stage areas
• Renaissance and Reformation Theatre

  (1400-1600)

  • Rebirth of classical Greek and Roman art, culture, and literature
  • Theatre reemerged with professional actors and set design
  • Open stages, “apron stages”, to proscenium arch (framed and divided stage from the audience; painted set and scenery)
  • Emphasis was on the performer
  • Protestant Reformation (moving away from Catholic teachings) led to secular works
  • Commedia dell’arte (improvisation; acting groups; situational comedy)
  • State licensed official theatre companies
• Elizabethan Theatre

  • Playwrights included Christopher Marlowe and Ben Johnson
  • Supported by Queen Elizabeth
  • patronage
  • raucous
  • open-air theatre
  • language of the educated
  • satire
  • William Shakespeare (late 1500s and early 1600s) wrote comedies, histories, and tragedies; Globe Theatre (open-air)
• 1642- Parliament closed theaters in England; these closings allowed French ascendancy in theatre mechanics
• Restoration England

  1600s Theatre architecture

  • France introduced new technology for scenery and set changes
  • artificial lighting
  • theaters began to be roofed in
  • drama moved indoors, and
  • the stage was raised above the audience
  • Proscenium stage architecture/ royal theatre (enclosed/ arches)
  • scene changes slide by on panels
• Restoration England (1600s)

  • Baroque period: French playwrights Racine and Moliére influenced theatre
• Restoration England (1600s)

  Women began to appear onstage in the roles of boys and young men
• Characteristics of 19th Centruy theatre

  • Changes in economics, society, and ruling powers determined direction of playwrights
  • Acting began to more closely mimic life
  • Art of acting became prominent
  • Plays more often dealt with ordinary people
  • Commercial theatre evolved
• 19th Century theatre

  • Industrial Revolution changed the way people lived
  • Technology changed the theatre (gas lighting changed to electrical; mechanisms were created for changing scenery)
  • Growth of melodrama
  • Actor predominated over the author, but playwrights Shaw, Isben, and Chekhov stood out; serious drama
  • U.S.- playhouses in major cities, resident companies, touring actors, the influence of melodrama, minstrels
• Late 1880s-1920s in the U.S.

  • Golden Age of American Theatre (420 touring companies)
  • mass appeal
  • more sophisticated plots and staging
  • moving away from hero character
  • vaudeville
• 20th Century

  • Early 20th century- new movements such as realism, naturalism, symbolism, and impressionism (meaning of the average man; actors portrayed likeness to life; ordinary life on stage)
  • Commercial theaters (Ziegfeld Follies to musical Oklahoma!, opera Porgy and Bess, and musical The Phantom of the Opera)
  • Serious drama (playwrights Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tenessee Williams)
  • Comedy (playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon)
  • Actor’s Studio (Elia Kazan and Lee Stratsberg)
  • Experimental theatre (against naturalism)
  • Community theatre and ensemble theatre (group)