History of theatre

Theatre has existed in many forms since Ancient Greek times. This article attempts to outline the main stages.

Ancient civilisations

Ancient Greece is generally regarded as the founding civilisation of theatre. It began at the festival of Dionysus, the god of wine, when the first actor, a man by the name of Thespis (from whose name we take the word 'thespian' from) left the chorus and assumed a character. The first theatres, two-story buildings with movable sets were soon created, and the first major playwrights followed. Aeschylus, a man from a noble family, wrote many plays, his magnum opus being Oresteia, and introduced the second actor. Sophocles, another prolific playwright, wrote Oedipus Rex. Euripides wrote Alcestis while Aristophanes wrote The Frogs. The architecture of the theatre was soon improved to a semicircular theatre, made of stone, and it is these that are the earliest to survive. The Roman civilisation also worked on some plays. For example, Lucius Livius Andronicus, a freed slave, wrote some of the first Roman plays, though these are generally regarded as near translations of Greek works. Before the birth of Christ most Roman theatres were temporary but this changed as many were built in the Hellenic style.