Theatre History Timeline

534 B.C.	Drama as competition	Thespis wins the first public contest for tragic poets. The term thespian derives from his name. He also introduces masks.
550 – 300 BC	Greek Theatre: Tragedy or Comedy	Tragedy: (Conflict between a protagonist & the Antagonist) Comedy: (An escape from reality, often dealing with characters of a “lower type”.) Aristotle thought that the purpose of Greek theatre is "to arouse strong emotions in its audience (catharsis)” so to do this in an outdoor amphitheatre full of 15 000 people while wearing a mask must have needed slow, clear and careful delivery. Plays are performed by main actors wearing masks and a chorus who sing, dance and narrate.
900 – 1500	Christian Theatre - Mystery Plays, Miracle Plays and Morality Plays.	Christian themed dramas, originally acted out by priests in churches, then by members of the community outdoors, in order to communicate the stories of the Bible to people who can’t read.
1550 – 1642	Revenge Tragedy, Elizabethan & Jacobean Comedy	Non-religious themes – Love, robbery, revenge, class, royalty, war.
1500 - 1700	Emergence of Commedia Dell' Arte in Italy	Italian Street theatre. An improvised, quick-witted performance by wandering players. They wore masks to portray a regular cast of characters and made up their lines as they went along.
1642–1660	Puritans ban Theatre in England.	Puritans close or burn down all English theaters and forbid acting.
1660 – 1800	Restoration Comedy	Restoration comedies are hugely overacted satires on the state of society. Women begin to appear regularly in the theatre.
1800 - 1880	Melodrama	Stock characters – The hero, the heroin, the villain. A near disaster followed, usually, by a happy ending.
1890 – 1940	Realism / Naturalism	Stanislavski pioneered the concept of realistic acting, in which actors on stage copied exactly the way that people behave in real life.
1930 – 1955	Bertolt Brecht	Brecht produces plays with a political method and develops a brash, unrealistic style of acting that aims to distance the audience from the emotions in the play, thus completely avoiding “catharsis”.
1932 - 1938	Theatre of Cruelty	Shocking, violent, bloody, crazy performance style. A primitive ceremonial experience intended to liberate the human subconscious and reveal man to himself. Uninhibited gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a “language, superior to words”. The idea is to shock the spectator into seeing the baseness of his world.
1952 - 1965	Theatre of the Absurd	A mixture of broad comedy, often similar to Vaudeville, mixed with horrific or tragic images; hopeless situations, repetitive or meaningless actions; dialogue full of clichés, and nonsense; either a parody or dismissal of realism.
1976	National Theatre opens	The iconic building on the South Bank opens it’s doors for the first time