Theater History Illustrated Timeline
by Charles Chao
Began: 600 B.C.
Significant Playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes
- 534 B.C. First thespian (actor)
- Development of stage
- Women didn't act, men played women's roles.
Began: Mid 1700's
Significant Playwrights: O'Neill, Williams, Wilder, Hellman, Saroyan, Miller, Simon, Hansberry, Henley
- Traveling theatrical families arrived in the colonies in the mid 1700's.
- America lacked it's own style until the early 20th century
- Hollywood becoming the world film center brought attention to American Theater.
9. American Theater
Began: Unknown
Significant Playwrights: None
- Development of Noh, a style rooted in religion and ceromony.
- Development of Bunraku, which uses intricate wooden puppets
- Development of Kabuki, a mixture of the first two. Originally for women.
- Both genders wore Kimonos
8. Eastern Theater
Began: 1660
Significant Playwrights: Wycherley, Congreve, Farquhar, Sheridan, Goldsmith, Gilbert and Sullivan, Wilde, Shaw
- Roofs on stages allowed for more elaborate scenery
- Stages on incline, back wall replaced with shutters, allowing for multiple scene changes
- Acting took on natural movement, not stiff
7. Restoration
Began: 1600's
Significant Playwrights: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson
- Court Plays - geared to a more intellectual audience.
- Playhouses - octagonal stage.
- 1660's - more theaters are built after being destroyed in the civil war of 1642.
6. Elizabethan
Began: 1300's
Significant Playwrights: Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderon
- Commedia dellarte': improvised acting created.
- Proscenium arch added to stage plays.
- Plays performed by traveling companies.
5. Renaissance
Began: 500 A.D.
Significant Playwrights: The church wrote most plays
- Used theater as a means of worship and instruction.
- Plays not by churches drew criticism and were repressed.
- Mostly in Latin.
4. Medieval
Began: 41 A.D.
Significant Playwrights: Plautus, Terence, Seneca
- Theaters built flat
- Chorus and orchestra no longer used
- Focused on stage
- Playwrights did not benefit from the architecture of the time.
3. Roman
2. Greek
1. The First Performances
Began: 2000 B.C.
Significant Playwrights: I-Kher-Wofret of Abydos
- First record of a theatrical performance was for a three day play.
- Was recorded in stone.
- Used realistic battles and high ceremony to reenact the murder, dismemberment, and resurrection of the god Osiris.