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534
Festival Theatre
534 BC The tyrant Pisistratus, brings the
actor-director Thespis to Athens -
Dec 13, 1110
Earliest Record of a Miricle Play
Performed in England -
Dec 13, 1264
The Great Cycle Plays
Pope Urban IV decreed the celebration of Corpus Christi Day.
Corpus Christi plays: cycle of plays from creation to the day of Last Judgment -
Dec 13, 1402
European acting company occupies permanent playhouse
First European acting company is given permission by Charles VI to occupy a permanent playhouse in the Hopital de la Trinite in Paris. -
Dec 13, 1425
The Castle of Perseverance
The earliest surviving full-length English play manuscript is of a morality trilogy called "The Castle of Perseverance." This manuscript contains the first example of outdoor stage directions for theatre-in-the-round. -
Dec 13, 1453
The Fall of Constantinople
The Fall drove eastern scholars to the West marked the beginning of the Renaissance -
Dec 13, 1490
Development of Spanish Drama
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Dec 13, 1500
Commedia dell'arte, Italian Improvisational Theatre
The "Comedy of Art" was a form of improvisational theatre that relied on an array of stock characters and standard comic routines. Commedia dell'arte flourished in Italy from the beginning of the 1500's untill the end of the 1700's. -
Dec 13, 1537
Renaissance set Design
Rediscovered in the 1400s, the influential Treatise de Architectura, by the Roman writer and architect Vitruvius, enabled Rennaissance builders to reconstruct classical scenic designs. -
Dec 13, 1547
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel was a famous Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet whose works include "Don Quixote" -
Dec 13, 1548
Hotel de Bourgogne
The Hotel was the first permanent theatre in Paris, the first public theatre in Europe since classical times, and the birthplace of the Comedie Francaise. Had a seating capacity of 1600. -
Dec 13, 1562
Birth of Lope de Vega
a Spanish playwright and poet. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Century Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature is second only to that of Cervantes, while the sheer volume of his literary output is unequalled, making him one of the most prolific authors in the history of literature. -
Dec 13, 1564
Birth of William Shakespeare
Widely considered the greatest playwright ever to write in English. He was one of the few playwrights to excel in both comedy and tragedy. -
Dec 13, 1576
James Burbage constructs "The Theatre"
The Theatre became the first public playhouse of the English Renaissance. -
Dec 13, 1580
The Spanish Golden Age
Spain's Golden Age lasted from 1580-1680 and coincided with the height of Spain's wealth and power. This period saw the work of playwrights Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderon de la Barca . -
Start of the Lord Chamberlin's Company
The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare wrote for most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, while Shakespeare himself performed some secondary roles. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I. -
The Globe Theatre is opened on Bankside
Associated with William Shakespeare, the Globe was built in 1599 by the Lord Chamberlin's Men with a seating capacity of 3000. -
Pierre Corneille publishes "le Cid"
Pierre Corneille, born in 1606, was one of the masters of French classical tragedy. In the 1630's "the classical unities," a system for regularizing time, place, and action in dramatic work, become popular among French dramatists. Corneille began writing tragedies with this template in mind, producing arguably his finest work, "Le Cid" in 1637. -
Gaspare Vigarani publishes "Salles des Machines"
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Birth of Jean Racine
Famous French playwright. His most famous works were written between 1664-1677 and included "Andromaque" "Britannicus" and "Phedre". -
David Garrick introduces a natural acting style
The greatest British actor of the 1700s, Garrick dominated the stage from his debut. He performed well in both comic and tragic roles and popularized the natural style of speech and movement in English theatre. At the Drury Lane Theatre, he pioneered the concepts of three-demensional stage sets, and concealed stage lighting. -
Period: to
Romanticism
An influential literary movement that focused on the distrust of reason, the doubt of the existing social/political order, and redefining truth as an infinite variety of creation. -
The "well-made" play
The well-made play was the theatrical norm during the 1800s . Adhering to strict technical principles, it used conventional romantic conflicts and standard plot contrivances. the French playwright Eugene Scribe wrote hundreds of these plays. Henrik Ibsen would later help revive this style throughout the century with problem plays such as "A Doll's House". -
Alexander Pushkin publishes "Boris Godunov"
Pushkin was a very important Russian novelist, poet, dramatist, and short-story writer whose works propelled Russian Literature into the modern age. His greatest dramatic work, "Boris Godunov" was written as a historical tragedy. -
Realsim
Realism was a movement that arose in French art and literature in the nineteenth-century. Realism reached the theatre in the late 1800s, with Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, and Maxim Gorky, leading the way. They rejected the contrivances of the well-made play. -
Melodrama
This type of theatre is characterized by cliff-hanging plots and eamotional appeals. Melodrama became popular in the United States during the first half of the 1800s. The principal aim of melodrama is highly moralistic, celebrating virtue above all else harshly condeming vice. -
Edwin Booth performs "Hamlet" for 100 nights stright
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Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, first theatre director
In 1866, George II, Duke of Saxe-Meningen, founded a court theatre troupe. He controlled all aspects, serving as director, financier, producer, costume designer, and set designer. He stressed disciplined ensemble acting, historical accuracy, and realistic settings and acting. The Meiningen players toured 36 cities and proved extremely influential for young modern European directors. -
Emile Zola
Emile Zola finishes "Therese Raquin" which arges that dramatists should observe, record, and experiment with the same detachment as the scientist. -
Period: to
Theatre Libre Movement
Organized on a subscription basis and exempt from censorship. It became the showcase for new drama and the proving ground for new production techniques. -
Miss Julie
August Strindberg publishes "Miss Julie" following the templete of Realistic Drama -
Moscow Art Theatre
Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded the MAT in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas that were Russia's dominant form of theatre at the time. The theatre, the first to regularly put on shows implementing Stanislavski's system, proved hugely influential in the acting world and in the development of modern American theatre. -
George Bernard Shaw
Irish playwright George Shaw, born in 1856, began his theatrical career as a theatre critic in London. Denounced the "well-made plays". Wanted the theatre to explore controversial issues. Finished his first play "Widowers' Houses in 1892. -
Maxim Gorky
Russian playwright. He became the voice of the proletariets. Joined the MAT and wrote his first play "the Smug Citizen" in 1902. -
the Abbey Theatre in Dublin
Irish playwright W.B. Yeats and Augusta Gregory co-founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin -
Period: to
The Court Theater
Performed one play each evening for several weeks. Focus on repertory and ensemble, while emphasizing the importance of the play. -
Epic Theatre
Reacting against what they regarded as overemphasis on artistic illusion and aesthetic emotion in theatre, German direct Erwin Piscator and German playwright Bertolt Brecht, sought to create a new style. The Epic Theatre was formed to serve the Marxist social purpose of educating audiences. The two men emplyed artificial devices such as posters, cartoons, and film sequences to distract the audience from theatrical illusion and allow them to concentrate on the play's message. -
Origins of Medieval Theatre
"Quem Quaeritis"
Angels: Whom seek ye in the tomb, O
Christians?
3 Marys: Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, O
heavenly beings.
Angels: He is not here, he is risen as he
foretold. Go and announce that he is risen
from the tomb.
