Theatre History Timeline

By chloe cox
  • Period: 550 BCE to 220 BCE

    Greek Theatre

  • 534 BCE

    Tragedy

    Greece
  • Period: 509 BCE to 27 BCE

    Roman Republic

  • Period: 499 BCE to 448 BCE

    Greco-Persian Wars

  • 458 BCE

    Agamemnon

    Aeschylus
  • 431 BCE

    Medea

    Euripides
  • Period: 431 BCE to 404 BCE

    Peloponnesian War

  • 411 BCE

    Lysistrata

    Aristophanes
  • Period: 336 BCE to 31 BCE

    Hellenistic Theatre

  • 330 BCE

    Aristotle's Poetics

  • 206 BCE

    Braggart Soldier

    Plautus
  • Period: 204 BCE to 64

    Roman Drama

  • 195 BCE

    Roman-Spartan War

  • 189 BCE

    Galatian War

  • Period: 49 BCE to 45 BCE

    Caesar's Civil War

  • Period: 48 BCE to 47 BCE

    Pontic War

  • Period: 44 BCE to 30 BCE

    Roman Civil Wars

  • Period: 27 BCE to 476

    Roman Empire

  • 398

    Council of Carthage

  • Period: 476 to 900

    Byzantine Era

  • Period: 500 to 1550

    ART: Medieval Period

  • Period: 526 to 532

    Iberian War

  • 568

    State production of theatre ends

  • Period: 680 to 1355

    Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars

  • 692

    Attempt to ban theatre

  • Period: 900 to 1050

    Early Middle Ages

    Liturgical Drama
  • 935

    Dulcitius

    Hrotsvitha
  • Period: 1015 to 1016

    Cnut the Great's conquest of England

  • Period: 1050 to 1300

    High Middle Ages

  • Period: 1073 to 1075

    Saxon Rebellion

  • 1088

    Rebellion of 1088

  • Period: 1096 to 1099

    First Crusade

  • Period: 1145 to 1149

    Second Crusade

  • Period: 1147 to 1242

    Northern Crusades

  • Period: 1173 to 1174

    Revolt of 1173–74

  • Period: 1189 to 1192

    Third Crusade

  • Period: 1202 to 1204

    Fourth Crusade

  • Period: 1202 to 1214

    Anglo-French War of 1202–1214

  • Period: 1213 to 1221

    Fifth Crusade

  • Period: 1228 to 1229

    Sixth Crusade

  • Period: 1248 to 1254

    Seventh Crusade

  • Period: 1294 to 1303

    Anglo-French War of 1294–1303

  • Period: 1300 to 1500

    Late Middle Ages

  • Period: 1332 to 1357

    Second War of Scottish Independence

  • Period: 1337 to 1453

    Hundred Years' War

  • 1400

    English invasion of Scotland

  • 1400

    Second Shepherds Play

    Wakefield Mystery Play Cycle
  • Period: 1400 to

    ART: Renaissance Period

  • 1480

    Spanish Inquisition enforces Christianity

  • Period: 1484 to

    Tudor Era

  • Period: 1494 to 1559

    Italian Wars

  • 1497

    Cornish Rebellion of 1497

  • 1545

    Master of Revels

  • 1548

    First public theatre, Hotel de Bourgogne

  • 1551

    Commedia dell’arte

  • Period: 1558 to

    Elizabethan Era

  • 1559

    Ban on religious/political plays

  • Period: 1562 to

    French Wars of Religion

  • Period: 1568 to

    Eighty Years' War

  • Period: 1569 to 1573

    First Desmond Rebellion

  • Period: 1569 to 1570

    Rising of the North

  • Women are licensed to appear on stage

  • Period: to

    Spanish Golden Age theatre

  • Period: to

    Spanish Golden Age

  • Doctor Faustus

    Christopher Marlowe
  • Period: to

    Nine Years' War (Ireland)

  • Confrerie gives up monopoly

    Companies appear, including commedia dell’arte
  • Period: to

    ART: Baroque Period

  • Chamberlain’s Men renamed the King’s Men

  • Restricted acting companies

    Eight Spanish companies licensed by Royal Council
  • Period: to

    Jacobean Era

  • King Lear

    William Shakespeare

  • Duchess of Malfi

    John Webster

  • The Globe is destroyed in fire and the second Globe is built

  • Period: to

    Thirty Years' War

  • Fuente Ovejuna

    Lope de Vega

  • Neo-classic ideal takes hold

  • Period: to

    Caroline Era

  • Period: to

    Anglo-Spanish War

  • Period: to

    Belief in absolute monarchy leads Charles to rule without Parliament

  • Life is a Dream

    Pedro Calderón de la Barca

  • English Civil War

  • Period: to

    Puritan Rule

  • Public theatres closed

  • Charles I deposed and beheaded

    Ban on theatre becomes permanent
  • Period: to

    England ruled by Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell

  • Public theatres reopened

  • Period: to

    Anglo-Spanish War

  • Puritan rule of England ends

  • Period: to

    Restoration Era

  • Tartuffe

    Molière

  • First performance record in colonies

  • Period: to

    War of Devolution

  • Period: to

    Franco-Dutch War

  • The Country Wife

    William Wycherley

  • Phaedra

    Jean Racine

  • The Rover

    Aphra Behn

  • End of Golden Age

  • Period: to

    Nine Years' War

  • Productive period ended

  • Theatre in North America booms

  • Period: to

    Great Northern War

  • Period: to

    War of the Spanish Succession

  • Autos sacramentales move to public theatres

  • Period: to

    ART: Rococo Period

  • Stono Rebellion

  • Period: to

    Seven Years' War

  • Period: to

    ART: Neoclassical Period

  • Religious drama banned

  • Period: to

    American Revolutionary War

  • Period: to

    French Revolutionary Wars