Greek theatre

The best-preserved example of a classical Greek theatre, the Theatre of Epidaurus, has a circular orchêstra and
probably gives the best idea of the original shape of the Athenian theatre, though it dates from the 4th century
BC.
Main articles: Theatre of Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek comedy, and Satyr play
Greek theatre, most developed in Athens, is the root of the Western tradition; theatre is a word of Greek origin.
It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals,
religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposia.[5][a]
Participation in the city-state's many festivals—and attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member (or
even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particular—was an important part of citizenship.[6] Civic
participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court
or political assembly, both of which were understood as analogous to the theatre and increasingly came to
absorb its dramatic vocabulary.[7] The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy,
comedy, and the satyr play.[8]

Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important
part of the theatrical culture of the city-state.[9][b] Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BC, it
flowered during the 5th century BC (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world) and
continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period.[10][c] No tragedies from the 6th century
and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century have survived.[11][d]
We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.[12][e] The origins of tragedy remain
obscure, though by the 5th century it was institutionalised in competitions (agon) held as part of festivities
celebrating Dionysos (the god of wine and fertility).[13] As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the
most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays
(though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of
three tragedies and one satyr play.[14][f] The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as
early as 534 BC; official records (didaskaliai) begin from 501 BC, when the satyr play was introduced.[15] [g]
Most Athenian tragedies dramatise events from Greek mythology, though The Persians—which stages the
Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC—is the notable exception in
the surviving drama.[16][h] When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BC, he had been
writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of
drama to survive.[17] More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian
tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics (c. 335 BC). Athenian comedy is
conventionally divided into three periods, "Old Comedy", "Middle Comedy", and "New Comedy". Old Comedy
survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is
largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New
Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of plays by Menander. Aristotle defined
comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of error or ugliness that does not cause
pain or destruction.[18]

Roman theatre
Main article: Theatre of ancient Rome

Roman theatre in Benevento, Italy

Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans. The Roman historian Livy wrote that
the Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BC, with a performance by Etruscan actors.[19]
Beacham argues that Romans had been familiar with "pre-theatrical practices" for some time before that
recorded contact.[20] The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival
performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing
situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native
tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BC had a profound and
energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for
the stage.
Following the expansion of the Roman Republic (509–27 BC) into several Greek territories between 270–240
BC, Rome encountered Greek drama.[21] From the later years of the republic and by means of the Roman
Empire (27 BC-476 AD), theatre spread west across Europe, around the Mediterranean and reached England;
Roman theatre was more varied, extensive and sophisticated than that of any culture before it.[22] While Greek
drama continued to be performed throughout the Roman period, the year 240 BC marks the beginning of regular
Roman drama.[21][i] From the beginning of the empire, however, interest in full-length drama declined in
favour of a broader variety of theatrical entertainments.[23]

The first important works of Roman literature were the tragedies and comedies that Livius Andronicus wrote
from 240 BC.[24] Five years later, Gnaeus Naevius also began to write drama.[24] No plays from either writer
have survived. While both dramatists composed in both genres, Andronicus was most appreciated for his
tragedies and Naevius for his comedies; their successors tended to specialise in one or the other, which led to a
separation of the subsequent development of each type of drama.[24] By the beginning of the 2nd century BC,
drama was firmly established in Rome and a guild of writers (collegium poetarum) had been formed.[25]

The Roman comedies that have survived are all fabula palliata (comedies based on Greek subjects) and come
from two dramatists: Titus Maccius Plautus (Plautus) and Publius Terentius Afer (Terence).[26] In re-working
the Greek originals, the Roman comic dramatists abolished the role of the chorus in dividing the drama into
episodes and introduced musical accompaniment to its dialogue (between one-third of the dialogue in the
comedies of Plautus and two-thirds in those of Terence).[27] The action of all scenes is set in the exterior
location of a street and its complications often follow from eavesdropping.[27] Plautus, the more popular of the
two, wrote between 205 and 184 BC and twenty of his comedies survive, of which his farces are best known; he
was admired for the wit of his dialogue and his use of a variety of poetic meters.[28] All of the six comedies
that Terence wrote between 166 and 160 BC have survived; the complexity of his plots, in which he often
combined several Greek originals, was sometimes denounced, but his double-plots enabled a sophisticated
presentation of contrasting human behaviour.[28]

No early Roman tragedy survives, though it was highly regarded in its day; historians know of three early
tragedians—Quintus Ennius, Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius.[27] From the time of the empire, the work of
two tragedians survives—one is an unknown author, while the other is the Stoic philosopher Seneca.[29] Nine
of Seneca's tragedies survive, all of which are fabula crepidata (tragedies adapted from Greek originals); his
Phaedra, for example, was based on Euripides' Hippolytus.[30] Historians do not know who wrote the only
extant example of the fabula praetexta (tragedies based on Roman subjects), Octavia, but in former times it was
mistakenly attributed to Seneca due to his appearance as a character in the tragedy.[29]

In contrast to Ancient Greek theatre, the theatre in Ancient Rome did allow female performers. While the
majority were employed for dancing and singing, a minority of actresses are known to have performed speaking
roles, and there were actresses who achieved wealth, fame and recognition for their art, such as Eucharis,
Dionysia, Galeria Copiola and Fabia Arete: they also formed their own acting guild, the Sociae Mimae, which
was evidently quite wealthy. [31]

Transition and early medieval theatre, 500–1050

Main article: Medieval theatre
As the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power
shifted to Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire, today called the Byzantine Empire. While surviving
evidence about Byzantine theatre is slight, existing records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations
from tragedies and comedies, dances, and other entertainments were very popular. Constantinople had two
theatres that were in use as late as the 5th century.[32] However, the true importance of the Byzantines in
theatrical history is their preservation of many classical Greek texts and the compilation of a massive
encyclopedia called the Suda, from which is derived a large amount of contemporary information on Greek
theatre.

From the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder that lasted (with a brief
period of stability under the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century) until the 10th century. As such, most
organized theatrical activities disappeared in Western Europe. While it seems that small nomadic bands
travelled around Europe throughout the period, performing wherever they could find an audience, there is no
evidence that they produced anything but crude scenes.[33] These performers were denounced by the Church
during the Dark Ages as they were viewed as dangerous and pagan.

Hrosvitha of Gandersheim, the first dramatist of the post-classical era.

By the Early Middle Ages, churches in Europe began staging dramatized versions of particular biblical events
on specific days of the year. These dramatizations were included in order to vivify annual celebrations.[34]
Symbolic objects and actions – vestments, altars, censers, and pantomime performed by priests – recalled the
events which Christian ritual celebrates. These were extensive sets of visual signs that could be used to
communicate with a largely illiterate audience. These performances developed into liturgical dramas, the
earliest of which is the Whom do you Seek (Quem-Quaeritis) Easter trope, dating from ca. 925.[34] Liturgical
drama was sung responsively by two groups and did not involve actors impersonating characters. However,
sometime between 965 and 975, Æthelwold of Winchester composed the Regularis Concordia (Monastic
Agreement) which contains a playlet complete with directions for performance.[35]

Hrosvitha (c. 935 – 973), a canoness in northern Germany, wrote six plays modeled on Terence's comedies but
using religious subjects. These six plays – Abraham, Callimachus, Dulcitius, Gallicanus, Paphnutius, and
Sapientia – are the first known plays composed by a female dramatist and the first identifiable Western dramatic
works of the post-classical era.[35] They were first published in 1501 and had considerable influence on
religious and didactic plays of the sixteenth century. Hrosvitha was followed by Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179),
a Benedictine abbess, who wrote a Latin musical drama called Ordo Virtutum in 1155.

High and late medieval theatre, 1050–1500

Stage drawing from 15th-century vernacular morality play The Castle of Perseverance (as found in the Macro
Manuscript).
Main article: Medieval theatre
As the Viking invasions ceased in the middle of the 11th century, liturgical drama had spread from Russia to
Scandinavia to Italy. Only in Muslim-occupied Iberian Peninsula were liturgical dramas not presented at all.
Despite the large number of liturgical dramas that have survived from the period, many churches would have
only performed one or two per year and a larger number never performed any at all.[36]

The Feast of Fools was especially important in the development of comedy. The festival inverted the status of
the lesser clergy and allowed them to ridicule their superiors and the routine of church life. Sometimes plays
were staged as part of the occasion and a certain amount of burlesque and comedy crept into these
performances. Although comic episodes had to truly wait until the separation of drama from the liturgy, the
Feast of Fools undoubtedly had a profound effect on the development of comedy in both religious and secular
plays.[37]

Performance of religious plays outside of the church began sometime in the 12th century through a traditionally
accepted process of merging shorter liturgical dramas into longer plays which were then translated into
vernacular and performed by laymen. The Mystery of Adam (1150) gives credence to this theory as its detailed
stage direction suggest that it was staged outdoors. A number of other plays from the period survive, including
La Seinte Resurrection (Norman), The Play of the Magi Kings (Spanish), and Sponsus (French).

The importance of the High Middle Ages in the development of theatre was the economic and political changes
that led to the formation of guilds and the growth of towns. This would lead to significant changes in the Late
Middle Ages. In the British Isles, plays were produced in some 127 different towns during the Middle Ages.
These vernacular Mystery plays were written in cycles of a large number of plays: York (48 plays), Chester
(24), Wakefield (32) and Unknown (42). A larger number of plays survive from France and Germany in this
period and some type of religious dramas were performed in nearly every European country in the Late Middle
Ages. Many of these plays contained comedy, devils, villains and clowns.[38]
The majority of actors in these plays were drawn from the local population. For example, at Valenciennes in
1547, more than 100 roles were assigned to 72 actors.[39] Plays were staged on pageant wagon stages, which
were platforms mounted on wheels used to move scenery. Often providing their own costumes, amateur
performers in England were exclusively male, but other countries had female performers. The platform stage,
which was an unidentified space and not a specific locale, allowed for abrupt changes in location.

Morality plays emerged as a distinct dramatic form around 1400 and flourished until 1550. The most interesting
morality play is The Castle of Perseverance which depicts mankind's progress from birth to death. However, the
most famous morality play and perhaps best known medieval drama is Everyman. Everyman receives Death's
summons, struggles to escape and finally resigns himself to necessity. Along the way, he is deserted by
Kindred, Goods, and Fellowship – only Good Deeds goes with him to the grave.

There were also a number of secular performances staged in the Middle Ages, the earliest of which is The Play
of the Greenwood by Adam de la Halle in 1276. It contains satirical scenes and folk material such as faeries and
other supernatural occurrences. Farces also rose dramatically in popularity after the 13th century. The majority
of these plays come from France and Germany and are similar in tone and form, emphasizing sex and bodily
excretions.[40] The best known playwright of farces is Hans Sachs (1494–1576) who wrote 198 dramatic
works. In England, The Second Shepherds' Play of the Wakefield Cycle is the best known early farce. However,
farce did not appear independently in England until the 16th century with the work of John Heywood (1497–
1580).

A significant forerunner of the development of Elizabethan drama was the Chambers of Rhetoric in the Low
Countries.[41] These societies were concerned with poetry, music and drama and held contests to see which
society could compose the best drama in relation to a question posed.

At the end of the Late Middle Ages, professional actors began to appear in England and Europe. Richard III and
Henry VII both maintained small companies of professional actors. Their plays were performed in the Great
Hall of a nobleman's residence, often with a raised platform at one end for the audience and a "screen" at the
other for the actors. Also important were Mummers' plays, performed during the Christmas season, and court
masques. These masques were especially popular during the reign of Henry VIII who had a House of Revels
built and an Office of Revels established in 1545.[42]

The end of medieval drama came about due to a number of factors, including the weakening power of the
Catholic Church, the Protestant Reformation and the banning of religious plays in many countries. Elizabeth I
forbid all religious plays in 1558 and the great cycle plays had been silenced by the 1580s. Similarly, religious
plays were banned in the Netherlands in 1539, the Papal States in 1547 and in Paris in 1548. The abandonment
of these plays destroyed the international theatre that had thereto existed and forced each country to develop its
own form of drama. It also allowed dramatists to turn to secular subjects and the reviving interest in Greek and
Roman theatre provided them with the perfect opportunity.[42]

Commedia dell'arte and Renaissance

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The greedy, high-status Pantalone commedia dell'arte masked character.

Main article: Commedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte troupes performed lively improvisational playlets across Europe for centuries. It originated
in Italy in the 1560s. Commedia dell'arte was an actor-centred theatre, requiring little scenery and very few
props. Plays did not originate from written drama but from scenarios called lazzi, which were loose frameworks
that provided the situations, complications, and outcome of the action, around which the actors would
improvise. The plays utilised stock characters, which could be divided into three groups: the lovers, the masters,
and the servants. The lovers had different names and characteristics in most plays and often were the children of
the master. The role of master was normally based on one of three stereotypes: Pantalone, an elderly Venetian
merchant; Dottore, Pantalone's friend or rival, a pedantic doctor or lawyer who acted far more intelligent than
he really was; and Capitano, who was once a lover character, but evolved into a braggart who boasted of his
exploits in love and war, but was often terrifically unskilled in both. He normally carried a sword and wore a
cape and feathered headdress. The servant character (called zanni) had only one recurring role: Arlecchino (also
called Harlequin). He was both cunning and ignorant, but an accomplished dancer and acrobat. He typically
carried a wooden stick with a split in the middle so it made a loud noise when striking something. This
"weapon" gave us the term "slapstick".

A troupe typically consisted of 13 to 14 members. Most actors were paid by taking a share of the play's profits
roughly equivalent to the size of their role. The style of theatre was in its peak from 1575 to 1650, but even after
that time new scenarios were written and performed. The Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni wrote a few
scenarios starting in 1734, but since he considered the genre too vulgar, he refined the topics of his own to be
more sophisticated. He also wrote several plays based on real events, in which he included commedia
characters.

The commedia dell’arte allowed professional women to perform early on: Lucrezia Di Siena, whose name is on
a contract of actors from 10 October 1564, has been referred to as the first Italian actress known by name, with
Vincenza Armani and Barbara Flaminia as the first primadonna's and the first well documented actresses in
Italy (and Europe). [43]

English Elizabethan theatre

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A 1596 sketch of a performance in progress on the thrust stage of The Swan, a typical Elizabethan open-roof
playhouse.
Main article: English Renaissance theatre
Renaissance theatre derived from several medieval theatre traditions, such as, the mystery plays that formed a
part of religious festivals in England and other parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. Other sources include
the "morality plays" and the "University drama" that attempted to recreate Athenian tragedy. The Italian
tradition of Commedia dell'arte, as well as the elaborate masques frequently presented at court, also contributed
to the shaping of public theatre.

Since before the reign of Elizabeth I, companies of players were attached to households of leading aristocrats
and performed seasonally in various locations. These became the foundation for the professional players that
performed on the Elizabethan stage. The tours of these players gradually replaced the performances of the
mystery and morality plays by local players, and a 1572 law eliminated the remaining companies lacking formal
patronage by labelling them vagabonds.

The City of London authorities were generally hostile to public performances, but its hostility was overmatched
by the Queen's taste for plays and the Privy Council's support. Theatres sprang up in suburbs, especially in the
liberty of Southwark, accessible across the Thames to city dwellers but beyond the authority's control. The
companies maintained the pretence that their public performances were mere rehearsals for the frequent
performances before the Queen, but while the latter did grant prestige, the former were the real source of the
income for the professional players.
Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed toward the end of the period.
Under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the
same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama
became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of
Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the
accumulated works of the previous decades.[44]

Puritan opposition to the stage (informed by the arguments of the early Church Fathers who had written screeds
against the decadent and violent entertainments of the Romans) argued not only that the stage in general was
pagan, but that any play that represented a religious figure was inherently idolatrous. In 1642, at the outbreak of
the English Civil War, the Puritan authorities banned the performance of all plays within the city limits of
London. A sweeping assault against the alleged immoralities of the theatre crushed whatever remained in
England of the dramatic tradition.

Spanish Golden age theatre

Main article: Spanish Golden Age theatre

Calderon de la Barca, a key figure in the theatre of the Spanish Golden Age
During its Golden Age, roughly from 1590 to 1681,[45] Spain saw a monumental increase in the production of
live theatre as well as in the importance of theatre within Spanish society. It was an accessible art form for all
participants in Renaissance Spain, being both highly sponsored by the aristocratic class and highly attended by
the lower classes.[46] The volume and variety of Spanish plays during the Golden Age was unprecedented in
the history of world theatre, surpassing, for example, the dramatic production of the English Renaissance by a
factor of at least four.[45][46][47] Although this volume has been as much a source of criticism as praise for
Spanish Golden Age theatre, for emphasizing quantity before quality,[48] a large number of the 10,000[46] to
30,000[48] plays of this period are still considered masterpieces.[49][50]

Major artists of the period included Lope de Vega, a contemporary of Shakespeare, often, and
contemporaneously, seen his parallel for the Spanish stage,[51] and Calderon de la Barca, inventor of the
zarzuela[52] and Lope's successor as the preeminent Spanish dramatist.[53] Gil Vicente, Lope de Rueda, and
Juan del Encina helped to establish the foundations of Spanish theatre in the mid-sixteenth centuries,[54][55]
[56] while Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla and Tirso de Molina made significant contributions in the latter half of
the Golden Age.[57][58] Important performers included Lope de Rueda (previously mentioned among the
playwrights) and later Juan Rana.[59][60]

The sources of influence for the emerging national theatre of Spain were as diverse as the theatre that nation
ended up producing. Storytelling traditions originating in Italian Commedia dell'arte[61] and the uniquely
Spanish expression of Western Europe's traveling minstrel entertainments[62][63] contributed a populist
influence on the narratives and the music, respectively, of early Spanish theatre. Neo-Aristotelian criticism and
liturgical dramas, on the other hand, contributed literary and moralistic perspectives.[64][65] In turn, Spanish
Golden Age theatre has dramatically influenced the theatre of later generations in Europe and throughout the
world. Spanish drama had an immediate and significant impact on the contemporary developments in English
Renaissance theatre.[49] It has also had a lasting impact on theatre throughout the Spanish speaking world.[66]
Additionally, a growing number of works are being translated, increasing the reach of Spanish Golden Age
theatre and strengthening its reputation among critics and theatre patrons.[67]

French Classical theatre

Notable playwrights:

Pierre Corneille (1606–84)

Molière (1622–73)
Jean Racine (1639–99)
Restoration comedy

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Main article: Restoration comedy

Refinement meets burlesque in Restoration comedy. In this scene from George Etherege's Love in a Tub (1664),
musicians and well-bred ladies surround a man who is wearing a tub because he has lost his trousers.
After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the
theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama. With the restoration of the monarch in 1660 came the
restoration of and the reopening of the theatre. English comedies written and performed in the Restoration
period from 1660 to 1710 are collectively called "Restoration comedy". Restoration comedy is notorious for its
sexual explicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish aristocratic
ethos of his court. For the first time women were allowed to act, putting an end to the practice of the boy-player
taking the parts of women. Socially diverse audiences included both aristocrats, their servants and hangers-on,
and a substantial middle-class segment. Restoration audiences liked to see good triumph in their tragedies and
rightful government restored. In comedy they liked to see the love-lives of the young and fashionable, with a
central couple bringing their courtship to a successful conclusion (often overcoming the opposition of the elders
to do so). Heroines had to be chaste, but were independent-minded and outspoken; now that they were played
by women, there was more mileage for the playwright in disguising them in men's clothes or giving them
narrow escape from rape. These playgoers were attracted to the comedies by up-to-the-minute topical writing,
by crowded and bustling plots, by the introduction of the first professional actresses, and by the rise of the first
celebrity actors. To non-theatre-goers these comedies were widely seen as licentious and morally suspect,
holding up the antics of a small, privileged, and decadent class for admiration. This same class dominated the
audiences of the Restoration theatre. This period saw the first professional woman playwright, Aphra Behn.

As a reaction to the decadence of Charles II era productions, sentimental comedy grew in popularity. This genre
focused on encouraging virtuous behavior by showing middle class characters overcoming a series of moral
trials. Playwrights like Colley Cibber and Richard Steele believed that humans were inherently good but
capable of being led astray. Through plays such as The Conscious Lovers and Love's Last Shift they strove to
appeal to an audience's noble sentiments in order that viewers could be reformed.[68][69]

Restoration spectacular
Main article: Restoration spectacular
The Restoration spectacular, or elaborately staged "machine play", hit the London public stage in the late 17th-
century Restoration period, enthralling audiences with action, music, dance, moveable scenery, baroque
illusionistic painting, gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and
fireworks. These shows have always had a bad reputation as a vulgar and commercial threat to the witty,
"legitimate" Restoration drama; however, they drew Londoners in unprecedented numbers and left them
dazzled and delighted.

Basically home-grown and with roots in the early 17th-century court masque, though never ashamed of
borrowing ideas and stage technology from French opera, the spectaculars are sometimes called "English
opera". However, the variety of them is so untidy that most theatre historians despair of defining them as a
genre at all.[70] Only a handful of works of this period are usually accorded the term "opera", as the musical
dimension of most of them is subordinate to the visual. It was spectacle and scenery that drew in the crowds, as
shown by many comments in the diary of the theatre-lover Samuel Pepys.[71] The expense of mounting ever
more elaborate scenic productions drove the two competing theatre companies into a dangerous spiral of huge
expenditure and correspondingly huge losses or profits. A fiasco such as John Dryden's Albion and Albanius
would leave a company in serious debt, while blockbusters like Thomas Shadwell's Psyche or Dryden's King
Arthur would put it comfortably in the black for a long time.[72]

Neoclassical theatre
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Further information: Neoclassicism

An 18th-century Neoclassical theatre in Ostankino, Moscow

Neoclassicism was the dominant form of theatre in the 18th century. It demanded decorum and rigorous
adherence to the classical unities. Neoclassical theatre as well as the time period is characterized by its
grandiosity. The costumes and scenery were intricate and elaborate. The acting is characterized by large
gestures and melodrama. Neoclassical theatre encompasses the Restoration, Augustan, and Johnstinian Ages. In
one sense, the neo-classical age directly follows the time of the Renaissance.

Theatres of the early 18th century – sexual farces of the Restoration were superseded by politically satirical
comedies, 1737 Parliament passed the Stage Licensing Act which introduced state censorship of public
performances and limited the number of theatres in London to two.

Nineteenth-century theatre
Main article: Nineteenth-century theatre
Theatre in the 19th century is divided into two parts: early and late. The early period was dominated by
melodrama and Romanticism.

Beginning in France, melodrama became the most popular theatrical form. August von Kotzebue's Misanthropy
and Repentance (1789) is often considered the first melodramatic play. The plays of Kotzebue and René
Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt established melodrama as the dominant dramatic form of the early 19th century.
[73]

In Germany, there was a trend toward historical accuracy in costumes and settings, a revolution in theatre
architecture, and the introduction of the theatrical form of German Romanticism. Influenced by trends in 19th-
century philosophy and the visual arts, German writers were increasingly fascinated with their Teutonic past
and had a growing sense of nationalism. The plays of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
Friedrich Schiller, and other Sturm und Drang playwrights inspired a growing faith in feeling and instinct as
guides to moral behavior.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton.
In Britain, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron were the most important dramatists of their time although
Shelley's plays were not performed until later in the century. In the minor theatres, burletta and melodrama were
the most popular. Kotzebue's plays were translated into English and Thomas Holcroft's A Tale of Mystery was
the first of many English melodramas. Pierce Egan, Douglas William Jerrold, Edward Fitzball, and John
Baldwin Buckstone initiated a trend towards more contemporary and rural stories in preference to the usual
historical or fantastical melodramas. James Sheridan Knowles and Edward Bulwer-Lytton established a
"gentlemanly" drama that began to re-establish the former prestige of the theatre with the aristocracy.[74]

The later period of the 19th century saw the rise of two conflicting types of drama: realism and non-realism,
such as Symbolism and precursors of Expressionism.

Realism began earlier in the 19th century in Russia than elsewhere in Europe and took a more uncompromising
form.[75] Beginning with the plays of Ivan Turgenev (who used "domestic detail to reveal inner turmoil"),
Aleksandr Ostrovsky (who was Russia's first professional playwright), Aleksey Pisemsky (whose A Bitter Fate
(1859) anticipated Naturalism), and Leo Tolstoy (whose The Power of Darkness (1886) is "one of the most
effective of naturalistic plays"), a tradition of psychological realism in Russia culminated with the establishment
of the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.[76]

The most important theatrical force in later 19th-century Germany was that of Georg II, Duke of Saxe-
Meiningen and his Meiningen Ensemble, under the direction of Ludwig Chronegk. The Ensemble's productions
are often considered the most historically accurate of the 19th century, although his primary goal was to serve
the interests of the playwright. The Meiningen Ensemble stands at the beginning of the new movement toward
unified production (or what Richard Wagner would call the Gesamtkunstwerk) and the rise of the director (at
the expense of the actor) as the dominant artist in theatre-making.[77]

Richard Wagner's Bayreuth Festival Theatre.

Naturalism, a theatrical movement born out of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) and
contemporary political and economic conditions, found its main proponent in Émile Zola. The realisation of
Zola's ideas was hindered by a lack of capable dramatists writing naturalist drama. André Antoine emerged in
the 1880s with his Théâtre Libre that was only open to members and therefore was exempt from censorship. He
quickly won the approval of Zola and began to stage Naturalistic works and other foreign realistic pieces.[78]

In Britain, melodramas, light comedies, operas, Shakespeare and classic English drama, Victorian burlesque,
pantomimes, translations of French farces and, from the 1860s, French operettas, continued to be popular. So
successful were the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, such as H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Mikado
(1885), that they greatly expanded the audience for musical theatre.[79] This, together with much improved
street lighting and transportation in London and New York led to a late Victorian and Edwardian theatre
building boom in the West End and on Broadway. Later, the work of Henry Arthur Jones and Arthur Wing
Pinero initiated a new direction on the English stage.

Henrik Ibsen
While their work paved the way, the development of more significant drama owes itself most to the playwright
Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen was born in Norway in 1828. He wrote twenty-five plays, the most famous of which are A
Doll's House (1879), Ghosts (1881), The Wild Duck (1884), and Hedda Gabler (1890). In addition, his works
Rosmersholm (1886) and When We Dead Awaken (1899) evoke a sense of mysterious forces at work in human
destiny, which was to be a major theme of symbolism and the so-called "Theatre of the Absurd".[citation
needed]

After Ibsen, British theatre experienced revitalization with the work of George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde,
John Galsworthy, William Butler Yeats, and Harley Granville Barker. Unlike most of the gloomy and intensely
serious work of their contemporaries, Shaw and Wilde wrote primarily in the comic form. Edwardian musical
comedies were extremely popular, appealing to the tastes of the middle class in the Gay Nineties[80] and
catering to the public's preference for escapist entertainment during World War 1.

Twentieth-century theatre
While much 20th-century theatre continued and extended the projects of realism and Naturalism, there was also
a great deal of experimental theatre that rejected those conventions. These experiments form part of the
modernist and postmodernist movements and included forms of political theatre as well as more aesthetically
orientated work. Examples include: Epic theatre, the Theatre of Cruelty, and the so-called "Theatre of the
Absurd".

The term theatre practitioner came to be used to describe someone who both creates theatrical performances and
who produces a theoretical discourse that informs their practical work.[81] A theatre practitioner may be a
director, a dramatist, an actor, or—characteristically—often a combination of these traditionally separate roles.
"Theatre practice" describes the collective work that various theatre practitioners do.[82] It is used to describe
theatre praxis from Konstantin Stanislavski's development of his 'system', through Vsevolod Meyerhold's
biomechanics, Bertolt Brecht's epic and Jerzy Grotowski's poor theatre, down to the present day, with
contemporary theatre practitioners including Augusto Boal with his Theatre of the Oppressed, Dario Fo's
popular theatre, Eugenio Barba's theatre anthropology and Anne Bogart's viewpoints.[83]

Other key figures of 20th-century theatre include: Antonin Artaud, August Strindberg, Anton Chekhov, Frank
Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard
Shaw, Gertrude Stein, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet,
Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Heiner Müller, and Caryl Churchill.

A number of aesthetic movements continued or emerged in the 20th century, including:

Naturalism
Realism
Dadaism
Expressionism
Surrealism and the Theatre of Cruelty
Theatre of the Absurd
Postmodernism
Agitprop
After the great popularity of the British Edwardian musical comedies, the American musical theatre came to
dominate the musical stage, beginning with the Princess Theatre musicals, followed by the works of the
Gershwin brothers, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Rodgers and Hart, and later Rodgers and Hammerstein.

American theatre
1752 to 1895 Romanticism
Throughout most of history, English belles lettres and theatre have been separated, but these two art forms are
interconnected.[84] However, if they do not learn how to work hand-in-hand, it can be detrimental to the art
form.[85] The prose of English literature and the stories it tells needs to be performed and theatre has that
capacity.[86] From the start American theatre has been unique and diverse, reflecting society as America chased
after its National identity.[87] The very first play performed, in 1752 in Williamsburg Virginia, was
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice."[88] Due to a strong Christian society, theatre was banned from 1774
until 1789.[89] This societal standard was due to the Bible being sacred and any other diversions
(entertainment) were seen as inappropriate, frivolous (without purpose), and sensual (pleasurable).[90] During
the ban, theatre often hid by titling itself as moral lectures.[91] Theatre took a brief pause because of the
revolutionary war, but quickly resumed after the war ended in 1781.[89] Theatre began to spread west, and
often towns had theatres before they had sidewalks or sewers.[92] There were several leading professional
theatre companies early on, but one of the most influential was in Philadelphia (1794–1815); however, the
company had shaky roots because of the ban on theatre.[89]

As the country expanded so did theatre; following the war of 1812 theatre headed west.[89] Many of the new
theatres were community run, but in New Orleans a professional theatre had been started by the French in 1791.
[89] Several troupes broke off and established a theatre in Cincinnati, Ohio.[89] The first official west theatre
came in 1815 when Samuel Drake (1769–1854) took his professional theatre company from Albany to
Pittsburgh to the Ohio River and Kentucky.[89] Along with this circuit he would sometimes take the troupe to
Lexington, Louisville, and Frankfort.[89] At times, he would lead the troupe to Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and
Missouri.[89] While there were circuit riding troupes, more permanent theatre communities out west often sat
on rivers so there would be easy boat access.[89] During this time period very few theatres were above the Ohio
River, and in fact Chicago did not have a permanent theatre until 1833.[89] Because of the turbulent times in
America and the economic crisis happening due to wars, theatre during its most expansive time, experienced
bankruptcy and change of management.[89] Also most early American theatre had great European influence
because many of the actors had been English born and trained.[89] Between 1800 and 1850 neoclassical
philosophy almost completely passed away under romanticism which was a great influence of 19th century
American theatre that idolized the "noble savage."[89] Due to new psychological discoveries and acting
methods, eventually romanticism would give birth to realism.[89] This trend toward realism occurred between
1870 and 1895.[89]

1895 to 1945 Realism

In this era of theatre, the moral hero shifts to the modern man who is a product of his environment.[93] This
major shift is due in part to the civil war because America was now stained with its own blood, having lost its
innocence.[94]

1945 to 1990 Modernism

During this period of theatre, Hollywood emerged and threatened American theatre.[95] However theatre
during this time didn't decline but in fact was renowned and noticed worldwide.[95]

African theatre
North African theatre
Ancient Egyptian quasi-theatrical events
The earliest recorded quasi-theatrical event dates back to 2000 BC with the "passion plays" of Ancient Egypt.
The story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization.[96]

West African theatre

Ghanaian theatre
Modern theatre in Ghana emerged in the early 20th century.[97] It emerged first as literary comment on the
colonization of Africa by Europe.[97] Among the earliest work in which this can be seen is The Blinkards
written by Kobina Sekyi in 1915. The Blinkards is a blatant satire about the Africans who embraced the
European culture that was brought to them. In it Sekyi demeans three groups of individuals: anyone European,
anyone who imitates the Europeans, and the rich African cocoa farmer. This sudden rebellion though was just
the beginning spark of Ghanaian literary theatre.[97]

A play that has similarity in its satirical view is Anowa. Written by Ghanaian author Ama Ata Aidoo, it begins
with its eponymous heroine Anowa rejecting her many arranged suitors' marriage proposals. She insists on
making her own decisions as to whom she is going to marry. The play stresses the need for gender equality, and
respect for women.[97] This ideal of independence, as well as equality leads Anowa down a winding path of
both happiness and misery. Anowa chooses a man of her own to marry. Anowa supports her husband Kofi both
physically and emotionally. Through her support Kofi does prosper in wealth, but becomes poor as a spiritual
being. Through his accumulation of wealth Kofi loses himself in it. His once happy marriage with Anowa
becomes changed when he begins to hire slaves rather than doing any labor himself. This to Anowa does not
make sense because it makes Kofi no better than the European colonists whom she detests for the way that she
feels they have used the people of Africa. Their marriage is childless, which is presumed to have been caused
by a ritual that Kofi has done trading his manhood for wealth. Anowa's viewing Kofi's slave-gotten wealth and
inability to have a child leads to her committing suicide.[97] The name Anowa means "Superior moral force"
while Kofi's means only "Born on Friday". This difference in even the basis of their names seems to implicate
the moral superiority of women in a male run society.[97]

Another play of significance is The Marriage of Anansewa, written in 1975 by Efua Sutherland. The entire play
is based upon an Akan oral tradition called Anansesem (folk tales). The main character of the play is Ananse
(the spider). The qualities of Ananse are one of the most prevalent parts of the play. Ananse is cunning, selfish,
has great insight into human and animal nature, is ambitious, eloquent, and resourceful. By putting too much of
himself into everything that he does Ananse ruins each of his schemes and ends up poor.[97] Ananse is used in
the play as a kind of Everyman. He is written in an exaggerated sense in order to force the process of self-
examination. Ananse is used as a way to spark a conversation for change in the society of anyone reading. The
play tells of Ananse attempting to marry off his daughter Anansewa off to any of a selection of rich chiefs, or
another sort of wealthy suitor simultaneously, in order to raise money. Eventually all the suitors come to his
house at once, and he has to use all of his cunning to defuse the situation.[97] The storyteller not only narrates
but also enacts, reacts to, and comments on the action of the tale. Along with this, Mbuguous is used, Mbuguous
is the name given to very specialized sect of Ghanaian theatre technique that allows for audience participation.
The Mbuguous of this tale are songs that embellish the tale or comment on it. Spontaneity through this
technique as well as improvisation are used enough to meet any standard of modern theatre.[97]

Yoruba theatre
See also: Yoruba literature
In his pioneering study of Yoruba theatre, Joel Adedeji traced its origins to the masquerade of the Egungun (the
"cult of the ancestor").[98] The traditional ceremony culminates in the essence of the masquerade where it is
deemed that ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants.[99] In addition to its origin in
ritual, Yoruba theatre can be "traced to the 'theatrogenic' nature of a number of the deities in the Yoruba
pantheon, such as Obatala the arch divinity, Ogun the divinity of creativeness, as well as Iron and technology,
[100] and Sango the divinity of the storm", whose reverence is imbued "with drama and theatre and the
symbolic overall relevance in terms of its relative interpretation."[101]

The Aláàrìnjó theatrical tradition sprang from the Egungun masquerade in the 16th century. The Aláàrìnjó was
a troupe of traveling performers whose masked forms carried an air of mystique. They created short, satirical
scenes that drew on a number of established stereotypical characters. Their performances utilised mime, music
and acrobatics. The Aláàrìnjó tradition influenced the popular traveling theatre, which was the most prevalent
and highly developed form of theatre in Nigeria from the 1950s to the 1980s. In the 1990s, the popular traveling
theatre moved into television and film and now gives live performances only rarely.[102][103]

"Total theatre" also developed in Nigeria in the 1950s. It utilised non-Naturalistic techniques, surrealistic
physical imagery, and exercised a flexible use of language. Playwrights writing in the mid-1970s made use of
some of these techniques, but articulated them with "a radical appreciation of the problems of society."[104]

Traditional performance modes have strongly influenced the major figures in contemporary Nigerian theatre.
The work of Hubert Ogunde (sometimes referred to as the "father of contemporary Yoruban theatre") was
informed by the Aláàrìnjó tradition and Egungun masquerades.[105] Wole Soyinka, who is "generally
recognized as Africa's greatest living playwright", gives the divinity Ogun a complex metaphysical significance
in his work.[106] In his essay "The Fourth Stage" (1973),[107] Soyinka contrasts Yoruba drama with classical
Athenian drama, relating both to the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's analysis of the
latter in The Birth of Tragedy (1872). Ogun, he argues, is "a totality of the Dionysian, Apollonian and
Promethean virtues."[108]

The proponents of the travelling theatre in Nigeria include Duro Ladipo and Moses Olaiya (a popular comic
act). These practitioners contributed much to the field of African theatre during the period of mixture and
experimentation of the indigenous with the Western theatre.

African Diaspora theatre

African-American theatre
The history of African-American theatre has a dual origin. The first is rooted in local theatre where African
Americans performed in cabins and parks. Their performances (folk tales, songs, music, and dance) were rooted
in the African culture before being influenced by the American environment. African Grove Theatre was the
first African-American theatre established in 1821 by William Henry Brown ISBN 0521465850

Asian theatre
Mani Damodara Chakyar as King Udayana in Bhasa's Swapnavasavadattam Koodiyattam-the only surviving
ancient Sanskrit theatre.
Indian theatre
Overview of Indian theatre
Main article: Theatre of India
The earliest form of Indian theatre was the Sanskrit theatre.[109] It emerged sometime between the 15th century
BC and the 1st century and flourished between the 1st century and the 10th, which was a period of relative
peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written.[110] Vedic text such as Rigveda
provides evidences of drama plays being enacted during Yajna ceremonies. The dialogues mentioned in the
texts range from one person monologue to three-person dialogue, for instance, the dialogue between Indra,
Indrani and Vrishakapi. The dialogues are not only religious in their context but also secular for instance one
rigvedic monologue is about a gambler whose life is ruined because of it and has estranged his wife and his
parents also hate him. Panini in 5th century BC mentions a dramatic text Natasutra written by two Indian
dramatists Shilalin and Krishashva. Patanjali also mentions the name of plays which have been lost such as
kemsavadha and Balibandha. Sitabenga caves dating back to 3rd century BC and Khandagiri caves from 2nd
century BC are the earliest examples of theatre architecture in India.[111] With the Islamic conquests that began
in the 10th and 11th centuries, theatre was discouraged or forbidden entirely.[112] Later, in an attempt to re-
assert indigenous values and ideas, village theatre was encouraged across the subcontinent, developing in a
large number of regional languages from the 15th to the 19th centuries.[113] Modern Indian theatre developed
during the period of colonial rule under the British Empire, from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th.[114]

Sanskrit theatre
Main article: Sanskrit drama
See also: Koodiyattam
The earliest-surviving fragments of Sanskrit drama date from the 1st century.[115] The wealth of archaeological
evidence from earlier periods offers no indication of the existence of a tradition of theatre.[116] The Vedas (the
earliest Indian literature, from between 1500 and 600 BC) contain no hint of it; although a small number of
hymns are composed in a form of dialogue), the rituals of the Vedic period do not appear to have developed into
theatre.[116] The Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of
Sanskrit drama.[117] This treatise on grammar from 140 BC provides a feasible date for the beginnings of
theatre in India.[117]

However, although there are no surviving fragments of any drama prior to this date, it is possible that early
Buddhist literature provides the earliest evidence for the existence of Indian theatre. The Pali suttas (ranging in
date from the 5th to 3rd centuries BCE) refer to the existence of troupes of actors (led by a chief actor), who
performed dramas on a stage. It is indicated that these dramas incorporated dance, but were listed as a distinct
form of performance, alongside dancing, singing, and story recitations.[118] (According to later Buddhist texts,
King Bimbisara, a contemporary of Gautama Buddha, had a drama performed for another king. This would be
as early as the 5th century BCE, but the event is only described in much later texts, from the 3rd-4th centuries
CE.)[119]

The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is A Treatise on Theatre (Nātyaśāstra), a compendium whose
date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BC to 200 AD) and whose authorship is attributed to
Bharata Muni. The Treatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting,
dance, music, dramatic construction, architecture, costuming, make-up, props, the organisation of companies,
the audience, competitions, and offers a mythological account of the origin of theatre.[117] In doing so, it
provides indications about the nature of actual theatrical practices. Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred
ground by priests who had been trained in the necessary skills (dance, music, and recitation) in a [hereditary
process]. Its aim was both to educate and to entertain.

Under the patronage of royal courts, performers belonged to professional companies that were directed by a
stage manager (sutradhara), who may also have acted.[120] This task was thought of as being analogous to that
of a puppeteer—the literal meaning of "sutradhara" is "holder of the strings or threads".[117] The performers
were trained rigorously in vocal and physical technique.[121] There were no prohibitions against female
performers; companies were all-male, all-female, and of mixed gender. Certain sentiments were considered
inappropriate for men to enact, however, and were thought better suited to women. Some performers played
character their own age, while others played those different from their own (whether younger or older). Of all
the elements of theatre, the Treatise gives most attention to acting (abhinaya), which consists of two styles:
realistic (lokadharmi) and conventional (natyadharmi), though the major focus is on the latter.

Its drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature. It utilised stock characters, such as the
hero (nayaka), heroine (nayika), or clown (vidusaka). Actors may have specialised in a particular type. Kālidāsa
in the 1st century BC, is arguably considered to be ancient India's greatest Sanskrit dramatist. Three famous
romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya
(Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was
inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and
German. Śakuntalā (in English translation) influenced Goethe's Faust (1808–1832).

The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century). He is said to have written the following three
plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between
them the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having
written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda.

Traditional Indian theatre

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Kathakali
Main article: Kathakali
Kathakali is a highly stylised classical Indian dance-drama noted for the attractive make-up of characters,
elaborate costumes, detailed gestures, and well-defined body movements presented in tune with the anchor
playback music and complementary percussion. It originated in the country's present-day state of Kerala during
the 17th century[124] and has developed over the years with improved looks, refined gestures and added themes
besides more ornate singing and precise drumming.

Modern Indian theatre

Rabindranath Tagore was a pioneering modern playwright who wrote plays noted for their exploration and
questioning of nationalism, identity, spiritualism and material greed.[125] His plays are written in Bengali and
include Chitra (Chitrangada, 1892), The King of the Dark Chamber (Raja, 1910), The Post Office (Dakghar,
1913), and Red Oleander (Raktakarabi, 1924).[125]

Chinese theatre

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Main article: Theatre of China
Shang theatre
There are references to theatrical entertainments in China as early as 1500 BC during the Shang Dynasty; they
often involved music, clowning and acrobatic displays.

Han and Tang theatre

During the Han Dynasty, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were
two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Cantonese southern and Pekingese northern. The two styles were
differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to
the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and
fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda. Cantonese shadow puppets
were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather which created more substantial shadows.
Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to
control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets' heads. Thus, they were not seen by the
audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created
out of thin, translucent leather usually taken from the belly of a donkey. They were painted with vibrant paints,
thus they cast a very colorful shadow. The thin rods which controlled their movements were attached to a
leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet then turned at a ninety
degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside
the shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods attached at the
necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were
stored in a muslin book or fabric lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with
the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to
store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce the possibility of reanimating puppets.
Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the 11th century before
becoming a tool of the government.

The Tang Dynasty is sometimes known as 'The Age of 1000 Entertainments'. During this era, Emperor
Xuanzong formed an acting school known as the Children of the Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that
was primarily musical.

Song and Yuan theatre

Further information: Zaju
In the Song dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the
Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form with a four- or five-act structure.

Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, the best known of which is
Beijing Opera, which is still popular today.

Philippine theatre
During the 333-year reign of the Spanish government, they introduced into the islands the Catholic religion and
the Spanish way of life, which gradually merged with the indigenous culture to form the “lowland folk culture”
now shared by the major ethnolinguistic groups. Today, the dramatic forms introduced or influenced by Spain
continue to live in rural areas all over the archipelago. These forms include the komedya, the playlets, the
sinakulo, the sarswela, and the drama. In recent years, some of these forms have been revitalized to make them
more responsive to the conditions and needs of a developing nation.

Thai theatre
Further information: Ramakien
In Thailand, it has been a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn from Indian epics.
In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand's national epic Ramakien, a version of the Indian Ramayana,
remains popular in Thailand even today.

Khmer and Malay theatre

In Cambodia, at the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have
been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at Borobudur in Indonesia.

Japanese theatre
Further information: Theatre of Japan
Noh
Main article: Noh
During the 14th century, there were small companies of actors in Japan who performed short, sometimes vulgar
comedies. A director of one of these companies, Kan'ami (1333–1384), had a son, Zeami Motokiyo (1363–
1443) who was considered one of the finest child actors in Japan. When Kan'ami's company performed for
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358–1408), the Shōgun of Japan, he implored Zeami to have a court education for his
arts. After Zeami succeeded his father, he continued to perform and adapt his style into what is today Noh. A
mixture of pantomime and vocal acrobatics, this style has fascinated the Japanese for hundreds of years.

Bunraku
Main article: Bunraku
Japan, after a long period of civil wars and political disarray, was unified and at peace primarily due to shōgun
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616). However, alarmed at increasing Christian growth, he cut off contact from Japan
to Europe and China and outlawed Christianity. When peace did come, a flourish of cultural influence and
growing merchant class demanded its own entertainment. The first form of theatre to flourish was Ningyō jōruri
(commonly referred to as Bunraku). The founder of and main contributor to Ningyō jōruri, Chikamatsu
Monzaemon (1653–1725), turned his form of theatre into a true art form. Ningyō jōruri is a highly stylized form
of theatre using puppets, today about 1/3d the size of a human. The men who control the puppets train their
entire lives to become master puppeteers, when they can then operate the puppet's head and right arm and
choose to show their faces during the performance. The other puppeteers, controlling the less important limbs of
the puppet, cover themselves and their faces in a black suit, to imply their invisibility. The dialogue is handled
by a single person, who uses varied tones of voice and speaking manners to simulate different characters.
Chikamatsu wrote thousands of plays during his career, most of which are still used today. They wore masks
instead of elaborate makeup. Masks define their gender, personality, and moods the actor is in.

Kabuki
Main article: Kabuki
Kabuki began shortly after Bunraku, legend has it by an actress named Okuni, who lived around the end of the
16th century. Most of Kabuki's material came from Nõ and Bunraku, and its erratic dance-type movements are
also an effect of Bunraku. However, Kabuki is less formal and more distant than Nõ, yet very popular among
the Japanese public. Actors are trained in many varied things including dancing, singing, pantomime, and even
acrobatics. Kabuki was first performed by young girls, then by young boys, and by the end of the 16th century,
Kabuki companies consisted of all men. The men who portrayed women on stage were specifically trained to
elicit the essence of a woman in their subtle movements and gestures.

Butoh

Gyohei Zaitsu performing Butoh

Main article: Butoh
Butoh is the collective name for a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance,
performance, or movement inspired by the Ankoku-Butoh (暗黒舞踏, ankoku butō) movement. It typically
involves playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, extreme or absurd environments, and is traditionally
performed in white body makeup with slow hyper-controlled motion, with or without an audience. There is no
set style, and it may be purely conceptual with no movement at all. Its origins have been attributed to Japanese
dance legends Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno. Butoh appeared first in Japan following World War II and
specifically after student riots. The roles of authority were now subject to challenge and subversion. It also
appeared as a reaction against the contemporary dance scene in Japan, which Hijikata felt was based on the one
hand on imitating the West and on the other on imitating the Noh. He critiqued the current state of dance as
overly superficial.

Turkish theatre
1st mention of theatre plays in Ottoman empire connected with appear of Spanish Jews there in the end of
fifteenth - sixteenth centuries. Later other minorities, like Roma, Greeks, and Armenian became involved in the
field. Afterwards Turkish equivalent of commedia dell'arte - the Orta oyunu became very popular all over the
Empire.

Persian theatre
Main article: Persian theatre
Medieval Islamic theatre
The most popular forms of theatre in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand
puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya, in which actors re-
enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom)
of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Secular plays known as akhraja were recorded in medieval adab
literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theatre.