Have you ever been to a live theater? Chances are that you have. Some people, me included, felt an instant connection with the way that art is represented on the stage. For others it may be boring, or just not very powerful. However, I believe that the history of theater is one of our most important, because it proves our growth and creativity as a species.
The word theater comes from the Greek theatron, which means a place of seeing. The word drama, however, refers to simply a performance containing an actor, and an audience member. Drama can refer to anything from a radio broadcast, to a TV show, to a Broadway musical. But, how we view drama and theater today is very different from its first examples.
Ancient Greece
The first recorded examples of “real” theater (as we define it today) was in ancient Greece, where the man believed to be the very first actor performed throughout Athens with a small troupe. These first plays were in small stages in marketplaces, but eventually the Theater of Dionysus was built, and it looked very much like the stages we use to this day. On this stage many of the original Greek myths were performed along with plays written by Sophocles and Euripides, some of the first famous playwrights.
Theater in Asia
Soon after, drama would begin to grow all over the world. In Rome they were paying homage to their gods thought the art, and Asia, most notably Japan, as their traditional forms of theater are still used today. Masks were a common sight in ancient Japanese theater, along with a form of puppetry called Bunraku.
The Renaissance
Most likely, though, you grew up thinking of puffy collars and pointed shoes at the word drama. During the Renaissance period, arts and sciences boomed, and many new forms of drama were created. This period furthered the idea of the theater being a more casual place, and developed both tragedy and comedy. One of if not the most famous playwright of all time lived then, William Shakespeare. nowadays, we see his writings and plays as a very high caliber of art, but to London England, it was nothing more than entertainment in a pub.
Modern day
Soon, theater became very much about design. The best backdrops, sets, props, and costumes meant the best shows in 19th century France. Slowly, as time went on, theater became what it is today. Musical theater came along in 1857, the first being called The Elves.
Today theater is a much larger part of culture than it is given credit for, and you may not realize how much it has to do with how we see the world today.
The Golden Thread 
Leave a comment