1. The History of Theatre

2. Earliest reference to a competition for tragedies in Ancient Greece 524 BC

3. Greek playwright Euripides born. Wrote more than 90plays; 18 still exist about 484BC

4. Greek playwright Aristophanes writes “The Frogs” about 405BC

5. Greek Drama reaches Rome about 338 BC

6. re-built in stone in Athens, Greece Theatre of Dionysus about 300 BC

7. First stone theatre built in Rome 55BC

8. First Chinese Drama school founded 740 AD First Chinese Drama school founded

9. Mystery Play cycles emerge in Europe 1300s Mystery Play cycles emerge in Europe

10. about 1370 N ō style of theatre starts in Japan

11. Earliest record of Commedia dell’Arte in Italy 1545

12. Spanish playwright Lope de Vega born. Probably wrote more plays than anyone else – more than 300 1562

13. 1564 William Shakespeare born in Stratford upon Avon

14. 1567 First public theatre opens in England

15. late 1500s First indoor theatres in Western Europe

16. late 1500s First Opera composed in Italy

17. William Shakespeare writes “Romeo and Juliet” about 1595

18. 1598 The Globe theatre built in London. Shakespeare acted and his plays were performed here

19. Japanese theatre style Kabuki starts 1603

20. Ben Jonson (English) writes “Volpone” 1606

21. William Shakespeare dies in London 1616

22. 1637 First opera house opens in Venice, Italy

23. Theatres in England were closed by the Puritans 1642-1660

24. Samuel Pepys records in his diary that he saw a Pulchinella (Punch and Judy) show in London 1662

25. 1660s Women act for the first time on the English stage

26. French playwright Molière writes “ Le Misanthrope” 1666

27. 1671 Paris Opéra opens – and burns down two years later

28. Aphra Benn, first known English female playwright, writes “The Rover” 1677

29. English playwright William Congreve writes “The Way of the World” 1700

30. German playwright Goethe begins the play “Faust” about 1773

31. 1788 La Scala opera house opens in Milan, Italy

32. Gas lighting first used in London’s theatres 1817

33. 1871 Giuseppe Verdi writes the opera “Aida”

34. Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen writes “ A Doll’s House” 1879

35. 1881 First electric lights used in theatre (Savoy, London)

36. Swedish playwright August Strindberg writes 1888 “ Miss Julie”

37. Russian playwright Anton Checkhov writes “The Three Sisters” 1901

38. Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco born. Wrote many surreal plays, such as “Rhinoceros” (1960) 1912

39. German playwright Bertolt Brecht writes “Mother Courage and Her Children” 1941

40. English playwright John Osborne writes “Look Back in Anger” 1953

41. Irish playwright Samuel Beckett writes “Waiting for Godot” 1953

42. American playwright Arthur Miller writes “The Crucible” 1953

43. English playwright Harold Pinter writes “ The Caretaker” 1960

44. English playwright Tom Stoppard writes “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” 1967

45. 1968 Stage censorship abolished in Great Britain

46. 1969 Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice (British) write the musical “Jesus Christ – Superstar!”

47. 1973 Sydney opera house opens in Australia

48. “ Bombay Dreams” opens - the first London musical with an all-Asian cast 2002