Remember to check out the Significant Practitioners page too!

Theatre History  back to index

	Web drama-education.com dramaplayshop.org

Art and Culture - Theatre Movements 

• An amazing array of information about a wide variety of Drama movements - from African to Classical to Experimental to Naturalistic to Rennaissance to Yuan Dynasty.  This site is one of the best and really needs some time to explore it.  A must see!!

• Recent West End and Broadway productions such as Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, and The Lion King have become popular, in part, because of their use of technology for the creation of spectacular effects. Most of the basic techniques used in the modern theatre were developed or were polished in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At the beginning of the seventeenth century opera evolved from a courtly and scholarly activity to a popular entertainment, in part, because of its use technology for the creation of scenic spectacle.

• The University of Washington: School of Drama maintains this site.  It features a range of articles and materials that will assist anyone looking at the theatrical history of London. A database of about 1800 plays and 350 illustrations is being added to the site, and should be available to researchers by Spring 1998.

• The following is taken from a longer article by Alice Lovelace. The entire article is called A Mutual Alliance: Mediation and Theater of the Oppressed in a Process for Social Change. This article extract begins to chronicle the development of modern theater and it's relationship to the audience and to the community - and how that relates to social change.

• Information and links about the Absurdist movement and its prominent practitioners.

The American Variety Stage 

• a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini. Groups of theater posters and additional sound recordings will be added to this anthology in the future.

• Contains materials about Mystery plays and other literature from the era.

• An essay about Susan Sontag's writings about Antonin Artaud.

• Details on Lost Theatres throughout the whole of Ireland from the creation of the first theatre in Dublin in 1637.  Details on Lost Theatres in the United Kingdom and New Zealand are also available on the arts-info site.

• Part of the Theatre Stage section of the Malaspina University-College, other areas include Mediaeval, Rennaisance, Romantic, Classical and Modern.

Bedford Introduction to Drama

• An amazing site that has reference material and study questions for a range of texts. Welcome to the companion site for The Bedford Introduction to Drama, Fourth Edition and The Compact Bedford Introduction to Drama, Fourth Edition. Here you'll find everything you need to succeed in your course, whether you're a student looking for research help or an instructor planning assignments. Resources are organized by period and play (or cultural casebook), so choose a direction and come explore drama online!

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE

• An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. A comprehensive collection of information that has many crossovers into the world of theatre and drama. A must see site for anyone contemplating a serious study of theatrical history - pretty good for Drama/Drama Studies students as well.

• These two names are used to designate the religious drama which developed among Christian nations at the end of the Middle Ages. A useful overview.

• The CRRS, the only institution of its kind in Canada, is a library and research centre devoted to the study of the period from approximately 1350 to 1700. Sponsored by Victoria University within the University of Toronto, the CRRS was established in 1964.The Centre mounts a programme of lectures and seminars, and maintains an active series of publications.

• Primarily a list of Greek drama links.

Classic Notes - Gradesavers

• ClassicNotes provides free literature summaries and analysis. All of the ClassicNotes have been written and compiled by our Harvard essayists. Find detailed summaries, character information, and literature references.

• Commedia dell'Carte Homepage - Hunting through this developing site will reveal a few treasures.  A brief history and information about a contemporary troupe.  A few images of traditional characters.
• Commedia Page - Judith Chaffee's Commedia website with information, links, and live discussion. 
• LA COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE -A brief entry with some nice images. 
• Commedia dell'Arte -A page of information from a commercial mask outfitter.
• Commedia dell'Arte -A brief history and outline of the commedia, what is useful at this page is a contemporary scenario for the characters - a lazzo
• Antonio Fava - The commedia dell'Arte training centre
• Commedia dell'Arte - A Thumbnail History - A useful little history of the commedia dell'arte - a useful introductory document.
• iSebastiani - These resource pages are provided to help students, educators, nascent troupes, and scholars diving into the topic of Commedia dell'Arte.  Includes a huge range of resources, scripts, lazzi, mask making ideas...  Bravissimo!!

• A SITE DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF SPECTACLE ON THE RENAISSANCE AND BAROQUE STAGE

• Recent West End and Broadway productions such as Phantom of the Opera, Sunset Boulevard, and The Lion King have become popular, in part, because of their use of technology for the creation of spectacular effects. Most of the basic techniques used in the modern theatre were developed or were polished in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At the beginning of the seventeenth century opera evolved from a courtly and scholarly activity to a popular entertainment, in part, because of its use technology for the creation of scenic spectacle. 

• Any theatre festival that gets mentioned in encyclopedia deserves a mention here. Also known as the Festival Fringe. This is the largest Arts festival in the world!

• A pictorial collection of famous actors in character costume from the era around 1900. The images were originally published in a book entitled "Players of the Day", published in London by George Newnes, circa 1902.

• A range of materials about the era and the writers/playwrights/poets

• The Classical Origins of Western Culture. The Core Studies Study Guide by Roger Dunkle. Brooklyn College Core Curriculum Series.

• Performed by the Medieval Drama Group University of Dundee
• Everyman after 1485 - a site dedicated to the play.

Exploring Greek and Roman Comedy 

• A useful site - drawing on the resources of a lecturer at Berkley - links to a great array of resources on Ancient theatre.

• by TARA MAGINNIS  (Under the direction of W. JOSEPH STELL) - this appears to be a thesis or dissertation for a doctorate - a curious subject but very thorough.

• This online presentation includes over 13,000 images of items selected from the Federal Theatre Project Collection at the Library of Congress. Featured here are stage and costume designs, still photographs, posters, and scripts for productions of Macbeth and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus as staged by Orson Welles, and for Power, a topical drama of the period (over 3,000 images). Also included are 68 other playscripts (6,500 images) and 168 documents selected from the Federal Theatre Project Administrative Records (3,700 images). The Federal Theatre Project was one of five arts-related projects established during the first term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt under the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Federal Theatre: Melodrama, Social Protest and Genius

• Lorraine Brown is professor of English and associate director of the Research Center for the Federal Theatre Project at George Mason University in Virginia. She is coeditor with John O'Connor of Free, Adult, and Uncensored: The Living History of the Federal Theatre Project,a richly illustrated "scrapbook" of oral history excerpts, costume designs, posters, and photographs, and is currently editing an anthology of black plays written for the Federal Theatre. 

• A sampling of the program and Instructions for downloading Florimène to your computer  The Florimène program is an animated interactive exploration and reconstruction of Inigo Jones' great court masque. The Web version provides a sampling of the program, giving the reader a sense of the organization and content of the reconstruction.  The interactive animated version of Florimène may be downloaded free of charge. The software is provided as a service to the academic community by students and faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.

• An interesting site that has details of significant Greek playwrights from the Ancient world as well as a wonderful collection of images of Ancient Theatres.

Greek Drama

• Greek Drama - A Powerpoint presentation by Barbara Bishop - A simple Powerpoint slideshow - needs some pictures but a useful intro for lower school. 
• Greek Comedy in Performance - Recreating Greek Mask Theatre - A research project to use VR technologies for imaging ancient theatre artefacts, and to perform New Comedy with reconstructed masks.
• GEORAMA 
  • An interesting site that has details of significant Greek playwrights from the Ancient world as well as a wonderful collection of images of Ancient Theatres.
• Hellenic Centre for Theatrical Research - The theatre of then and now through the site of the most unique theatrical archive nowadays in Greece. Selected pages of actors' and directors' biographical notes and their pictures offer insights into some of the most important theatrical performances during the 19th and 20th century. Information is available you about the possibilities of this huge theatrical archive.
• Didaskalia - Didaskalia is an English-language publication about Greek and Roman drama, dance, and music as they are performed today. The name Didaskalia is taken from the inscriptions used to record the outcomes of drama and music festivals in Athens. The need for records of productions is greater today than it was in Athens, because there is more Greek and Roman drama performed in more parts of the world than there ever was in antiquity.
• The ELAC Guide to Ancient Greek Theatre
  • PROLOGUE: The Origins of Drama, The Cult of Dionysus, The Dithyramb
  • THE MAIN ACT: The Golden Age of Greek Drama, Thespis, Athenian Drama Competitions, Amphitheatres, How Plays Were Performed in Ancient Greece,
  • TRAGEDY: Aeschylus: The First Playwright, Sophocles, Aristotle's Poetics, Euripides
  • Comedy Aristophanes and Old Comedy, New Comedy and Menander
  • The Final Curtain

• LYSISTRATA
  • MEDITATIONS ON LYSIAS 1 AND ATHENIAN ADULTERY
  • THE PLOT OF THE LYSISTRATA AND THE HOSTAGES OF LINE 244
  • Lysistrata
  • Lysistrata
  • Study Sheet
  • Some study questions
  • A simple guide
  • Aristophanes' Lysistrata:  Sex Strike - Never Happen
  • LYSISTRATA AND THE WAR is a full scale opera written in the classical musical style of Mozart.
  • Study Questions
  • Make love not war
  • WOMEN : VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE - ADVOCATES OF PEACE
• GreeK THEATRE TERMINOLOGY
  • agon
  • anapests
  • auletes (auletai)
  • aulos (aulus)
  • choregos (choregus)
  • coryphaeus
  • deuteragonist
  • dithyramb
  • diaeresis
  • dochmiacs
  • eccyclema
  • epirrhema (-ata)
  • episode
  • exode (exodus)
  • iambic trimeter
  • kommos
  • monody
  • orchestra
  • parabasis
  • parodeparodos (parodoi)
  • prologue
  • protagonist
  • skenê
  • stasimon
  • stichomythia
  • strophe, antistrophe
  • tetralogy
  • theatron
  • theologeion
  • tragedy
  • trochaic trimeter

Her Majesty's Theatre Ballarat

• Her Majesty's Theatre, built in 1875, is the city's premier performing arts facility, owned and operated by the City of Ballarat. It is the oldest intact purpose-built theatre building in Australia, restored and refurbished in 1987-1990.   Her Majesty's is professionally operated, equipped and staffed, and has been recommended for a AA/H categorisation in the Victorian Perfor-ming Arts Centres Survey. It is a double-balconied Victorian lyric theatre with a dome and a decorated proscenium arch. 

• The "History of Costume" or "Zur Geschichte der Kostüme" was printed from 1861 to 1880 in Munich by the publishing firm of Braun and Schneider. It was originally published as individual plates in a German magazine titled "Münchener Bilderbogen".

History of Drama 

• A very useful site covering the entire gamut of theatre history from Antiquity to Neoclassical theatre.  The Department of English at Emory University provide and maintain this resource. Recently enhanced to include Realism and Naturalism, Symbolism, Surrealism and the Absurd, Expressionism and Epic Theatre.

• A very long (over 1 meg) text file about The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the Commencement of the Peloponnesian War.

• Henrik Ibsen is considered the father of modern drama and one of the world’s most famous playwrights. As relevant today as 100 years ago, his plays are still staged the world over. The purpose of the Ibsen Centre is to strengthen and coordinate national and international research in Ibsen.

Images of the Ancient Stage 

• This project, which is very much a work in progress, offers various images of the ancient stage. Anyone interested in contributing to this project is urged to do so: scanned images, links to pages on other web sites, bibliographic entries, or simply comments or advice are all welcome.

• This essay was prepared for the production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest at People's Light & Theatre Company, Malvern, PA, in June, 1993.

• In the autumn of 1913 a committee presided on by lord Mario Tommaso Gargallo, was constituted with the aim to revive the dramatic arts of ancient times in the most important of all the ancient theatres. In 1925 the organizing body was named "Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico" (INDA).

• A Resource for Theatre Historians and Students of the Theatre's History.  This site is has been maintained since 1996 to provide easy access to useful research sites throughout the world. Please support its growth by adding to the collection.

James Cummings's Early English Drama Page

• A collection of useful links to old drama on the Internet.

Justin's Drama and Theatre Links 

• Site maintained by Justin Cash - Head of Drama at Avila College Melbourne, Committee of Management member at Drama Victoria, and Web Editor for theatre sites at the Open Directory Project.  This web site was presented at IDEA 2001 - The 4th World Drama Congress - Bergen, Norway. One of the largest theatre directories on the Web with over 5,000 links

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies

• The Labyrinth provides free, organized access to electronic resources in medieval studies through a World Wide Web server at Georgetown University. The Labyrinth's easy-to-use menus and links provide connections to databases, services, texts, and images on other servers around the world. Each user will be able to find an Ariadne's thread through the maze of information on the Web. This project not only provides an organizational structure for electronic resources in medieval studies, but also serves as a model for similar, collaborative projects in other fields of study. The Labyrinth project is open-ended and is designed to grow and change with new developments in technology and in medieval studies.

• The following is a collaborative project produced by the students of Patricia Craddock's course LIT 3041, Spring semester, 1996, at the University of Florida. It is very much a work in progress.

MEDIEVAL DRAMA LINKS 

A very good collection of material - well organised and annotated.  If you are looking for medieval - then look here! A personal selection by Sydney Higgins. I have wasted countless hours chasing after alleged medieval drama links on the World Wide Web that turned out to be either non-existent or of little value. The following selection gives the ones that I have found to be most useful. All the links are divided into categories but, because there are well over 200 links, they are presented on four pages.

Medieval English Drama: Modernized Performance Texts

• These texts of The Castle of Perseverance and the N-Town Plays were modernized for performance by the Poculi Ludique Societas of the University of Toronto. The Castle of Perseverance is the quintessential English morality play containing all the elements of the genre while the plays in the N-Town manuscript provide a wide variety of types of Biblical drama from the two-part Passion Play and the plays on the Virgin Mary to well-crafted stand-alone single episode plays such as the Trial of Mary and Joseph and the Woman Taken in Adultery. They are offered here as both performance and teaching texts in the hope that they will allow more people to come to know and love the lively world of the late medieval English theatre.

Milwaukee Public Museum - Masks

• A collection of mask images and information.

• MASC is dedicated to the performance of Greek and Roman theatre on the modern stage. Productions are designed to present ancient drama faithfully, while recognizing the idiom of contemporary performance. Ancient theatre was a viable, exciting medium, and productions that fail to replicate these aspects are necessarily incomplete. Nevertheless, in many of these productions particular attention has been paid to reconstruct authentically ancient staging conventions.  This site offers descriptions and pictures of modern performances of ancient theatre.

Trackstar: Mystery and Morality Plays of Medieval English Theatre

• This Trackstar connects students with informative and interactive links to learn about the Mystery and Morality plays of the English Middle Ages.  

• Over the past ten years, a team of American and French researchers under the direction of Professor Emmet Kennedy at George Washington University, has been compiling a database of plays performed in Paris from 1789 to 1799.

Pataphysik, Symbolismus und Surrealismus 

• We present new and old material about pataphysics and Alfred Jarry - most of this site seems to be in French and German language; but it has an impressive array of articles and resources.

• Performance in History (PIH) will be a web site consisting of many linked modules on performance through history and across cultures. It is being created, maintained, and updated by scholars from across the globe. 

• Each link in the following list points to an image used in Professor Hugh Lester's courses Period and Style for Designers, I and II.  They explore how a particular culture in a period of history represents itself through the visual artifacts of its buildings, decorations and furniture.  The collection of images is organized by period and provides theatre scenic and costume designers access to architectural, decorative and furniture styles. 

• Perseus is a continually growing digital library of resources for studying the ancient world. The library's materials include ancient texts and translations, philological tools, maps, extensively illustrated art catalogs, and secondary essays on topics like vase painting.

• a teaching aid and research tool, is computer software that models the motion of pageant wagons during a simulated York Corpus Christi Pageant. Dots representing individual wagon-mounted plays move from station to station on a color map of the city, while the computer displays elapsed time. PSim comes with several default data sets that illustrate elements of different production theories, as developed by some of the modern scholars who have tried to reconstruct the medieval performance. The program was originally written for Windows 3.x, but a Java (web) version of PSim is now available -- although it may load very slowly on some systems. I suggest that you first visit the PSim screen shots, which cover in detail what PSim does.

Records of Early English Drama

• Records of Early English Drama is an international scholarly project that is establishing for the first time the broad context from which the great drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries grew. REED examines the historical manuscripts that provide external evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until 1642, when the Puritans closed the London theatres.

• 16th and 17th Century Clothing: Renaissance tailoring techniques, manuscript sources, and technical advice. Also includes discussion of Tailor's pattern books from the 16th and 17th Centuries.  This website and a majority of the information on it was authored and designed by Tammie L. Dupuis, who lives and works in the Pacific Northwest as a Designer/Developer for an Internet consulting firm. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology/Archeaology from Montana State University and has published articles on the various topics covered on this website in several costume newsletters both nationally and internationally over the last decade.

• The images included in this collection were scanned from slides taken by Professor C. W. Westfall and used in his survey course, Renaissance and Baroque Architecture (ARH 102), University of Virginia, School of Architecture, Department of Architectural History. They are organized according to his course syllabus. Each section includes images relating to that particular topic as well as images which are included as comparative material, and are included to reinforce particular points which Mr. Westfall makes in his bi-weekly lectures.

• Welcome to the Restoration Drama Homepage. This page provides information about the theatre of the English Restoration (1660 to 1700).

• Information on about two dozen people from the era - includes Shakespeare, Jonson, etc.

• The "History of Costume" or "Zur Geschichte der Kostüme" was printed from 1861 to 1880 in Munich by the publishing firm of Braun and Schneider. It was originally published as individual plates in a German magazine titled "Münchener Bilderbogen".

• A study guide from the Classics department at Brooklyn College, The City University of New York, includes several Greek dramas.

• The focus of this site is primarily on theatre of the United States prior to 1900.   Teachers and students of theatre history are invited to use the site in anyway they wish.

TheatreHistory.com

• A well organised and very nicely laid out site.  This covers the Origin of Theatre through to Contemporary developments - frequently organised by nation.  Also a useful online script archive.  Daily highlights of "this Day in Theatre History" as well as Theatre News... a site to keep on eye on  if it continues to develop in this manner it will be one of the best of the web.

Theatre History Cybercourse

• Another course by Dr. Patrick Finelli.

• An online text.  In a constant state of construction but contains some useful information regardless.

• A Resource for Theatre Historians and Students of the Theatre's History. This site is maintained to provide easy access to useful research sites throughout the world.

Theatre History Web Sites 

• A well-organised collection of links and other information maintained by Oscar Brockett.

•   Theatre (from the Greek verb theasthai, "to view" or "to see," whence theatron, or "seeing place") may be defined not only as a structure in which dramatic performances are given, but as the sum of all the arts required for the production of a dramatic, or imitative, action. These include acting, theatrical costume and makeup, directing, scenography, stage lighting, theatre architecture (see Theatre architecture and staging), machinery and special effects, and dramaturgy or playwriting (see drama). Theatre is an eclectic art form, often employing music and dance in its productions as well as the talents of leading artists from outside the theatre. Other mimetic performing arts, such as opera and ballet, are closely related to the theatre, the principal distinctions being that opera consists of song and musical dialogue throughout, whereas ballet is an art of rhythmic movement precisely timed to music. With these reservations in mind, the following site concentrates on the evolution of the theatre in different periods and cultures.

• Some essays by Emma Goldman, mainly about Ibsen.

• The purpose of this project is to show the highlights of different periods of theatre history, including plays, acting styles, staging convention, costuming, and playwrights. Web links have been provided so that students can find additional information on items of interest.

MYTHWEB

• The Legends of the Heroes section is fantastic and the kids love it!

• This is an comprehensive encyclopaedia of myths from about 27 different cultures - I love it.

• Part of a course outline at Southwestern University.

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