Types of Theaters

WESTERN THEATRE:
Although the origins of Western theatre are unknown, most theories place it in certain rites and religious practices of
antiquity; even today this type of ritual is still loaded with theatrical elements. Different theories attribute the origins to
multiple practices: ancient fertility rites, harvest celebrations, shamanism and other similar sources.

CLASSICAL THEATRE:
The first period in Western theatrical theory is called classical, because it includes the theatre of classical civilizations, of
ancient Greece and Rome, and the works are written in the classical languages, Greek or Latin.

GREEK THEATRE:
The first documented data of dramatic literature are from the 6th century BC; the first critical work on literature and
theatre is Poetics (330 BC) by Aristotle. Aristotle held that Greek tragedy developed from the dithyramb, choral hymns in
honor of the god Dionysus that not only praised him but often told a story.
 ROMAN THEATRE:

With the expansion of the Roman Republic in the 4th century BC, Greek territories were absorbed and with them,
naturally, Greek theatre and theatrical architecture. Roman theatre did not develop until the 3rd century BC. Although
theatrical production was originally associated with religious festivals, the spiritual nature of these events was soon lost;
as the number of festivals increased, theatre became a form of entertainment.

MEDIEVAL THEATRE:

Ironically, theatre in the form of liturgical drama was reborn in Europe within the Roman Catholic Church. With the idea of
extending its influence, the Catholic Church frequently adopted festivals that had a marked pagan and popular character,
many of which had theatrical elements. In the 10th century, the various ecclesiastical rites offered possibilities for
dramatic representation; in fact, the Mass itself was not far from being a drama.

RELIGIOUS THEATRE:
The liturgical drama developed over the next two hundred years from various biblical stories in which altar boys and choir
boys acted. At first, the vestments used for celebrating mass and the architectural forms of the church were sufficient as
decoration, but it soon became more formally organized. The stage was divided into mansion and stalls. The mansion
consisted of a small stage structure, a platform, which emblematically suggested a specific place, such as the Garden of
Eden, Jerusalem or Heaven.
 PROFANE MEDIEVAL THEATRE:
In the 14th century, theatre was emancipated from liturgical drama to be performed outside the churches, especially on
the feast of Corpus Christi, and evolved into cycles that could have up to 40 dramas. Some scholars believe that,
although similar to liturgical dramas, the cycles arose independently. They were produced by an entire community every
four or five years.

RENAISSANCE THEATRE:

The Protestant Reformation put an end to religious theatre in the mid-16th century, and a new and dynamic secular
theatre took its place. Although autos and cycles with their simplicity seem to be far removed from the dramas of
Shakespeare and Molière, the late medieval themes of humanity's struggles and adversities, the turn towards more
secular themes and more temporal concerns, and the reappearance of the comic and the grotesque all contributed to the
new way of making theatre.

NEOCLASSICAL THEATRE:
The first examples of Renaissance theatre in Italy date back to the 15th century. The first works were in Latin, but they
ended up being written in the vernacular. They were usually based on classical models, although the dramatic theory
derived from the rediscovery of Aristotle's Poetics. This theatre was not an evolution of religious forms, nor even of
existing popular or dramatic practices; it was a purely academic process.
 18TH CENTURY THEATRE: 18th century
theatre was, basically, and in much of Europe, an actors' theatre. It was dominated by performers for whom
plays were written to suit their style; often these actors adapted classics to suit their tastes and make the
plays more appropriate to their characteristics. Shakespeare's plays, in particular, were altered beyond
recognition not only to please the actors but also to conform to neoclassical ideals.

19TH CENTURY THEATRE: Throughout the 18th century, certain philosophical ideas took shape and
finally ended up merging and congealing at
the beginning of the 19th century, in a movement called Romanticism.

ROMANTIC THEATRE:
In its purest form, romanticism proposed on the spiritual level that humanity should transcend the limitations
of the physical world and the body to reach the ideal truth. The theme was drawn from nature and the natural
man. Perhaps one of the finest examples of Romantic theatre is Faust (Part I, 1808; Part II, 1832) by the
German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Based on the classic legend of the man who sells his soul
to the devil, this work of epic proportions portrays humanity's attempt to control knowledge and power in its
constant struggle with the Universe.
 MELODRAMA:

The same forces that led to Romanticism also, in combination with various popular forms, led to the
development of melodrama, the most established dramatic genre in the 19th century.
Melodrama as literature is often ignored or ridiculed, at least scorned by critics, because it provides images
of mustache-twirling villains or heroines tied to railroad tracks. However, it is unquestionable that it
represents the most popular form of theatre ever produced.

AVANT-GARDE PRECURSORS OF MODERN THEATRE

Many movements, usually grouped under the term avant-garde, attempted to suggest alternatives to realist
production and theatre. Several theorists thought that naturalism presented only a superficial and therefore
limited vision of reality, and that a more important truth or reality could be found in the spiritual, in the
unconscious. Others felt that theatre had lost touch with its origins and had no meaning for modern society
other than as a form of entertainment. Aligning with modern artistic movements, there was a turn towards the
symbolic, the abstract, the ritual, in an attempt to revitalize the theatre.

SYMBOLIST THEATRE:

The first to adopt Wagner's ideas was the Symbolist movement in France in the 1880s. The Symbolists
called for the "de-theatricalization" of theatre, which meant stripping the theatre of all its 19th-century
technological and scenic constraints, replacing them with spirituality that should come from the text and the
interpretation. The texts were loaded with symbols that were difficult to interpret, rather than suggestions.
The pace of the work was generally slow and dreamlike.
 .EXPRESSIONIST THEATRE:
The expressionist movement had its heyday in the first two decades of the 20th century, mainly in Germany.
He explored the most violent and grotesque aspects of the human mind, creating a nightmare world on
stage. From a scenic point of view, expressionism is characterized by distortion, exaggeration and a
suggestive use of light and shadow.

CONTEMPORARY THEATRE:

Although pure realism ceased to dominate the popular scene after World War I, realist theatre continued to
live on in the commercial arena, especially in the United States. However, the aim seemed to be
psychological realism, and non-realistic dramatic and scenic resources were employed to this end.
European theatre was not so influenced by psychological realism and its concern was more focused on
games of ideas.

THE THEATRE OF THE ABSURD:

is a term used by critic Martin Esslin in 1962 to classify certain playwrights writing during the 1950s, mainly
French, whose work is considered a reaction against traditional concepts of Western theatre.
The theatre of the absurd is not a movement and the authors do not have homogeneous contexts. What they
have in common is the widespread rejection of realist theatre and its basis of psychological characterization,
coherent structure, plot and reliance on dialogued communication.
Each work creates its own implacable patterns and characteristics of internal logic: comic, sad, pathetic,
macabre, humiliating, distressing or violent.
One of the most powerful theoretical sources of the Theatre of the Absurd was "Theatre and its Double", a
work by Antonin Artaud, originally published in 1938.