Theatre

Historically, while most cultures had rituals that pantomimed important acts of worship, it wasn't until the Greeks that theatre took its place among the pillars of storytelling. In fact, the word "theatre" comes from the Greek word "theatron" meaning "seeing place"

Originally, Greek plays were ritual performances at the festival of Dionysus until they eventually developed the dramatic form. While there are many Greek playwrights who contributed (Sophocles, Aristophanes, Euripides), it was not until Aristotle that we started to see actual thought and structure emerge as a cohesive form.

Aristotle believed drama to be the most direct response to humanity's need to imitate experience. from this thought, he was able to derive the basics of storytelling.

As the Renaissance drifted to Elizabethan England, playwrights such as Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Kyd, William Shakespeare is still thought to be the most profound thinker, the most performed dramatist, and the most accomplished writer of the English Language. To this day we see his stories throughout our popular entertainment. The Lion King is a retelling of Hamlet. Titanic is Romeo and Juliet. Season 2 of the HBO series, The Sopranos, is a highly Presenter version of Macbeth Why?

Simply put, Shakespeare had the ability to be universal.

Yet from 19th century romanticism to the east: China, India and Japan, the world was developing dramatic forms that would later influence western theatre*

*paraphrased from Krawczyk and Novak