Who knows the history and culture of theater?

In the world, theater is an ancient art category, as a part of human culture, its development has always been accompanied by the development of other cultural components, and by such as political, economic, philosophical, psychological, as well as literary influence. At the same time, different countries and nations have their own cultural traditions, and as a part of this tradition, the development process of theater often shows a special trajectory. Therefore, the so-called "history of theater" is not uniform. In the face of the intricacies of the world's theater development, we must at least examine the Western theater and the Eastern theater separately.

Ancient Greek theater in more than two thousand years ago from the ritual song and dance gradually developed after the formation of its long history has been merged into the long river of human culture and history, and become an integral part of it. The history of Western theater can be divided into: Ancient Greco-Roman theater, medieval theater, Renaissance theater, Classical theater, Enlightenment theater, 19th-century theater, modern theater and contemporary theater.

Ancient Greek drama is the childhood period of human drama and its first prosperous period, which left numerous tragedies and comedies for future generations. Famous writers of tragedy are Aeschylus, Sophocles (about 496 ~ 406 before), Euripides (about 485 ~ 406 before). Famous comedy writers include Aristophanes (about 446 to 385 BC) and Menander (about 342 to 291 BC). In ancient Rome, theater writing and performance was prosperous, the main playwrights are Plautus (about 254 ~ 184 before), Terentius (about 190 ~ 159 before).

The Middle Ages in Europe roughly refers to a long period of about 1000 years between the 5th and 15th centuries, which was a historical period of feudal autocratic rule. During this period, the creation and performance of the theater was based on the propagation of religious ideas and moral preaching as the basic content. Among them, "religious dramas" developed from the hymns sung in church services and were mostly aimed at publicizing and preaching doctrines. A variant of the religious drama is the miracle drama, in which religious and moral propaganda permeates various legendary plots. Mystery plays, which are mainly based on the legends of Jesus and the saints, can also be regarded as a variant of the religious drama. The morality plays, which moved from abstract moralizing to a critique of social morality, were popular in a wide range of countries and over a long period of time. In the Middle Ages, the popular comedies were characterized by the expression of secular life and bitter social satire. The Fool's Play, also known for its satire, grew out of the folk theater and then flowed into the cities. Very few heirlooms remain from this period.

The 14th to 16th centuries in Europe is an important period in the history of cultural development. In this period, the powerful bourgeois humanist movement originated in Italy, soon swept across the European countries. As the ideological liberation movement of the bourgeoisie, it started from the historical requirements of opposing feudal despotism, church authority and asceticism, affirming the value of human beings, praising human rationality and wisdom, and advocating the pursuit of happiness in the present world and the freedom of individuality. The humanist movement promoted a high degree of prosperity in literature and art, and also formed a second period of prosperity in the history of theater. European drama of this period was dominated by England and Spain, and the main playwrights were C. Marlowe (1563-1593), W. Shakespeare (1564-1616), B. Jonson (1572?~1637) of England, L. de Rueda (1505-1565), L. F. de Vega? I? Carpio (1562-1635), and others. A large number of these plays of Shakespeare have become treasures in the world's theatrical treasury, belonging to all the centuries that followed them.

By the 17th century, European theater had entered the period of classicism. The term "classicism" is both an important genre in the history of theater and a symbol of a historical period. During the Renaissance, French theater was not fully developed, but by this time it had become the flag of classicism. At that time, France was a typical country of unified hierarchical monarchy, and the high degree of centralization required the literary arts to obey its authority and serve its interests. The prime minister not only intervened directly in literature and art, but also formulated all kinds of guidelines and policies and rules of creation to strictly restrain writers and artists through the royal tool, the French Academy. French classical theater developed in this political environment. At the same time, the humanist trend of the European Renaissance also had a profound influence on the French playwrights of this period. The main features of the classical drama as a school are: emphasizing rationality, emphasizing the characters to show the nature of mankind; tragedy and comedy are clearly defined, not to be mixed; put forward the "three laws" as the golden rule of dramatic creation; emphasize the structure of the rigorous and elegant language of the simplicity. The representative playwrights of this period are P. Gonay (1606-1684), J. Racine (1639-1699), Molière (1622-1673) and so on.

The 18th century was a period of transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. The thinkers representing the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie launched a powerful movement of comprehensive criticism of feudal ideology, which led to the enlightenment of ideas in various fields such as religion, philosophy, ethics, political science, economics, jurisprudence, history, aesthetics, and so on, and this is known as the Age of Enlightenment in European history. This period was a new era of comprehensive development and brilliant achievements in natural and social sciences, and theater art developed to different degrees in France, Germany, Italy, and England. In France, the Enlightenment theater was developed in a hard struggle with classicism. Diderot (1713-1784), the main general of the Enlightenment, put forward a program for the establishment of civic theater and serious comedy in accordance with the requirements of history, and personally participated in the practice of creation. The famous playwright P. de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) provided examples of the practice of this emerging theater. In Germany, the philosophy and aesthetics of Kant, Fichte, and Hegel provided theoretical guidance for the development of literature and art. In terms of dramatic creation, G.E. Lessing (1729-1781) became the founder of German national theater. By the 1970s, the famous Rampage movement introduced the great playwrights J.W. von Goethe (1749-1832) and J.C.F. Schiller (1749-1805). The achievements of English Enlightenment drama were far less brilliant than those of the Renaissance, and moral criticism and propaganda gave a preachy tone to a large number of plays. The comic writers H. Fielding (1707-1754), O. Goldsmith (1730-1774), and R. B. Sheridan (1751-1816) may be taken as representative. In Italy, the long-prevalent tradition of improvised comedy produced the famous Enlightenment playwright C. Goldoni (1707-1793), whose comedies were prolific and had a great influence on later generations.

In the 19th century, European theater was divided into two major schools: romantic and realist.

Romanticism, as a genre of theater, was opposed to classicism. The impact of the French Revolution, the influence of Enlightenment thought, and the theoretical preparation of classical philosophy were the historical conditions and ideological basis of Romantic theater. The main features of Romantic drama are: ① It favors the subjective expression of inner life. As Hegel said, its "real content is the absolute inner life, and the corresponding form is the spiritual subjectivity". It emphasizes the expression of inner feelings and the pursuit of ideals. In characterization, it tends to give the main character a certain character and idealize it, creating a strong effect through the twists and turns of the plot and contrasting techniques. Oppose the rules of creation, emphasize the freedom of creation. The founder of European Romantic drama was V. Hugo (1802-1885) of France, whose play "Elnani" is known as the masterpiece of Romantic drama. In addition, the French Vigny (1797-1863), A. de Musset (1810-1857), Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), the German H. von Kleist (1777-1811), the English Romantic poets Byron (1788-1824) and Shelley (1792-1822) also wrote some plays. The romantic poetic plays of Russian A.S. Pushkin (1799-1837) are the best in the history of Russian theater. The Romantic theater as a genre was short-lived, but its basic spirit influenced certain genres of the 20th century.

Realism as a school of theater has been defined in two different ways. Some argue that it has a long history and can encompass Ancient Greek drama, Renaissance drama, Enlightenment-era drama, and 19th-century realist drama; others define it as a genre of theater that was formed and developed after the 1830s in place of Romanticism. Although the dramatic works of the different periods mentioned in the former statement are also characterized by realism, the second meaning should be taken as a genre. This genre is opposed to Romanticism in many ways. For example, it attaches more importance to objectivity, emphasizing the reproduction of reality in accordance with the full truth and original appearance of life; it attaches more importance to the truth of details, emphasizing the reproduction of the complete human being, and the personality traits of human beings, and taking the true reproduction of typical characters in typical environments as the distinguishing mark. From the 1830s to the 1840s, capitalism has replaced feudalism in many European countries, and the contradictions and problems of capitalist society have become more and more obvious. The realist dramas formed and developed during this period have a cool insight into social life and an obvious social critical nature, and thus are also called critical realism. In Europe, the realist playwrights included H. Ibsen of Norway (1828-1906), Alexandre Dumas of France (1824-1895), George Bernard Shaw of England (1856-1950), J. Goldsworthy (1867-1933), and so on. In Russia, realist drama flourished from the 1930s onwards, with famous playwrights such as N.V. Gogol (1809-1852), A.N. Ostrovsky (1823-1886), L.N. Tolstoy (1828-1910), A.P. Chekhov (1860-1904), M. Gorky (1868-1936), etc. Their works have been widely recognized in the theatre and are widely recognized as one of the most important works in the world. Their works enjoy a special reputation in the history of theater.

In the second half of the 19th century, under the influence of European positivist philosophy and experimental psychology, another school of theater emerged - naturalistic theater. This school in emphasizing the objective and true reproduction of real life, and realist drama has **** the same, but it is more emphasis on experimental methods to study and performance of human spiritual life, emphasizing from the physiological and pathological point of view to explore human instincts. The French ┵. Zola (1840 ~ 1902) is the advocate and representative writer of naturalistic novels and dramas, Germany's G. Hauptmann (1862 ~ 1946), Sweden's J.A. Strindberg (1849 ~ 1912), and so on, was also once affected by it.

After the end of the 19th century, the world's theater entered the modern and contemporary stage, and the demarcation between these two periods can be marked by the Second World War, but it is also possible to collectively refer to this nearly century of theater as modern theater. To summarize, this period presents a complex situation of multiple schools of thought competing with and absorbing each other. On the one hand, the realist drama of the 19th century has been widely inherited and developed in the new historical period, and many styles coexist in it; on the other hand, such schools as Symbolism, Expressionism, Futurism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Absurdism, and so on have emerged one after another, and the birth of these new schools has its own profound social reasons, and has been affected by the deep influence of modern philosophy and modern psychology. As a product of aesthetic thinking, they have some **** the same characteristics, but also have their own particularities. Most of these new schools appeared as opposites of realism, but they gave it a great deal of influence, and some of the dramatists belonging to these schools called themselves "true realists". Another phenomenon worth mentioning in this period is that the American theater, which had been relatively backward until the 19th century, had a tendency to rise to the top in this period, and some world-famous playwrights appeared. The playwrights belonging to realism are C. Olds (1906-1963), L. Heilmann (1905- ), A. Miller (1915- ), T. Williams (1914- ), W. Inch of the United States, known as the father of modern American drama, E. O'Neill, who also wrote a large number of realistic plays; Mrs. Gregory (1852-1932) of Ireland, F. Wolfe (1852- ), F. Wolff (1914- ), and F. Wolff (1915- ), who wrote a great number of plays of the American theatre. Mrs. Gregory of Ireland (1852-1932), F. Wolff of Germany (1888-1953), B. Brecht (1898-1956), L. Pirandello of Italy (1867-1936), and F. Dürrenmatt of Switzerland (1921- ) can also be included in the ranks of realist playwrights. Symbolism was extended from poetry to drama, and it emphasized the representation of the world and man himself by means of symbolic images created by the artist's intuition; thus, the mystery and symbolism of the content itself and the symbolic techniques appropriate thereto became the basic features of this kind of dramatic work. This school of drama is represented by M. Maeterlinck (1862-1949) of Belgium, and J. Synge of Ireland also belongs to this school. Expressionism, as a genre of literature and art, flourished in Europe and America between the early 1920s and the 1930s. It originated from painting and was a reaction to impressionism. Expressionist drama emphasized "peeling off people's outer skin in order to see their deep inner souls". In the human subconscious mind to discover the essence of primitiveness. The distinctive feature of this school of drama is the exploration of the human subconscious and its dramatization in many ways. Influential playwrights of Expressionist theater were G. Kaiser (1878-1945) and E. Toller (1893-1939) in Germany and K. ?apek (1890-1938) in Czechoslovakia. The likes of O'Neill and Brecht also gravitated to the genre or were influenced by it. Futurist drama originated in Italy, and F.T. Marinetti (1876-1944) was its advocate and general. This genre completely rejected tradition, emphasized the expression of "a steel, frenzied, proud, and speedy life" in modern society, and advocated the expression of speed, power, competition, and war on the stage, looking toward the future and exploring the unknown. They advocate the expression of speed, power, competition and war on the stage, face the future and explore the unknown, and are full of mysterious and unpredictable moods in most of their works. There are many plays of this school, but they are of little value. The birthplace of surrealist theater was France, and its name began with Apollinaire's play Tiresia's Breasts in 1917. This genre regarded creation as a "purely spiritual automatic reaction", and the content of the works was mainly the expression of supernatural phenomena, hallucinations, and the confusion it caused, such as poetry, blood, fear, various forms of escapism, ghosts and monsters, interpretation of dreams, and absurdity and paradox, etc. The main playwrights were Apollinaire and Léon, and the most famous playwrights of surrealism. Major playwrights include Apollinaire (1880-1918) and J. Cocteau (1889-1963). Existentialist theater was born in France at the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, and it is very closely related to existentialist philosophy. The playwrights of this genre, J.-P. Sartre (1905-1980) and A. Camus (1913-1960), were both existentialist philosophers. Based on the philosophical concepts that existence precedes essence and that people are free to choose in a situation, this school of thought emphasized the value of "situation" and even called its plays "situation plays," and the main content of its works was the choices that people made in situations in order to convey the philosophical concepts of Existentialism, putting it in a way that it would not have been possible in the first place. The main content of the work is also the choice of human beings in the situation, so as to convey the philosophical concept of existentialism and dramatize it. In the 1950s and 1960s, absurdist plays were popular in Europe and the United States, and they also had a profound influence on Oriental theater. In 1961, the British theater theorist Martin Aisling wrote the book Absurdist Drama, which gave a name to this genre. This genre of drama is an artistic absorption of existentialist philosophy, which means "irrational and conventional, irreconcilable, incomprehensible, illogical", "absurd and ridiculous", therefore, the main characteristic of this genre of dramatic works is the absurdity of the content, which often puts people in an absurd world. They often take the embarrassing situation of human beings in the absurd world as the theme, and the inability of communication between human beings as the general situation of human beings to be expressed. The "dehumanization of man" is the ontological view of man that the playwrights of this school *** have. In line with the content is the form of absurdity: incoherent lines, fragmented and broken stage images, and "direct metaphors of the scene" composed of props. The main playwrights of this school are Irish-born S. Beckett (1906 ~ ), France's E. Unescu (1912 ~ ), the United States of America's E. Albee (1928 ~ ), Britain's H. Pinter (1930 ~ ) and so on.

The national theaters of the Eastern countries can hardly be included in the above historical phases, and the introduction of Western forms of drama is a recent affair, which results in a more complex process of development.

In terms of national theater, such as Chinese opera, Japanese noh, kabuki, and kyogen, Korean chants, Vietnamese mock dramas ? drama, improved drama, India's Sanskrit drama, etc., have made significant contributions to the world's theater treasury. However, with the invasion and oppression of imperialism, most of the national dramas have been in decline. In terms of history and influence, Chinese, Indian and Japanese national dramas have the longest history and the widest influence. In terms of modern drama, Japan and China are more mature.

In Japan, Sarugaku, which originated in the 6th century or so, is a stage art that includes song, dance, kabuki, and burlesque, and Nogaku, which developed in the 14th century, is actually a song and dance drama, with a script known as a "ballad". The kyogen, which developed at about the same time, was a comedic sketch based on action and dialog. Kabuki, which matured in the 17th century, is the most complete form of Japanese national theater, and has produced many famous playwrights and actors in its long development. 1868 saw the Meiji Restoration, a major social reform that introduced Japan to a new period of modern culture, and the Japanese theater also entered the modern period. In the early Meiji period, theater reform began with the improvement of Kabuki, and the reformed style of theater was called "Shinkai" (new style), as opposed to classical Kabuki, and its content was mostly concerned with the expression of real-life social problems. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the publication of a large number of translations of plays by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Chekhov and others, Tsubouchi Yasuhiro formed the Literary Association in 1906 and introduced European theater forms into Japan, thus giving birth to a new type of theater, the Shinto drama (i.e., the play). After World War I, the boom period of Japanese modern theater, some schools of Western modern theater had influenced the Japanese theater scene, but the main trend was still the pursuit of realism. After the Second World War, the influence of existentialism and absurdism on Japanese theater became more profound, but realist theater remained the main genre. By the 1980s, Japanese theater was still characterized by the coexistence of "new drama" and national theater (Kabuki, etc.).

Indian theater is the period of classical Sanskrit drama from the second to the twelfth centuries BCE, with major playwrights such as Kali Dasa, Shudraksha, and Vishakha Dattatreya. After that, there was no development of theater for several centuries. From the second half of the 17th century to the 19th century, Indian drama entered the modern period, D. Mitra (1829-1873) became the founder of modern Bengali drama, and national drama writers such as R. Tagore (1861-1941), etc. After 1919, Indian drama entered the modern period, and there had been historical dramas by V. Vollmar (1889-1969), and some writers' The plays were performed in the streets and villages to propagate anti-imperialist and anti-feudal ideas. After the Second World War, as the contemporary period of Indian theater, writers like the famous writer Singhal Vinaji also wrote plays.

In addition to Japan and India, there are some other oriental peoples who have their own national theater and dramas imported from the West. While the forms of drama are similar, the national dramas have their own specialties. In North Korea, there is singing drama; in Indonesia, there is Lutulu drama, Gedo Paila drama; in Thailand, there is "Kong" drama; in Vietnam, there is mockery, drama, improved drama; and so on. In Vietnam, there are mock operas, "Kung" operas, and improved operas, and so on. All these national dramas have had a prosperous period in history and have made great contributions to the world's theater treasury. However, in modern times, with the invasion and oppression of the Eastern nations by imperialism, most of the various national dramas have been in decline. How to further develop and improve the oriental national theater and the art of drama in the eastern countries is a major problem.

Chinese opera art has a history of more than 800 years, from the Southern Song Dynasty, Jin Yuan miscellaneous dramas, Ming and Qing dynasties legend, modern local opera until the modern new opera, and constantly Man Yan development, the emergence of Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Gao Zecheng, Tang Xianzu, Kong Shangren, Hong Sheng, Li Yu, and other great playwrights, and created a rich, in the world of theater in the self-contained system of the stage, the world's theater treasure trove of valuable contributions. They have made valuable contributions to the world's theatrical treasures. In the process of the development of drama, the art of opera was also developing. in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the wave of the bourgeois democratic revolution pushed forward the pace of cultural change. A group of progressive-minded opera artists reformed the content and performance forms of Beijing opera to adapt it to the requirements of the new era. The fashionable new opera, once popular, was an attempt to reform Chinese opera. Under the double influence of the reform of the old opera and the Western drama, school drama activities appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, and the "new drama" performed by the Chunliu Society, which was organized by the Chinese students in Tokyo in 1907, the Chunyang Society, which was established in Shanghai in the same year, and the drama troupe of the Nankai School in Tianjin in 1909, are regarded as the symbols of the beginning of the Chinese drama. The Chunyang Society's performance of "A Little Biography of Kayin" in 1908 is considered to be China's first established drama performance, and the new dramas after 1910 were called "civilized dramas", which were mostly performed in the form of curtain sheets, with only plot outlines, improvised by the actors. Around this time, this form of drama was also known as "Aimei Drama" and "Baihua Drama", etc. In 1928, the dramatist Hong Shen proposed to name it "Drama", which was intended to make it different from Chinese opera, opera, dance drama, and other forms of drama. In 1928, the dramatist Hong Shen proposed to name it "drama", which was intended to distinguish it from Chinese opera, opera, dance drama, mime, and so on.

Chinese drama has a history of only about 80 to 90 years. It was formed at the beginning of the 20th century and reached maturity around the time of the May Fourth Movement. Since then, it has been divided into two periods, the modern and contemporary, marked by the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

Modern Chinese theater began with an extensive absorption of the many genres of Western modern theater, and gradually formed its own traditions amidst the waves of social movements and revolutionary struggles.

The May Fourth Movement, a powerful ideological and cultural movement of the Chinese nation, made the extensive introduction of Western culture (including literature and theater) a historical requirement. Due to the need for social reform, the first thing that the Chinese cultural circles promoted and introduced was Ibsen's plays on social issues. Taking the translation and publication of Ibsen's plays as a precursor, a number of social problem plays were created in the 1920s, revealing the reality of social problems from the perspective of marriage and family. In the 1920s, Western modernist drama was also introduced to China and had a profound influence on many writers, resulting in a wide range of genres being explored. Song Chunfang introduced the plays and theories of Symbolism, Expressionism and Futurism. Tian Han was devoted to Western neo-romanticism, and his early works were strongly colored by symbolism. Guo Moruo had particularly admired German expressionist plays, and his early plays based on myths and legends and historical stories were also characterized by expressionism.

From the late 1920s, the main trend of modern Chinese drama was the left-wing theater movement. The Chinese Communist Party put forward the slogan of developing "proletarian theater", and the connection between Chinese drama and the real revolutionary struggle in China became more conscious and closer. From this time until the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Chinese drama went through the stages of left-wing drama, national defense drama, anti-war drama, and drama during the liberation war, including drama activities in the Kuomintang-ruled areas and the "isolated islands" and the fallen areas, and drama activities in the Soviet Union and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the 1930's, as well as drama activities in the anti-Japanese democratic bases and the liberated areas, which were developed into the "proletarian drama" in the various areas. During these 20 years, the Chinese theater movement was characterized by a great deal of drama and sharp struggles. Following the rise of the first generation of playwrights in the 1920s, such as Tian Han, Guo Moruo, Hong Shen, Yang Hansheng, Ouyang Yuqian, Xiong Fosi, and Ding Xilin, there appeared successively outstanding playwrights such as Cao Yu, Xia Yan, Ah Ying, Yu Ling, Chen Baichuan, Song Zhi's, Shi Linghe, Wu Zuguang, Yang Zubin, Shen Fu, Wang Zhenzhi, Hu Ke, Li Bozhao, Du Fenghuang, and Fu Duo. Their representative works constitute a long scroll in the gallery of Chinese drama, showing the establishment and maturity of the mainstream of realism. Their works, as well as the staging of outstanding foreign plays, also trained a large number of excellent directors, actors and stage artists, and promoted the prosperity of Chinese drama stage art.

The founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 marked the beginning of contemporary Chinese drama, which has since undergone an extremely tortuous journey of about 40 years.

During the 17 years from 1949 to 1966, the liberation of society and the ensuing stability provided objective conditions for the smooth development of Chinese drama, which achieved unprecedented popularity and tremendous development. During this period, a large number of new playwrights, directors, actors and stage artists emerged, and the total number of new plays written and performed nationwide was in the thousands, reflecting the historical style of this period. 1966-1976, the "Ten Years of Great Havoc", caused Chinese drama to enter into a period of unprecedented decline. 1976, the crushing of the "Gang of Four", the "Gang of Four", the "Gang of Four", the "Gang of Four", the "Gang of Four" and the "Gang of Four". After the crushing of the "Gang of Four" in 1976, Chinese drama soon revived, and there was a prosperous situation in which "social problem dramas" were the main trend. 80's, the wave of reform and opening up impacted the field of literature and art, and Chinese drama began to explore many aspects of its creation and performance. Some playwrights focused more on deepening the inner meaning of the drama. Some playwrights focused on deepening the inner meaning of the drama, while others focused on renewing the outer form of the drama. 1986 onwards, the trend of multi-faceted exploration has been diverging and merging. Parallel to the exploration in artistic practice, there is an unprecedented active situation in theater theory research and criticism, which is the inevitable trend of the development of Chinese drama in the new period, and a foretaste of the new prosperity and development of Chinese drama.