Who invented theater?

Answer 1

What we call theatre was created by the Greeks in Athens for the Dionysian festival. Greek legend credits Thesbius, hence Thesbians are actors.

Obviously, there were festivals, performances, singing etc before that but it wasn't 'theatre.'

Answer 2

Open4One has the best clue.

ACTING very likely began prehistorically, but I'd like to modify ones' description.

"OG" I think was the name,,, went on a hunt. He may have even returned with game,,, but HIS story would be better played out if he came back empty handed.

Now,,, here is where ART also entered the equation.

"OG" proceeded to attempt an explanation, using whatever form of language was understood, but also in drawing the scene on a cave wall,,,PLUS,,,"OG" might have INVENTED pantomime and Charades? IN his zealous movements and expressions of the events as they transpired.

Indulge me another moment,,,please.

"OGS'" audience was a mixed crowd, and likely there were some not so falltering critics in attendance. THEY,,, the audience left the "performance" and each in their own way,,,REenacted it to other audiences, often embellishing, changing the tale in interpreting,,,(Much like a gossip chain)

Some did credit to "OG" dramatically, while others created "Stand Up Comedy"

By the time "OGS'" tale reached the Greeks,,, they had to reinvent it,,,and in fact did an admirable job,,,although the Beast may have been a Bull rather than a Dinosaur???

Years later the Japanese gave us Godzilla... The USA probably offered King KONG,,, and through it all there was "Theater"

Steven Wolf

Answer 3

Thespis of Icaria (6th century BCE) is claimed to be the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor in a play although the reality is undoubtedly more complex. In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first actor in addition to the chorus.

According to Aristotle, writing two hundred years later, Thespis was a singer of dithyrambs (songs about stories from mythology with choric refrains). Thespis supposedly introduced a new style in which one singer or actor performed the words of individual characters in the stories, distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks.

This new style was called tragedy, and Thespis was the most popular exponent of it. Eventually, in 534 BCE, competitions to find the best tragedy were instituted at the City Dionysia in Athens, and Thespis won the first competition.

It is sometimes implied that Thespis invented acting in the Western world, and that prior to his performances, no one had ever assumed the resemblance of another person for the purpose of storytelling. In fact, it is highly likely that acting had existed for thousands of years, as is indicated by cave paintings such as 'The Sorcerer'. Thespis is, however, the first known actor in written plays, as opposed to improvised or orally transmitted plays. He may thus have had a substantial role in changing the way stories were told and inventing theatre as we know it today. In reverence to Thespis, actors throughout western history have been referred to as thespians.

It must be stressed, however, that there is very little concrete information about Thespis and the origins of Greek theatre, and all of the above may be more legend than reality.

Answer 4

Primative man invented theatre. The first time he (or she...we really don't know but we're going with he for the purposes of this answer) re-enacted a hunt or performed a ritual. That was, in its most primative and intimate form, theatre.

Answer 5

My theory is that it goes back to cave man days, right after the discovery of Fire.

It was probably something like Og hadn't figured out that Fire was hot, and stepped into it while wanting to snag Oog's turkey leg, and started to dance around saying "ooh! ah! ooh! ah!"

I'm sure there was a round of applause, and theater was born.

Answer 6

Goes back to antiquity, before records were kept. The Greeks really got it going.

Answer 7

It invented itself.

Answer 8

well Shakespeare was the first big theater righter...but opera's came with theater and musicals.

Answer 9

Basically, the Greeks.

Answer 10

..people