Evolution of Drama: From Ancient Rituals to Modern Storytelling

Drama is a very ancient, as well as complex art, which has developed over the many thousands of years it has existed. Tremendous cultural and historical development has taken place. Drama first derived from ancient rituals and storytelling, when societies used theater to recall myths, praise sacred events, and pass down moral values. From these early beginnings, drama continued to branch out in so many directions into the varied large and important art form that exists today, containing many genres and styles.Actually, the story of drama starts in ancient Greece, about the 5th century BCE. Drama was not, in itself, entertainment but played a part in the observance of religious festivals dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility. These festivals, where crowds come to see plays, which gradually developed into more complex stories, were huge events. This is the starting point of two major Greek dramatic genres-tragedy and comedy. Most of the tragedies are a genre of heavy playwrights, including Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who often turned to heavy existential questioning of fate and human suffering. The comedies, mainly by Aristophanes, have to do with satire of society and politics. The ancient Greeks laid, both literally and metaphorically, the ground for everything that followed. The longer drama travels the earth, the more changing and evolving it is. For instance, whereas ancient Rome found Plautus and Terence not only raising the Greeks to new heights with more intricate plot twists, but themselves composing performances ever so much larger and more elaborate to fit that Roman sense for display. Drama learned to accept the Christian character and is played regularly in churches so as to enlighten people about the message from the Bible. These plays moved out of churches eventually; they were richer and different, becoming what we know as mystery and morality plays; characters would assume, for instance, virtues or vice. The Renaissance was important for drama, especially in places like England and Italy. Playwrights began recalling the classical works of literature, inspired by new ideas. Shakespeare was the point when a man became able to write plays that are, even now, amongst the very best ever written. He did not follow a single genre; he wrote tragedies, comedies, histories, and more, dealing with so many different aspects as love and jealousy, power and ambition. This ability to enunciate complex inter-tapestry of human feelings and relationships set up a new yardstick for drama. Genre developed into waves during the 19th and 20th centuries, instead of grandiose themes popularized earlier, focusing more on human realities and deep social issues. Characters and plots of such playwrights like Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov injected a remarkable kind of realism into the theatre, touching the souls of audiences. Experimental theatre emerged in the 20th century, with dramatists like Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht pushing the boundaries for drama. During this period, cinema and television began to exert influence over drama, thus ushering in a whole new form of dramatic storytelling-screenwriting.Drama continues to evolve as it finds new voices and forms through which all would have been thought impossible to imagine even just a few short decades ago, now encouraged by new technologies and media. Whether in the classic play at the theatre, or even within the screen of a movie, drama continues to grow into a great form of human experience. One is really stunned if they ever go through how something coming through ancient rituals has evolved into that very diverse and vibrant form of art.