Short answers, pulled from the story.
Western theatre originated in the city-state of Athens, where it was woven into a broader culture of festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, and athletics. According to Aristotle, its origins lay in festivals honouring Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.
The word theatre derives from the Ancient Greek theatron, meaning a place for viewing, which itself comes from theaomai, the verb to see, to watch, or to observe. Buildings where performances regularly take place are also called theatres.
The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. At the City Dionysia, playwrights presented a tetralogy that usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play.
Kalidasa, who lived in the 1st century BCE, is arguably regarded as ancient India's greatest Sanskrit dramatist. His play Abhijnanashakuntala, The Recognition of Shakuntala, drew on a story in the Mahabharata and was the first to be translated into English and German.
London theatres were closed because of the Puritan Interregnum, as Puritans viewed theatre as sinful and ordered the closures in 1642. The ban ended when Charles II returned to the throne in 1660 in the Restoration.
Aristotle argued that tragedy consists of six qualitative parts in order of importance: mythos or plot, ethos or character, dianoia or thought, lexis or diction, melos or song, and opsis or spectacle. He set these out in his Poetics, written around 335 BCE.