Short answers, pulled from the story.
Recorded Athenian tragedy began in the year 534 BCE. This date marks the start of the City Dionysia festival honoring Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility, where theatre attendance became a mandatory civic duty in ancient Athens.
Aeschylus wrote The Persians, which won first prize at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE. This play dramatizes the Persian response to their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE and stands as the earliest example of drama to survive.
Regular Roman drama began in the year 240 BC when Livius Andronicus wrote the first important works of Roman literature. These works included tragedies and comedies that set the stage for centuries of development in Roman theatre.
Ming Huang formed The Pear Garden acting school during the Tang dynasty, which is sometimes known as The Age of 1000 Entertainments. Actors are commonly called Children of the Pear Garden, a title that persists in Chinese culture to this day.
The Puritans ordered the closure of London theatres in 1642. This ban lasted until 1660 when Charles II returned to the throne and the Restoration period began, leading to the licensing of two new companies.
Oklahoma! premiered in 1943 and marked a shift in musicals moving in a more dramatic direction. This work by Rodgers and Hammerstein is one of the famous musicals that followed the Edwardian musical comedy era.