ABSTRACT
A basic knowledge of theatre history will really help you put your work into a broad historical context. The timeline produced on pp. 16-17 gives an overview of the past 2,000-plus years. A number of the major theatrical developments are outlined in the timeline, but, like everything else we offer you in this book, it is not the whole story. There are gaps here for you to fill in, and these will depend a great deal on the texts and practitioners your teacher chose to study with you for Unit 1 and the choices made for performance texts for Unit 2. The time periods for Unit 4 are highlighted in this timeline. Whenever a small ‘c’ is used, it is an abbreviation for the word ‘circa’, which means ‘around’. In other words, the date is approximate. It is around the time specified.
