600 BC Dancing at heart of Greek theatre
The choros, originally danced in a circle by temple virgins, is the centrepiece of the developing Greek theatre

600 BC Dionysiac frenzies
Frenzied dances, in honour of the god Dionysus, become part of Greek theatre - deriving probably from the northeast, in Thrace

534 BC Thespis wins drama prize
Thespis, traditionally considered the first actor, wins the drama competition in Athens

484 BC Aeschylus wins drama prize
Aeschylus wins the prize for tragedy at the City Dionysia in Athens

468 BC Sophocles wins drama prize
Sophocles wins the prize for tragedy in Athens, defeating Aeschylus in the competition

454 BC Euripides in drama contest
Euripides enters the drama contest at the City Dionysia in Athens for the first time

425 BC Aristophanes the comedian
Aristophanes wins first prize in Athens for his comedy The Acharnians

423 BC Socrates satirized by Aristophanes
Socrates is now sufficiently prominent to be satirized in Clouds, a comedy by Aristophanes

340 BC Theatre at Epidaurus
The theatre at Epidaurus is the earliest and best surviving example of a classical Greek stage and auditorium

185 BC Plautus and Terence copy Greeks
Plautus and Terence, in the second and third century BC, create a Roman drama based on Greek originals

1170 Mystery play outside French church
The first known mystery play, the Mystery of Adam, takes place outside a church somewhere in France

1250 Tannhäuser among the Minnesinger
Tannhäuser is one of the Minnesinger, the German equivalents of the French troubadours

1374 No theatre
Kanami and Zeami Motokiyo please the shogun with their theatrical performance, and his patronage begins the tradition of Japan's No theatre

1400 English mystery cycles
The English mystery cycles are performed by trade guilds, on carts pulled from audience to audience around the city

1545 Commedia dell'arte
The Italian players of the commedia dell'arte first feature in the records in this year

1576 London gets its first theatre
James Burbage builds London's first theatre and calls it the Theatre

1587 Marlowe pioneers blank verse
Marlowe's first play, Tamburlaine the Great, introduces the swaggering blank verse of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama

1592 Shakespeare shows his paces with Richard III
After tentative beginnings in the three parts of Henry VI, Shakespeare achieves his first masterpiece on stage with Richard III

1599 Globe built on Bankside
The Globe, where many of Shakespeare's plays are first performed, is built on Bankside in London

1601 Hamlet catches spirit of age
Shakespeare's central character in Hamlet expresses both the ideals of the Renaissance and the disillusion of a less confident age

1604 Shakespeare listed as actor
William Shakespeare's name appears among the actors in a list of the King's Men

1605 Masque at court of James I
Ben Jonson writes The Masque of Blackness, the first of his many masques for the court of James I

1606 Ben Jonson's Volpone
The satirical voice of the English playwright Ben Jonson is heard to powerful effect in Volpone

1611 The Tempest
Shakespeare's last completed play, The Tempest, is performed

1613 Globe burns during Shakespeare's last play
The Globe catches fire during a performance of Shakespeare's last play, Henry VIII

1616 Shakespeare dies
William Shakespeare dies at New Place, his home in Stratford-upon-Avon, and is buried in Holy Trinity Church

1618 First proscenium theatre
The Teatro Farnese in Parma is the first to have a proscenium arch, framing perspective scenery painted on flat wings

1634 Passion play in Oberammergau
A Passion play is performed for the first time at Oberammergau, in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation

1637 Corneille's Le Cid
Pierre Corneille's play Le Cid, popular with Paris audiences, hinges on the conflict between duty and love

1650 Kabuki popular in Japan
Japan's popular theatre, kabuki, develops as a form of café entertainment

1667 Racine's Andromaque
French dramatist Jean Racine's first great success, Andromaque, finds tragic drama in a quadrangle of love

1673 Molière no malade imaginaire
Molière falls fatally ill when acting in his own play Le Malade Imaginaire

1740 Goldoni a hit in Venice
Italian dramatist Carlo Goldoni makes a success of plays in the ancient commedia dell'arte tradition

1741 Magic scene-changes in Venice
Venice's new theatre, the Teatro Novissimo, has machinery which can change the scenes in the blink of an eye

1760 Garrick opens new theatre in Richmond
A new theatre opens in Richmond, with a prologue written for the occasion by David Garrick

1773 She Stoops to Conquer
Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is produced in London's Covent Garden theatre

1774 Storm and stress
Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, a definitive work of Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress), has its premiere in Berlin

1775 Figaro here to stay
Figaro makes his first appearance on stage in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville

1777 School for Scandal
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's second play, The School for Scandal, is an immediate success in London's Drury Lane theatre

1782 Schiller sensation
Friedrich von Schiller's youthful and anarchic play The Robbers causes a sensation when performed in Mannheim

1782 Mrs Siddons triumphs at Drury Lane
The English actress Sarah Siddons, already well known in the province, causes a sensation when she appears in London at Drury Lane

1789 Dunlap's The Father
US painter and author William Dunlap has great success with his comedy The Father; or, American Shandyism

1790 Così fan Tutte
Mozart's opera Così fan Tutte has its premiere in Vienna, in the court theatre of Joseph II

1791 The Magic Flute
Mozart's opera The Magic Flute has its premiere in Vienna in a popular theatre run by the librettist, Emanuel Shikaneder

1794 Goethe and Schiller in Weimar
Goethe and Schiller become friends, and together create the movement known as Weimar classicism

1809 The destruction of Drury Lane Theatre lights up the night sky
The destruction of Drury Lane Theatre lights up the night sky

1812 Today's Drury Lane Theatre opens
Today's Drury Lane Theatre opens

1821 Kean gives snuff box to admirer
Edmund Kean gives his snuff box to an admirer, as a souvenir of his Richard III

1830 Hernani
Victor Hugo's romantic drama Hernani provokes a riot in the Paris audience on the first night

1831 Kean takes lease on Richmond theatre
Edmund Kean takes a lease on the theatre and acts here until his death in 1833

1836 The Inspector General
The Inspector General, a farce by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol satirising Russian offialdom, has tsar Nicholas I in the audience for the premiere

1849 22 dead in Astor Place riot
An anti-British mob attacks the New York theatre where William Macready is appearing as Macbeth, leaving 22 dead and many injured

1861 National Eisteddfod
An official National Eisteddfod is held for the first time in Wales, in Aberdare

1865 Lister proves value of antisepsis
English surgeon Joseph Lister introduces the era of antiseptic surgery, with the use of carbolic acid in the operating theatre

1865 Lincoln assassinated in playhouse
On a visit to a Washington theatre, Lincoln is assassinated in his box by John Wilkes Booth

1865 Tristan and Isolde
Richard Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde has its premiere in the Munich court theatre

1871 Irving in The Bells
English actor Henry Irving plays what becomes one of his most famous parts, that of Mathias in the melodrama The Bells

1875 Peer Gynt
Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt has its premiere in Oslo, with incidental music by Edvard Grieg

1879 A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House signals a new direction in drama in its frank treatment of tensions within a marriage

1881 Savoy Theatre lit by electricity
London's new Savoy Theatre is the first public building in the world to be lit throughout by electricity

1884 Richmond's theatre is pulled down
The theatre, still known affectionately in Richmond as Kean's, falls on hard times and is pulled down

1890 Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen publishes his play Hedda Gabler, with its powerfully manipulative central character, a year before it is first produced (in Germany)

1892 Wilde has first stage hit
Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre

1892 Yeats's first play
W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama

1892 Shaw's Widower's Houses
Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords

1892 Pelléas et Mélisande the play
Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck publishes his play Pelléas et Mélisande

1895 Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde's most brilliant comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest is performed in London's St. James Theatre

1896 Seagull fails in St Petersburg
Anton Chekhov's play The Seagull has a disastrous premiere in St Petersburg (but is well received two years later in Moscow)

1898 Seagull succeeds in Moscow
Chekhov's The Seagull, directed by Konstantin Stanislavsky, succeeds at the Moscow Art Theatre

1898 Mary Pickford takes a bow
5-year-old Mary Pickford plays her first professional role on stage

1899 New Richmond theatre, by Frank Matcham
A new theatre opens on the Green in Richmond, designed by a speciallist in theatre architecture, Frank Matcham

1900 Isadora Duncan makes her European debut
Isadora Duncan dances professionally for the first time in Europe in London's Lyceum Theatre

1900 Harry Lauder makes London debut
Scottish music-hall artist Harry Lauder makes his first London appearance at Gatti's music hall in Westminster

1900 Belasco's Madame Butterfly
David Belasco's play Madame Butterfly has its premiere in New York, and is subsequently seen in London by Giacomo Puccini

1900 Uncle Vanya
Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya is directed by Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theatre

1901 Three Sisters
Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters has its premiere at the Moscow Art Theatre, directed by Stanislavsky

1902 Cathleen ni Houlihan excites Dublin
The play Cathleen ni Houlihan, by W.B. Yeats and Lady Gregory, fosters Irish nationalism

1902 The Lower Depths
Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths is performed at the Moscow Art Theatre

1902 Irish National Theatre Society
W.B. Yeats heads a group of writers and directors in establishing the Irish National Theatre Society

1903 The Wizard of Oz as a musical
The Wizard of Oz, based on the book by Frank Baum, opens on Broadway as a musical to huge success

1904 The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov's last play, The Cherry Orchard, is staged by Stanislavsky just a few months before the author's death

1904 Synge's Riders to the Sea
J.M. Synge's play Riders to the Sea has its premiere at the Molesworth Hall in Dublin

1904 Frankie and Johnny
Hughie Cannon writes the music and words for the song originally titled "He Done Me Wrong" in the US musical Frankie and Johnny

1904 Peter Pan flies for the first time
J.M Barrie's play for children Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up has its premiere in London

1904 Abbey Theatre opens
Dublin's Abbey Theatre opens as a new home for the Irish National Theatre Society

1905 Belasco's Girl of the Golden West
David Belasco's play Girl of the Golden West has its premiere in New York, where it is seen two years later by Giacomo Puccini

1905 Two London premieres for GBS
Bernard Shaw has two new plays opening in London in the same year, Major Barbara and Man and Superman

1905 Gordon Craig's The Art of the Theatre
The designer Edward Gordon Craig publishes a theatrical manifesto, The Art of the Theatre

1906 Chaplin joins Fred Karno
17-year-old Charlie Chaplin joins the Fred Karno company, touring slapstick comedy

1906 Infant Astaire goes professional
6-year-old Fred Astaire and his sister Adele give their first professional performance, in the pier theatre in Keyport, New Jersey

1907 Playboy of the Western World
J.M. Synge's Playboy of the Western World provokes violent reactions at its Dublin premiere

1907 Ghost Sonata
Swedish playwright August Strindberg publishes The Ghost Sonata, which has its first performance in Stockholm the following year

1908 Maeterlinck's Blue Bird
Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird is performed at the Moscow Art Theatre in a production by Stanislavsky

1910 Chevalier and Mistinguett
Maurice Chevalier and Mistinguett perform together at the Folies-Bergère

1910 Deirdre of the Sorrows
J.M. Synge's last and unfinished play, Deirdre of the Sorrows, is performed in Dublin shortly after his death

1911 Hoffmansthal's Everyman
Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapts the English medieval morality play Everyman ('Jedermann') for performance in Salzburg

1911 Stolypin assassinated
The Russian prime minister Pyotr Stolypin is assassinated in a Kiev theatre

1911 First Wurlitzer
Rudolph Wurlitzer's company in the USA produces the first of its famous movie theatre organs

1913 Pygmalion
Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion has its first performance – in a German version in Vienna

1916 Provincetown Players
The Provincetown Players are founded in Massachusetts, opening with a production of Eugene O'Neill's Bound East for Cardiff

1916 The first Gerswhin musical
The Passing Show of 1916 is the first of 22 musicals written in the short span of 17 years by the brothers George and Ira Gershwin

1916 Chu Chin Chow
The musical Chu Chin Chow opens at His Majesty's Theatre in London and runs for a record 2235 performances

1916 Hobson's Choice
Manchester dramatist Harold Brighouse has a major success when his play Hobson's Choice is performed in London

1919 Lauder knighted for war effort
Music-hall artist Harry Lauder is knighted for his wartime performances entertaining troops at the front

1920 Cary Grant goes west
Bristol-born actor Cary Grant moves to the USA with a troupe of touring tumblers

1920 Student musical by Rodgers and Hart
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart work together as Columbia University students, creating the musical Fly With Me

1921 Pirandello's amazing five weeks
Within a five-week period the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello writes two masterpieces, Six Characters in Search of an Author immediately followed by Henry IV

1921 Capek introduces the robot
The Czech playwright Karel Capek gives the world the term 'robot', in the title of his play Rossum's Universal Robots

1921 Anna Christie
Eugene O'Neill's play Anna Christie is performed in New York

1922 Birth of the Charleston
The Broadway show Ziegfeld Follies features an exciting new dance, the Charleston

1923 Shadow of a Gunman
Sean O'Casey's first play The Shadow of a Gunman is performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

1923 Elmer Rice's Adding Machine
US dramatist Elmer Rice establishes his reputation with The Adding Machine, an expressionistic drama about the machine age

1923 Shaw's Saint Joan
Bernard Shaw's play Saint Joan has its world premiere in New York

1924 Juno and the Paycock
Sean O'Casey's second play Juno and the Paycock is performed at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin

1924 Gracie Fields stars in London show
Gracie Fields makes her name when she appears in London as Sally Perkins in the musical Mr Tower of London

1925 Garrick Gaieties
The Broadway revue Garrick Gaieties is the first big success for Rodgers and Hart

1925 Josephine Baker a Paris sensation
African-American singer and dancer Josephine Baker is jazz hot in La Revue Nègre in Paris

1927 First collaboration between Brecht and Weill
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill write Mahagonny Songspiel for the Baden-Baden music festival

1927 Porgy and Bess as a play
DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy, dramatized with a new title by himself and his wife Dorothy, has a great success on Broadway and in London

1927 Show Boat
Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern open on Broadway with an immensely influential American musical, Show Boat

1928 The Front Page
The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, has its premiere on Broadway

1928 Threepenny Opera
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, opens to great acclaim in Berlin

1928 Journey's End
Set in a World War I trench, the play Journey's End reflects the wartime experiences of its British author, R.C. Sherriff

1929 The Bedbug
Vladimir Mayakovsky's play The Bedbug is directed in Moscow by Meyerhold with incidental music by Shostakovich

1930 Green Pastures
US author Marc Connelly's play Green Pastures has its premiere on Broadway

1930 Private Lives
Noel Coward and Gertrude Lawrence star in the West End in Private Lives, Coward's comedy of marital complications

1931 Mourning becomes Electra
The trilogy Mourning becomes Electra, Eugene O'Neill's transposition to New England of the Oresteia story, is performed in New York

1931 Clurman and Strasberg launch Group Theatre
Harold Clurman and Lee Strasberg's Group Theatre present their first professional production, The House of Connelly by Paul Green

1932 Anouilh's first play
French playwright Jean Anouilh has his first play, L'Hermine, produced and published

1933 Seven Deadly Sins
George Balanchine, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht collaborate in Paris on Seven Deadly Sins, a ballet with songs

1933 Blood Wedding
García Lorca writes his play Blood Wedding while he is director of a company touring in rural Spain

1934 Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Dmitry Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District has its premiere in Leningrad's Maly Theatre

1934 The Children's Hour
In Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour two teachers are maliciously accused of lesbianism by one of their pupils

1935 Murder in the Cathedral
T.S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral has its first performance in Canterbury cathedral

1936 House of Bernarda Alba
García Lorca writes his play The House of Bernarda Alba in the last year of his short life

1936 Robeson's 'Ol' Man River'
Paul Robeson sings 'Ol' Man River' in the film of Jerome Kern's Showboat

1936 French without Tears
Terence Rattigan's first play, French without Tears, is performed in London

1938 Our Town
Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens on Broadway

1940 American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre, directed by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, begins its first season in New York

1940 Pal Joey
Gene Kelly makes his name on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hart musical Pal Joey

1940 Leigh and Olivier marry
British actors Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier marry

1940 De Mille's Black Ritual
US choreographer Agnes de Mille creates Black Ritual for American Ballet Theatre

1941 Mother Courage
Bertolt Brecht's play set in the Thirty Years' War, Mother Courage, has its first performance in Zurich

1942 Marguerite Duras' The Sea Wall
French author Marguerite Duras makes her name with her partly autobiographical novel The Sea Wall

1942 The Skin of our Teeth
Thornton Wilder's play The Skin of our Teeth has a mixed reception at its New Haven premiere

1943 Oklahoma
The musical Oklahoma! launches the partnership of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

1943 Sartre writes for the theatre
Jean-Paul Sartre begins a new career as a dramatist with his first play, The Flies ('Les Mouches')

1944 On the Town
Fancy Free becomes On the Town, a Broadway musical by Leonard Bernstein, directed by Jerome Robbins

1945 The Glass Menagerie
US dramatist Tennessee Williams has his first success with The Glass Menagerie

1945 Peter Grimes
Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes has its premiere in London, at the Sadler's Wells theatre

1946 The Iceman Cometh
Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, set in a down-and-out bar of the kind he had known in his youth, is performed in New York

1947 Brecht's Galileo
Bertolt Brecht's play The Life of Galileo has its premiere in Los Angeles with Charles Laughton in the lead

1947 Streetcar Named Desire
Marlon Brando stars on Broadway in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar named Desire

1947 An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestley challenges audiences with An Inspector Calls, a play in which moral guilt spreads like an infection

1947 Barrault and Renaud set up repertory company
Jean-Louis Barrault and his wife Madeleine Renaud establish their own company at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris

1948 The Lady's Not For Burning
Christopher Fry's verse drama The Lady's Not For Burning engages in high-spirited poetic word play

1949 Death of a Salesman
Death of a Salesman, by US playwright Arthur Miller, has its first performance in New York

1949 South Pacific
The musical South Pacific, by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, opens on Broadway

1949 On the Town
Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Jules Munchin star as three US sailors on shore leave in the screen version of On the Town

1949 Berliner Ensemble
Bertolt Brecht establishes a new theatrical company, the Berliner Ensemble, in East Germany

1950 The Bald Prima Donna
French dramatist Eugène Ionesco's play The Bald Prima Donna launches the Theatre of the Absurd

1951 The King and I
Gertrude Lawrence and Yul Brynner open on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I

1953 Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot ('En attendant Godot') is first performed in French in Paris

1953 The Crucible
Arthur Miller's play The Crucible uses the Salem witch trials as a metaphor for the contemporary paranoia of McCarthyism

1955 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Tennessee Williams' play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opens on Broadway

1955 A View from the Bridge
Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge is performed in New York

1955 Edna Everage
Edna Everage, created by Australian satirist Barry Humphries, makes her first appearance in a Melbourne revue

1956 My Fair Lady
The musical My Fair Lady, by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, opens on Broadway

1956 English Stage Company
The English Stage Company, founded by George Devine, opens in London's Royal Court Theatre

1956 Dürrenmatt's The Visit
The Visit, by Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt, has its premiere in Zürich

1956 Long Day's Journey into Night
Eugene O'Neill's searing account of tensions within his own family, Long Day's Journey into Night, has its premiere in Stockholm

1956 Look Back in Anger
John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger features in the first season of London's new English Stage Company

1957 The Entertainer
Laurence Olivier brings the music-hall artist Archie Rice vibrantly to life in John Osborne's The Entertainer

1957 West Side Story
Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins and Stephen Sondheim create the Broadway musical West Side Story

1958 The Hostage
Irish dramatist Brendan Behan's play The Hostage is produced in Dublin

1958 Chicken Soup with Barley
Chicken Soup with Barley begins a trilogy by English playwright Arnold Wesker

1958 The Fire Raisers
The Fire Raisers, by Swiss dramatist Max Frisch, is performed in Zürich

1958 The Swamp Dwellers
Nigerian dramatist Wole Soyinka's play The Swamp Dwellers is produced in London

1958 Pinter's Birthday Party
Harold Pinter's first play in London's West End, The Birthday Party, closes in less than a week

1959 Trinidad Theatre Workshop
West Indian poet and playwright Derek Walcott founds the Trinidad Theatre Workshop

1959 Netherlands Dance Theatre
A group of dancers leave the Netherlands Ballet and establish their own Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague

1959 The Caretaker
Harold Pinter's second play in London's West End, The Caretaker, immediately brings him an international reputation

1959 The Miracle Worker
William Gibson's play The Miracle Worker dramatizes the extraordinary story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan

1960 Beyond the Fringe
The English revue Beyond the Fringe has its premiere at the Edinburgh Festival

1960 A Man for All Seasons
Paul Scofield plays Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons

1962 Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
US dramatist Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway

1964 Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof, based on a novel by Sholom Aleichem, opens on Broadway with Zero Mostel playing Tevye the Milkman

1965 The Odd Couple
Neil Simon's play The Odd Couple is produced in New York

1966 Offending the Audience
Austrian author Peter Handke provokes interest with his first play Offending the Audience

1966 Rozencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, by Tom Stoppard, is produced at the Edinburgh Festival

1967 Relatively Speaking
English playwright Alan Ayckbourn has his first success with Relatively Speaking

1967 A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, by English dramatist Peter Nichols, has its premiere in London

1968 Funny Girl on screen
Barbara Streisand repeats her Broadway performance in the film of Funny Girl

1970 Accidental Death of an Anarchist
Italian playwright Dario Fo's black comedy Accidental Death of an Anarchist has its premiere in Milan

1971 Dance Theatre of Harlem
The Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded by Arthur Mitchell and Karel Shook, gives its first performance at the Guggenheim Museum in New York

1971 Jesus Christ Superstar
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Jesus Christ Superstar is staged a year after being released as a record

1972 Caryl Churchill's first play, Owners, is produced in London
English dramatist Caryl Churchill's first play, Owners, is produced in London

1973 A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music, with lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim, has its premiere in New York

1975 Kylián directs Netherlands Dance Theatre
Czech choreographer Jiri Kylián becomes director of the Netherlands Dance Theatre in The Hague

1976 National Theatre in London
Britain's new National Theatre, designed by Denys Lasdun, opens on the South Bank in London,

1977 Three Acts of Recognition
German author Botho Strauss's play Three Acts of Recognition wins him an international audience

1979 Amadeus
Peter Shaffer's play about Mozart, Amadeus, has its premiere in London

1980 True West
US author Sam Shepard's play True West has its premiere in New York

1981 Cats
Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats, based on the Old Possum poems by T.S. Eliot, opens in London

1982 Little Shop of Horrors
Little Shop of Horrors, by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, opens in New York

1982 Noises Off
Michael Frayn's farce Noises Off opens in London's West end

1983 The Dresser
Ronald Harwood's play The Dresser is partly inspired by the British actor Donald Wolfit

1987 Our Country's Good
Timberlake Wertenbaker bases her play Our Country's Good on Thomas Keneally's novel The Playmaker

1988 M. Butterfly
M. Butterfly, by US author and composer David Henry Hwang, uses Puccini's opera as its inspiration

1990 Racing Demon
Racing Demon launches a trilogy on the British establishment by English playwright David Hare

1990 Dancing at Lughnasa
Irish author Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa has its premiere at the Abbey Theatre

1990 The Piano Lesson wins Pulitzer
The Piano Lesson is the second of August Wilson's plays to win a Pulitzer Prize

1991 Madness of George III
Alan Bennett's play The Madness of George III is performed at the National Theatre in London

1992 Dance Theatre of Harlem in South Africa
The New York company Dance Theatre of Harlem tours South Africa, with the slogan 'Dancing Through Barriers'

1992 Oleanna
David Mamet's play Oleanna dramatizes the ambiguities of sexual politics

1993 Millennium Approaches
Millennium Approaches, the first part of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, is premiered in London

1994 Art has Berlin prremiere
Art, a play by French-born Iranian playwright Yasmina Reza, has its premiere in Berlin

1996 Marina Carr's Portia Coughlin
Irish author Marina Carr's play Portia Coughlin is performed at the Abbey Theatre

1997 Martin McDonagh writes first play in trilogy
Irish author Martin McDonagh's play The Beauty Queen of Leenane is the first in a trilogy

1998 Frayn's Copenhagen
Michael Frayn's play Copenhagen dramatizes the visit of Werner Heisenberg to Niels Bohr in wartime Denmark

2002 Chechen rebels in Moscow theatre
Chechen terrorists take hostage the entire audience of a Moscow theatre in an atrocity resulting in the death of more than 150 people

2007
War Horse, a play with life-size horse puppets by the Handspring Puppet Company,. opens at London's National Theatre and goes on to have an astonishing international success

2011 April 28
The theatre in Florence's great new cultural centre, the Parco della Cascine, is inaugurated is celebration of the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy

2013
The Jean-Claude Carrière Theatre, designed by A+Architecture, is completed in Montpellier