Spanish theater
The late 1500's brought a burst of theatrical activity in Spain. The period between the mid-1500's and late 1600's was so productive that it is called the Golden Age of Spanish drama. The first permanent theater in Spain opened in Madrid in 1579. Spanish theaters generally resembled Elizabethan theaters in design.
Lope de Rueda, a dramatist, actor, and producer, established the professional theater in Spain during the mid-1500's. However, the professional Spanish theater actually did not flourish until after 1580. The two greatest playwrights of the Golden Age of Spanish drama were Lope de Vega and Pedro Calderon de la Barca.
Lope de Vega may have written as many as 1,800 plays. More than 400 surviving plays are attributed to him. Lope took subjects for his plays from the Bible, the lives of the saints, mythology, history, romances, and other sources. He was inventive and skillful, but his plays lack the depth of Shakespeare's. Like Shakespeare, he often used song and dance and mixed the comic with the serious. Lope influenced almost all future Spanish drama.
Excerpt adapted from the
"Drama" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999