Theatre in the Renaissance was very important. It was a symbol of that period because it represented the rediscovery of the classical works. The genres of the performances were: history plays, tragedies and comedies.

Along with the economics of the profession, the character of the drama changed toward the end of the period. In England, for example, under Elizabeth, the drama was a unified expression as far as social class was concerned: the Court watched the same plays the commoners saw in the public playhouses. With the development of the private theatres, drama became more oriented toward the tastes and values of an upper-class audience. By the later part of the reign of Charles I, few new plays were being written for the public theatres, which sustained themselves on the accumulated works of the previous decades.

Nowadays the theatre has been replaced by TV and cinema. The modern audience is characterized by people who have a taste on average higher and cultural people. The competition between these forms of performance has narrowed and certainly more qualified the theatre audience.

Young people rarely go to the theatre. School sometimes sponsored theatre performances but teenagers prefer TV and cinema because they are attracted from technological sceneries and special effects. They have lost the skill of imagine a scenery and want to see it directly on the screen.

So today the theatre is something exclusive for people who is able to appreciate the simplicity of the set design  and the ability of the actors on suggesting reality instead of copying it with technological tools. Who goes to theatre understands better the message of the performance instead of how it is scenically represented.