Modern theater was developed in Ancient Greece. Back then, audiences tended not to clap to show their appreciation, instead they would stamp their feet.

“Encore!” literally means “again” or “once more” in French, it  implies that a performance has been so good that you would like to see it again.

“Bravo!” means “brave” in Italian. Originally used only for operatic performances, it is sometimes changed to “brava” (feminine) when the performer is female and “bravi” (plural) for an ensemble performance.

Shakespeare wrote 37 plays.

At the time of Shakespeare’s life, acting was an exclusively male profession. So even some of his most famous female roles, including Cleopatra and Romeo and Juliet, would have originally been played by men.

Shakespeare is known to have collaborated on some of his work with other contemporary playwrights. He in return also worked on their plays, and scholars today can recognize his style of poetry and prose in other writers’ work.

Shakespeare was also an actor and performed with a theater troupe known as the “King’s Men.”

The famous Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe, who wrote Dr. Faustus, was killed in a brawl at a London tavern in 1593. He was just 29 years old.