Theatre and Cinema: How It All Began
and 
Theatrical drama, as we understand it today, is based on three things. First, there must be an actor or actors speaking or singing. Second, there must be some dramatic conflict (or different relations) between actors. Third, and just as important as the other two, there must be an audience following the progress of the drama. The first theatrical performances of this kind took place in ancient Greece. The Greek drama developed from hymns sung to Dionysius, the god of wine and good life. The first known actor was called Thespis. He was the leading singer and travelled from his birthplace to Athens in a cart that carried all his belongings and could be turned into a stage for performance. In Athens he won a prize at the new drama festival. He was the first professional performer who was brave enough to play a god. Before him this role had always belonged to priests or kings.
Cinema is much younger than theatre. It was born at the end of the 19th century. The first people who showed the first movies were the Lumiere Brothers of France. They did this at the Grand Cafe, Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, on the 20th February 1896. This was the first cinema show and it was quickly followed by many others in all parts of the world. The first films showed moving people and transport or newsreels of processions and wars, and short comedies. Cinema rapidly developed in both the New and the Old World. Charlie Chaplin made his first film, Making a Living, in 1914 in the USA. The Russian film industry produced such great films as Protazanov’s The Queen of Spades (1916) and Father Sergius (1918). Then, in 1927, Warner Brothers in Hollywood made the first film in which an actor sang and spoke. The film was called Jazz Singer. It opened a new era in films — the era of the «talkies». The first colour films were made in the 1930s, but black-and-white films are still made today.