Editing Playwright (section)

===Early playwrights===
The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the [[Ancient Greek]]s. These early plays were for annual [[Athens|Athenian]] competitions among play writers<ref>Fraser, Neil. ''playwright History Explained'', ''The Cowood Press'', 2004, page 11</ref> held around the 5th century BC. Such notables as [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], [[Euripides]], and [[Aristophanes]] established forms still relied on by their modern counterparts. We have complete texts [[Extant literature|extant]] by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and [[Euripides]].<ref>Brockett and Hildy (2003, 15).</ref>{{efn|The theory that ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'' was not written by Aeschylus adds a fourth, anonymous playwright to those whose work survives.}} The origins of [[Tragedy#Greek|Athenian tragedy]] remain obscure, though by the 5th century it was [[Institution|institutionalised]] in competitions (''[[agon]]'') held as part of festivities celebrating [[Dionysos]] (the [[Family tree of the Greek gods|god]] of [[wine]] and [[fertility]]).<ref>Brockett and Hildy (2003, 13–15) and Brown (1995, 441–447).</ref> As contestants in the [[City Dionysia|City Dionysia's]] competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a [[tetralogy]] of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play.<ref>Brown (1995, 442) and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 15–17).</ref>'''{{efn|Exceptions to this pattern were made, as with [[Euripides]]' ''[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]'' in 438 BC. There were also separate competitions at the [[Dionysia#City Dionysia|City Dionysia]] for the performance of [[dithyramb]]s and, after 488–7 BC, [[Ancient Greek comedy|comedies]].}}'''

For the ancient Greeks, playwriting involved ''[[poiesis|poïesis]]'', "the act of making". This is the source of the English word ''poet''.

Despite [[Chinese Theatre]] having performers dated back to the 6th century BC with [[You Meng]], their perspective of theatre was such that plays had no other role than "performer" or "actor", but given that the performers were also the ones who invented their performances, they could be considered a form of playwright.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ye |first=Tan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/182662750 |title=Historical dictionary of Chinese theater |date=2008 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-5514-4 |series=Historical dictionaries of literature and the arts |location=Lanham, Md |oclc=182662750 |access-date=2024-04-30 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527172404/https://search.worldcat.org/title/182662750 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Outside of the Western world there is [[Indian classical drama]], with one of the oldest known playwrights being [[Śudraka]], whose attributed plays can be dated to the second century BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stoneman |first=Richard |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1032723070 |title=The Greek experience of India: from Alexander to the Indo-Greeks |date=2019 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15403-9 |location=Princeton |oclc=on1032723070 |access-date=2024-04-30 |archive-date=2024-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527172349/https://search.worldcat.org/title/on1032723070 |url-status=live }}</ref> The ''[[Natya Shastra|Nāṭya Shāstra]]'', a text on the performing arts from between 500BC-500AD, categorizes playwrights as being among the members of a theatre company, although playwrights were generally the highest in social status, with some being kings.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Indian theatre: traditions of performance |date=1993 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ |isbn=978-81-208-0981-9 |editor-last=Richmond |editor-first=Farley P. |edition= |series=Performing arts series |location=Delhi}}</ref>