1590s: In the Elizabethan theater, plays take place in the afternoon, in natural light. The audience is boisterous and unruly, surrounds the actors on three sides, and interacts with them. All classes of society attend the theater.

Today: Plays take place in a darkened theater, and the largely middle-class audiences are generally more subdued than their Elizabethan counterparts. Talking during the performance is frowned upon. There is a convention of the fourth wall that describes the invisible barrier between stage and audience; the performers act as if the audience does not exist.

1590s: Having defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588, England is a strong and united kingdom under the capable leadership of Queen Elizabeth 1. English sailors explore the world and begin to lay the basis for the nation's emergence as a powerful maritime and colonial power.

Today: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern...