♀Important People♂
Playwrights
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Hrosvitha (c. 935-973 C.E.): The first known female dramatist and first dramatist that we know of from the postclassical era. Hrosvitha was a nun living in Germany in the Gandersheim abbey. She was literate, writing in Latin and reading Roman texts. She was greatly influenced by the Roman writer Terence and used his style of playwriting. She substituted Terence's pagan ideas for Christian stories and her goal was "to glorify Christian virgins".1 It is unknown whether or not her plays were meant for performance, but they were not published until 1501.
Hildegard von Bingen (c. 1098-1179 C.E.): A German nun who oversaw a convent and wrote plays to be performed there. She wrote short musical plays with liturgical songs that honored saints and Virgin Mary, probably performed on religious days. Her play Ordo Virtutum, written in Latin, is similar to the later morality plays.
1 Wilson, Edwin, and Alvin Goldfarb. Living Theatre: A History. 4th ed. Boston: McGrawHill, 2004.