Lectures on the course "Theory of Drama" for students of theater universities. The work of the outstanding Soviet scholar-philologist Professor O.M. Freidenberg (author of the monograph "Poetics of Plot and Genre" in 1936, and "Myth and Literature of Antiquity" in 1978) was generally devoted to the problems of the emergence of art. Three works included in this publication consider the problems of the emergence and formation of theater and drama on ancient material. The book is converted to antiquity, but the reader can easily throw bridges into modern theatrical practice and discover schemes and images of modern culture rooted in mythology. Of particular importance is the consideration of O.M. Freidenberg genesis of modern theater concepts, such as spectacle, intrigue, comic, etc.