Between 1971-1985 the theater plays which took their subjects from the Turkish history

IV ABSTRACT First originated in ancient Greece and made its rise in the sixteenth century, the early examples of historical play in the Turkish Literature belongs to the administrative reform period. Following the Rebuclic Period, the historical play gained more importance in Turkish Literature. History is a unique source for the theater writers. In Turkish Literature, historical materials were very widely utilized at certain periods, whereas there had been times, where such information was not given much importance. Following the introduction of historical play in the Turkish Literature, it is almost impossible to find any examples of this kind, during the period of despotic regimeswith the introduction of second constitutional monarchy in 1908, there had been a favourable environment for the development of the historical play and many works taking their subjects from the near history were written. With the proclamation of the Turkish Repuclic, history was perceived in a different way and most of the historical plays were written with emphasis on this new perception, during this period, most of the plays took their subject from the distant Turkish history. However starting with the 10th year of the Republic Period, the plays started to focuse on the national struggle and the reforms and none of these plays were about Ottoman empire period. In 1950s, except a few plays about the ottoman history, the rest was all about the period of national struggle. The actual development of the historical play in terms of subject, variety and character was after 1960s. At that period, there had been a lot of plays taking their subjects from the ottoman history and mytology. Our research which studies the 1971-1985 period covers many plays from the ottoman history, the period of national struggle and mytology. Many plays written for almost every sultan as well as plays with biographic characters come into our attention. The writers who started to inroduce their works during the 1960s, produced works of maturity period, and contributed significantly to the Turkish theater literature. Each of these writers had their own style and they made use of the historical materials in writing many plays which take their share in today's literature and can easily appeal to the people of today. At that period, the Turkish theater witnessed 12 March and 12 September events, and was very much influenced by them. The plays questioning the 12March and 12 September events are concrete evidence of this influence, there are also many plays written about certain historical days, events and anniversary of prominent figures. During this period, with many differences in style and historical material being successfully synthesized with the characteristics of the historical drama, many plays with thesis had also been written, however they were not very long lived. Many of the plays written at this period have been already performed and still continue to be performed.