The history of the Mongolian Yuan Empire shows that during Khubilai Khaan's times about 412 performers, singers and dancers would perform splendid shows. In the 15-17* centuries performances with dancing, singing in turn and playing roles were widespread in many parts of Mongolia. The Lord of Gobi, Danzanravjaa, first established a theatre by the end of the 19th century and staged his "Saran Khukhuu" (The Lunar Cuckoo) play. The contemporary theatre was established in the 1920s when youth organisations founded artistic groups and began their work by staging several plays based on the folk stories -"The stories of Sengee", "The lord Sumya" and others.
The Mongolian government in 1931 made the decision to found the State Central theatre named "Bumbugur". In the 1940s, the theatre's performers were split into the orchestra, chorus and dancers' groups, and the institution was reorganised as the Musical Drama theatre. Later in 1948 the Puppet show and in 1940 the Circus were established, the Khovd, Bayan-Ulgii and Dornod aimags' theatres were opened and in 1963 the Academic theatre of Drama and Ballet grew from it respectively. Ever since its foundation, the theatre successfully produced national and classic opera and ballet for the public.
For instance, "Evgeny Onegin", "lolanta", "Queen of Spades" by Chaikovsky; "Choi-chio san", Tosca", "Turandot", "Trubadore", "Othello" by Puchinni; "Prince Igor" by Borodin; "Carmen" by Bizet; "The Barber of Seville" by Rossini; "The magic flute" by Mozart and more than 30 ballets like "The Nutcracker", "Sleeping Beauty", "Swan lake" by Chaikovsky; "Flame of Paris", "Fountain of Bakhchisaray" by Asaffiev; "Don Quixote" by Myncus, and "Spartac" by Khachaturian and many others are staged. The Dramatic theatre has been successfully staging both Mongolian and other famous dramatists' plays like Lopper de Vega, Sheller, Shakespeare, Chekhov and others. In general, most of the theatres take part in international competitions and visiting other countries with performances.
