中国现代剧场不仅是中国剧场发展史的重要组成部分，也是中国现代建筑史的重要部分。因此，研究中国现代剧场发展，对于中国剧场发展史和中国现代建筑史都具有重要意义。所谓中国现代剧场指的是由西方传入我国的西式剧场建筑类型。本文试图从政治、经济、社会、文化、中外文化交流、技术等多方面入手，探索推动我国现代剧场发展的动力，描绘我国现代剧场发展的历史轨迹，并尝试对我国现代剧场的发展历史进行分期，建立我国现代剧场发展的研究框架。对于不同时期影响我国现代剧场发展的因素，本文进行了论证、考证，并将其纳入到我国现代历史发展的大背景中加以分析研究。结合大量剧场历史资料，尤其是大量第一手资料，本文论述了从19世纪末西方剧场传入我国开始，直至目前的我国现代剧场发展过程。根据不同阶段我国现代剧场发展的特征，将其分别划分为“移植时期”、“自立时期”、“新中国初期”、“低谷时期”、“改革开放初期”、“大剧院时代”等六个主要时段，此外，另辟专章，研究了“延安时期”的演出场所，以便能够找寻新中国建立后由于与延安时期在政治上继承性而造成的影响我国现代剧场发展的因素。除了将剧场进行分期研究，本文还在最后两章论述了建筑声学、剧场设备技术对于我国现代剧场发展的影响，重视相关技术进步与剧场发展的互动关系。根据本文研究显示：1949年之前，商业性因素在我国剧场发展中占据了主导作用；1949年之后，政治性因素在我国剧场发展中占据了主导作用。不同的主导因素，影响了我国现代剧场的发展方向，并形成了不同的特征。各个时期我国剧场发展的利、弊也都与这些主导因素具有很大的、直接的关系。本文指出，模仿西方剧场是我国现代剧场发展的主要方式，并且在学习西方剧场时，显示出了选择性。对于剧场现代化的追求是发展的一条主线，这一方面推动了我国剧场的发展，另一方面，由于对于现代化的理解偏差，也造成了目前剧场发展中的一些弊端。在本文中，作者不是抽象地研究这一问题，而是尽可能根据剧场史料，展现我国现代剧场发展的细节，以便表现其发展的丰富内涵。目的是展现一个较为全面、较为系统的我国现代剧场的发展历程。

China’s modern theaters are not only an important component part of the development history of China’s theaters, but also an important part of the history of China’s modern architecture. Therefore, the study on the development of China’s modern theaters has important meanings for the development history of China’s theaters and the history of China’s modern architecture. The so-called China’s modern theaters refer to the types of the western-style theater buildings, compared to China’s traditional theater building types. In this thesis, attempts are made to explore the driving forces that push forward the development of China’s modern theaters and to describe the historical track of the development of China’s modern theaters, starting from aspects of politics, economy, society, culture, technology, and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. Attempts are also made in the thesis to classify the development history of China’s modern theaters by stages and to establish the study framework of the development of China’s modern theaters. For factors that influence the development of China’s modern theaters in different periods, evaluation and textual researches are made in the thesis and they are put into the great background of China’s modern history development for conducting analysis and studies. Combined with large amount of historical materials of theaters, especially large amount of vivid first-hand materials, the thesis discusses the development process from the end of the 19th century when western theaters entered our country to the modern theaters in our country at present. According to the features of the development of modern theaters in our country in different stages, the thesis classifies them into six major periods. They are “the transplantation period”, “the independent period”, “early days of New China”, “the bottom period”, “early days of reform and opening up” and “the great theater times”. In addition, a special chapter is provided in the thesis for the study of performance places in the “Yan’an period”. Thus factors can be found that influence the development of China’s modern theaters owing to the political inhabitation from the Yan’an period after the founding of new China. Besides the study of theaters by stages, the thesis also discusses the influences of architectural acoustics and theater equipment technologies on the development of our modern theaters. Great attention is paid to the interactive relations between the progress of relevant technologies and the development of theaters. According to the study of the thesis, it is shown that: before 1949, commercial factors played dominant roles in the development of theaters in our country; while since 1949, political factors have played dominant roles in the development of theaters in our country. Different dominant factors influence the development directions of modern theaters in our country and form different characteristics. The advantages and disadvantages of the development of theaters in our country have great and direct relationships with these dominant factors. It is pointed out in the thesis that the imitation of western theaters is the main way for the development of modern theaters in our country. And when learning from western theaters, selectivity has been shown. The pursuit of the modernization of theaters is a main line of development. On the one hand, it promotes the development of theaters in our country; on the other hand, because of the deviation in understanding modernization, it causes some problems in the development of theaters at present. In this thesis, the author does not study the problem abstractly, but tries to use theater historical materials to show the details of the development of modern theaters in our country so that the rich connotation of their development can be displayed. The purpose is to demonstrate a quite comprehensive and systematic development course of modern theaters in our country.