I am working on a group project in drama class on Ancient Greece and was assigned the role of finding certain social and historic events that would've made an impact on Greek theatre. I've already looked into it, finding information on the Great Dionysia and the use of drama to satirize leaders and celebrities in the Hellenic period, but I would like to find out more. All help is appreciated ;)
The events of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) are very obviously present in the comedies of Aristophanes. The suffering of the rural population of Attika due to Spartan incursions is the theme of his Acharnians; the plot of Lysistrata is that women are withholding sex from their husbands in order to force them to negotiate peace. The Knights appears to make fun of the fact that Nikias and Demosthenes fought very successful military campaigns in 425 BC, but the demagogue Kleon took all the glory. Just before the Peace of Nikias was finally signed in 421 (in hindsight only a lull in the fighting), Aristophanes staged the Peace, which, as the name suggests, is all about how wonderful it will be to finally stop the war.
His comedies are also full of references to contemporary public figures - many of which we know only because he ridicules them. Kleon is one of his favourite targets, as is a hapless politician named Hyperbolos, whose reputation Aristophanes thoroughly ruined. The entire play Clouds is devoted to mocking the philosophies of Sokrates. Meanwhile, the Frogs is actually something of a review/parody of Athenian tragedy, which ends in a contest to see which of the three great tragedians (Aischylos, Euripides and Sophokles) is the best.
Most of the characters and choruses of these comedies would have consisted of recognisable archetypes from Athenian society. The chorus of Acharnians are old men from the countryside who proudly remember fighting the Persians at Marathon in their youth. The old jurors who form the chorus of Wasps were a notable product of Athenian democracy; jurors were paid to attend court cases, which made jury service a good way for retired men to make some extra money in old age.
The relationship between historical events and tragedy is usually less direct. Tragedies tend to be set in the mythic past (except in the case of Aischylos' Persians, which is about Xerxes' invasion). However, it is clear that during the Peloponnesian War these plays became a lot darker and edgier, dealing with topics like the treatment of war dead and of the fate of women from captured cities. Modern scholars assume that tragedies were meant to be cathartic, to help audiences deal with the difficult experiences of ongoing war.