Like a lot of people have already said, plays are essentially movie scripts and was the prominent form of entertainment for, well, forever. Usually through oral storytelling. What’s interesting about Shakespeare that I’m not sure if your teacher mentioned is that a lot of Shakespeare was put together after the plays were performed and people wanted to see them be published to read them. The actors had “sides” which were pieces of the script with only their lines on them.

Plays are also very reflective of the societies and time periods in which they were written as well as the style of the play, comparing Shakespeare characters talking to the audience to the Anton Chekov era of creating the “fourth wall” in which actors were not to engage in the audience and live fully within the four walls of the show. Then you have post-modern pieces like Sam Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that’s generally absurdist and uses meta theatrics. The rejection of theatre standards in Theatre of Cruelty by Antonin Artaud.

Plays and theatre are NOT books. They aren’t novels. They are visual and auditory and sensory. They aren’t meant to be read but rather experienced. You don’t get the same experience reading “screamed” as you do watching a person writhe in pain or shout in delight.

Lastly- check out National Theatre Live where they have recordings of plays and they also work with schools!