Origins of Greek TragedyAristotle, Poetics: (a) Indeed, some say that dramas are so called, because their authors represent the characters as "doing" them (drôntes). And it is on this basis that the Dorians [= the Spartans, etc.] lay claim to the invention of both tragedy and comedy. For comedy is claimed by the Megarians here in Greece, who say it began among them at the time when they became a democracy [c. 580 BC], and by the Megarians of Sicily on the grounds that the poet Epicharmas came from there and was much earlier than Chionides and Magnes; while tragedy is claimed by certain Dorians of the Peloponnese. They offer the words as evidence, noting that outlying villages, called dêmoi by the Athenians, are called kômai by them, and alleging that kômôdoi (comedians) acquired their name, not from kômazein (to revel), but from the fact that, being expelled in disgrace from the city, they wandered from village to village. The Dorians further point out that their word for "to do" is drân, whereas the Athenians use prattein. (b)
In short, Aristotle believes in a double origin for tragedy: the saturikon (satyr play); and the dithyramb (Dionysiac cult song). Distinguishing these is difficult to do: too little is known about either in their earliest forms. 
More facts are known about the following: Arion c. 600. Inventor of tragic dithyrambs.At court of Corinthian ruler, Periander. First to write, name, sing a dithyramb (so Herodotus). Presumably he took over religious songs and turned them into an art form. A Byzantine source (the Suda) says that he invented the "tragic mode" (tragikou tropou), the chorus, sung dithyrambs, gave a name to the choric songs, and introduced satyrs speaking verses. Peloponnesian (Doric) innovations in drama.See Aristotle and the stories around Adrastus of Sicyon (early 6th c.): "I must not omit to explain that [the tyrant] Cleisthenes picked on Melanippus as the person to introduce into Sicyon, because he was a bitter enemy of Adrastus, having killed both Mecistes, his brother, and Tydeus his son-in-law. After settling him in his new shrine, he transferred to him the religious honors of sacrifice and festival which had previously been paid to Adrastus. The people of Sicyon had always regarded Adrastus with great reverence, because the country had once belonged to Polybus, his maternal grandfather, who died without an heir and bequeathed the kingdom to him. One of the most important of the tributes paid him was the tragic chorus, or ceremonial dance and song, which the Sicyonians celebrated in his honor; normally, the tragic chorus belongs to the worship of Dionysus; but in Sicyon it was not so -- it was performed in honor of Adrastus, treating his life-story and sufferings. Cleisthenes, however, changed this: he transferred the choruses to Dionysus, and the rest of the ceremonial to Melanippus." (Herodotus 5.67). Speculatively, the story could indicate how tragedy moved away from satyric choruses towards myth, and (as Aristotle says above in (b) ) achieved dignity after shedding its comic form. Dionysiac worship incorporated tragedy into its context; and satyr plays were tagged onto the end of the tetralogy form (so Lesky, Greek Tragedy p. 44). The obscure phrase "Nothing to do with Dionysus" could originate here?
Thespis. 536-533. First tragedian.His tragedy, the first, was performed at a festival in honor of Dionysus Eleuthereus in Athens under Pesistratus. This was the beginning of the City Dionysia contests/festival. Aristotle claims (according to Themistius) that Thespis added a prologue and speech to the choric song. Cf. Poetics 1449b on introduction of actor and prologue (in comedy). Actor (originally the poet) at first would appear at the start of the play to explain the song to come (in a pro-logos). Thespis also invented the mask (Suda, s.v. Thespis). He may have "humanized" the satyrs, discarding their animal forms and giving them human forms: they became "actors" with masks. Lost early playwrights include Epigenes of Sicyon (time of Thespis; possibly manufactured by the Peloponnesians), Choerilus (525 BCE) and Phrynichus (499 BCE). Pratinas of Phlius.Early 5th c. Re-established the then declining satyr plays, in the Peloponnesian tradition. The dithyrambic genre went on to live a life independent of tragedy.Transmission of Greek and other texts (brief online article)History of the Plays and PlaywrightsAeschylus (introduced a second actor; chorus size of 12)525/4? Born, son of Euphorion of Eleusis, near Athens
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