''For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation)

Theatre or theater (Greek "theatron", "θέατρον") is the branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard narrative dialogue style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime, kabuki, classical Indian dance, Chinese opera, mummers' plays, and pantomime.

Overview of theatre

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"Drama" (literally translated, Action, from a verbal root meaning "I do") is that branch of theatre in which speech, either from written text (plays), or improvised is paramount. "Musical theatre" is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and spoken dialogue. However, theatre is more than just what one sees on stage. Theatre involves an entire world behind the scenes that creates the costumes, sets and lighting to make the overall effect interesting. There is a particularly long tradition of political theatre, intended to educate audiences on contemporary issues and encourage social change. Various creeds, Catholicism for instance, have built upon the entertainment value of theatre and created (for example) passion plays, mystery plays and morality plays.

There is an enormous variety of philosophies, artistic processes, and theatrical approaches to creating plays and drama. Some are connected to political or spiritual ideologies, and some are based on purely "artistic" concerns. Some processes focus on a story, some on theatre as an event, some on theatre as a catalyst for social change. According to Aristotle's seminal theatrical critique Poetics, there are six elements necessary for theatre. They are Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Song, and Spectacle. The 17th-century Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote that for theatre one needs "three boards, two actors, and one passion". Others notable for their contribution to theatrical philosophy are Konstantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski.

More on [ Theatre ]

Village Voice Theater


Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
A new sampler of one-act plays at the West End Theatre (By John Beer)

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Spastic production should slow down (By GARRETT EISLER)

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
P.S. 122 should've kept this thing around longer (By Alexis Soloski)

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Race and history trouble The Country Girl and Sound and the Fury; Thurgood gets them right. (By Michael Feingold)

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Veteran character actor anchors a BAM revival of Endgame (By Alexis Soloski)

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400
Punctuating—in more ways than one—his legacy with a major question mark, Ariel Sharon presided over the forced evacuation of Israeli settlers from Gaza and the West Bank in 2005. Unsettled, Adam Hootnick's burningly smart documentary, delves into this national crisis, which was a relative blip on the international media's radar. Though the evacuations were quickly done and left no body count, Hootnick deftly illustrates how they cut . . . read more (By Michelle Orange)

NYT > Theater

How to Deal With Midlife: Keep Dancing
Wed, 07 May 2008 17:13:25 -0000
It’s been four years since Bill Irwin last presented a full evening in clown mode. He’s ready for more.
Arts, Briefly: ‘Little Mermaid’ Actor Has Surgery on Wrists
Sun, 11 May 2008 21:51:30 -0000
The actor who plummeted through a trapdoor before a matinee of “The Little Mermaid” remained hospitalized.
‘Mermaid’ Actor Breaks Wrists in Fall From High Over Stage
Sun, 11 May 2008 07:37:28 -0000
An actor in the Broadway show “The Little Mermaid” fell through a trap door on the deck of a suspended boat and onto the stage just before the start of the Saturday matinee performance.
The Play Is Over, but the Party Lingers On
Fri, 09 May 2008 01:32:13 -0000
Some of Off Broadway’s most prominent houses are moving beyond the usual slate of plays, musicals and talkbacks.
Theater Review | 'No, No Nanette': Roaring Twenties Speakeasies With Tubs Full of Ginger Ale Fizz
Sat, 10 May 2008 19:22:54 -0000
The Encores! presentation of “No, No, Nanette” is secondhand nostalgia, a reworking of a 1970s take on the 1920s.
Theater Review | 'Moby Dick Rehearsed': Close Your Eyes and Smell the Brine
Sat, 10 May 2008 19:38:37 -0000
In the Acting Company production of Orson Welles’s “Moby Dick Rehearsed,” gung-ho actors bring everything to life with no more than some crates and ladders for scenery.

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