''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

---

"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 | Theatre

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; I Love a Millionaire
Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400
I used to startle people by including Anita Loos's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes among the great American novels, along with The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, and The Great Gatsby (that last published the same year as Loos's work, 1925). All three deal with the false innocence...
pool (no water) Dives Into Envy
Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400
Resentment is one seriously nasty byproduct of art-world success—not for the rare thriving artist but for still-struggling friends who get left behind and jealous. That festering envy—which can turn the famous and fortunate into tortured victims—lies at the (almost) homicidal he...
The House of Mirth: Mrs. Wharton's Business School
Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 -0400
Even 107 years ago, entertainment producers' eyes lit up at the thought of getting their hands on a bestselling novel, and the Broadway eminence Charles Frohman must have thought he'd hit the jackpot when he acquired the rights to Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth (1905), as dramatized by...

NYT > Theater

Arts & Leisure: Steve Kazee of ‘Once’ Knows About Pain
By PATRICK HEALY Wed, 16 May 2012 15:44:24 -0000
Steve Kazee, whose Broadway role in “Once” is that of a man who is coming off a breakup and whose mother has died, is coming off breakup and lost his mother last month.
ArtsBeat: 'Bring It On' Is Coming to Broadway This Summer
By PATRICK HEALY Tue, 15 May 2012 23:20:55 -0000
The show will start previews on July 12, direct from a 13-city national tour — a rare example of a production that played in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Toronto before coming to New York.
Theater Review: ‘Are You There, McPhee?’ by John Guare, at Berlind Theater
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD Wed, 16 May 2012 18:29:21 -0000
“Are You There, McPhee?,” the new John Guare play, is a dizzying comic fantasy about the terrors of childhood, the confusions of adulthood and much more.
Theater Review: ‘American Jornalero,’ at the Intar Theater
By ERIC GRODE Wed, 16 May 2012 19:27:16 -0000
In “American Jornalero,” by Ed Cardona Jr., day laborers hope for work but must brace for confrontation.
Theater Review: ‘pool (no water),’ by Mark Ravenhill at the 9th Space
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD Tue, 15 May 2012 19:17:16 -0000
Three cheers for the small but ambitious One Year Lease Theater Company for bringing Mark Ravenhill’s terrific play “pool (no water)” to New York.
Lincoln Center Theater to Open Claire Tow Theater for LCT3
By ROBIN POGREBIN Wed, 16 May 2012 18:28:48 -0000
Lincoln Center Theater opens a 112-seat showcase on Tuesday intended to serve a younger, more diverse audience.

Subscribe to Theatre RSS feed