''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 | Theatre

A Little Night Music, Brief Encounter, So Help Me God! Receive Wobbly Contemporary Productions
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Sometimes I think theater lovers would be luckier if only we could forget the past and live, as apparently everyone else in America can, pretending that history doesn't exist. We'd wake up every morning devoid of memories, like the amnesiac played so enchantingly by J. Smith-Cameron in I forget w...
Quarky, Quirky Terrible Things and Crime or Emergency
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
According to one interpretation of quantum mechanics, in the course of any event in which multiple outcomes are possible, every outcome occurs—one in this world, others in an array of parallel worlds. So in one world, I might write that I despise Katie Pearl and Lisa D'Amour's Terrible T...
Rinde Eckert Bleeds Romance from the Myth in Orpheus X
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Writing a chamber opera called Orpheus X, turning the Greek tale into the story of a rock star, and casting yourself as the rock star? Not the humblest of moves for avant-composer Rinde Eckert. This Orpheus's humility has vanished into the grave with Eurydice (Suzan Hanson). His grief is c...
U.K. Day: London's Globe Arrives With Love's Labour's Lost; A British Subject Lands at 59E59 Theaters
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
The holiday season traditionally brings wholesome British imports: shortbread, Dickens, Christmas carols. Now New Yorkers can enjoy two more stolid English comforts: storybook Shakespeare and staid documentary drama. Not much happens in Shakespeare's quirky Love's Labour's Lost, cu...
Lost Lounge Mourns Vanished Gothams, Celebrates Survival
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
'Why should it be loved as a city? It is never the same city for a dozen years altogether," wrote Harper's Monthly in 1856, complaining of New York's endless flux. Live in the city long enough, and you'll inevitably lose something irreplaceable—a favorite dive bar, a beloved park.
The Great Recession in Need of a Bailout
Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Is playwriting another casualty of the economic crisis? Clearly not—the fall season has provided several excellent shows. And yet the six scribes behind The Great Recession—an anthology evening at the Flea about the downturn's effect on the young—seem in need of a bailout...

NYT > Theater

Blanchett and ‘Streetcar’ Are Wanted for Broadway
By PATRICK HEALY Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:42:42 -0000
The production at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is one of the hottest tickets around, but there are obstacles for producers wanting to obtain the rights and move the show.
Second City Looks Back in Laughter
By LARRY ROHTER Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:33:50 -0000
Second City, the improvisational troupe that changed the tone of comedy, commemorated its 50th anniversary with shows, parties and panel discussions.
Theater Review | 'For Artists Only': One Fraught Summer in the Country
By CLAUDIA LA ROCCO Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:49:18 -0000
This 90-minute production runs the gamut from intimacy to claustrophobia, and it doesn’t tarry often along the way.
Advertising: In Times Square to Press the Flesh, and Show Some, to Promote Shows
By GREGORY SCHMIDT Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:29:18 -0000
Theater producers for shows including “Chicago” and “Wishful Drinking” are asking their own street hawkers to dress up, and sometimes take it off.
'This' Actor Documents a Play's Other Lives
By ERIK PIEPENBURG Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:20:49 -0000
The actor Glenn Fitzgerald talks about taking backstage photographs at the play "This."
Theater Review | 'A Little Night Music': A Weekend in the Country With Eros and Thanatos
By BEN BRANTLEY Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:12:04 -0000
Trevor Nunn’s revival of “A Little Night Music” may well be a hit, though not because of any artistic finesse.

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