''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

Finian's Rainbow Retains Much Magic; Love Child Fields Frenzy; Redgrave Cries for Nightingale
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Mingled with the many raves for the new production of Finian's Rainbow (St. James Theatre) has come a curious counterpoint, on blogs and chat boards, of complaint. Apparently, New York's theater aficionados are split between those simply happy to have a great musical from 1947 back, in wha...
Theatre of the Eighth Day Stages its Noted Wormwood
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Few theatrical premieres have been as politically charged as Wormwood's 1985 opening in Poland. Staged by a dissident ensemble called Theatre of the Eighth Day, the production dared to openly portray life under Martial Law (declared in 1981) through poetry and gesture. Now, 20 year...
Halloween Lives on in Americana Kamikaze and The New Electric Ballroom
Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600
Halloween has passed, but if your appetite for scary stories has not departed with your sugar rush, you might seek out Americana Kamikaze at P.S.122 or The New Electric Ballroom at St. Ann's Warehouse. In the former, Temporary Distortion refracts a Japanese ghost yarn through a New ...

NYT > Theater

Theater Review | 'Quartett': A Minuet Between Sexual Predators
By BEN BRANTLEY Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:44:40 -0000
With a cast led by Isabelle Huppert in a magnificently mannered performance, Robert Wilson’s “Quartett” is the very opposite of an aphrodisiac.
Theater Review | 'The Understudy': When a Star Takes a Turn Awaiting a Star Turn
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:34:56 -0000
Julie White is fabricating bountiful laughs from a display of strained nerves in Theresa Rebeck’s scattershot comedy.
Theater Review | 'Creature': Faith and the Tempted Woman of a Certain Middle Age
By RACHEL SALTZ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:07:22 -0000
Saints can be hell to live with. That’s part of the comedy of Heidi Schreck’s absorbing new play.
Theater Review | 'Idiot Savant': Still Bouncing Off the Fun House Walls
By BEN BRANTLEY Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:39:28 -0000
Richard Foreman’s “Idiot Savant,” with Willem Dafoe in the title role, is some kind of wonderful.
Physical Culture: Now Starring, Off Broadway and in the Peloton
By JASON GAY Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:29:37 -0000
It has been a decade and a half since Mark-Paul Gosselaar last roamed the halls as Zack Morris on “Saved by the Bell;” he has since developed another distinction: as perhaps the best celebrity-slash-bicyclist in America.
Theater Review | 'Nightingale': Redgrave Uncorsets a Relative Long Gone
By CHARLES ISHERWOOD Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:57:31 -0000
Lynn Redgrave explores the life of her maternal grandmother through the prism of her own in her reflective new solo show.

Subscribe to Theatre RSS feed