The word theatre was changed to theater by

Asked by: Evie Tromp

Score: 4.9/5
(70 votes)

The word is from the Greek theatron

theatron

The theatron was the seating area, built into a hill to create a natural viewing space. The first seats in Greek theatres (other than just sitting on the ground) were wooden, but around 499 BC the practice of inlaying stone blocks into the side of the hill to create permanent, stable seating became more common.

, “a place of seeing.” A theatre usually has a stage area where the performance itself takes place.

Where did the term theatre come from?

Though the word theatre is derived from the Greek theaomai, “to see,” the performance itself may appeal either to the ear or to the eye, as is suggested by the interchangeability of the terms spectator (which derives from words meaning “to view”) and audience (which derives from words meaning “to hear”).

What does theater literally mean in Greek?

Definition: a building, part of a building, or outdoor area for housing dramatic presentations, stage entertainments, or motion-picture shows. Greek Word: theasthai. Greek Meaning: to behold. Fun Facts: theatrical festivals played an important role in Greek social life.

What does theatre literally mean?

The word theatre comes from the Greek theatron, literally «seeing place,» or «place where something is seen.» The word was first used in its current form in 1576 when James Burbage named his playhouse the Theatre. … Theatre also refers to the designers, administrators, technicians, etc.

Is theater a root word?

late 14c., «open air place in ancient times for viewing spectacles and plays,» from Old French theatre (12c., Modern French théâtre, improperly accented) and directly from Latin theatrum «play-house, theater; stage; spectators in a theater» (source also of Spanish, Italian teatro), from Greek theatron «theater; the …

45 related questions found

Theatre or theater^[a] is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience.^[1] The specific place of the performance is also named by the word «theatre» as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, «a place for viewing»), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, «to see», «to watch», «to observe»).

Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature and the arts in general.^[2][b]

A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances,^[3] as distinct from a theatre troupe (or acting company), which is a group of theatrical performers working together.^[4][5]

Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre. The art forms of ballet and opera are also theatre and use many conventions such as acting, costumes and staging. They were influential to the development of musical theatre.

History of theatre[edit]

Classical and Hellenistic Greece[edit]

The city-state of Athens is where Western theatre originated.^[6][7][8][c] It was part of a broader culture of theatricality and performance in classical Greece that included festivals, religious rituals, politics, law, athletics and gymnastics, music, poetry, weddings, funerals, and symposia.^{[9][8][10][11][d]}

Participation in the city-state’s many festivals—and mandatory attendance at the City Dionysia as an audience member (or even as a participant in the theatrical productions) in particular—was an important part of citizenship.^[13] Civic participation also involved the evaluation of the rhetoric of orators evidenced in performances in the law-court or political assembly, both of which were understood as analogous to the theatre and increasingly came to absorb its dramatic vocabulary.^[14][15] The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism and theatre architecture.^[16][17][18] Actors were either amateur or at best semi-professional.^[19] The theatre of ancient Greece consisted of three types of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play.^[20]

The origins of theatre in ancient Greece, according to Aristotle (384–322 BCE), the first theoretician of theatre, are to be found in the festivals that honored Dionysus. The performances were given in semi-circular auditoria cut into hillsides, capable of seating 10,000–20,000 people. The stage consisted of a dancing floor (orchestra), dressing room and scene-building area (skene). Since the words were the most important part, good acoustics and clear delivery were paramount. The actors (always men) wore masks appropriate to the characters they represented, and each might play several parts.^[21]

Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state.^{[6][7][8][22][23][e]} Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BCE, it flowered during the 5th century BCE (from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world), and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period.^{[25][26][7][f]}

No tragedies from the 6th century BCE and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century BCE have survived.^[28][29][g] We have complete texts extant by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.^[30][h] The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century BCE it was institutionalised in competitions (agon) held as part of festivities celebrating Dionysus (the god of wine and fertility).^[31][32] As contestants in the City Dionysia’s competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama) playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play.^[33][34][i] The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysia may have begun as early as 534 BCE; official records (didaskaliai) begin from 501 BCE, when the satyr play was introduced.^[35][33][j]

Most Athenian tragedies dramatise events from Greek mythology, though The Persians—which stages the Persian response to news of their military defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE—is the notable exception in the surviving drama.^[33][k] When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysia in 472 BCE, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive.^[33][37] More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics (c. 335 BCE).

Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, «Old Comedy», «Middle Comedy», and «New Comedy». Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of blunder or ugliness that does not cause pain or disaster.^[l]

In addition to the categories of comedy and tragedy at the City Dionysia, the festival also included the Satyr Play. Finding its origins in rural, agricultural rituals dedicated to Dionysus, the satyr play eventually found its way to Athens in its most well-known form. Satyr’s themselves were tied to the god Dionysus as his loyal woodland companions, often engaging in drunken revelry and mischief at his side. The satyr play itself was classified as tragicomedy, erring on the side of the more modern burlesque traditions of the early twentieth century. The plotlines of the plays were typically concerned with the dealings of the pantheon of Gods and their involvement in human affairs, backed by the chorus of Satyrs. However, according to Webster, satyr actors did not always perform typical satyr actions and would break from the acting traditions assigned to the character type of a mythical forest creature.^[38]

Roman theatre[edit]

Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans. The Roman historian Livy wrote that the Romans first experienced theatre in the 4th century BCE, with a performance by Etruscan actors.^[39] Beacham argues that they had been familiar with «pre-theatrical practices» for some time before that recorded contact.^[40] The theatre of ancient Rome was a thriving and diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus’s broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. The only surviving plays from the Roman Empire are ten dramas attributed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE), the Corduba-born Stoic philosopher and tutor of Nero.^[41]

Indian theatre[edit]

The first form of Indian theatre was the Sanskrit theatre,^[42] earliest-surviving fragments of which date from the 1st century CE.^[43][44] It began after the development of Greek and Roman theatre and before the development of theatre in other parts of Asia.^[42] It emerged sometime between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE and flourished between the 1st century CE and the 10th, which was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written.^[45][46] The wealth of archeological evidence from earlier periods offers no indication of the existence of a tradition of theatre.^[46] The ancient Vedas (hymns from between 1500 and 1000 BCE that are among the earliest examples of literature in the world) contain no hint of it (although a small number are composed in a form of dialogue) and the rituals of the Vedic period do not appear to have developed into theatre.^[46] The Mahābhāṣya by Patañjali contains the earliest reference to what may have been the seeds of Sanskrit drama.^[47] This treatise on grammar from 140 BCE provides a feasible date for the beginnings of theatre in India.^[47]

The major source of evidence for Sanskrit theatre is A Treatise on Theatre (Nātyaśāstra), a compendium whose date of composition is uncertain (estimates range from 200 BCE to 200 CE) and whose authorship is attributed to Bharata Muni. The Treatise is the most complete work of dramaturgy in the ancient world. It addresses acting, dance, music, dramatic construction, architecture, costuming, make-up, props, the organisation of companies, the audience, competitions, and offers a mythological account of the origin of theatre.^[47] In doing so, it provides indications about the nature of actual theatrical practices. Sanskrit theatre was performed on sacred ground by priests who had been trained in the necessary skills (dance, music, and recitation) in a [hereditary process]. Its aim was both to educate and to entertain.

Under the patronage of royal courts, performers belonged to professional companies that were directed by a stage manager (sutradhara), who may also have acted.^[43][47] This task was thought of as being analogous to that of a puppeteer—the literal meaning of «sutradhara» is «holder of the strings or threads».^[47] The performers were trained rigorously in vocal and physical technique.^[48] There were no prohibitions against female performers; companies were all-male, all-female, and of mixed gender. Certain sentiments were considered inappropriate for men to enact, however, and were thought better suited to women. Some performers played characters their own age, while others played ages different from their own (whether younger or older). Of all the elements of theatre, the Treatise gives most attention to acting (abhinaya), which consists of two styles: realistic (lokadharmi) and conventional (natyadharmi), though the major focus is on the latter.^[48][m]

Its drama is regarded as the highest achievement of Sanskrit literature.^[43] It utilised stock characters, such as the hero (nayaka), heroine (nayika), or clown (vidusaka). Actors may have specialized in a particular type. Kālidāsa in the 1st century BCE, is arguably considered to be ancient India’s greatest Sanskrit dramatist. Three famous romantic plays written by Kālidāsa are the Mālavikāgnimitram (Mālavikā and Agnimitra), Vikramuurvashiiya (Pertaining to Vikrama and Urvashi), and Abhijñānaśākuntala (The Recognition of Shakuntala). The last was inspired by a story in the Mahabharata and is the most famous. It was the first to be translated into English and German. Śakuntalā (in English translation) influenced Goethe’s Faust (1808–1832).^[43]

The next great Indian dramatist was Bhavabhuti (c. 7th century CE). He is said to have written the following three plays: Malati-Madhava, Mahaviracharita and Uttar Ramacharita. Among these three, the last two cover between them the entire epic of Ramayana. The powerful Indian emperor Harsha (606–648) is credited with having written three plays: the comedy Ratnavali, Priyadarsika, and the Buddhist drama Nagananda.

East Asian theatre[edit]

The Tang dynasty is sometimes known as «The Age of 1000 Entertainments». During this era, Ming Huang formed an acting school known as The Pear Garden to produce a form of drama that was primarily musical. That is why actors are commonly called «Children of the Pear Garden.» During the dynasty of Empress Ling, shadow puppetry first emerged as a recognized form of theatre in China. There were two distinct forms of shadow puppetry, Pekingese (northern) and Cantonese (southern). The two styles were differentiated by the method of making the puppets and the positioning of the rods on the puppets, as opposed to the type of play performed by the puppets. Both styles generally performed plays depicting great adventure and fantasy, rarely was this very stylized form of theatre used for political propaganda.

Japanese forms of Kabuki, Nō, and Kyōgen developed in the 17th century CE.^[49]

Cantonese shadow puppets were the larger of the two. They were built using thick leather which created more substantial shadows. Symbolic color was also very prevalent; a black face represented honesty, a red one bravery. The rods used to control Cantonese puppets were attached perpendicular to the puppets’ heads. Thus, they were not seen by the audience when the shadow was created. Pekingese puppets were more delicate and smaller. They were created out of thin, translucent leather (usually taken from the belly of a donkey). They were painted with vibrant paints, thus they cast a very colorful shadow. The thin rods which controlled their movements were attached to a leather collar at the neck of the puppet. The rods ran parallel to the bodies of the puppet and then turned at a ninety degree angle to connect to the neck. While these rods were visible when the shadow was cast, they laid outside the shadow of the puppet; thus they did not interfere with the appearance of the figure. The rods are attached at the necks to facilitate the use of multiple heads with one body. When the heads were not being used, they were stored in a muslin book or fabric-lined box. The heads were always removed at night. This was in keeping with the old superstition that if left intact, the puppets would come to life at night. Some puppeteers went so far as to store the heads in one book and the bodies in another, to further reduce the possibility of reanimating puppets. Shadow puppetry is said to have reached its highest point of artistic development in the eleventh century before becoming a tool of the government.

In the Song dynasty, there were many popular plays involving acrobatics and music. These developed in the Yuan dynasty into a more sophisticated form known as zaju, with a four- or five-act structure. Yuan drama spread across China and diversified into numerous regional forms, one of the best known of which is Peking Opera which is still popular today.

Xiangsheng is a certain traditional Chinese comedic performance in the forms of monologue or dialogue.

Indonesian theatre[edit]

In Indonesia, theatre performances have become an important part of local culture, theatre performances in Indonesia have been developed for thousands of years. Most of Indonesia’s oldest theatre forms are linked directly to local literary traditions (oral and written). The prominent puppet theatres — wayang golek (wooden rod-puppet play) of the Sundanese and wayang kulit (leather shadow-puppet play) of the Javanese and Balinese—draw much of their repertoire from indigenized versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. These tales also provide source material for the wayang wong (human theatre) of Java and Bali, which uses actors. Some wayang golek performances, however, also present Muslim stories, called menak.^[50][51] Wayang is an ancient form of storytelling that renowned for its elaborate puppet/human and complex musical styles.^[52] The earliest evidence is from the late 1st millennium CE, in medieval-era texts and archeological sites.^[53] The oldest known record that concerns wayang is from the 9th century. Around 840 AD an Old Javanese (Kawi) inscriptions called Jaha Inscriptions issued by Maharaja Sri Lokapala from Mataram Kingdom in Central Java mentions three sorts of performers: atapukan, aringgit, and abanol. Aringgit means Wayang puppet show, Atapukan means Mask dance show, and abanwal means joke art. Ringgit is described in an 11th-century Javanese poem as a leather shadow figure.

Medieval Islamic traditions[edit]

Theatre in the medieval Islamic world included puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta’ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali’s sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta’ziya theatre.^[54]

Early modern and modern theatre in the West[edit]

Theatre took on many alternative forms in the West between the 15th and 19th centuries, including commedia dell’arte from Italian theatre, and melodrama. The general trend was away from the poetic drama of the Greeks and the Renaissance and toward a more naturalistic prose style of dialogue, especially following the Industrial Revolution.^[55]

Theatre took a big pause during 1642 and 1660 in England because of the Puritan Interregnum.^[56] The rising anti-theatrical sentiment among Puritans saw William Prynne write Histriomastix (1633), the most notorious attack on theatre prior to the ban.^[56] Viewing theatre as sinful, the Puritans ordered the closure of London theatres in 1642.^[57] On 24 January 1643, the actors protested against the ban by writing a pamphlet titled The Actors remonstrance or complaint for the silencing of their profession, and banishment from their severall play-houses.^[58] This stagnant period ended once Charles II came back to the throne in 1660 in the Restoration. Theatre (among other arts) exploded, with influence from French culture, since Charles had been exiled in France in the years previous to his reign.

In 1660, two companies were licensed to perform, the Duke’s Company and the King’s Company. Performances were held in converted buildings, such as Lisle’s Tennis Court. The first West End theatre, known as Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, London, was designed by Thomas Killigrew and built on the site of the present Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.^[59]

One of the big changes was the new theatre house. Instead of the type of the Elizabethan era, such as the Globe Theatre, round with no place for the actors to prepare for the next act and with no «theatre manners», the theatre house became transformed into a place of refinement, with a stage in front and stadium seating facing it. Since seating was no longer all the way around the stage, it became prioritized—some seats were obviously better than others. The king would have the best seat in the house: the very middle of the theatre, which got the widest view of the stage as well as the best way to see the point of view and vanishing point that the stage was constructed around. Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg was one of the most influential set designers of the time because of his use of floor space and scenery.

Because of the turmoil before this time, there was still some controversy about what should and should not be put on the stage. Jeremy Collier, a preacher, was one of the heads in this movement through his piece A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage. The beliefs in this paper were mainly held by non-theatre goers and the remainder of the Puritans and very religious of the time. The main question was if seeing something immoral on stage affects behavior in the lives of those who watch it, a controversy that is still playing out today.^[60]

The seventeenth century had also introduced women to the stage, which was considered inappropriate earlier. These women were regarded as celebrities (also a newer concept, thanks to ideas on individualism that arose in the wake of Renaissance Humanism), but on the other hand, it was still very new and revolutionary that they were on the stage, and some said they were unladylike, and looked down on them. Charles II did not like young men playing the parts of young women, so he asked that women play their own parts.^[61] Because women were allowed on the stage, playwrights had more leeway with plot twists, like women dressing as men, and having narrow escapes from morally sticky situations as forms of comedy.

Comedies were full of the young and very much in vogue, with the storyline following their love lives: commonly a young roguish hero professing his love to the chaste and free minded heroine near the end of the play, much like Sheridan’s The School for Scandal. Many of the comedies were fashioned after the French tradition, mainly Molière, again hailing back to the French influence brought back by the King and the Royals after their exile. Molière was one of the top comedic playwrights of the time, revolutionizing the way comedy was written and performed by combining Italian commedia dell’arte and neoclassical French comedy to create some of the longest lasting and most influential satiric comedies.^[62] Tragedies were similarly victorious in their sense of righting political power, especially poignant because of the recent Restoration of the Crown.^[63] They were also imitations of French tragedy, although the French had a larger distinction between comedy and tragedy, whereas the English fudged the lines occasionally and put some comedic parts in their tragedies. Common forms of non-comedic plays were sentimental comedies as well as something that would later be called tragédie bourgeoise, or domestic tragedy—that is, the tragedy of common life—were more popular in England because they appealed more to English sensibilities.^[64]

While theatre troupes were formerly often travelling, the idea of the national theatre gained support in the 18th century, inspired by Ludvig Holberg. The major promoter of the idea of the national theatre in Germany, and also of the Sturm und Drang poets, was Abel Seyler, the owner of the Hamburgische Entreprise and the Seyler Theatre Company.^[65]

Through the 19th century, the popular theatrical forms of Romanticism, melodrama, Victorian burlesque and the well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou gave way to the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism; the farces of Feydeau; Wagner’s operatic Gesamtkunstwerk; musical theatre (including Gilbert and Sullivan’s operas); F. C. Burnand’s, W. S. Gilbert’s and Oscar Wilde’s drawing-room comedies; Symbolism; proto-Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen;^[67] and Edwardian musical comedy.

These trends continued through the 20th century in the realism of Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg, the political theatre of Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht, the so-called Theatre of the Absurd of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco, American and British musicals, the collective creations of companies of actors and directors such as Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop, experimental and postmodern theatre of Robert Wilson and Robert Lepage, the postcolonial theatre of August Wilson or Tomson Highway, and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed.

Types[edit]

Drama[edit]

Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance.^[68] The term comes from a Greek word meaning «action», which is derived from the verb δράω, dráō, «to do» or «to act». The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception.^[69] The early modern tragedy Hamlet (1601) by Shakespeare and the classical Athenian tragedy Oedipus Rex (c. 429 BCE) by Sophocles are among the masterpieces of the art of drama.^[70] A modern example is Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill (1956).^[71]

Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been contrasted with the epic and the lyrical modes ever since Aristotle’s Poetics (c. 335 BCE); the earliest work of dramatic theory.^[n] The use of «drama» in the narrow sense to designate a specific type of play dates from the 19th century. Drama in this sense refers to a play that is neither a comedy nor a tragedy—for example, Zola’s Thérèse Raquin (1873) or Chekhov’s Ivanov (1887). In Ancient Greece however, the word drama encompassed all theatrical plays, tragic, comic, or anything in between.

Drama is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is generally sung throughout; musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have incidental music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue (melodrama and Japanese Nō, for example).^[o] In certain periods of history (the ancient Roman and modern Romantic) some dramas have been written to be read rather than performed.^[p] In improvisation, the drama does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.^[q]

Musical theatre[edit]

Music and theatre have had a close relationship since ancient times—Athenian tragedy, for example, was a form of dance-drama that employed a chorus whose parts were sung (to the accompaniment of an aulos—an instrument comparable to the modern oboe), as were some of the actors’ responses and their ‘solo songs’ (monodies).^[72] Modern musical theatre is a form of theatre that also combines music, spoken dialogue, and dance. It emerged from comic opera (especially Gilbert and Sullivan), variety, vaudeville, and music hall genres of the late 19th and early 20th century.^[73] After the Edwardian musical comedy that began in the 1890s, the Princess Theatre musicals of the early 20th century, and comedies in the 1920s and 1930s (such as the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein), with Oklahoma! (1943), musicals moved in a more dramatic direction.^[r] Famous musicals over the subsequent decades included My Fair Lady (1956), West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1980), Cats (1981), Into the Woods (1986), and The Phantom of the Opera (1986),^[74] as well as more contemporary hits including Rent (1994), The Lion King (1997), Wicked (2003), Hamilton (2015) and Frozen (2018).

Musical theatre may be produced on an intimate scale Off-Broadway, in regional theatres, and elsewhere, but it often includes spectacle. For instance, Broadway and West End musicals often include lavish costumes and sets supported by multimillion-dollar budgets.

Comedy[edit]

Theatre productions that use humour as a vehicle to tell a story qualify as comedies. This may include a modern farce such as Boeing Boeing or a classical play such as As You Like It. Theatre expressing bleak, controversial or taboo subject matter in a deliberately humorous way is referred to as black comedy. Black Comedy can have several genres like slapstick humour, dark and sarcastic comedy.

Tragedy[edit]

Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude: in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.

Aristotle’s phrase «several kinds being found in separate parts of the play» is a reference to the structural origins of drama. In it the spoken parts were written in the Attic dialect whereas the choral (recited or sung) ones in the Doric dialect, these discrepancies reflecting the differing religious origins and poetic metres of the parts that were fused into a new entity, the theatrical drama.

Tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation.^[76][77] That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—»the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity,» as Raymond Williams puts it.^[78] From its obscure origins in the theatres of Athens 2,500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, through its singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Racine, and Schiller, to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of Strindberg, Beckett’s modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering, and Müller’s postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon, tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change.^[79][80] In the wake of Aristotle’s Poetics (335 BCE), tragedy has been used to make genre distinctions, whether at the scale of poetry in general (where the tragic divides against epic and lyric) or at the scale of the drama (where tragedy is opposed to comedy). In the modern era, tragedy has also been defined against drama, melodrama, the tragicomic, and epic theatre.^[s]

Improvisation[edit]

Improvisation has been a consistent feature of theatre, with the Commedia dell’arte in the sixteenth century being recognised as the first improvisation form. Popularized by Nobel Prize Winner Dario Fo and troupes such as the Upright Citizens Brigade improvisational theatre continues to evolve with many different streams and philosophies. Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin are recognized as the first teachers of improvisation in modern times, with Johnstone exploring improvisation as an alternative to scripted theatre and Spolin and her successors exploring improvisation principally as a tool for developing dramatic work or skills or as a form for situational comedy. Spolin also became interested in how the process of learning improvisation was applicable to the development of human potential.^[81] Spolin’s son, Paul Sills popularized improvisational theatre as a theatrical art form when he founded, as its first director, The Second City in Chicago.

Theories[edit]

Having been an important part of human culture for more than 2,500 years, theatre has evolved a wide range of different theories and practices. Some are related to political or spiritual ideologies, while others are based purely on «artistic» concerns. Some processes focus on a story, some on theatre as event, and some on theatre as catalyst for social change. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle, in his seminal treatise, Poetics (c. 335 BCE) is the earliest-surviving example and its arguments have influenced theories of theatre ever since.^[16][17] In it, he offers an account of what he calls «poetry» (a term which in Greek literally means «making» and in this context includes drama—comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play—as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and the dithyramb). He examines its «first principles» and identifies its genres and basic elements; his analysis of tragedy constitutes the core of the discussion.^[82]

Aristotle argues that tragedy consists of six qualitative parts, which are (in order of importance) mythos or «plot», ethos or «character», dianoia or «thought», lexis or «diction», melos or «song», and opsis or «spectacle».^[83][84] «Although Aristotle’s Poetics is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition», Marvin Carlson explains, «almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions.»^[85] Important theatre practitioners of the 20th century include Konstantin Stanislavski, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Jacques Copeau, Edward Gordon Craig, Bertolt Brecht, Antonin Artaud, Joan Littlewood, Peter Brook, Jerzy Grotowski, Augusto Boal, Eugenio Barba, Dario Fo, Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone and Robert Wilson (director).

Stanislavski treated the theatre as an art-form that is autonomous from literature and one in which the playwright’s contribution should be respected as that of only one of an ensemble of creative artists.^{[86][87][88][89][t]} His innovative contribution to modern acting theory has remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century.^{[90][91][92][93][94]} That many of the precepts of his system of actor training seem to be common sense and self-evident testifies to its hegemonic success.^[95] Actors frequently employ his basic concepts without knowing they do so.^[95] Thanks to its promotion and elaboration by acting teachers who were former students and the many translations of his theoretical writings, Stanislavski’s ‘system’ acquired an unprecedented ability to cross cultural boundaries and developed an international reach, dominating debates about acting in Europe and the United States.^{[90][96][97][98]} Many actors routinely equate his ‘system’ with the North American Method, although the latter’s exclusively psychological techniques contrast sharply with Stanislavski’s multivariant, holistic and psychophysical approach, which explores character and action both from the ‘inside out’ and the ‘outside in’ and treats the actor’s mind and body as parts of a continuum.^[99][100]

Technical aspects[edit]

Theatre presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective form of reception. The structure of dramatic texts, unlike other forms of literature, is directly influenced by this collaborative production and collective reception.^[69] The production of plays usually involves contributions from a playwright, director, a cast of actors, and a technical production team that includes a scenic or set designer, lighting designer, costume designer, sound designer, stage manager, production manager and technical director. Depending on the production, this team may also include a composer, dramaturg, video designer or fight director.

Stagecraft is a generic term referring to the technical aspects of theatrical, film, and video production. It includes, but is not limited to, constructing and rigging scenery, hanging and focusing of lighting, design and procurement of costumes, makeup, procurement of props, stage management, and recording and mixing of sound. Stagecraft is distinct from the wider umbrella term of scenography. Considered a technical rather than an artistic field, it relates primarily to the practical implementation of a designer’s artistic vision.

In its most basic form, stagecraft is managed by a single person (often the stage manager of a smaller production) who arranges all scenery, costumes, lighting, and sound, and organizes the cast. At a more professional level, for example in modern Broadway houses, stagecraft is managed by hundreds of skilled carpenters, painters, electricians, stagehands, stitchers, wigmakers, and the like. This modern form of stagecraft is highly technical and specialized: it comprises many sub-disciplines and a vast trove of history and tradition. The majority of stagecraft lies between these two extremes. Regional theatres and larger community theatres will generally have a technical director and a complement of designers, each of whom has a direct hand in their respective designs.

Sub-categories and organization[edit]

There are many modern theatre movements which go about producing theatre in a variety of ways. Theatrical enterprises vary enormously in sophistication and purpose. People who are involved vary from novices and hobbyists (in community theatre) to professionals (in Broadway and similar productions). Theatre can be performed with a shoestring budget or on a grand scale with multimillion-dollar budgets. This diversity manifests in the abundance of theatre sub-categories, which include:

• Broadway theatre and West End theatre
• Street theatre
• Community theatre
• Playback theatre
• Dinner theater
• Fringe theatre
• Off-Broadway and Off West End
• Off-Off-Broadway
• Regional theatre in the United States
• Touring theatre
• Summer stock theatre

Repertory companies[edit]

While most modern theatre companies rehearse one piece of theatre at a time, perform that piece for a set «run», retire the piece, and begin rehearsing a new show, repertory companies rehearse multiple shows at one time. These companies are able to perform these various pieces upon request and often perform works for years before retiring them. Most dance companies operate on this repertory system. The Royal National Theatre in London performs on a repertory system.

Repertory theatre generally involves a group of similarly accomplished actors, and relies more on the reputation of the group than on an individual star actor. It also typically relies less on strict control by a director and less on adherence to theatrical conventions, since actors who have worked together in multiple productions can respond to each other without relying as much on convention or external direction.^[101]

Other terminology[edit]

A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances,^[3] as distinct from a theatre troupe (or acting company), which is a group of theatrical performers working together.^[4]

A touring company is an independent theatre or dance company that travels, often internationally, being presented at a different theatre in each city.^{[citation needed]}

In order to put on a piece of theatre, both a theatre company and a theatre venue are needed. When a theatre company is the sole company in residence at a theatre venue, this theatre (and its corresponding theatre company) are called a resident theatre or a producing theatre, because the venue produces its own work. Other theatre companies, as well as dance companies, who do not have their own theatre venue, perform at rental theatres or at presenting theatres. Both rental and presenting theatres have no full-time resident companies. They do, however, sometimes have one or more part-time resident companies, in addition to other independent partner companies who arrange to use the space when available. A rental theatre allows the independent companies to seek out the space, while a presenting theatre seeks out the independent companies to support their work by presenting them on their stage.^{[citation needed]}

Some performance groups perform in non-theatrical spaces. Such performances can take place outside or inside, in a non-traditional performance space, and include street theatre, and site-specific theatre. Non-traditional venues can be used to create more immersive or meaningful environments for audiences. They can sometimes be modified more heavily than traditional theatre venues, or can accommodate different kinds of equipment, lighting and sets.^[102]

Unions[edit]

There are many theatre unions, including:

• Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), for actors and stage managers in the U.S.)^[103]
• Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, for actors in Canada
• Equity, for many kind of performing artists as well as designers, directors, and stage managers in the UK^[104]
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), for designers and technicians).^[103]
• Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, an Australian union created in 1992 as a merger of the unions covering actors, journalists and entertainment industry employees^[105]
• Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)^[103]

See also[edit]

Explanatory notes[edit]

Citations[edit]

General sources[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• Theatre Archive Project (UK) British Library & University of Sheffield.
• University of Bristol Theatre Collection
• Music Hall and Theatre History of Britain and Ireland

How companies spell that one volatile word says much about their histories and theatrical sensibilities

When The New York Times announced in March that Denver’s Curious TheatRE Company will be opening its fall season with Antoinette Nwandu’s “Pass Over,” the article claimed the play was being presented by Curious TheatER Company.

As painful as this is for a journalist to say, this is a rare example of a credible media outlet not only getting it wrong. It got it wrong on purpose. This is real #FakeNews. The correct spelling is Curious TheatRE Company.

But at The New York Times, it doesn’t matter what you call yourselves. Even if you have “TheatRE” in your proper name, The Gray Lady will change it to “TheatER” in America’s leading theatre, er, theater publication. That’s just their style.

As someone who has covered the Colorado theatre/er community for nearly 20 years, I have always been fascinated by how companies and journalists alike use the word both in their names and in everyday use. So I did a study on it.

Colorado has 92 active or recently active companies – defined as any troupe that has staged a production in the past year or has one scheduled in the next year. It turns out the vast majority of companies that have Theatre or Theater in their proper names prefer the word Theatre (40). But not all. Because are we or are we not Americans??? Fourteen Colorado companies use TheatER in their names. And a healthy number (38) perhaps smartly avoid the word altogether.

Those in the TheatRE corner include Theatre Aspen, Phamaly Theatre Company and the DCPA Theatre Company. (The inclusion of the Denver Center in this group should surprise no one given that founder Donald R. Seawell was an honorary member of the Royal Shakespeare Company.) Those in the TheatER corner include Buntport Theater, Local Theater and the Firehouse Theater Company.

Media outlets follow designated style books – these are compendiums of rules not necessarily covered by grammar stricture to ensure consistency in copy. More than 1,400 U.S. newspapers use the Associated Press Stylebook as their bible, and that bible calls for theatER in all cases except proper names. The DCPA Stylebook, which governs this very article you are reading, calls for theatRE in all uses except proper names. And The New York Times … well, follows its own bliss.

For the majority who prefer TheatRE, the argument is an open-and-shut curtain: Historically, theatRE has meant the art and theatER has meant the building it takes place in. By that logic, any theatre organization should be named RE, while any physical space should be named ER.

But those aren’t the only reasons companies have chosen to use TheatRE in their names. Our survey revealed some fun facts about our shared Colorado theatre/er history. For example, two of our mountain companies call themselves TheatRE simply to distinguish themselves from their towns’ movie houses:

• Lake Dillon Theatre Company (Dillon): “The founders of our company kept getting phone calls for the local movie theater, so they changed the name to Lake Dillon TheatRE to help the operators connecting the calls understand we were the live theatRE, not the movie theatER. It didn’t help, by the way. I got here nine years later, and for my first three years, I would say half of our calls were for movie times. So we just started telling people what time the movies were on.” – Producing Artistic Director Christopher Alleman
• Thingamajig Theatre Company (Pagosa Springs): “We originally named the company TheatER in 2010. However, when we set up our land line, the phone company gave us the last four digits 7469, or SHOW. And it turned out the movie house had done the same thing, so we both had the same last four numbers, just different prefixes. So when folks Googled for theater in Pagosa Springs, they would phone us thinking we were the movie theater. After three months, we just changed our name to TheatRE to further differentiate ourselves. So you could say the reason we chose TheatRE was really a result of search-engine optimization.” – Producing Artistic Director Tim Moore

Perhaps no one in Colorado is more passionate about the preferred use of TheatRE than Steve Wilson, Executive Artistic Director of the Mizel Arts and Culture Center, which until recently ran the Denver Children’s TheatRE. Wilson has a magnet in his office that says: “Theater re.” You’ll note the ER is stricken in favor of RE.

“I was the one who insisted on the ‘RE’ spelling for both the Denver Children’s Theatre and the Elaine Wolf TheatRE we perform in,” Wilson said. “Every respected theatre professional I have ever encountered spells theatRE with an RE. One of my teachers once said that the ER spelling can refer to the actual building, but I believe we theatRE people aspire to the belief that our spaces are always inhabited by the higher art at all times. Hence – assume pretentious British accent here – ‘The TheatRE!’ ”

But the mighty minority have their own passionate reasons for embracing the word TheatER. Primarily because we are Americans, and a few hundred years ago, we staged a revolution to get out from under the Brits’ oppressive word clutches (and I suppose some other clutches as well.)

“We call ourselves Local TheatER Company because we develop new American plays, and we spell theater ER here in the United States,” said founder Pesha Rudnick. Rick Yaconis, founder of the currently dormant Edge Theater Company, chose ER, he says, “because TheatRE seems pretentious to me, and I didn’t want there to be anything pretentious about The Edge.” John Ashton, who took over the late Avenue Theater in 1990, went with TheatER “just because theatRE seemed kind of uppity and froo-froo to me,” he said. “I’m not sure what authority I may have to think that way; that’s just how it feels.”

Then there is Buntport TheatER collective, which in typical self-deprecating fashion picked a side “but not from a place of great passion ­– except when playful sparring with friends is involved,” the company said in a collective response. “We discussed it when we started, but not at any great length. It’s just: We don’t write ‘colour’ or ‘neighbour’ or ‘centre’ in the U.S., so we also don’t tend to write ‘theatre.’ ”

The Buntport gang also pointed out that Grammarist.com, a credible source for grammar conflict resolution, stays neutral on this issue, saying: “In most contexts, there is no difference in meaning between theatER and theatRE. Neither has any special definitions in general usage.”

OK, so that might be grammatically true. But what is drama without great conflict? To stoke the embers further, here are a few representative responses when we asked Colorado companies why they chose the names they chose:

TheatER proponents

• “The standard American English is TheatER. Some feel sort of superior by using theatRE as if they’re more ‘in the know,’ but neither is ‘correct.’ Or more to the point, both are.” – Lynn Fleming, Secretary, Coal Creek Theater of Louisville
• I named our new venue TheatER 29 instead of TheatRE 29 based on the fact that the RE spelling yielded fewer results in an initial Google search. My unscientific research led me to believe the ER spelling would be better for website purposes.” – Lisa Wagner Erickson, co-founder, Theater 29, Denver

TheatRE proponents

• “American TheatRE magazine is, obviously RE, and that, we think, is the industry standard.” – Denise Freestone, co-founder, OpenStage Theatre & Company, Fort Collins
• “We decided that the English version, theatRE, was more appropriate for what we wanted to do, and for the audience we wanted to attract.” – Mark Rossman, co-founder, Cherry Creek Theatre
• “We don’t have a single home for our shows, so TheatER doesn’t really fit us. TheatRE reflects our commitment to the process of creating, collaborating and living.” – Alexander Evert, Artistic Director, Fearless Theatre, Denver
• “When I talk about theatRE vs theatER to my students at Pikes Peak Community College, I equate it to ‘A church’ vs. ‘THE Church.’ The theatRE resides in each of us. (Insert smiley emoji).” – Sarah Shaver, founding member, Springs Ensemble Theatre, Colorado Springs
• “Bas Bleu is French for ‘bluestocking,’ which means ‘an intellectual woman.’ The 18th-century Bluestocking salons in Europe closely reflected what we hoped to accomplish on the Front Range of Colorado. But we called ourselves ‘The Bas Bleu Theatre Company’ with our tongues firmly planted in our cheeks. There are such glorious mispronunciations of the French language in Fort Collins left over from the days of the fur trappers. The ‘Poudre River’ is often called ‘The Pooder,’ for example. We knew we were being somewhat cheeky by breaking some boundaries and choosing to do plays that might inspire, excite and terrify us as artists, but that might not have broad box-office appeal. We thought we would only last two years. That was 27 years ago. But in short: Bas Bleu is French, and in France, theater is always spelled theatRE.” – Wendy Ishii, co-founder, Bas Bleu Theatre Company, Fort Collins
• “I named our company Vintage Theatre because I wanted to pay homage to my mentor, Amnon Kabatchnik, and that was the name of his touring company in the Finger Lakes region of New York.” – Craig Bond, founder, Vintage Theatre, Aurora
• “I’ve always spelled the word TheatRE. But it could be my British husband’s influence. I find a lot of my words suddenly have The Queen’s English spelling.” – Susan Lyles, founder, And Toto too Theatre Company

Bonus: A few naming nuggets from Colorado history

• Creede Repertory Theatre: The company was founded in 1966 as a desperate attempt by the local Jaycees to save the town as silver mining was drying up. The Jaycees sent a letter to universities within a thousand miles, hoping some excited students would answer the call to operate a summer company on Main Street. University of Kansas theatre student Steve Grossman was the only one to respond. The Jaycees originally called the project Operation Summer TheatER, which was changed to Creede Repertory TheatRE in 1968. “We company members were delighted NOT to be called an ‘operation’ anymore,” said Kay Lancaster. “We wanted to be recognized as a repertory theatre, and we also wanted Creede in the title. Creede Repertory TheatRE had the perfect ring to it. And I will always remember how many folks in Creede called us the “THEE-A-TER kids.”
• The Bug Theatre: In 1994, The Bug Performance and Media Art Center debuted in what originally opened in 1912 as a nickelodeon movie house in 1912. After several variations, the neighborhood children nicknamed it “The Bug House,” and the name stuck. In 1994, it was incorporated as “The Bug Performance and Media Art Center,” which was an accurate name, “but a pain in the butt to say answering the phone,” said Executive Director Alex Weimer. From 1994-98, the building was called The Bug TheatER. “When we started our theatRE company in 1998, we wanted to have an entity under yet separate from The Bug,” said Weimer. “We were punks. We were driven. We did not understand the business of a non-profit organization, but we were motivated and ready to explore. We called ourselves The Bug TheatRE Company, spelled the arsty-fartsy way, because several of us were in the blushing bloom of our adulthood of creativity and embraced our pretentiousness in a manner that takes the piss right out of it. At least, I thought so at the time. Anyway, when artist and designer Kenn Penn re-did the facade of the building around 2003, he cut the logo from one-quarter-inch steel and we stuck with the name “The Bug Theatre.”

John Moore was named one of the 12 most influential theater critics in the U.S. by American Theatre Magazine in 2011. He has since taken a groundbreaking position as the Denver Center’s Senior Arts Journalist.

What’s in a name? Here is the current Colorado roll call:

THEATRE COMPANIES

And Toto too Theatre

Bas Bleu Theatre Company

Benchmark Theatre

Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company

Breckenridge Backstage Theatre

Bug Theatre

Cherry Creek Theatre

Counterweight Theatre Lab

Creede Reprtory Theatre

Curious Theatre Company

Cygnet Theatre

Dangerous Theatre

DCPA Theatre Company

Denver Children’s Theatre*

Dog Star Theatre

Elaine Wolf Theatre

Equinox Theatre Company

Fearless Theatre

Fine Arts Center Theatre Company at Colorado College

Jesters Dinner Theatre

Lake Dillon Theatre Company

Little Theatre of The Rockies

Longmont Theatre Company

Moon Theatre Company

OpenStage Theatre & Company

Phamaly Theatre Company

Pop Up Theatre

Rocky Mountain Repertory Theater

Sphinx’s Riddle Theatre Company

Springs Ensemble Theatre

square product theatre company

The Source Theatre Company

Theatre Aspen

Theatre Or

TheatreWorks

Thingamajig Theatre Company

Thunder River Theatre Company

Upstart Crow Theatre Company

Vintage Theatre

Viva Theatre

THEATER COMPANIES

Avenue Theater*

Buntport Theater

Coal Creek Theater of Louisville

The Edge Theater Company*

Emancipation Theater Company

Firehouse Theater Company

Fountain Theater

Funky Little Theater Company

Inspire Theater Company

Local Theater Company

One Night Stand Theater

Spotlight Theater

Theater 29

Theater Company of Lafayette

NEUTRALLY NAMED COMPANIES

5280 Artists Co-Op
5th Wall Productions
Adams Mystery Playhouse
Arvada Center
The Athena Project
Aurora Fox Arts Center
Band of Toughs
BDT Stage
The Bitsy Stage
Black Actors Guild
Candlelight Dinner Playhouse
The Catamounts
Centerstage
Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Control Group
The Curtain Playhouse
The Dinner Detective
Evergreen Players
Germinal Stage-Denver
Grapefruit Lab
Iron Springs Chateau
Lone Tree Arts Center
Magic Moments
Midtown Arts Center
Miners Alley Playhouse
Northglenn Arts
OvationWest Performing Arts
Parker Arts
Peak to Peak Players
Performance Now
Pipedream Productions
Platte Valley Players
Sis Tryst
Stories on Stage
Su Teatro
Theatrix USA
Town Hall Arts Center
UpstART (Ouray)

*Recently closed company

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Theatre (British English and also American English), or Theater (mostly American English), has several meanings.

The word comes originally from the Greek Theatron, meaning roughly, ‘a place for viewing’. In American English, the word ‘theater’ can mean either a place where films are shown (this is also called a cinema) or a place where live stage plays are performed.^[1] In British English, ‘theatre’ means a place where live plays are performed. Some people, both English and American, use the spelling ‘theatre’ to mean a place where live plays are performed, and the spelling ‘theater’ to mean a cinema.

‘Theatre’ can also mean the business of putting on plays. An actor might say «I am in the theatre business», or a writer might say «I write for the theatre», meaning that they write plays, rather than writing for movies or television shows.^[2][3]

History[change | change source]

Ancient Greece[change | change source]

The first people we know created plays were the Ancient Greeks, about the year 500 B.C. They divided plays into two kinds: tragedy and comedy. This division is still used today. The best known Ancient Greek writers of plays are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. Some of their plays survived, and are still performed today.

These ancient Greek plays were performed outdoors in large amphitheatres, so that many people could see them. There were contests among the playwrights (people who write plays are called playwrights) and the winner would get a prize.

The Greeks had many brilliant ideas. They used mechanical devices like trap doors and the machina: a crane for winching gods on and off the stage (hence ‘Deus ex machina’). They had a Greek chorus that offered information to help the audience follow the performance. The chorus comments on themes, and shows how an audience might react to the drama. The players wore masks. Illustrations on vases show helmet-like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, plus a wig. The mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Therefore, onlookers did not think about the actor, but thought about the character.

Middle Ages[change | change source]

In the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church began to use theatre as a way of telling the stories from the Bible to people who did not know how to read. They wrote Mystery Plays, where each part of the Bible story would be a play put on by a different group of people. They wrote miracle plays which were about the lives of the saints. They wrote morality plays which taught the audiences how to live a good Christian life.

Commedia dell’arte plays[change | change source]

In the 1500s, groups of actors toured around Italy performing comic plays to entertain townspeople. These plays were called Commedia dell’arte, and different stories would be created around the same group of characters. Often the spoken lines would be made up by the actors for each performance.

Other kinds of plays called Neoclassical Dramas and Neoclassical Comedies were also popular in Italy and in France at this time. These plays were written to copy the style of the plays from Ancient Greece and Rome.

Elizabethan theatre[change | change source]

At the end of the sixteenth century (before 1600), the traveling actors began to perform in fixed theatre buildings. This was the period when William Shakespeare wrote. He lived from 1564 to 1616. At that time, in England, women were not allowed to perform, so male actors would play female characters.

His theatre was in London, England. It was called The Globe Theatre. It was an outdoor theatre and plays were performed in the daytime for large audiences. His plays were very popular and many are still performed today. Many people believe Shakespeare was one of the best playwrights (a writer of plays).

Plays including Shakespeare’s were banned during the Protectorate’. After that, many more were written and acted.

Plays from the 1900s[change | change source]

After World War II, playwrights in Europe and the United States began doing plays in a new style called «Theatre of the Absurd.» After seeing the horrors of war, these playwrights felt that all their old values had been destroyed. Playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco, Harold Pinter, and Jean Genet wrote plays that are considered to be «Theatre of the Absurd.»

The «Theatre of the Absurd» plays have some of the same ideas that are found in the philosophy (a way of thinking) called existentialism. Existentialism is very different from many other philosophies. Most religions and philosopies say that human life has a meaning (or a purpose). The philosophy of existentialism is that human life does not have a meaning (or a purpose). When something has no meaning, it is «absurd». (absurd means means silly and meaningless.)

The plays written in this style make people think about questions like «what is it like to be a person in the world?» and «what does it mean for a person to be free?» They are often filled with sad emotions, such as worry, fear, and thoughts about death.

Theatre breaks[change | change source]

Theatre breaks are a form of short holiday, based around viewing a theatrical convention show. Theatre breaks tend to include a nights hotel accommodation included in the price.

References[change | change source]

Theater and Theatre are the most commonly confusing words in the English language, with different spelling but having the same meaning. At the first insight, it may signal to any reader or writer that there may not appear to be a significant variation between these two words. Both serve the same function of conveying a particular idea or concept.

However, they appear to be subtle differences, especially from a dialect standpoint.

Key Takeaways

1. In American English, “theater” is the preferred spelling, referring to the physical building where performances occur and the art form of drama or dramatic performances.
2. “Theatre” is the preferred spelling in British English, encompassing the same meanings as the American English term “theater.”
3. The primary difference between “theater” and “theatre” is their American and British English usage. Both terms denote the same concepts related to performance arts and the venues where they occur.

The difference between Theater and Theatre is that Theater is a word commonly used in American English, whereas Theatre is a word commonly used in British English. However, the above is not the only difference. A comparison between both the terms on specific parameters can shed light on subtle aspects:

Want to save this article for later? Click the heart in the bottom right corner to save to your own articles box!

---

Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Theater	Theatre
Meaning	Same meaning as that of Theatre, i.e. a venue where plays or events are held or to denote a performance. However, some people may relate Theater to the structure, venue, or place where the entertainment or drama occurs.	Same meaning as that of Theater, i.e. a venue where plays or events are held or to denote a performance. However, some people may relate Theatre to drama or art.
What is the spelling difference?	The alphabet “e” is used as the second last alphabet	The alphabet “r” is used as the second last alphabet
Is this word used commonly in British English?	No	Yes
Is this word used commonly in American English?	Yes	No
Is it fully adopted in America?	Yes	No
Is this word included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary?	Yes, because this dictionary is based on American English, and this dictionary intended to simplify the words to relate to their easy and correct form of pronunciation.	No, only the word “Theater” is included
Origination of word	France	Greece
Is this word too old or new?	A new word which emerged in the 14th century	Ancient dating back to 300 BC
Which is more common	Only familiar with US English, and that too used in a few countries	Theatre is more common as it is ancient and used in many countries

---

What is Theater?

Theater means a building/area for showing motion pictures or dramatic performances. Theater can also mean any dramatic literature or a dramatic representation as art or profession.

Theater can also relate to a place of enactment of significant events or activities or can be considered as a room with rising tiers of seats for assemblies (for example, for lectures). Theater can also mean entertainment in the form of drama.

The word Theater was first coined in France and then spread to other European countries and the rest of the world. The theater is America’s most commonly used word to describe an entertainment or movie venue.

The word Theater is frequently used in North America to denote someone going to a movie.

What is Theatre?

Theatre means a building, room, or outside format with seat rows, and each seat row is commonly elevated than the one in the fore-end, from which people can watch a performance or other activity.

Theatre can also refer to the writing or performance of plays, operas, etc., which are performed in public or work in the form of acting or writing plays.

Theatre can also relate to a behaviour that is not considered sincere and is intended to produce a specific effect or to stimulate curiosity. Theatre can also refer to an area or place of happenings for significant military events.

The word Theatre is the genesis of United Kingdom English. Theatre has coined almost ages ago in Athens, Greece, around 322 BC.

Theatre is now primarily used in the UK and pronounced with a British accent.

Theatre is used sparingly under American English and has been adopted for the last 50-60 years. However, there is still some opposition to using this word entirely in the United States.

---

Main Differences Between Theater and Theatre

1. The theater is trusted to emanate from France. Theatre is said to have been coined in Greece.
2. The theater is a word commonly used in the United States (i.e. US English system). Theatre is used in the United Kingdom (i.e. the UK English system) and other countries.
3. The theater is a word that emerged in prominence in the 14th century and is hence considered relatively new. Theatre is believed to have originated in 300 BC and hence very old.
4. Theater is a word used in the United States since its origination. Theatre has been used only for the last 50 years or so in the United States but with little success.
5. Theater word usage will be preferred for American writers and audiences. Theatre word usage will be a preferred option for UK writers and UK audiences.
6. In America, some people may still use the word Theater and Theatre differently, such as Theater for a venue or an entertainment place and Theatre for an art or drama form.

References

1. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Theater
2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Theatre-art

Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.