" Theatre or theater 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 art of presenting live performances on stage or in front of an audience.
Epic literature: This refers to a type of narrative that tells a long story about heroic deeds and supernatural events. Epic literature is often associated with ancient cultures and oral traditions.
Dramatic structure: This involves the organization of a play's events, including the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Theatrical genres: These are categories of plays that share similar themes, motifs, and conventions, such as tragedy, comedy, or musical theatre.
Stage directions: These are instructions written in a play's script that indicate movements, gestures, and positioning of actors on the stage.
Acting techniques: These are methods actors use to convey emotions, actions, and reactions in a believable manner, such as Method Acting, Meisner Technique, and Shakespearean Acting.
Stage design: This involves the planning and creating of sets, costumes, props, and lighting to bring a play's world to life on stage.
Stage management: This involves the coordination of all technical aspects of a production, such as scheduling, personnel management, and communication among different departments.
Performance spaces: These vary depending on the type of play and scale of the production, and may include proscenium theatres, thrust stages, black box theatres, or outdoor amphitheatres.
Theatrical history: This involves the study of performance traditions, playwriting, acting, and theatre architecture from ancient times to present day.
Critical analysis: This involves the interpretation and evaluation of plays, performances, and production choices, often through the use of literary or dramatic theory.
Epic Theatre: As mentioned, Epic Theatre serves to provoke intellectual thoughts and evoke social awareness by highlighting political and social issues relevant to the time in which it is performed.
Musical Theatre: A performance that mixes songs, dialogue, and dance to tell a story.
Drama: The portrayal of fictional, non-fictional, or imaginary characters in tragic or comedic circumstances.
Comedy: Uses humor to make people laugh, often involves witty dialogue or physical humor.
Tragedy: A story, usually fictional, that portrays a downfall of the protagonist or other main characters.
Puppet Theatre: A type of theatre that uses puppets rather than human actors to tell a story or convey a message.
Mime: A performance that uses only physical movements, typically without the use of words.
Improv Comedy: A type of comedy where the actors make up their dialogue and actions on the spot, often based on suggestions or prompts from the audience.
Physical Theatre: A performance that uses acrobatics, dance, and other forms of physical movement to tell a story or convey a message.
Experimental Theatre: A type of theatre that pushes the boundaries of traditional theatre by exploring new forms, staging, or storytelling methods.
Children’s Theatre: A performance that focuses on young audiences, often uses imaginative staging and playfulness to engage children in storytelling.
Opera: A type of theatre that combines singing, music, and acting to tell a story.
Shakespearean Theatre: A type of theatre that produces plays written by William Shakespeare, often featuring heightened language, elaborate staging, and a focus on dramatic and emotional themes.
"Usually actors or actresses."
"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."
"The word 'theatre' is derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, 'a place for viewing')."
"...it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements" from ancient Greek theatre.
"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."
"A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances, as distinct from a theatre troupe (or acting company), which is a group of theatrical performers working together."
"Modern theatre includes performances of plays and musical theatre. The art forms of ballet and opera are also theatre."
"...use many conventions such as acting, costumes, and staging."
"It is the oldest form of drama, though live theatre has now been joined by modern recorded forms."
"Theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing, and the specificity of theatre... differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature and the arts in general."
"To present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience."
"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."
"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."
"Places, normally buildings, where performances regularly take place are also called 'theatres'."
"...live theatre has now been joined by modern recorded forms."
"They were influential in the development of musical theatre."