Theater

Theater (also Theatre in British English) is that branch of the performing
arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using
combinations of speech, gesture, music, sound and spectacle - indeed any one
or more elements of the other performing arts. In addition to the standard
narrative dialog style, theatre takes such forms as opera, ballet, mime,
kabuki, chinese opera, and pantomime. Here is a list of acting terms.

Kinds of theater

"Drama" is that branch of theatre in which speech, either from written text
(plays or "dramatic literature") or improvised, is paramount. "Musical
theater" is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and
spoken dialogue. There is a particularly long tradition of political
theater, 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) 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 story, some on the theatre as event, some
as 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, Music, 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
contributtion to theatrical philosophy are Konstantin Stanislavski, Anton
Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles, Jerzy Gratowski.

20th Century American Playwrights

   * Edward Albee
   * Horton Foote
   * Lorraine Hansberry
   * George S Kaufmann
   * Neil LaBute (The Shape of Things)
   * David Mamet
   * Arthur Miller
   * Eugene O'Neill
   * Neil Simon
   * Stephen Sondheim
   * Tennessee Williams
   * Thorton Wilder
   * August Wilson

20th Century British Playwrights

   * Alan Ayckbourn
   * Peter Barnes
   * Michael Frayn (Noises Off)
   * John Galsworthy
   * John Osborne
   * Harold Pinter
   * J.B. Priestley
   * Tom Stoppard

20th Century German Language Playwrights

   * Heiner Mueller
   * Bertolt Brecht
   * Thomas Bernhardt
   * Elfriede Jelinek
   * Friederich Durrenmatt
   * Wolfgang Hildesheimer

20th Century Irish Playwrights

   * George Bernard Shaw
   * Samuel Beckett

Other 20th Century English-language playwrights

   * Athol Fugard

This gives a brief listing of some of the better-known playwrights; but
theatre is a highly collaborative, multi-person, multi-media craft. Plays
are usually produced by a production team*artistic staff combined with
various technical, support, and design staff. Among these are the director,
scenic designer, the lighting designer, the costume designer, the
dramaturge, and the stage manager and production manager. This is not an all
inclusive list, and may include other personnel from the world of technical theatre.

20th Century English Language Theatre Directors

   * Julie Taymor
   * Harold Prince
   * Kelly Johnston
   * Peter Sellars
   * Tyrone Guthrie
   * Peter Brook
   * Mike Nichols
   * Peter Hall

20th Century Russian and French Theatre Directors

   * Konstantin Stanislavski
   * Jerzy Gretovski
   * Anton Artaud

20th Century German Language Theatre Directors

   * Fritz Kortner
   * Claus Peymann
   * Peter Stein
   * Peter Zadek
   * Frank Castorf
   * August Everding
   * Max Reinhardt

Awards

   * European Theatre Award
   * Laurence Olivier Awards (United Kingdom)
   * Tony Award (USA)

See also*Repertory theatre, dramatist, list of dramatists, history of
theatre, improvisational theatre, radio and television drama, summer stock,
cinematic drama, suspension of disbelief

Theater building

A theatre is also the building in which works and plays are performed. There
are as many styles of performance space as there are styles of performance,
but most theatres include a designated "stage" or playing space, a
designated audience area or "house," and some sort of off-stage area for
preparation and storage, called "backstage," which is typically concealed
from the audience. Theatres range from ornate, cathedral-like structures to
simple undecorated rooms or black box theatres.

Some of these buildings are masterpieces of architecture. Others, often
those known for opera, have become major cultural references and symbols.

The original Greek theatre was semicircular in form and was normally built
on a hillside, often overlooking the sea. These theatres also typically
included a "raked" or sloped stage, with the back of the stage being higher
than the front. Such theatres were often constructed with excellent
acoustics, so that a player standing centre stage could be clearly heard
throughout the auditorium. The Romans copied this style of building, but
tended not to be so concerned about the location, being prepared to build
walls and terraces instead of looking for a naturally-occurring site.

During the Elizabethan era in England, theatres were constructed of wood and
were circular in form, like the Globe Theatre in London, home to William
Shakespeare's troupe of actors. The Globe has now been rebuilt as a fully
working and producing theatre near its original site (largely thanks to the
efforts of film director Sam Wanamaker) to give modern audiences an idea of
the environment for which Shakespeare and other playwrights of the period
were writing.

Contemporary theatres are often non-traditional, such as very adaptable
spaces, or theatres where audience and performers are not separated. A major
example of this is the modular theatre, (see for example the Walt Disney
Modular Theatre). This large theatre has floors and walls divided into small
movable sections, with the floor sections on adjustable hydraulic pylons, so
that the space may be adjusted into any configuration for each individual
play. As new styles of theatre performance have evolved, so has the desire
to improve or recreate performance venues. This applies equally to artistic
and presentation techniques, such as stage lighting.

Specific designs of contemporary live theaters include proscenium, thrust,
black box theater, theater in the round, amphitheater, and arena. See also
movie theater and puppet theater.