Theatre

Theatre, also spelled theater, is a collaborative form of performing art. It uses live performers, usually actors, to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. Performers may share this experience through gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Pictures in this article show examples such as Sarah Bernhardt in 1899 as Hamlet in Shakespeare's eponymous tragedy, and the character Sun Wukong at the Peking opera from Journey to the West.

Theatre is the oldest form of drama, although live theatre now shares the stage with modern recorded forms. Artists use painted scenery and stagecraft, such as lighting, to make the experience feel more real and immediate. Buildings where performances regularly take place are also called "theatres" or "theaters." The word comes from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), which itself comes from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe").

Modern Western theatre comes, in large part, from the theatre of ancient Greece. It borrows technical terms, the sorting of works into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis describes theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing, and the specificity of theatre as ideas that set theatre apart from other performing arts, literature, and the arts in general. Examples from around the world include Eduardo De Filippo as Pulcinella, a character from the Commedia dell'arte, and Koothu, an ancient Indian form of performing art that began in early Tamilakam.

Theatre is also organised by groups of people. A theatre company is an organisation that produces theatrical performances. A theatre troupe, or acting company, is a group of theatrical performers who work together.

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

History of theatre

Main article: History of theatre

Western theatre began in the city-state of Athens, in ancient Greece. Theatre was part of many parts of city life, including festivals, religious rituals, and politics. Taking part in the festivals was an important part of being a citizen, especially going to the City Dionysia. Greek theatre had three kinds of drama: tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. These plays were performed for Dionysus, the god of wine. The performances took place in large outdoor seating areas that could hold 10,000 to 20,000 people, and the actors were always men who wore masks. Aristotle, the first person to write about theatre, explained where it came from. Later, the Romans also developed a rich theatre culture, as described in the theatre of ancient Rome. Roman theatre included comedies and tragedies, and women could perform on stage there. In India, Sanskrit theatre grew and flourished, and the writer Kālidāsa became one of its most famous playwrights. In China, the Tang dynasty had a famous acting school called the Pear Garden, and shadow puppetry became a recognised form of theatre. In Indonesia, puppet theatres drew many of their stories from older epic tales. In the medieval Islamic world, people performed ta'ziyeh, which re-enacted episodes from Muslim history.

In England, theatre was stopped for a time when the Puritans ordered the closure of London theatres in 1642. It came back after 1660, when Charles II returned to the throne and theatre grew again. Women were allowed on stage for the first time during this period. Over the next centuries, theatre changed in many ways, and new styles developed through the 20th century, including the realism of Stanislavski and the political theatre of Bertolt Brecht.

Types

Main article: Drama

Main article: Musical theatre

Main article: Comedy

Main article: Tragedy

Main article: Improvisational theatre

Drama is fiction shown through performance. The word comes from a Greek word meaning "action." Theatre drama is performed by actors on a stage before an audience. Theatre has long been linked with music and dance. Musical theatre combines music, spoken dialogue, and dance. Theatre that uses humour to tell a story is called a comedy. Comedy can also be black comedy, which deals with serious or taboo subjects in a funny way.

Tragedy is a tradition of drama that has been important in Western culture since the theatres of Athens, where Aristotle wrote about it in his Poetics. Improvisation has also been a steady part of theatre. The Commedia dell'arte in the sixteenth century is recognised as the first improvisation form. Later, Dario Fo, Keith Johnstone, Viola Spolin, and Paul Sills helped make improvisation popular. Sills founded The Second City in Chicago.

Theories

Main article: Dramatic theory

Village feast with theatre performance c. 1600

Theatre has been part of human culture for more than 2,500 years, and it has developed a wide range of theories and practices. Some are linked to political or spiritual ideas, while others are based only on "artistic" concerns. Some focus on a story, some on theatre as an event, and some on theatre as a way to bring about social change. The classical Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote the earliest surviving example of these ideas in his Poetics (c. 335 BCE), and his arguments have influenced theories of theatre ever since. He describes what he called "poetry," a word that in Greek means "making" and includes drama, such as comedy, tragedy, and the satyr play, as well as lyric poetry, epic poetry, and the dithyramb. He looks at its "first principles" and its genres and basic elements, and his study of tragedy is at the center of the work. Aristotle says tragedy has six parts, in order of importance: mythos or "plot," ethos or "character," dianoia or "thought," lexis or "diction," melos or "song," and opsis or "spectacle." Marvin Carlson explains that "Aristotle's Poetics is universally acknowledged in the Western critical tradition," but that "almost every detail about his seminal work has aroused divergent opinions."

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 saw theatre as an art-form that is autonomous from literature, where the playwright's contribution is one part of a group of creative artists. His ideas about acting have remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century, and many of his basic ideas seem like common sense. Actors often use them without realizing it. Acting teachers who had been his students, along with many translations of his writings, helped his 'system' spread across cultures and become influential in Europe and the United States. Many actors treat his 'system' as the same as the North American Method, but the Method uses only psychological techniques. Stanislavski's approach is broader and psychophysical, exploring character and action from the 'inside out' and the 'outside in' and treating the actor's mind and body as parts of one whole.

Technical aspects

Main article: Stagecraft

Theatre needs collaborative ways of making work and a collective audience experience. Unlike other forms of literature, the structure of dramatic texts is shaped by this teamwork. Making plays usually involves a playwright, a director, a cast of actors, and a technical production team. This team includes a scenic or set designer, lighting designer, costume designer, sound designer, stage manager, production manager and technical director. Some productions also have a composer, dramaturg, video designer or fight director.

Stagecraft is the technical side of theatre, film, and video work. It includes building scenery, hanging lights, making costumes, and recording sound. In a small show, one person may manage all of this. In large professional theatres, such as Broadway houses, hundreds of skilled workers do the job. Most theatres fall somewhere in between.

Subcategories and organisation

Theatre comes in many forms, and theatre groups vary a lot. People who take part can be beginners and hobbyists in community theatre, or professionals in productions like Broadway. A show can be made on a very small budget or on a grand scale with millions of dollars. Theatre has many subcategories, including:

Repertory companies

Most modern theatre companies rehearse one show at a time, perform it for a set "run", and then move on to a new show. Repertory companies instead rehearse several shows at once. They can perform these pieces when asked, and often keep performing a work for years before retiring it. Most dance companies work this way, and the Royal National Theatre in London does too. Repertory theatre depends more on the reputation of a group of similarly skilled actors than on one star, and it usually depends less on a director's strict control.

Other terminology

A theatre company is a group that produces shows. A theatre troupe (or acting company) is a group of performers who work together. A touring company is an independent theatre or dance company that travels, often internationally, and performs at a different theatre in each city.

To put on a show, a theatre company and a theatre venue are both needed. When a company is the only one based at a venue, it is called a resident or producing theatre. Other companies perform at rental or presenting theatres, which usually have no full-time resident companies. A rental theatre lets independent companies find and book the space, while a presenting theatre looks for companies to perform on its stage.

Some groups perform in non-theatre spaces, such as street theatre and site-specific theatre. These places can create more immersive experiences for audiences, and they can often be changed more than traditional venues.

Unions

There are many theatre unions around the world. Actors' Equity Association (AEA) works for actors and stage managers in the U.S. Canadian Actors' Equity Association works for actors in Canada. Equity works for many kinds of performing artists, as well as designers, directors, and stage managers in the UK.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) works for designers and technicians. Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance is an Australian union that was created in 1992 when unions for actors, journalists, and entertainment industry workers joined together. The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) is also a theatre union.