Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries. Current British English spellings follow, for the most part, those of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language , whereas many American English spellings follow Noah Webster's An American) is a branch of the performing arts The performing arts are those forms of art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object. The term "performing arts" first appeared in the. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama.^[1] A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion.^[2] By this broad definition, theatre had existed since the dawn of man, as a result of the human tendency for storytelling Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative. Since its inception, theatre has come to take on many forms, utilizing speech, gesture, music, dance, and spectacle, combining the other performing arts, often as well as the visual arts The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, modern visual arts , design and crafts. These definitions should not be taken too strictly as many artistic disciplines (performing arts, conceptual art, textile arts) involve aspects of, into a single artistic form.

The word derives from the Ancient Greek Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning the Archaic , Classical (c. 5th–4th centuries BC), and Hellenistic (c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD) periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek. Its Hellenistic phase is known as Koine (& theatron (θέατρον) meaning "the seeing place."^[3]

History

The word theatre means "place for seeing".^[4] The first recorded theatrical event was a performance of the sacred plays of the myth of Osiris and Isis The Myth of Osiris and Isis, concerning the deities of Egyptian mythology Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Set, became one of the most important and powerful in Egyptian mythology during the New Kingdom. The myth concerns the death of Osiris and the birth of Horus in 2500 BC in Egypt Egypt (pronounced /ˈiːdʒɪpt/ ; Arabic: مصر‎ Miṣr, pronounced [misˤɾ] ( listen); Arabic: مِصْر Miṣr [ˈmisˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصْر Maṣr [ˈmɑsˤɾ]; Coptic: Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ, kīmi; Egyptian: 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 Kemet), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula.^[5] This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization, marking the beginning of a long relationship between theatre and religion.

The ancient Greeks Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to 146 BC and the Roman conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth. At the center of this time period is Classical Greece, which flourished during the 5th to 4th centuries BC, at first under Athenian began formalising theatre as an art, developing strict definitions of tragedy Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been and comedy Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was as well as other forms, including satyr plays Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar to the modern-day burlesque style. They always featured a chorus of satyrs and were based in Greek mythology and contained themes of, among other things, drinking, overt sexuality , pranks and general merriment. At the Athenian Dionysia, playwrights usually submitted four plays to the. Like the religious plays of ancient Egypt, Greek plays made use of mythological characters. The Greeks also developed the concepts of dramatic criticism, acting as a career, and theatre architecture.^[6] In the modern world these works have been adapted and interpreted in thousands of different ways in order to serve the needs of the time. Examples are offered by Antigone, used in 1944 by Anouilh Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist to make a statement about the Nazi occupation of France, and by Brecht Bertolt Brecht (born Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (help·info); 10 February 1898–14 August 1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic in 1948, likening Creon Creon is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. He had three children: Megareus, Menoeceus, and Haemon with his wife, Eurydice. Creon and his sister, Jocasta, were descendants of Cadmus and of the Spartoi to Hitler Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945 and, after 1934, also head of state as Führer und Reichskanzler, ruling the and Thebes Thebes was a Boeotian city-state (polis), situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. It played an important role in the fabric of Greek myth, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others to defeated Germany.^[7] The theatre masks of Greek performance became widely adopted in first- and second-century Rome as a decorative theme, both within the home and in public spaces, and representations of two of the forms, of comedy and tragedy, came to stand for the theatre itself: a symbol that survives today.^[8]

Western theatre continued to develop under the Roman Empire The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor, Augustus, in medieval England England during the Middle Ages, which are commonly accepted to be the thousand or so years between the withdrawal of Roman forces from Britannia to the late Anglo-Saxon period around 1000 AD, was fragmented into a number of independent kingdoms. By the High Middle Ages the Kingdom of England covered most of the area previously ruled by the Romans, and continued to thrive, taking on many alternate forms in Spain, Italy, France, and Russia in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. The general trend over the centuries was away from the poetic drama of the Greeks and the Renaissance The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historic era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not uniform across Europe, this is a general use of the and toward a more realistic style, especially following the Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transport and technology had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The.^[9] A uniquely North American theatre developed with the colonization of the new world The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans[note], who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia, and Africa . The term "New World" should not be confused with "modern.

The history of Eastern theatre is traced back to 1000 BC with the Sanskrit drama Indian drama as a distinct genre of Sanskrit literature emerges in the final centuries BC, although its origins date back to the Rigvedic dialogue hymns of the late 2nd millenium BC. Famous Sanskrit dramatists include Śhudraka, Bhasa, Asvaghosa and Kalidasa. Though numerous plays written by these playwrights are still available, little is known of ancient Indian theatre Theatre of India began with the Ntebo family Rigvedic dialogue hymns during the Vedic periodin South Africa, regardless of its Indian origins, and Sanskrit drama was established as a distinct art form in the last few centuries BC. During the Middle Ages, the Indian subcontinent was invaded a number of times. This played a major role in shaping of.^[10] Chinese theatre Theatre of China has a long and complex history. Today it is often called Chinese opera although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera, there have been many other forms of theatre in China also dates back to around the same time.^[11] Japanese forms of Kabuki Kabuki is the highly stylized classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing (歌), dance (舞), and skill (伎). Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing, Noh Noh , or Nogaku (能楽, Nōgaku?) is a major form of classical Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Many characters are masked, with men playing male and female roles. The repertoire is normally limited to a specific set of historical plays. A Noh performance often lasts all day and consists of five Noh plays, and Kyogen Kyōgen is a form of traditional Japanese theater. It developed alongside noh, was performed along with noh as an intermission of sorts between noh acts, and retains close links to noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated noh-kyōgen. However, its content is not at all similar to the formal, symbolic, and solemn noh theater; ky� date back to the 17th century AD.^[12] Other Eastern forms were developed throughout China China is seen variously as an ancient civilization extending over a large area in East Asia, a nation and/or a multinational entity, Korea Korea (Korean: 한국 Hanguk [hanɡuːk] or 조선 Joseon [tɕosʌn] – South and North Korea, respectively ) is a territory of East Asia that was formerly unified under one state, but now divided into two separate states and a region in northeastern Asia. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it is bordered by China to the northwest, Russia to the, and Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity.

The most popular forms of theatre in the medieval Islamic world The Islamic Golden Age is traditionally dated from the mid-8th to the mid-13th century A.D. although it has been extended by one scholar to at least the 15th century. During this period, artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, geographers and traders in the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, were puppet A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer. It is usually a depiction of a human character, and is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre. The puppet undergoes a process of transformation through being animated, and is normally manipulated by at least theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings . A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziya, where actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion and as a social institution. The evolution of Islam has impacted the political, economic, and military history of an enormous geography. The concept of the Islamic world is useful in observing the different periods of Islamic history; similarly useful is an understanding of the. In particular, Shia Islamic Shia Islam , is the second largest denomination of Islam, after Sunni Islam. The followers of Shia Islam are called Shi'as but are also known as Shiites or Shi'ites. "Shia" is the short form of the historic phrase Shī‘atu ‘Alī (شيعة علي), meaning "the followers of Ali" or "the faction of Ali" plays revolved around the shaheed Shahid is an Arabic word meaning "witness". It is a religious term in Islam, literally meaning "witness", but practically means a "martyr." It is used as a honorific for Muslims who have laid down their life fulfilling a religious commandment, or have died fighting in Jihad (martyrdom) of Ali Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and ruled over the Islamic Caliphate from 656 to 661. Sunni Muslims consider Ali the fourth and final of the Rashidun (rightly guided Caliphs), while Shi'a Muslims regard Ali as the first Imam and consider him and his descendants the rightful successors to's sons Hasan ibn Ali Al-Hasan ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib ‎ (Ramadhān 15th, 3 AH – Safar 7th or 28th, 50 AH) was the grandson of Muhammad, son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib (final Rashidun Caliph and first Shī‘ah Imām) and Fātimah al-Zahraā (daughter of Muhammad). He is an important figure in Islām as he is a member of Ahlul Bayt (the household of Muhammad) and Husayn ibn Ali Husayn ibn ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib ‎ (3rd Sha‘bān 4 AH - 10th Muharram 61 AH; 8 January 626 AD - 10 October 680 AD) was the son of ‘Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib (final Rashidun Caliph and first Shī‘a Imām) and Fātimah Zahrā (daughter of Muhammad). Husayn is an important figure in Islām as he is a member of the Ahl al-Bayt (the household. Live secular plays were known as akhraja, recorded in medieval adab Adab, in the context of behavior, refers to prescribed Arabic-Islamic etiquette: "refinement, good manners, morals, decorum, decency, humaneness". While interpretation of the scope and particulars of Adab may vary among different cultures, common among these interpretations is regard for personal standing through the observation of literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theatre.^[13]

Technical aspects of theatre

Theatre is a highly collaborative endeavour. Although the most recognisable figures in theatre are the directors A theatre director or stage director is a practitioner in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production by unifying various endeavours and aspects of production. The director's function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realising, playwrights A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance, and actors An actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets"; in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character, plays are usually produced by a production team A production team is the group of technical staff who produce a play, television show, recording, or film. Examples of the titles of members of a production team are the director, sound engineer, producer, designers, stage managers, technicians, makeup artists etc that commonly includes a scenic or set designer Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A. degrees in theatre arts, lighting designer The role of the lighting designer within theatre is to work with the director, set designer, costume designer, and sometimes the sound designer and choreographer to create an overall 'look' for the show in response to the text, while keeping in mind issues of visibility, safety and cost. The LD also works closely with the stage manager on show, costume designer, sound designer, stage manager, props mistress or master and production manager. Depending on the production, this team may also include a dramaturge, video designer or fight director. The artistic staff is assisted by technical theatre personnel who handle creation and execution of the production.

Types

Drama

Drama (literally translated as action, from a verbal root meaning "To do") is the branch of theatre in which speech, either from written text (plays), or improvised is paramount. A companion word dran, also Greek, means to do. Classical forms of drama, including Greek and Roman drama, classic English drama, notably works of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, and French drama, for instance works of Molière, are still performed today.

Musical theatre

Music and theatre have always had a close relationship. Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and spoken dialogue. Modern musical theatre emerged from the variety, vaudeville, and music hall genres of the late 19th and early 20th century. Musical theatre includes spectacle as well. For instance, contemporary Broadway musicals often include lavish costumes and sets supported by million dollar budgets.

Comedy

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.

Theatrical philosophy

There is a 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 event, and some on theatre as catalyst for social change. According to Aristotle's seminal theatrical critique Poetics, there are six elements necessary for theatre: Plot, Character, Idea, Language, Music, and Spectacle.^[14] The 17th century Spanish writer Lope de Vega wrote that for theatre one needs "three boards, two actors, and one passion".^[15] Others notable for their contribution to theatrical philosophy are Konstantin Stanislavski, Antonin Artaud, Bertolt Brecht, Orson Welles, Peter Brook, and Jerzy Grotowski.

Konstantin Stanislavski is considered to be the father of theater technique, as he was the first person to ever write about it, and the majority of modern western theatre theory is derived from Stanislavski's "system" in one form or another.^[16] Many of Stanislavski's students rejected his system and began to create their own, these first new methods helped to blaze the way for future theorists and ultimately lead to the wide range of techniques that are studied and used today: such as the Meisner, Stanislavsky, Strasberg, and Hagen acting methods.

Theatre organization and administration

There are many modern theatre movements which go about producing theatre in a variety of ways.

Theatrical enterprise varies enormously in sophistication and purpose. People involved vary from professionals to hobbyists to spontaneous novices. Theatre can be performed with no money at all or on a grand scale with multi-million dollar budgets. This diversity manifests in the abundance of theatre sub-categories, which include:

• Broadway theatre and West End theatre
• Community theatre
• Dinner theatre
• Educational theatre
• Fringe theatre
• Off-Broadway and Off West End
• Off-Off-Broadway
• Regional theatre
• Summer stock theatre

Repertory companies

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.

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