Theatre: Difference between revisions

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

The word comes originally from the [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Theatron'', meaning roughly, 'a place tofor beholdviewing'. 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.<ref>Brown, John Russell. 1997.'' What is theatre?: an introduction and exploration''. Boston and Oxford: Focal P. {{ISBN|978-0-240-80232-9}}</ref> In British English, 'theatre' means a place where live [[Play (theatre)|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.<ref>Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. ''The Cambridge guide to theatre''. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. {{ISBN|0-521-43437-8}}</ref><ref>Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. 1983. ''The Oxford companion to the theatre''. 4th ed, Oxford: Oxford UP. {{ISBN|978-0-19-211546-1}}</ref>

:''{{Main article: [[|Theatre of Ancient Greece]]''}}

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.

The Greeks were fullhad ofmany brilliant ideas. They used mechanical devices like [[trap doorsdoor]]<nowiki/>s 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 [[mask]]s. 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.

In the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Catholic]] [[churchChurch]] 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 also wrote Miracle''miracle Playsplays'' which were plays about the lives of the saints[[saint]]<nowiki/>s. There wereThey alsowrote Morality''morality plays'' which taught the audiences how to live a good Christian life.

In the 1500s, groups of [[actor]]s who would tourtoured 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.

At the end of the sixteenth century (thebefore 1500s1600), 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 are many are still performed today. Many scholars and theatre people believe Shakespeare was one of the best playwrights (a writer of plays).

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."