The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:
Theatre – the generic term for the performing arts and a usually collaborative form of fine art involving live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event (such as a story) through acting, singing, and/or dancing before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of speech, gesture, mime, puppets, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed any one or more elements of the other performing arts. Elements of design and stagecraft are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience.M. Carlson, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, , 2011
Nature of theatre Theatre may be described as all of the following: One of the arts One of the performing arts Source of literature, in the form of plays, operas, dances, literary adaptations as presented in front of a live audience. Not necessarily high art: "The theater in any time is not exclusively made up of high art," wrote Brooks McNamara, "but of a complex of related forms: popular and amateur entertainment, and, in the 20th century, to a great extent, radio, television, motion pictures and the Internet."
History of theatre History of theatre includes:
Western tradition Chronological movements of the Western tradition include: Theatre of ancient Greece – a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BC. Tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC), and the satyr play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Western theatre originated in Athens and its drama has had a significant and sustained impact on Western culture as a whole. Theatre of ancient Rome – diverse art form, ranging from festival performances of street theatre, nude dancing, and acrobatics, to the staging of Plautus's broadly appealing situation comedies, to the high-style, verbally elaborate tragedies of Seneca. Although Rome had a native tradition of performance, the Hellenization of Roman culture in the 3rd century BCE had a profound and energizing effect on Roman theatre and encouraged the development of Latin literature of the highest quality for the stage. Medieval theatre – theatre of Europe between the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and the beginning of the Renaissance in approximately the 15th century AD. Medieval theatre covers all drama produced in Europe over that thousand-year period and refers to a variety of genres, including liturgical drama, mystery plays, morality plays, farces and masques. Commedia dell'arte – a form of Italian theatre characterized by masked "types" which was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. A special characteristic of is the , a joke or "something foolish or witty", usually well known to the performers and to some extent a scripted routine. Another characteristic of is pantomime.
English Renaissance theatre – also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and many other famous playwrights. Restoration comedy – English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. After public stage performances had been banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, the re-opening of the theatres in 1660 signalled a renaissance of English drama. Restoration comedy is notorious for its sexual explicitness. Restoration spectacular – elaborately staged productions beginning the late 17th-century Restoration period, enthralling audiences with action, music, dance, moveable scenery, baroque illusionistic painting, gorgeous costumes, and special effects such as trapdoor tricks, "flying" actors, and fireworks. Neoclassical theatre – theatrical movement that drew inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome that was dominant in Europe from the mid-18th to the 19th centuries. Nineteenth-century theatre – wide range of movements in the theatrical culture of Europe and the United States in the 19th century. In the West, they include Romanticism, melodrama, the well-made plays of Scribe and Sardou, the farces of Feydeau, the problem plays of Naturalism and Realism, Wagner's operatic Gesamtkunstwerk, Gilbert and Sullivan's plays and operas, Wilde's drawing-room comedies, Symbolism, and proto-Expressionism in the late works of August Strindberg and Henrik Ibsen.Brockett and Hildy (2003, 293–426). Nineteenth-century theatrical scenery Twentieth-century theatre – wide range of movements in the theatrical culture of the 20th century, including Naturalism, Realism, Expressionism and Experimental theatre. Theatre of the United Kingdom – introduced by the Romans and part of the British culture since at least 1585. West End – popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End.Christopher Innes, 'West End' in The Cambridge Guide to Theatre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp.1194?1195, London fringe – small scale theatres, many of them located above pubs, and the equivalent to New York's Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway theatres. Fringe festival – unjuried festivals, such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Adelaide Fringe, permit artists to produce a wide variety of works. Theater of the United States – based in the Western tradition. Broadway – refers to theatrical performances presented in the Theater District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City.Pincus-Roth, Zachary."Ask Playbill.com: Broadway or Off-Broadway—Part I" Playbill.com, February 7, 2008 Along with London's West End theatre, Broadway theatre is widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world. Off-Broadway – professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway – theaters in New York City that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that has neither an Off-Broadway nor a Broadway contract. Downtown Theater – Part of the avant-garde artistic movement that began in the 1970s and is centered below 14th Street in Manhattan. Regional theatre – professional theatre companies outside of New York City that produce their own seasons. Summer stock theatre – any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. Often viewed as a starting point for professional actors, stock casts are typically young, just out of high school or still in college. Theatre of the Soviet Union Proletcult Theatre – theatrical branch of the Soviet cultural movement Proletcult concerned with the powerful expression of ideological content as political propaganda in the years following the revolution of 1917. Platon Kerzhentsev was one of its principal practitioners.von Geldern (1993, 27).
African African theatre includes: Ancient Egyptian quasi-theatrical events – earliest recorded quasi-theatrical event dates back to 2000 BCE with the "passion plays" of Ancient Egypt. This story of the god Osiris was performed annually at festivals throughout the civilization. Yoruba theatre – origins are traced back to the masquerade of the Egungun (the "cult of the ancestor").Adedeji (1969, 60). The traditional ceremony culminates in the essence of the masquerade where it is deemed that ancestors return to the world of the living to visit their descendants.Noret (2008, 26). In addition to its origin in ritual, Yoruba theatre can be "traced to the 'theatrogenic' nature of a number of the deities in the Yoruba pantheon, such as Obatala the arch divinity, Ogun the divinity of creativeness and Sango the divinity of the storm", whose reverence is imbued "with drama and theatre and the symbolic overall relevance in terms of its relative interpretation."Banham, Hill, and Woodyard (2005, 88).
Asian Asian theatre includes: Theatre of India – began with Sanskrit theatreRichmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 12). and flourished between the 1st and 10th centuries CE, which was a period of relative peace in the history of India during which hundreds of plays were written.Brandon (1997, 70) and Richmond (1998, 516). Modern Indian theatre developed during the period of colonial rule under the British Empire, from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th.Richmond (1998, 516) and Richmond, Swann, and Zarrilli (1993, 13). Temple dance – religious performance held in the temples, such as sadir, prescribed by Agamas (scriptures that codified temple rituals, etc.). Traces of these ancient temple dances of India are seen in Bharatanatyam and Odissi. Theatre of China – began as early as the Shang dynasty and often involved happiness, mimes, and acrobatic displays. Today it is often called Chinese opera, although this normally refers specifically to the more well-known forms such as Peking opera and Cantonese opera; there have been many other forms of theatre in China. Thai theatre – a tradition from the Middle Ages to stage plays based on plots drawn from Indian epics. In particular, the theatrical version of Thailand's national epic Ramakien, a version of the Indian Ramayana, remains popular in Thailand even today. Khmer and Malay theatre – In Cambodia, at the ancient capital Angkor Wat, stories from the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata have been carved on the walls of temples and palaces. Similar reliefs are found at Borobudur in Indonesia. Theatre of Japan – traditional Japanese theater forms that are famous around the world, including Noh, kyōgen, kabuki, and bunraku (puppet theatre).
Middle Eastern Middle-Eastern theatre – the most popular forms of theatre in the medieval Islamic world were puppet theatre (which included hand puppets, shadow plays and marionette productions) and live passion plays known as ta'ziyehs, in which actors re-enact episodes from Muslim history. In particular, Shia Islamic plays revolved around the shaheed (martyrdom) of Ali's sons Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali. Secular plays known as akhraja were recorded in medieval adab literature, though they were less common than puppetry and ta'ziya theatre.Moreh (1986, 565–601).
Types of theatrical productions Amateur theatre – theatre performed by amateur actors and singers. Broadway theatre – theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres each with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Community theatre – theatrical performance made for a community that may be performed by community members, professionals, or a collaboration between the two. Dinner theater – combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. Fringe theatre – theatre that is experimental in style or subject matter. Happening – performances that are often multimedia, site-specific, and involve visual arts. Immersive theater – performances that remove the stage and immerse the audiences within the performance itself. Interactive theatre – a presentational or theatrical form or work that breaks the "fourth wall" that traditionally separates the performer from the audience both physically and verbally. Musical – a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. Off-Broadway – theatrical performances that take place in theatres in Manhattan in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499.