Art Form
Theatre
Also Known As Theater
Performing Arts
Theatre is the art of live performance before an audience, built from text or devised action, embodied by actors, and shaped by staging, movement, and design. Its Western roots lie in the religious festivals of ancient Greece, where playwrights such as Sophocles and Aristophanes wrote tragedies and comedies performed in open air amphitheaters as part of civic and sacred life. Roman theatre adapted Greek models for a wider popular audience, and medieval Europe returned to religious subjects through liturgical drama and mystery plays staged by town guilds. The commercial playhouses of Elizabethan London, and the purpose built proscenium stages that spread across Europe from the seventeenth century onward, established many of the physical conventions, backstage machinery, and scripted repertories still recognizable in theatre today. Directing as a distinct creative role, unifying a production's design, movement, and interpretation, emerged as a modern development, alongside naturalistic acting methods and, later, forms that deliberately broke with realism. Theatre remains distinguished among the arts by its live, unrepeatable character, each performance a fresh encounter between performers and an audience sharing the same space and moment.
Facts
MediumLive performance of text or devised action before an audience, staged with actors, scenery, and design 1 Signature TechniquePerformers communicate a dramatic experience to a live audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music and dance. 2 Place of OriginAthens, Greece, for Western theatre specifically, with tragedy emerging there in the 6th to 5th centuries BC; other theatrical traditions, such as Sanskrit theatre in India and various forms of East Asian theatre, developed independently. 2 Notable ExampleThe Oberammergau Passion Play, a communal dramatization of Christ's final days first performed by the Bavarian village of Oberammergau in 1634 under a plague-era vow and staged every ten years since, one of the longest continuously performed works of vernacular theatre in the Christian world. 2 FAQs
What are the two masks associated with theatre?
The comic and tragic masks, personified as Thalia and Melpomene in Greek tradition, have symbolized theatre since ancient Greek drama.
The comic and tragic masks, personified in Greek tradition as the muses Thalia and Melpomene, have symbolized theatre since ancient Greek drama, when actors wore masks to represent stock character types and to project voice and expression to large open-air audiences. The paired masks remain a common shorthand emblem for the art form as a whole.
Connections
Associated With
Circus Arts, Art Forms Circus arts have historically been staged and toured alongside theatrical and variety performance traditions.
Mime, Art Forms Mime is a form of silent physical performance historically situated within the broader theatrical and performing-arts tradition.
Musical theatre developed as a distinct branch of the broader theatrical tradition, combining spoken drama with song and dance.
Puppetry, Art Forms Puppetry is a performing art historically staged within and alongside the theatrical tradition, using object and figure manipulation rather than live actors.
Genre Of
Movements
Source History of the TheatreOscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy
Source Goethe in Weimar: Theaterkonzept und Regeln fur Schauspieler (GRIN)
Practitioners
Source Zeami Motokiyo (Wikipedia)
Showing 51 to 51 of 51 in Practitioners, page 2 of 2.
Works In This Form
Source A Doll's House (Wikipedia)
Source A Streetcar Named Desire, Wikipedia
Source Death of a Salesman (Wikipedia)
Two-part closet drama by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Hamlet, Works Tragedy by William Shakespeare, c. 1600.
Source Hedda Gabler (Wikipedia)
Medea, Works Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Medea (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Wikipedia: Oedipus Rex
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Wikipedia: The Bacchae
1904 play by Anton Chekhov.
Source The Importance of Being Earnest - Wikipedia
Source Wikipedia
Additional Source The Peony Pavilion (Wikipedia)
Source The Seagull, Wikipedia
Source Three Sisters, Wikipedia
Source Uncle Vanya (Wikipedia)
Source Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source History of the TheatreOscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source History of the TheatreOscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy
Sources
1. History of the Theatre
Oscar G. Brockett and Franklin J. Hildy, Pearson- chapters on the origins and development of Western theatre
- American spelling variant used throughout the source's own index
- Movements: Modernism, chapters on modernist and post-naturalist Western theatre
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationWorks In This Form: Oberammergau Passion Play, Oberammergau Passion Play, Performers section
a community effort rather than a professional theatrical production
- Works In This Form: Antigone
- Works In This Form: Kanjinchō
View the Source Theatre (Wikipedia)
Theatre, Introduction
The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance.
Theatre, Classical, Hellenistic Greece and Magna Graecia section
The city-state of Athens is where Western theatre originated.
View the SourceOberammergau Passion Play (Wikipedia)
Oberammergau Passion Play, lead sectionQuote, Oberammergau Passion Play, lead section
a passion play that has been performed every 10 years from 1634 to 1674 and each decadal year since 1680
View the Source William Shakespeare (Britannica)
Practitioners: William Shakespeare
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Encyclopedia.com)
Goethe in Weimar: Theaterkonzept und Regeln fur Schauspieler (GRIN)
Friedrich von Schiller (Encyclopedia.com)
Waiting for Godot (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: Waiting for Godot, Lead section, paragraph 1Quote, Works In This Form: Waiting for Godot, Lead section, paragraph 1
Waiting for Godot is a play by Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett.
View the Source A Doll's House (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: A Doll's House, lead paragraphQuote, Works In This Form: A Doll's House, lead paragraph
A Doll's House (Danish and Bokmål: Et dukkehjem; also translated as A Doll House) is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 20 December 18
View the Source Death of a Salesman (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: Death of a Salesman, lead paragraphQuote, Works In This Form: Death of a Salesman, lead paragraph
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 stage play written by the American playwright Arthur Miller. The play premiered on Broadway on February 10, 1949, running for 742 performances. It is a two-act tragedy-the subtitle of the play is "Cer
View the Source Hedda Gabler (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWorks In This Form: Hedda Gabler, lead paragraphQuote, Works In This Form: Hedda Gabler, lead paragraph
Hedda Gabler (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈhɛ̂dːɑ ˈɡɑ̀ːblər]) is a play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The world premiere was staged on 31 January 1891 at the Residenztheater in Munich. Ibsen himself was in attendance
View the Source Wikipedia: Sarah Bernhardt
Practitioners: Sarah Bernhardt, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Sarah Bernhardt, Lead section
Sarah Bernhardt (French: [saʁa bɛʁnɑʁt]; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 - 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils, Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand.
View the Source Josephine Baker - Wikipedia
Practitioners: Josephine Baker, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Josephine Baker, Lead section
Freda Josephine Baker (née McDonald; June 3, 1906 - April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress, and a spy for the French Resistance. Her career was centered primarily in Europe, mostly in France.
View the Source Wikipedia: Henrik Ibsen
Practitioners: Henrik Ibsen, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Henrik Ibsen, Lead section
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; Norwegian: [ˈhɛ̀nrɪk ˈɪ̀psn̩]; 20 March 1828 - 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright. He is considered one of the world's pre-eminent writers of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama".
View the Source Wikipedia: Anton Chekhov
Practitioners: Anton Chekhov, lead paragraphQuote, Practitioners: Anton Chekhov, lead paragraph
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; Russian: Антон Павлович Чехов; 29 January [O.S. 17 January] 1860-15 July [O.S. 2 July] 1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer. Widely considered one of the greatest writers of all time,
View the Source Wikipedia: Tennessee Williams
Practitioners: Tennessee Williams, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Tennessee Williams, Lead section
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III (March 26, 1911 - February 25, 1983) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
View the Source Wikipedia: Bertolt Brecht
Practitioners: Bertolt Brecht, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Bertolt Brecht, Lead section
Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 - 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a playwright in Munich and moved to Berlin in 1924, where he wrote The Threepenny Opera with Elisabeth Hauptmann and Kurt Weill and began a lifelong collaboration with the composer Hanns Eisler.
View the Source Wikipedia: Oscar Wilde
Practitioners: Oscar Wilde, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Oscar Wilde, Lead section
Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 - 30 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential dramatists in London in the early 1890s.
View the Source Wikipedia: Frank Sinatra
Practitioners: Frank Sinatra, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Frank Sinatra, Lead section
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 - May 14, 1998) was an American singer, conductor, and actor. Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the most influential entertainers of the 20th century.
View the Source The Importance of Being Earnest - Wikipedia
Works In This Form: The Importance of Being Earnest, lead paragraphQuote, Works In This Form: The Importance of Being Earnest, lead paragraph
The Importance of Being Earnest, a Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde, the last of his four drawing-room plays, following Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (
View the Source Wikipedia: Samuel Beckett
Practitioners: Samuel Beckett, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Samuel Beckett, Lead section
Samuel Barclay Beckett ( ; 13 April 1906 - 22 December 1989) was an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. Written in both English and French, his literary and theatrical works feature bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic episodes of life, coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense.
View the Source Wikipedia: Arthur Miller
Practitioners: Arthur Miller, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Arthur Miller, Lead section
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 - February 10, 2005) was an American playwright and essayist in 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955).
View the Source Fred Astaire (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Fred Astaire, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Fred Astaire, Lead section
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 - June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "greatest popular-music dancer of all time".
View the Source August Wilson (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: August Wilson, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: August Wilson, Lead section
August Wilson (né Frederick August Kittel Jr.; April 27, 1945 - October 2, 2005) was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America".
View the Source Eugene O'Neill (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Eugene O'Neill, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Eugene O'Neill, Lead section
(October 16, 1888 - November 27, 1953) was an American playwright. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier associated with Chekhov, Ibsen, and Strindberg.
View the Source Caryl Churchill (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Caryl Churchill, lead paragraphQuote, Practitioners: Caryl Churchill, lead paragraph
Caryl Lesley Churchill (born 3 September 1938) is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Celebrat
View the Source Luigi Pirandello (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Luigi Pirandello, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Luigi Pirandello, Lead section
Luigi Pirandello ( PIRR-ən-DEL-oh; Italian: [luˈiːdʒi piranˈdɛllo]; 28 June 1867 - 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer most noted for his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his bold and ingenious revival of dramatic and scenic art".
View the Source Christopher Marlowe (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Christopher Marlowe, Lead sectionQuote, Practitioners: Christopher Marlowe, Lead section
Christopher Marlowe ( MAR-loh; baptised 26 February 1564 - 30 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights.
View the Source Wikipedia: Oedipus Rex
Medea (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia: The Bacchae
The Peony Pavilion (Wikipedia)
Konstantin Stanislavski - Wikipedia
Practitioners: Konstantin Stanislavski, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Konstantin Stanislavski, Lead
was a seminal Russian and Soviet theatre practitioner
View the Source Wikipedia: Moliere
Practitioners: Molière, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Molière, Lead
was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world literature
View the Source Wikipedia: Tang Ying
Practitioners: Tang Ying, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Tang Ying, Lead
was a Qing dynasty writer, playwright and ceramist
View the Source Wikipedia: Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Practitioners: Chikamatsu Monzaemon, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Chikamatsu Monzaemon, Lead
was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater
View the Source Wikipedia: Guan Hanqing
Practitioners: Guan Hanqing, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Guan Hanqing, Lead
was a Chinese dramatist, playwright, and poet of the Yuan dynasty
View the Source Wikipedia: Tang Xianzu
Practitioners: Tang Xianzu, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Tang Xianzu, Lead
was a Chinese playwright of the Ming Dynasty
View the Source Wikipedia: Wole Soyinka
Practitioners: Wole Soyinka, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Wole Soyinka, Lead
is a Nigerian writer, playwright, and poet
View the Source Wikipedia: Athol Fugard
Practitioners: Athol Fugard, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Athol Fugard, Lead
was a South African playwright, novelist, actor and director
View the Source Wikipedia: Derek Walcott
Practitioners: Derek Walcott, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Derek Walcott, Lead
was a Saint Lucian poet and playwright
View the Source Wikipedia: Girish Karnad
Practitioners: Girish Karnad, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Girish Karnad, Lead
was an Indian playwright, actor, film director, writer, and a Jnanpith awardee
View the Source Wikipedia: Federico Garcia Lorca
Practitioners: Federico Garcia Lorca, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Federico Garcia Lorca, Lead
was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director
View the Source Wikipedia: Lope de Vega
Practitioners: Lope de Vega, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Lope de Vega, Lead
was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist
View the Source Wikipedia: Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Practitioners: Pedro Calderon de la Barca, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Lead
was a Spanish dramatist, poet, and writer
View the Source Wikipedia: Carlo Goldoni
Practitioners: Carlo Goldoni, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Carlo Goldoni, Lead
was an Italian playwright and librettist from the Republic of Venice
View the Source Wikipedia: George Bernard Shaw
Practitioners: George Bernard Shaw, LeadQuote, Practitioners: George Bernard Shaw, Lead
was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist
View the Source Wikipedia: Harold Pinter
Practitioners: Harold Pinter, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Harold Pinter, Lead
was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor
View the Source Wikipedia: Tom Stoppard
Practitioners: Tom Stoppard, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Tom Stoppard, Lead
was a British playwright and screenwriter
View the Source Wikipedia: Yasmina Reza
Practitioners: Yasmina Reza, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Yasmina Reza, Lead
is a French playwright, actress, novelist and screenwriter
View the Source Wikipedia: Suzan-Lori Parks
Practitioners: Suzan-Lori Parks, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Suzan-Lori Parks, Lead
is an American playwright, screenwriter, and novelist
View the Source Wikipedia: Jean Racine
Practitioners: Jean Racine, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Jean Racine, Lead
was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille, as well as an important literary figure in the Western tradition and world literatu
View the Source Wikipedia: Dario Fo
Practitioners: Dario Fo, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Dario Fo, Lead
was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature
View the Source Wikipedia: Vaclav Havel
Practitioners: Vaclav Havel, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Vaclav Havel, Lead
was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident
View the Source Wikipedia: August Strindberg
Practitioners: August Strindberg, LeadQuote, Practitioners: August Strindberg, Lead
was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter
View the Source Wikipedia: Edward Albee
Practitioners: Edward Albee, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Edward Albee, Lead
was an American playwright
View the Source Wikipedia: Jaime Colson
Practitioners: Jaime Colson, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Jaime Colson, Lead
was a Dominican modernist painter, writer, and playwright born in Tubagua, Puerto Plata in 1901
View the Source Wikipedia: Sophocles
Practitioners: Sophocles, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Sophocles, Lead
was an ancient Greek tragedian, one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full
View the Source Wikipedia: Euripides
Practitioners: Euripides, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Euripides, Lead
was a Greek tragedian of classical Athens
View the Source Aeschylus (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPractitioners: Aeschylus, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Aeschylus, Lead
was an ancient Greek tragedian, often described as the father of tragedy
View the Source Wikipedia: Pierre Corneille
Practitioners: Pierre Corneille, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Pierre Corneille, Lead
was a French tragedian
View the Source Uncle Vanya (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWorks In This Form: Uncle Vanya, LeadQuote, Works In This Form: Uncle Vanya, Lead
is a realist play
View the Source The Seagull, Wikipedia
Works In This Form: The Seagull, LeadQuote, Works In This Form: The Seagull, Lead
is a play
View the Source Three Sisters, Wikipedia
Works In This Form: Three Sisters, LeadQuote, Works In This Form: Three Sisters, Lead
is a play
View the Source A Streetcar Named Desire, Wikipedia
Works In This Form: A Streetcar Named Desire, LeadQuote, Works In This Form: A Streetcar Named Desire, Lead
is a play written
View the Source Wikipedia: Kalidasa
Practitioners: Kalidasa, Lead sentenceQuote, Practitioners: Kalidasa, Lead sentence
Kālidāsa (Sanskrit: कालिदास, "Servant of Kali"; 4th-5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright.
View the Source Zeami Motokiyo (Wikipedia)
Practitioners: Zeami Motokiyo, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Zeami Motokiyo, Lead
was a Japanese aesthetician, actor, and playwright
View the Source Wikipedia: Ellen Terry
Practitioners: Ellen Terry, LeadQuote, Practitioners: Ellen Terry, Lead
acting in Shakespeare plays in London
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